Washington Middle School Upheaval Update
An update on the story at Washington Middle School where the principal flipped schedules at the semester with no warning to students or teachers.
The students did hold a protest outside the school last Thursday. They also wrote a thoughtful letter about their concerns.
The principal, Emily Butler-Ginolfi, has not acknowledged the letter nor the protest as of the date of the letter.
Reflecting what the 8th graders have been learning in class, the letter starts this way:
On teaching changes:
They conclude:
Again, why are principals so empowered in this district? And why would a new-to-the-district principal be allowed such leeway?
I found this in Parent FAQs; maybe this is why:
Advocacy for additional funding for WMS with district, given our unique population and being a middle school. We are 79% Free and Reduced Meals eligible without the HCC magnet, which means we would be a Title I school.
On the other end, SPS does not currently provide additional funding for HCC programming.
As a middle school, we must have teachers who are licensed to teach both middle and high school courses—an issue which is unique to schools with HCC programs and more challenging at a school like WMS that would otherwise be Title I.
Many schools might be Title One if they didn't have more students who come from high-income families, HCC program or not. To blame not getting Title One funding on the HCC program is very odd.
The students did hold a protest outside the school last Thursday. They also wrote a thoughtful letter about their concerns.
The principal, Emily Butler-Ginolfi, has not acknowledged the letter nor the protest as of the date of the letter.
Reflecting what the 8th graders have been learning in class, the letter starts this way:
In our 8th Grade history classes this year, we have spent a lot of time learning about the U.S. Revolution and the beginning of the country we live in today. Unfortunately, we are not able to continue those important and historical discussions with many of our same classmates, peers in other classes and programs, and even in most cases our teachers, but we have learned a lot about how much power matters in a system. This kind of situation not only happens in our history classes, but is now reflected throughout the school. If we are going to make a school where everyone learns and is cared about, we need to start having more student voice in decisions, because when different groups of people are involved, just like it should have been in the American colonies, everything works out better for the whole.These are partial excerpts from the letter. The concerns seem real enough AND address valid academic concerns.
On teaching changes:
Even though we all deserve the best education possible, the worst thing to do is to interrupt any of these learning experiences. Instead of switching students and teachers around so that every student is better served, why can’t we make sure that every teacher is able to benefit every student?On race:
Communication is so important, but it isn’t a one-way street. One student says, “Students are treated differently because of their skin. As a black student, it sucks that people like me get in trouble and are being suspected of things that other people aren’t.”On working with other students
Now students in science fair groups are mainly in different classes and they don’t know if they will be able to finish the project on time. Book clubs were also created in some Language Arts classes so now students will not have a way to continue discussions and meet with their groups in class, these issues were also not made clear with teachers before Tuesday,Periods, Periods, and more Periods
This year the passing periods have also been changed. Last year we had 5 minutes and the schedule and times were easy to memorize, but now we have to remember exactly when class ends and when it starts and it is really confusing. This is in addition to us having to memorize a completely new schedule in the middle of the year.
Also, four minutes is not enough time to get to our classes especially if we need to use the bathroom. I know that as a girl, it can be very inconvenient to have your period because of the bathroom limitations. It’s stressful to have to deal with your period when there’s no time to use the restroom due to the fact that we don’t want to be tardy. Girls can’t plan their periods, sometimes they start during class or passing periods. Girls can’t always wait until a class is over to take care of it.
In addition to the passing period problem, we are not allowed to go to the bathroom the first or last 10 minutes of class. This is completely unfair because you never know if someone is having an emergency. This goes back to girls getting their periods as well, sometimes going to the bathroom is necessary. It shouldn’t be a shameful thing or a thing to get in trouble for.The students also express concerns over lunch and music changes. They conclude:
In addition to these changes that are being made, we can’t ignore that in the letters the principal has given us, they show no apology for not communicating to students and families, no regard for raised opinions by the community, and they often blame other sources for problems that have cost us time being educated and much more.
She even got the address of our school wrong; it is the address of the school she previously worked at.That the principal did this is bizarre. She kept the template from her old school and just used it for Washington Middle School?
She also mentions that the changes being made happen often in secondary school, but secondary school is high school and not middle school.The students are incorrect here; middle/high are secondary but, to their point, I have never experienced this kind of out-of-the-blue changes in either of my sons’ middle or high schools.
