West Seattle Closures & Consolidations
Contrary to what I expected prior to the announcement of preliminary recommendations, only one school building (Genesee Hill) and one program (Cooper) are proposed for closure.
I am grateful that the importance of having a K-8 alternative school option in West Seattle is being recognized by both the district staff and the School Board. I'm not happy that Pathfinder's continued existence is proposed to come at the cost of another school program (originally Arbor Heights and now Cooper).
My hope is that, if the Cooper program closes, many neighborhood Cooper students will choose to try an alternative school experience and enroll at Pathfinder K-8. I would like to see Cooper students given priority for enrollment at Pathfinder for 2009-2010, if they wish. And I hope that neighborhood Cooper students who do not want an alternative school experience will be given priority for enrollment for next year in other West Seattle North schools.
One of the things that Rebecca, a Cooper teacher, wrote about in her FAQ sheet (see Cooper Elementary Fights Closure Proposal) I agree with very strongly and passionately. Being in a school with a high concentration of kids in poverty is strongly linked with low achievement levels for individual students, even with all other factors being equal. The research Rebecca cites (and other research) makes this clear. If we want to reduce the achivement gap, we need to make sure our policies (program placement, transportation, reference area lines, assignment plan tie breakers, etc.) push our district away from having schools with high percentages of kids living in poverty.
I am grateful that the importance of having a K-8 alternative school option in West Seattle is being recognized by both the district staff and the School Board. I'm not happy that Pathfinder's continued existence is proposed to come at the cost of another school program (originally Arbor Heights and now Cooper).
My hope is that, if the Cooper program closes, many neighborhood Cooper students will choose to try an alternative school experience and enroll at Pathfinder K-8. I would like to see Cooper students given priority for enrollment at Pathfinder for 2009-2010, if they wish. And I hope that neighborhood Cooper students who do not want an alternative school experience will be given priority for enrollment for next year in other West Seattle North schools.
One of the things that Rebecca, a Cooper teacher, wrote about in her FAQ sheet (see Cooper Elementary Fights Closure Proposal) I agree with very strongly and passionately. Being in a school with a high concentration of kids in poverty is strongly linked with low achievement levels for individual students, even with all other factors being equal. The research Rebecca cites (and other research) makes this clear. If we want to reduce the achivement gap, we need to make sure our policies (program placement, transportation, reference area lines, assignment plan tie breakers, etc.) push our district away from having schools with high percentages of kids living in poverty.
Comments
The simplest plan would be to give priority assignment to all-city draw schools (i.e. no reference/distance tie breaker schools). This, in effect means priority in alternative programs.
It seems like the least the district can do for kids/families whose programs are being closed.
I think this is what was done last time; the enrollment process was basically run twice: once for everyone displaced by the closures and then, once all those assignments had been made; a second time for everyone else in the district.
I'm going to look through my notes to see if any details have been provided about what is planned for this time.
I was trying to work this out, and got confused by whether they should be able to have priority enrollment in a school that would not have open seats. Saying they have priority for open seats doesn't really mean anything, right? as long as seats are open people can access them in Seattle, no? I think the key is that we have to figure out where on the tie-breaker rankings being displaced from a previous placement ranks in the tie-breakers.
For alternatives, I'm suggesting that the displacement tie-breaker be placed after siblings, but before anything else (I've never gotten straight whether some alternatives --TC, Pathfinder-- have a cluster tiebreaker, but, if they do, we'd have to figure out where it goes relative to that).
With traditional schools, you have the distance tiebreaker, which is where the popular schools (in NE, for sure) end up filling up. I don't think, especially given the eventual focus on neighborhood enrollment being pushed by the SPS, that allowing displacement to trump the distance tiebreaker for traditional schools would make sense.
If yes, then those programs are either overcrowded, or somebody else gets bumped - and then what do we do with that displaced student?
If no, and they just get "any school where seats are available", well then, they don't get anything at all because they already have access to any school where seats are available.
Well, if we're talking about alternatives, they go back to their school (i.e. the one that they are currently attending). This is a choice not available to kids who have to leave their current school.
(and, that analysis implies that the "displacement" tie breaker would apply only to people who are currently at a school that's closing, not in coming kindergartners).
What I'm proposing is that students already in a program wouldn't get bumped out, but then for any remaining open seats, all students displaced from closure would get priority for those open seats. Then, once all those open seats were assigned, the rest of open enrollment applications around the district would be processed following normal rules.
Do I have this wrong in my head? Wouldn't that be giving priority to displaced students? Or is there something I'm completely missing here.?
“Past closure processes recommended that Pathfinder
be placed at the Cooper building. However, given current enrollment and placement of programs that have reduced the functional capacity of the buildings, we recommend placing Pathfinder at
Arbor Heights.
In order to put Pathfinder K-8 into the Cooper building one of two things would have to happen. Either Pathfinder would need to become an elementary school, or West Seattle Elementary would need to accommodate an additional 140 students.
Pathfinder is the only K-8 in West Seattle. Becoming a K-5 would mean that families who wanted a K-8 would have to leave West Seattle. Because of a desire to have access to K-8 programs throughout the city, this action is not recommended. ”
-Preliminary Recommendation Report November 25, 2008, Maria L. Goodloe Johnson
Further into the document she states that West Seattle Elementary based on it’s functional capacity only has space for 75 of Cooper students. So where will the children go? I guess when reading the latest round of recommendations they want to spend more money to bus the children further and violate the student assignment plan. Good luck kids, sorry you have to wake up earlier and get home later. But, hey there’s only 65 of you and you guys might be bilingual so it’ll take a while before you notice.
Thanks for the dialogue.
What do you think?