The Final Word on John Marshall

This article appeared in today's Times about the final outcome for the programs at John Marshall.

All the programs will be dispersed or closed. There was no mention of what will happen to the building which has quite a large nursery in it.

The re-entry program will be moved to Wilson-Pacific along with "Interim Alternative Education Setting, a program for students who get in trouble for doing something that is "a manifestation" of their disability". The Evening School will move to Franklin while the Teen Parent program will move to South Lake High School. The small (12 student) alternative school there will close and student in a behavior-intervention program will disperse to other schools.

I'm not surprised by any of this movement; it seemed clear the district didn't want to keep things going at John Marshall. It is too large a building for so many small programs. I do wish that they could keep the teen parent program there as the city is big enough to have two and the South Lake program is down in the Rainier Valley to the south. The district spent a good chunk of change putting in that childcare at Marshall.

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
So, how, exactly, is having only two of the programs that were at Marshall move to Wilson-Pacific make a more efficient use of space?
1/14/08, 9:19 PM
Anonymous said…
There are at leat 6 other programs at Wil Pac.


And I doubt that two sites are needed for GRADS, givin that a whole whopping three students are in the program.
1/14/08, 10:57 PM
dan dempsey said…
How lame is this:
..."Many teachers at the school blamed Drake's leadership for the school's problems. Teachers and students complained to the district, but district leaders did not respond, and in most cases didn't keep a record of their complaints."

What did the district leaders do???
This all sounds a lot like hearsay.

This is an alternative school -- the Original Times Hatchet job done at Michelle Corker-Curry's invitation made it look like the Times was doing a drive-by assassination.

It will be interesting to see if Dr. Joe Drake winds up in court and displays a lot of satisfactory SPS evaluations in regard to his job performance as a principal.

Then the district can respond with all the complaints that they failed to keep.

Totally shocking that Dr. Drake who resisted the JSCEE sacking of his school, would be placed on administrative leave.

The "district did not supposedly respond to complaints" until Dr. Drake apparently said something like "I do not think you are doing the right thing for these kids".

Then administrative leave is necessary -- probably the next day.

It would be interesting to find out how many certificated employees are on administrative leave right now and for what reasons, as well as the history of admin leaves for all of last year.

Who is being held accountable and responsible for:
.....but district leaders did not respond

Same answer as always --- No one

but this time, did this really happen? and to what extent? or is it 90% hearsay?

Multiple choice
What do you think?

(a)Out of court settlement or (b)Dr. Drake in court or
(c)he just walks away
1/15/08, 12:16 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
It's odd but the PI reports that Carla Santorno said it's not the quality of the programs but their size that has led to dispersal. So after that audit said Joe Drake was the problem, now it was the size? Hmmm.
1/15/08, 8:38 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
One interesting thing from the report; the 11 students in the Alternative High School program get first pick of any high school (meaning, they get priority over any other students enrolling for 2008-2009 if they enroll by Feb. 15).

That's something of a gift given the competition to get into Ballard, Roosevelt and Garfield. Of course, already being in an alternative high school, they may choose Summit or Nova.
1/15/08, 8:50 AM
Anonymous said…
The Times article came from some Marshall teachers collecting folders and folders of evidence of Drake not doing his job and being ignored by both the district and the union. The collapse of the school is Dr. Drake's legacy to the "at-risk" students of Seattle. Did you read the Dec. 2006 article? What happened to Kathy Graves was one example of how many students were ignored because of their (and their parents) lack of influence and social capital.

And the GRADS program only has three students this year because the district won't let new students enroll. There are pregnant and parenting girls all over they city who are not being served by the district. The teen pregnancy rate just went up for the first time since 1991...

tpa
1/15/08, 10:09 AM
dan dempsey said…
Dear Anon tpa,

...folders and folders of evidence of Drake not doing his job and being ignored by both the district and the union.

That sure sounds like our District and Union .... business as usual in so many regards
1/15/08, 6:58 PM
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