They conclude:
We need to be treated like the school we are, and we need our principal to set an example of how to act in these situations, because believe it or not we are all still learning. We understand this is all part of her own principles and values, and understand how hard of a job she has with little state funding, but we think everyone should be able to have a voice in the decisions being made at our school, no matter how much the impact.I can only add - why is the district allowing this to happen? Not only is Washington's enrollment in decline, it appears the entire school is in free-fall change. What good is that?
Again, why are principals so empowered in this district? And why would a new-to-the-district principal be allowed such leeway?
I found this in Parent FAQs; maybe this is why:
Advocacy for additional funding for WMS with district, given our unique population and being a middle school. We are 79% Free and Reduced Meals eligible without the HCC magnet, which means we would be a Title I school.
On the other end, SPS does not currently provide additional funding for HCC programming.
As a middle school, we must have teachers who are licensed to teach both middle and high school courses—an issue which is unique to schools with HCC programs and more challenging at a school like WMS that would otherwise be Title I.
Many schools might be Title One if they didn't have more students who come from high-income families, HCC program or not. To blame not getting Title One funding on the HCC program is very odd.
Comments
Parent
No Problem
more FAQS
Absolutely not true. What's your evidence?
And absolutely true from more FAQs.
I will note that like many discussions about girls and women and their bodies, if you're not one of them, you should not be saying much. I suggest that most, if not all, women recall being a young girl with a period at school. Not fun.
Now, this principal lands in Seattle as though dropped by aliens from a spaceship and starts unilaterally making hardcore changes to schedules, courses and more. Locked away in her high tower, she issues edicts and directives on falsified letterhead. It sounds like a Marvel adaptation of a comic book villain! But no, like much that has gone haywire in recent years, this is not an Onion article.
She could easily have created a coherent community at Washington, with everyone on the same page working together to improving the state of education at a school where not every child's needs were being met. Her PTSA and BLT could have taken the reins on certain tasks, her R&E team could have taken the reins on other tasks. She could have started outreach and lining up parent volunteers to help with tutoring and supervision. She could have used an advisory period to have her student body focus on her equity agenda and not be pawns of it but participants in it.
In the end, she is left with a school spiraling into a vortex. She has divided her community to no purpose and squandered the good will of that community and of her teachers. She is trying to achieve educational justice objectives with fairly arbitrary changes that will not improve educational justice at her school. She has scared off a certain percentage of families whose students will not return next year and another percentage of current 5th grade families who students will not show up next year. With those expected departures, she is literally driving funding out of her school, money that any eventual Title I categorization cannot make up for. She will have to make new hires over the summer to fill missing faculty positions. Low caliber hires also make low caliber hires. After 18 months in her job, she will have created a dysfunctional school that will be the envy of no one in the district.
But if the district continues to tolerate this malpractice, I'm certain there is no hope for the next decade of public education here.
Exasperated
Advocacy for additional funding for WMS with district, given our unique population and being a middle school. . Sounds like HCC parents asking for money for their unique population. School fundraising needs to at a minimum, be for the whole school.
No Problem
Recent email from Sherri Kokx, special assistant to the superintendent to the School Board:
Good Morning Directors,
A quick follow up on the situation at WAMS. The principal made multiple master schedule changes at the semester for a variety of reasons. While this is disruptive to students and families and it is not a common practice at the semester for middle schools, it is also not outside of the norm. Principal Butler-Ginolfi is working with her leadership coach and her supervisor to better communicate and engage with her families."
Umm, her supervisor, Ms. Pritchett, has only made this situation worse since she hired the principal, as Ms. Pritchett has merely defended the principal at every turn.
One scheduling error example among many from last week: Principal placed numerous children in advanced choir at random and now says too bad. Among other issues (lack of respect for teacher's decisions about appropriate skill level etc!), this impacts the ability of anyone in the class to go on planned field trips for this semester due to inadequate bus space. Upending the plans and hopes of students and teacher alike.
WMS staff
Flap Away
"Sounds like HCC parents asking for money for their unique population. School fundraising needs to at a minimum, be for the whole school."
The principal is saying that it costs more. I'm checking that statement out but I'm not sure that is so.
Also, it is NOT HCC parents asking for money; it's the district's legal duty to provide services for those students. All state-mandated programs like Sped, ELL, HCC, have costs.
As for school fundraising, well, that's up to the parents who raise the money. I know of almost no schools that don't use their fundraising dollars for the benefit of all students. I know that in years past, the Garfield PTA was funding tutors for students of color who wanted that service. So no, that particular PTA spending didn't benefit all students.
