Enrollment at the Big High Schools and RBHS
In her recap on the Community Meeting Melissa wrote:
He mentioned dropping the enrollment slightly (I think by something like 20 kids) from this year as they overenrolled last year. (This is true; we have 1700 kids in a 1600 seat school, lockers are not available to all who want them and they just can't keep squeezing kids in.)
I teach at Rainier Beach where we are seriously under enrolled. We could use those 100 extra students that Roosevelt has, that Ballard has and that Garfield has. If the district would show some leadership and cap the big schools, then the smaller schools that struggle to have a wide variety of classes would have more students, could hire more teachers and have a much broader and richer course offering. We are being starved to death. We will barely be a comprehensive high school next year. We offer very few electives (for example in math, which I teach, the only electives we have are MESA, Pre Calculus and AP Calculus and very few students get this far) and have very few art or music courses. It is a crime that this is happening to these students. We have a committed, hard working faculty and students that want to learn and do learn.
I saw a report not too long ago that shows that RB does that best job in the district in bringing up students who are low 1's on the WASL and seriously below grade level when they enter high school to grade level and having a chance to pass the WASL. For those of you who think RB is all about football, basketball and track, this is evidence that students who come to RB learn. All we want to do is provide a richer and deeper experience to these students and to do that we need more teachers and the only way we are going to get more teachers is to have more students. Please don't over enroll Roosevelt, Garfield and Ballard. It is making it very difficult for us at Rainier Beach.
Comments
I understand wanting to spread the kids around, but I don't think kids should be bused all over town to balance out the schools - I'd be curious of the demographics. What schools do the people who live near Rainier Beach attend?
As I'm sure you know, there were a number of students who did not gain entry to Roosevelt this year - students from Northeast Seattle for whom Roosevelt is the closest high school. Ballard also has a waiting list of students who have no closer public comprehensive high school.
This tells me that there aren't any students who live anywhere near Rainier Beach who are at Roosevelt or Ballard instead. It may be that there are some students enrolled at Garfield who could make a reasonable commute to Beach, but on the whole, I don't think that Roosevelt or Ballard or even Garfield are your competition for students. They are not taking any students away from Beach because their students would not consider Beach - based exclusively on location without regard to academic or extra-curricular opportunities. There is no need to ask anyone to choose Beach over Roosevelt or Ballard - no one is making that choice.
So who really are the students who are choosing not to come to Beach? It's the students in southeast Seattle - your neighborhood students. And where are they going instead? I don't think they are going to Cleveland - their enrollment isn't much more than Rainier Beach's. It's hard to say for sure, but it seems to me that either they are going to Franklin or it could be that there just aren't that many high school students in your neighborhood.
If the 440-500 students at Rainier Beach would really benefit from a larger school, that would seem to be an argument for consolidating Beach and Cleveland. Is that what you meant to suggest? Be careful what you wish for.
As for a marketing effort, I don't think that advertising the school's prowess at bringing students from low 1's on the WASL to passing will be much of a draw except for students who are scoring low 1's on the WASL. If that's your expertise, then why should students who want advanced courses enroll at Beach?
I recognize that you have a tough chicken-and-egg problem. You don't offer art or music classes, so students who want art and music classes enroll elsewhere, so you don't have students who want art and music classes, so, in the absence of any demand, you don't offer art and music classes and the downward spiral repeats itself.
The solution, of course, is to promise the classes to actively recruit students for them, and to provide the classes whether the students show up or not. It's expensive, it's risky, and it is not the way that the school district works.
I don't know why--
I also hear- from Don, that new parents are told at the PIC center that RBHS is full
OK, what if the district said, you missed out on Roosevelt, so we are going to send you to Rainier Beach. No offence Michael, but we would send out children to private schools. It would be hard for us, we are a middle class family who really can't afford it. We would have to sacrifice a lot.
I don't want my children in a school full of students performing in the low 1's on the WASL. My children are high achievers and I want them at a top performing schools, in my neighborhood. Please don't read race or socio-economics into this. My children are bi-racial. I am not racist. For now Rainier Beach's market share are neighborhood kids, who are not performing up to standards. I hope that changes. When and if change comes it be a very very slow course.It will take years, possibly decades.
As it stands now, top performing students will not be served well at Rainier Beach, as stated by you (lack of AP classes, electives etc). You have to be a top performing school with competetive programs, to attract top performing students. I'm proud of what Rainier Beach is doing. I think they are doing a fabulous job with the students that they serve. But, would fail miserably (at this poing) in serving the families with high achieving students.
Options:
A) Apply to private school, hope for scholorship. Unfortunately by the time you find out you didn't get into your public school of choice, private schools have finished their enrollment process and are full. Note for future transitions: Be much more pro-active, assume you may not get in and have a back up plan.
B) Suck it up, and send your child to an under performing middle school where there is space. Not an option for us.
C) Send you child out of district if you can find a good school that has space. Just know you have to drive, but heck, you would have to drive if you chose private school anyway. We took this option. Found that Kellogg MS in Shoreline, not only had space, but was an excellent school.
What I'm saying is that most parents are not just going to choose to sent their child to an under performing, under enrolled, school in a neighborhood across town. What motivation would they have to do so???? I don't get it.
Unfortunately RBHS got itself in a position where they now have to totally reinvent itself to draw in students. It has a reputation for serving athletes and low performing students. It wasn't always that way, but it has morphed into that. It's misguided to think that just adding a few more high level courses will do the trick.
I agree with one of the other anonymous when s/he said "When and if change comes it be a very very slow course.It will take years, possibly decades." The only other possible solution would be to shut the school down, send the remaining students to Cleveland, and bring it back from the ashes like a phoenix and make it a better program. And since we're closing buildings, it might be better just to sell it and be done.
