District Announces Co-Principal for Lowell
The district is announcing that Rina Geoghagen has been appointed the co-principal of Lowell Elementary. She will continue to oversee Lowell at Lincoln as well as work with Greg King for "success at both school sites."
It is also stated, "In addition, Marella Francois will not be joining the Lowell staff."
While this makes some sense, it costs more to have two full principals for any one school. Given that it is "one" school but at two locations, I guess there was no choice but to make her a full principal. It sounds like she has been doing a good job, both now and throughout the summer.
It is also stated, "In addition, Marella Francois will not be joining the Lowell staff."
While this makes some sense, it costs more to have two full principals for any one school. Given that it is "one" school but at two locations, I guess there was no choice but to make her a full principal. It sounds like she has been doing a good job, both now and throughout the summer.
Comments
Lowell@Lincoln Parent
The whole Marella situation is quite odd. I never did see her. I like how it was a throwaway sentence in the announcement, too. It was: " In addition, Marella Francois will not be joining the Lowell staff." Nothing further will be explained, I guess.
Another L@L parent - now if we could just have a real name for our school.
Surely indeed. Because, of course, there would never be an administrator without actual work to do.
(yes, snark and sarcasm, and unrelated to the particular situation at Lowell@Lincoln, which I know nothing about)
I am just curious what the idea is behind keeping the school as "Lowell@Lincoln" rather than treating it as a separate school entirely.
momster
If APP were given a school designation then any moves or changes would need Board approval. As a program, it can be moved at the will of the district.
The question is how it will play out for next year. Will Lowell (the building) be able to open enrollment to more students when APP is technically still part of the school? The meeting notes from Kay Smith-Blum's visit also mention the possibility of a Spectrum program at Lowell. But don't they have ALO at Lowell? And what form of Spectrum?
The district needs to refine its vision of advanced learning, clarify the differences between programs, and provide some consistency in the administration of ALO/Spectrum/APP.
my two cents
SPS will have a very hard time, politically, moving APP North, back into Lowell, even if they split the cohort Northeast/Northwest. That's not saying they won't try....
NE APP can easily fit in Jane Addams (at least for now and we know all they care about is NOW) and NW could likely be made to fit in the NW by shuffling some programs around.
But finding a single home for the likely soon to be 500 north end APP students is not probable.
- ne mom
Essentially if you just use I5 as the divider, I imagine the populations would be pretty even. Plus with the NOW PROVEN theory that when the program is closer to home, more folks enroll, you can practically guarantee that a NE and NW program would each have 250-300 kids within a year.
If you back track from the Hamilton numbers of about 150 6th grade APP students that is likely a better indication of program demand.
- ne mom
I think both JSIS and McDonald have 5 classes each for K and first grade. That is 10 total classes that need to roll up somewhere. They are going to quickly be the next Lowell style emergency.
- ne mom
McDonald has 2 1st grades, 4 K classes. JSIS has 4 1st grades, 4 K. It is a lot, but not quite 5 classes each.
Something will have to be done regarding Hamilton soon.
Jessica
I think the district should open up Lincoln to co-house language immersion and APP. 1-8th grades for APP and 6th-8th for language immersion. Then Hamilton can be a third middle school in the north end to take the pressure off Eckstein. Wilson Pacific can be the interim school instead of Lincoln.
SPS Parent
APP 1-8 at Lincoln along with language immersion middle school with an all-city draw.
That would pull a lot of kids out of Hamilton - about 400 - and, perhaps, relieve the need for an additional middle school in the north-end.
It would also relieve some of the enrollment pressure on Mercer and Denny, the other schools that roll up from language immersion programs.
It would allow APP students to be in their own school for elementary (as it was) and in school with other students - the language immersion students - for middle school (as it is).
Lincoln, centrally located north/south with good access from both I-5 and Highway 99, is an ideal location for an all-city draw school.
The building has a capacity of about 1600 (or more) depending on how it is utilized. The north-end elementary APP would be about 450 students, north-end middle school APP would be about 250, and I think the language immersion middle school would be about 500 if it drew from all of the various language immersion elementaries. Let's remember that not all of the students in language immersion elementary schools would choose to continue to a language immersion middle school - particularly if it were at Lincoln rather than in their neighborhood.
