Chandra Hampson and Her Quest to Level Seattle Schools

 By that headline, I don't mean she wants to literally blow them up but she certainly has ideas about what should stay and what should go.

But there are two programs she is working to upend - Advanced Learning and Option Schools. 

I had written this post believing I would talk about the direction of both programs until I listened to a discussion of the Student Transition Plan (basically updates to the Student Assignment Plan) at the Board meeting on January 22, 2022.  Director Hampson said some pretty appalling things about Option Schools (at least the ones in the north end). 

She does NOT believe that there is any public engagement necessary about either dual language schools nor Option Schools if the district/Board wants to make changes.

If you have a student at one of those or care about those programs' existence, you need to write to the Board. It's spsdirectors@seattleschools.org OR if you want to include the superintendent and senior leadership, it's schoolboard@seattleschools.org. 

On Option Schools, Hampson appears to have quite the bee in her bonnet. Somehow she and Director Liza Rankin seem to believe that the Option Schools skew white and therefore must be upended. 

Let me be clear - 30ish years ago, a few Option Schools were opened with parent support AND endorsed by the district. But let's take the John Stanford International School. That was opened because Superintendent John Stanford had championed the idea of opening dual language schools. After his untimely death, the district opened the school and named it after him. They picked the location where it sits because of its proximity to the freeway and thus making it easier for students to get there. 

Should JSIS revert back to a neighborhood school? No. Do I think that the district, when they opened another dual language school, could have picked a better location than McDonald which is just a few miles from JSIS? Yup and I said so at the time. That doesn't mean either should close or lose their program. 

What's interesting is that because the two southend elementariness that are dual language are also Title One schools, they didn't get put into the Option School category. I still find that odd. 

Here's what I found at the OSPI website:

• 7 out of 15 SPS Option Schools are majority white with the majority white schools where you'd expect them - in North Seattle and Ballard. (And by majority, I mean just over 50% - the two that skew way white are The Center School at nearly 74% white and Thornton Creek at 64% white.) 

• What's fascinating is that schools you might think would be majority white are not. It's schools like Orca K-8, Louisa Boren K-8, McDonald, JSIS, TOPS and Queen Anne Elementary.  In fact, Boren, Orca, TOPS and Queen Anne Elementary are very diverse schools for not being dual language schools. 

• One school that skews to a majority of one minority race is South Shore pre-K-8. They are 50% Black. 

Those facts would seem to not follow with what Hampson and Rankin assert. 

Another good place to look for facts would be the report on Option Schools and Transportation, authored by four moms including Director Vivian Song Maritz (before she ran for office). Their findings were:

• Option Schools with the largest transportation areas have the largest populations of FRL students.

• Option Schools with the largest transportation areas are located in neighborhoods with the lowest mean median household income.

• The majority of FRL students eligible for transportation at Option Schools will lose service, even if transportation is maintained for high-FRL schools. 

• We also found the proposed transportation reduction would not provide a significant cost savings. (This is one thing that Hampson says would help transportation costs.)

• Do Option School students live far away from schools? At least half of Option School students live within their GeoZone.

• Are adjacent neighborhood schools under enrolled perhaps because of Option Schools? The authors looked at "enrollment relative to capacity at Option Schools and neighborhood schools. There is no clear pattern of very high capacity rates at Option Schools and low capacity rates at adjacent neighborhood schools, as defined by Middle Schools service areas.

• Option School students are privileged (low BIPOC, FRL and EL populations) and therefore bear the greater burden of any proposed reductions in the interest of recalibrating equity throughout the district. Generally speaking, the percentage % of BIPOC and percentage % of FRL students for individual Option Schools are comparable to the percentage % at their adjacent neighborhood schools. Neighborhood schools across the district range between 1-44% ( average 15%) of % EL students and between 22-98% BIPOC students (average 57%). Option Schools show comparable ranges. (bold mine)

Another value to Option Schools is that they are a very direct charge against the influx of charter schools. 

Back to that Board meeting in January. Enrollment head Ashley Davies had given the updates to the Student Assignment Plan and then was taking questions from Board members. Interestingly, most of those came from Hampson and Rankin. Hampson repeatedly asked why more can't be done now about those problematic dual language and Option Schools. 

I'll just start by saying it is just so irritating to have seen Hampson - when she was Board president, try to check other Board members' time to speak. Sadly, now-President Brandon Hersey doesn't check Hampson who goes on and on and on; altogether she must have spoken for 10+ minutes.  

I also want to state that not a SINGLE Board member spoke up in favor of Option Schools or dual language schools. No one needed to start a fight but a simple statement of support would have been nice. (Of course, as you'll see, the framing used by Hampson would then allow her to claim any Board member speaking up for those programs doesn't want to close racial equity gaps.)

Here are key passages (verbatim):

• What I'm not seeing here necessarily is any suggested progress toward the elimination of racial equity gaps, in particular but that are present in our Option School environments, our dual language environments.

• We know we are providing dual language opportunities in schools that don't represent geographic areas areas where we have the abundance of dual language or multilingual speakers in our school system. 

• I'm wondering about this (issue) whether or not because one of the most egregious things that I that I know about is the Option Schools for example is that they're only available to really limited high income neighborhoods in many instances, particularly in the elementary level which are all in the north end. So I would just like to hear from you where are we that work and why we haven't tried to take any moves to chip off any of those inequities that are represented in our SAP. 

• Davies says, "Thank you for the awareness; our department has spent a year reflecting on the this and current conversations continue on dual language and Option Schools." She said they met regularly with "different partners." She said the "short answer is there is nothing that we identified to 'chip away' at." She then stated  that in the spring, they are planning some public engagement on this issue and would be bringing that to the Operations Committee.

• Hampson comes back, "We have to be very careful with engagement. And I understand this is a big nut. But we don't need to do engagement around something that is an inherently segregating or racist practice, right? We need to be responsible and demand because our communities demanded and we have already committed to through our Strategic Plan that we eliminate those aspects in our system.

I will just pause here for the question I always ask - what communities? Only communities of color? What about the students of color who are in dual language and Option Schools?

• She continued, "I think so that doesn't need and we don't need to go to people who are experiencing you know a privilege or an entitlement and say you know we want to hear whether or not you want to lose this entitlement. That is a mistake this district makes a lot. We do NOT need to ask people for permission to remove something that they that they believe is an entitlement that is that enacts racial equities in the system. We do not need to do that."

• And I think in terms of that, I would like to know between now and we come to action because what I'm trying to get to President Hersey is any possibility to improve this because I have major issues with our SAP." She then hilariously says, "It's nobody's fault, not Ashley's because she's doing incredible work on trying to get to a new place. But is there anything such as you know at a minimum increasing the notation of a GeoZone so that every student in the city has access to an Option School which is not currently the case.

That last statement is a bold-faced lie. There ARE Option Schools in every single region of the district. The ONLY STEM programs are in the south end. The Option School that gets more money - a $1M a year more - than any of the others is South Shore Pre-K-8 in the south end. 

Saying there is a severe flaw in two programs and then saying, "It's nobody's fault" is silly. I'm assuming she is blaming all the superintendents before Jones as well as all the school boards before she came to the Board. Hmmm.

• She ends, "I'll take my answer offline." Well, after you sucked up that much time, I hope so. Boy, I feel for Ashley Davies. 

Parents, you might want to start organizing now.