As well, school booster groups - like music or arts or sports - specify what activity gets their dollars but those activities are open to all students.
WMS Staff, well, if you were expecting help from an ED, I'm sorry to say you won't get it. I'm still perplexed about what they do but mediation doesn't seem a strong suit. What's odd is one ED, Jon Halfaker WAS the principal at Washington and when he was principal, it was a strong school. Might be good to pass off that mediation to him.
From her experience at Indianapolis Public Schools’ George Washington High School:
https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/in/2015/07/20/a-third-of-george-washington-high-schools-teachers-wont-return/
You almost have to wonder -- Is that why she was hired?
That's 2 principals in a row at Washington Middle School who have disrupted and weakened the school overall and taken an antagonistic stance against HCC kids. There appears to be a pattern to the WMS hires.
Michael Tolley was the head of the Teaching & Learning Dept that oversees principal hires so he was responsible for hiring Ginolfi Butler (and May before her). He is also responsible for promoting Sarah Pritchett to ED. Look how well that's worked out.
Is it possible that the district is allowing Washington to fail? So more students will choose charter schools? Or to further divert HCC students away from GHS?
Whatever the underlying motivation, the chaos at Washington Middle School is hurting all the kids and helping none, despite all the fake equity talk from the principal and the district.
Ginolfi Butler has failed as a school leader and should be fired.
- Chaos Theory
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28765366&postID=3985174263594611204&bpli=1
Anonymous said...
I just heard that the Washington Middle School principal shifted schedules and teaching assignments but is telling staff and students not to discuss it at school. Teachers are being removed from classes they've been teaching all year, kids are being withdrawn from advanced classes like Spanish, and parents are not being told the full story. Is this just another attempt to get rid of HCC or is this just another insane move from the woman who didn't even have schedules done the first day of school and won't allow kids to go to the restroom during class time (because nature calls only during the period for the entire student body)? Are teachers & students aware of the transfer/open enrollment process out of that insane asylum? Is the union aware of this environment? Does anyone know if there's been discussion yet of her removal? I thought the new Superintendent was going to FIX Seattle Schools, not hire Professor Umbridge!
-Lee G.
1/30/19, 6:10 PM
- Chaos Theory
- Chaos Theory
When I was in middle school, a girl asked to go to the bathroom and the PE teacher wouldn't let her. She ended up with blood all over her shorts and legs, and was completely traumatized and embarrassed. That was 40 years ago, and I've never forgotten the look on her face. It was heartbreaking.
This seems like a human rights issue, and schools should be ashamed of being so punitive with bathroom privileges that girls may feel like they can't go to school while they have their periods if they may not be able to get to the bathroom when they need to.
This also applies to other reasons for needing access to the bathroom. There have been numerous times over the years that my kids have had to stay home from school even though their only illness was that they knew they may need fast access to a bathroom during school, and they couldn't count on having that access because teachers wouldn't let them go. Having to miss school on this basis seems to be completely contrary to the reasoning behind the strict bathroom rules- keeping kids in class...
-Seattle parent
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Save WMS
1. Hamilton 9%
2. Eckstein 11.8%
3. McClure 12.8%
4. Whitman 17.1%
5. Madison 19.8%
6. Jane Addams 23.7%
7. Eagle Staff 24.2%
8. Washington 36.3%
9. Meany 45.2% (TITLE 1)
10. Mercer 59.6%
11. Denny 68.8% (TITLE 1)
12. Aki Kurose 73.4% (TITLE 1)
This begs one question. Why isn't Mercer MS a title one school? By low income percentage, they should qualify.
Second of all, these numbers might illustrate part of what Melissa mentioned in the post above. Melissa found something in the WMS Parent FAQs that she thinks might help explain why WMS appears to be actively trying to shed HCC students.
We are 79% Free and Reduced Meals eligible without the HCC magnet, which means we would be a Title I school.
The 79% number is interesting, but seems wrong. Without HCC, Washington's feeder elementaries are Bailey Gatzert (42.4% low income), Thurgood Marshall (33.0% low income), and John Muir (65.8% low income). How could Washington have a much higher percentage of low income students (79%) than its poorest feeder elementary ("only" 65.8%)? Seems implausible.
But, at the same time, IF you could scare away just enough HCC families to bring the 36.3% low income level up to 40% of the school population, I believe that is the magic number to qualify for title one funding. In Washington state title one funding brings an estimated $1135 per low income student.