The District had opportunities to help Rainier Beach and didn't. They built what is arguably the best performing arts hall in the district at RBHS and then gave them no arts program. Many in the arts community were willing to help when it was first built but the district ignored them. I believe RBHS now has a performing arts program but it may be too little too late. (There is going to be a staging of Dream Girls by Broadway Bound and they are specifically casting only southend kids. It is likely to be held at the RBHS performing arts hall.)
TAF (Technology Access Foundation) had wanted to come into Rainier Beach with their Academy which might have been a good idea. Unfortunately it was handled badly by the Foundation and the district and, of course, the RBHS community and RB community were suspicious and worried. I have no idea where it stands now but the feeling at the time was that the Academy intended to take over RBHS instead of co-housing. A good opportunity to rebuild from within the community might have been lost.
Thanks for all of the comments. A few things:
1. We have many high achieving students. We do not do a good job of serving them. Having more classes that challenge (I would like to teach AP Statistics, for example) them would be a good start to getting more high achieving students to come here.
2. The New Holly development is 1.8 miles away from Rainier Beach HS. Because it is less than 2 miles the district will not offer transportation to those students who live there to RB. Instead, those students ride the bus to Ingraham. That makes very little sense to me.
3. What I wish for is for the district to live up to the promises made to the faculty and staff at RB. Stop saying you will do one thing (more FTE to increase course offerings) and then do another (cut the budget because of lower enrollment).
4. The PIC Center has been telling people for years that RB is full and I have heard, though have not met, that some parents are putting a lawsuit together because of it. I don't have any details on this, so I can't say any more than what I have heard.
5. Every school has students who come to their school with low WASL scores. For whatever reason, we have done the best job in the district in raising those kids up. That does not mean that is all we do, far from it, but it is something we do well. Given that the motto of the district is: Academic Achievement for Every Student in Every School, I think what we do with these students needs to be recognized.
I am at school right now and I don't have time to continue. Thank you for all of the comments.
That is interesting. I just plugged our address in View Ridge into mapquest and we are 2.16 miles from Roosevelt (and we are on the non view side, so closer than a lot of View Ridge) - so does this mean a lot of people from View Ridge got denied as well? I think the majority of high schoolers I know in our neighborhood go to Roosevelt (some to Nathan Hale), I thought it was a given here. At least I don't need to concern myself about this for several years (my oldest is only in Kindergarten) but when we did move here, we did so for the schools View Ridge, Eckstein and Roosevelt.
Just out of curiosity, does your friend live in the Matthews Beach area and get into John Rogers despite putting Laurelhurst, VIew Ridge, Bryant and Wedgwood on her form? The only reason I ask is I've heard that story many times in the last few years - if you live near John Rogers, you get John Rogers.
Roosevelt offers a large number of AP classes. Hale is trying to eliminate AP classes.
I don't know what the District has to do at Rogers, but this is the sign that they have to do something.
Anyway, what Charlie says is absolutely right. There are reasons that one school gets a huge waitlist, and it's neighbor school gets mandatory assignments. The district should step in and work with the community and school to identify the issue, and improve the school. The only other school in the NE cluster that doesn't draw a waitlist is our only all city draw school, Summit. But that's another can of worms.
I also know a few families who live in that reference area who wanted the View Ridge, Laurelhurst, Bryant, Wedgewood schools and when they got John Rogers they went private. The couple families I do know who got one of the four schools who live in John Rogers reference area are at Laurelhurst. I say that if that is what you are trying (to not get John Rogers) you put Laurelhurst as the school to get on the wait list.
So is there talk of extending capacity at middle and high school in the NE area? I think I read here that Nathan Hale will be adding seats against their wishes, but m/b remodeled they will draw some people away from Roosevelt?
Helen Schinske
The downside is that the district just took away the $50,000 it gives to Ingraham's IB program to sustain it (nope, I have no details exactly what it is used for) and turned it over to Sealth's program. Ingraham has no idea if they will ever get some of that money again or will have to rearrange the budget to sustain the program.
-one is something I have advocated for a long time. Have a baseline of what every Seattle public high school has. That way every parent can say, "I know there is Special Ed, tutoring, AP/Honors, etc. at every school. I don't have to be a detective. " Not to the same degree (not every high school can have the AP offerings that Garfield has) but a baseline.
-Hale has room to be a 1400-1500 seat high school. The staff do NOT want this because it will change their program or make it very difficult to maintain. I see their point (my son graduated from Hale last year). Mentorship would be harder with more kids. However, the fact remains they have the room, there is demand in the north end and Roosevelt is already overenrolled. Demand a change. Get your friends and neighbors and go to the Board (you'll get zero traction at Hale) and tell them they are forcing people to private schools. (Hale is on BEX III and is going to be built to be a larger capacity school - they will have to change at some point. We cannot spend close to $95m on a 1,000-1100 seat high school.)
-Really consider another school like Franklin. It was a much more premier high school several years back but still has good programs and a great debate program.
I know some people on Magnolia/QA are very unhappy that Center School was not created as a comprehensive high school and are advocating it become one. (But I also know many Center School parents love its small size and programming.)
It may be that we will never get past having 4-5 high schools that are very popular and will always have waitlists.
I think parents, overall, like comprehensive high schools for the depth of what they are able to offer.
I also emailed Guy Thomas, Ingraham's IB coordinator. I am sure after Spring Break I will hear from him. Thanks very much Ms. Westbrook for passing this information on in this blog, had I not read it I would never had known district funding was at its end and I am guessing/hoping Ingraham has solid plans to self-sustain. I appreciate the information. anon