That's about 1,200 students. They should fit very nicely into Lincoln. Even if I'm off by 20% there would still be room for all of them.
Middle school students, APP or language immersion, would only have to move as they enter sixth grade - when they would change schools anyway. The school is already a 1-5. It could start as a 1-6 next year and roll up to a 1-8 over three years.
That would also mean that the District would have three years to complete the build out.
The District could put the S.B.O.C. at John Marshall temporarily (instead of Lincoln) while they are fixing up Meany.
They could just move NOVA back to Mann right now.
I really, really hope they start pumping birth control into the water supply up there! WOW-it's like the 50's baby boom all over again!
I agree, that is a good idea. I have a daughter in 1st grade APP. I've heard lots of parents with older kids saying the 1-8 idea sounds good now, but not when our kids are older. The addition of the immersion kids should help, though, right?
My question is what do those kids do for field space/after school sports, etc.? If I understand the concerns of parents with older kids not wanting the 1-8 it's due to lack of middle school programs. I'm not starting a sports debate, I'm simply curious about fields since band, etc. could easily be accomodated at Lincoln. Lunch? That's another story!
I'm assuming that's a joke, but really, lots of kindergartners does not equal lots of big families. They could all be only children for all you know.
Helen Schinske
I know the school was designed for 1,000 or more high schoolers, yet it can barely handle 600 elementary students right now when it comes to lunch. There are 3 crowded lunch shifts, with some kids having to eat lunch in the hallways because the cafeteria doesn't hold them all. We've also been told that we can't have any evening events with food at the school because the cafeteria is too small to handle it. Kind of a bummer when you're used to having nice community-building events with potluck meals on site.
Maybe staggered start times would help if you tried to make this a 1-8 school, but ultimately, the school wasn't built with little kids in mind. Half the lockers go un-utilized because the kids can't reach them this year. And this will sound silly, but a lot of time is spent going up and down big staircases; from a kid's perspective, the "long distances" to get to lunch, to recess, to PCP activities means less time to enjoy those things.
Then there's the playground. Parents worked hard to get access to the grassy frontlawn area instead of the concrete areas where the district wanted the kids to play, but we can't put permanent play structures in place due to the trees. It'll work these next 2 years, but it's not perfect or even up to snuff with what other schools get.
Don't get me wrong; I am pleased with how Lowell@Lincoln is going so far this year, but I'm not convinced I'd want it for a permanent home for elementary northend APP. And yeah, these sound like minor complaints, but lunch, recess, etc are not minor things to our kids. I'd really prefer to see elementary aged kids in an elementary school designed for their needs.
We are also at Lincoln. Early in the year I asked why the lunchroom was so small. I knew larger schools had used Lincoln, Garfield and Hamilton, and I wondered how they dealt with lunch. The answer was that Kidsco was put in the basement and took up some of the lunchroom space. If Lincoln were to be used as a true elementary school, Kidsco could be moved to another part of the building which would allow the lunchroom to be larger again.
I hope the district looks at something long term very soon for north APP. My kids are on their third elementary (k in neighborhood, Lowell, Lincoln) and I wouldn't want them to start Hamilton just to move again. The district needs to realize our kids are not widgets, and they deserve a real school.
Lincoln Parent
Curious
SPS Parent
A big issue with comparing buildings is that capacity changes based on age specific programming. A middle school is very space efficient. The capacity of the building can be set for each homeroom having 35 students and every room being used. Elementary schools are not nearly as space efficient with an average class size of 25 and specialized program rooms.
The rule of thumb is that a building that could be a 1,000 student middle school would only work for about 750 as a K8 and about 600 as an elementary. IIRC, JM was set at about 750 as a moderate sized middle school. That would make it a very large elementary or a Salmon Bay or TOPS sized K8.
- north seattle mom
SPS Parent
My son plays for Seattle United and SU is one of the tenants. SU knows they are going to need to find a new home when the district takes back the building.
ne parent
More importantly, isn't the whole point that these are actually Seattle public school buildings? Is somebody arguing that they have now been turned over to private hands without any public process? Why should't they be used again for the very purpose for which they were built -- teaching school age-children?
Is the SPS Evening High School still using the south part of Lincoln? They used to have that space. Marella Francois was listed as the principal of that school last year
- it is already done.