So if we take 703 to be the number of students at Washington (last May's number), the current 36.3% low income rate would equal 255 low income students. 40% of the student population would be 281 students. That's only a difference of 26 students. So, if you could scare away about 26 non-low-income students, maybe you could qualify the school for title one funding. If you had 281 low income students at a qualifying title one school and you brought in $1135 per low income student, that would "earn" you $318,935. It's a pretty small fraction of Washington's total school budget ($5,788,262 for 2018-19). But maybe that's the goal: scare away 26 non-low-income students, bring in $318,935?
It would certainly be easier to scare away 26 students rather than the whole HCC contingent (that's over half the school, isn't it?).
But with the cost of living, rents, property taxes and other costs in Seattle shooting up and the district hemorrhaging FRL students to other, more affordable, neighboring districts, it's going to be a real challenge to shake off enough non-FRL students to equal the number of FRL students lost + 26...
I hope this isn't what's going on. I hope for better from educators.
Save WMS
observer
CAPACITY
-It's Black Lives Matter weel & month at SPS!
I have never laid eyes on either of them, so I had no idea their race. I don't think I've laid eyes on any ED actually. Has anyone? They seem to mainly lurk. I have laid eyes on Butler-Ginolfi, and she seems plenty white to me. Do you feel like the searing and deserved criticism of her incompetence is too mild because of her race?
BLSMRISA
BlackLivesStillMatterRegardlessofIncompetentSchoolAdministrators
Ditto!
Nothing to do with race.
Royal do as royal are.
Yeah, if they did as poor a job as they do, which they probably would, since it’s them. I’ve never seen either of them myself, either. Didn’t know their race(s). Just know that Tolley has done a crap job on so many things (MTSS, 24-credit reqt, HCC, etc.) and know that most EDs do little of obvious benefit ( and if WMS is in Pritcett’s area, then Pritchett shares the blame.).
There are plenty of ineffective white administrators who get called out here, too, The idea that we can’t criticize ineffective public officials because they happen to be black is much more racist than your insinuation.
ya know?
We do.
That insinuation has affected Seattle Schools forever and there will probably not be any change on the horizon.
To the point about Tolley and Pritchett, there’s nothing racist about it. (And Tolley is not here any longer.). Actually, it should be Mike Starosky to point to because he is in charge of the EDs (and he’s white). As for Ms. Pritchett, it’s an unfortunate thing that she seems to have the most schools with issues or with issues she can’t seem to handle.
I would agree with Ya Know; criticizing SPS staff and then having someone call you racist because that staff member is black is ridiculous. For myself, I criticize a lot of people across the spectrum.
They can feel pretty invasive, especially if you are not planning to take advantage of meals hosted by the school.
Some school administrators take filing for FRL seriously and stress to both students and parents that filing the forms will benefit the school by increasing eligibility for funding.
Also, Thurgood Marshall is 33% FRL *with* HCC included. Without the HCC kids, its FRL percentage has been in the 70s and 80s in recent years. Not all kids in those elementaries ultimately attend Washington, so the 79% figure cited by Butler Ginolfi is plausible.
What perplexes many families and staff at WMS is that she won't try to build broad support for her strategies, which are intended to improve the poor SBA test performance of about 70% of the FRL kids. Compounding that failure is that Butler Ginolfi doesn't seem to accept that "basic education" for the HC-eligible students involves non-standard academic and social supports. She regards HCC kids as having received undeserved privileges WMS can't afford. At a school where HCC is 60% of the enrollment, that's not going to be popular or sensible.
Numbers Guy
I believe they filled last year's principal pool with inexperienced admins who had the sought after "equity lens," which for some reason seems to preclude anyone who has actually been attempting to do good work for any length of time.
-Exasperated
Hiring
No Problem
If privilege is choice, SPS LOVES choice. They've got option schools all over town and they would LOVE for you to apply to them right now during open enrollment. Louisa Boren, Cedar Park, Center School, Cleveland, Licton Springs, McDonald, Orca, Pathfinder, Queen Anne, Salmon Bay, South Shore, John Stanford, Thornton Creek, TOPS, and Hazel Wolf. They love them so much they keep opening new ones. I'm sure they'll open even more. SPS and SPS families LOVE options and choices. Cleveland is an effin option school high school that kicks butt. They're 55% FRL, 7% white, and have a graduation rate (92%) that's way better than the district as a whole (79%). All over town families are choosing the privilege of dual language immersion: Beacon Hill, Dearborn Park, Concord, John Stanford, McDonald, Hamilton, Denny, Mercer, Ingraham, Sealth. SPS is so thrilled with immersion that they're opening a new dual language privilege school next year (Lincoln). SPS loves the privilege of option choices. Thousands of families have made the choice and you can too until the 20th of February. Forms are available in English, Chinese, Spanish, Somali, and Vietnamese: https://www.seattleschools.org/admissions/registration/school_choice
You can even sort of home school through SPS at Cascade Parent Partnership. No self respecting school district that hates programs of privilege would allow this (homeschooling? in your pajamas? with no commute?)
If privilege is academic acceleration, SPS loves that, too. The district wants all students to be able to access AL right in their own schools. But they ALSO let families test into AL any year between K and 7th grade (and for HC any year between K and 12). Not only that, they let advanced learners switch to 14 Spectrum sites (Arbor Heights Elementary, BF Day Elementary, Fairmount Park Elementary, Hawthorne Elementary, Lafayette Elementary, Lawton Elementary, Lowell Elementary, Muir Elementary, View Ridge Elementary, Wedgwood Elementary, Whittier Elementary, Wing Luke Elementary, Broadview-Thomson K-8, Hazel Wolf K-8). They have no legal obligation to do that, but they still do. Because they LOVE advanced learning privilege. They want it available in all schools. They want low income students to get it if they need it so bad that they screen all 2nd graders at title one schools automatically. Do too well on your SBA test and they'll send you a letter inviting you to test, because they love it.
And SPS is definitely not trying to shut down HCC if that's your definition of privilege. They've been spinning off and opening new HCC schools left and right. SPS LOVES students who test well. They want MORE students to test well.
Aki Kurose 105
Denny 110
Washington 138
Jane Addams 184
Mercer 219
Eagle Staff 258
Madison 286
McClure 358
Hamilton 360
Meany 458
Whitman 458
Eckstein 663
Taking away programs and services from kids is never acceptable. Ever. For any reason. And it's not just or anti-racist or equitable. The only answer forward is to stop pitting kids against each other just to keep the billionaires happy - and instead go get the billionaires' money so every child gets their needs met in SPS.
Sledder
Optical delusion
The most extreme outliers are not well educated by SPS. That is true.
But the higher achieving students in general getting short-changed? There is no data to support that whatsoever.
Use facts next time before contributing to the poor-me HCC myth.
Fact delusion
Optical delusion
We live in racist times, we live in a racially divided city - ever been to Magnolia? To assume there are no racists posting on your blog is to deny reality.
Dry Hopped
Where is the data that SPS turns HC students into "average students"?
Again, facts please?
Fact Delusions
"But the higher achieving students in general getting short-changed? There is no data to support that whatsoever."
Actually, there's substantial data to support that fact. The infamous ST "biggest white-black achievement gap in the state" article states that SPS white 3-8th graders score two grade levels above nat'l average. That's astonishing as an average for that large of a segment of the population and you can easily infer that there are higher achievement levels within the average. The majority of those white students are in gen-ed and served grade level curriculum. The HCC students are also receiving fixed grade level work just accelerated by a year or two.
So if students are given one-size-fits-all age-based curriculum despite their demonstrated ability level on tests, then, yes indeed, high ability level students are being short-changed. As are all students far from the middle in SPS-land and districts far and wide.
Further evidence from Duke TIP that a sizeable percentage of elementary and middle school students score above grade level yet are stuck "learning" what they already know year after year after year.
https://tip.duke.edu/about/news/millions-us-students-underchallenged-school
Facts Matter
Was the article talking about being shortchanged in a cohorted program, which is self-contained through elementary?
Nah. Didn't think so.
Using data that exists about the need for HC services does not support the blanket statement that Optical Delusion made about about students in SPS HC getting shortchanged.
That is a straw man exemplar.
Good Job
Your inability to support your arguments with evidence and resort to insults is tiresome and your hallmark.
You specifically referred in your post to "higher end performing students" and "higher achieving students" and asserted "There is no data to support that whatsoever."
After I posted two articles supporting that higher end/higher achieving students are indeed shortchanged including one specific to SPS, you don't have the mettle to acknowledge the data.
Now you backpeddle to "cohorted program, which is self-contained through elementary".
Words matter.
Facts Matter
As for if there are racists here, there could well be. But not in that post.
I think this post has run its course.
Onward.