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Title : Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Capacity Meeting
link : Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Capacity Meeting
Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Capacity Meeting
It was a barnburner for sure.The district was represented by Michael Tolley, RESMS principal, Marnie Campbell, Licton Springs principal, Lisa Allphin, two Executive Directors - Kim Whitworth and Jon Halfaker. Directors Geary, Burke and Mack were in attendance. The discussion was led by head of Enrollment, Ashley Davies.
Ms Davies said the PowerPoint that was presented would be at the district website and I assumed the Boundaries page. I could not find it. There is video out there but I have not heard yet from the parent who took the video.
I estimate there were at least 100 people there, including a large contingent from Licton Springs including students with signs.
She told the crowd that no decisions had been made that "staff has thought of options and you'll have time to engage with those ideas." I think the audience was put off with the notion that other ideas were not to be discussed. It was a low-key crowd until Ms. Davies tried to split up the group.
Director Burke (this is part of his region) said that he recognized this was "a hard conversation." He asked that people didn't "project solutions for other communities." I commend the audience because no one did that.
Looking thru the PowerPoint, you can see the problems. Change a K-8 to K-5 just for it to survive? Document that Licton Springs was slated for space for 250 students and yet their enrollment is 175 (with "right size" at 160). Whoops! Did the contractor screw up or just what happened?
One of the key takeaways from Ms. Davies is that doing just one of the presented solutions would NOT solve all the overcrowding. It is going to take at least two.
Going thru the four "solutions," there are definitely pros and cons to each. Whitman is problematic because, basically, it has terrible portables. (This led me to wonder, because our district has never balked at spending money on new portables, why they couldn't just buy better portables?)
It felt like the district leans towards Licton Springs going to the renovated Webster building. Look! a shiny, new building just for you!
Except that Licton Springs has already heard that promise (at least about new space). I don't blame them; I predict if they moved into Webster and if the district needed that building, they'd take it away from LS.
No matter because it appeared that no one at LS was interested. Looking at the stats on their population, you can see why. Most of their students are from the RESMS area. Webster is way off in far west Ballard. The busing costs would be huge and the move disruptive.
Davies finished her presentation and noted tables in the back with the four solutions and writing paper on the tables and, true to district fashion, wanted us to break up into groups.
Summer Stinson, a parent in the region, said she wanted a Q&A since time was so short (there was only an hour allotted for the entire meeting). I chimed in that it would probably be more useful for parents to hear others' thoughts and suggestions in a group. The audience concurred and so there was no table time but comments and suggestions.
One question was, "Why aren't there any other scenarios particularly around Whitman?"
Ms Davies said that staff had run others but that the data was analyzed and those were rejected.
The questioner continued, "Why aren't those numbers available for us to see?" She said they will make them available.
Themes for Comments
Olympic View students going to JAMS. The majority of OV parents said fine. They would like their children to go to one middle school rather splitting among three as they do now. A few said that initially they were not happy with the assignment to RESMS but that now they had a community and would like grandfathering in order to stay.
There were many impassioned Licton Spring comments. Basically,
1) Why do you keep screwing our community over?
2) Our school is a home for students who did not feel welcomed/comfortable at other schools. Among the parents who spoke was a mom with an autistic student and a mom with a blind child. It was very moving and reminded me of Nova and its students. While smaller option schools are more expensive to run, there is a need for them. They give children who may be so-called square pegs a place to shine. They save lives.
3) They do NOT want to become a K-5 because they joined the program for the continuity of a K-8. One mom who said her child came in at 5th grade noted that there were several students who came in at 4th and 5th grades in order to continue onto middle school there.
4) Interestingly, there was one impassioned suggestion for Licton Springs to have Cascadia's building and HCC student move elsewhere. There didn't seem to be much interest from other LS parents.
5) One student spoke movingly about how their special needs students have to go into "one tiny office." She said, "It's not okay."
6) One mom spoke of how some LS students get laughed at and made fun of by RESMS students.
HCC parents were fairly low-key but they would like their students to stay together, if possible. Also interesting was that you didn't hear the rancor about HCC at this meeting that you hear here at this blog.
A big theme - "We do NOT want to be meeting here again in two years for the same problems." "Why can't the forecasting be better?" "Why did you think this could be sorted out in an hour?"
One parent - who said she was on the Advanced Learning Task Force - said that it's important for groups to work together.
I thought it a bit odd that neither principal gave any insights into how they see the situation as it plays out for their schools, day-to-day.
Director Mack made an unfortunate choice to speak at the end of the meeting and ended up inflaming some in the crowd. It was her contention that a decision had to be made "soon" and she didn't like the process either. Director Burke tried to wind things up but by then one parent was incensed and shouted at them that they needed to "own this." There were shouts about "white privilege."
As the highest ranking person at the meeting, Michael Tolley just told the crowd a couple of times that staff came to listen and these "are good insights." Did that help? It did not. It sounded a lot like patronizing pap.
Takeaways
- The district should stop these short, divide and conquer meetings. Parents are hip to this ploy and won't stand for any longer.
- Why not at least get a start and allow any Olympic View area students who want to leave and go to JAMS to go next year (or even this year)? It was confusing because apparently JAMS is full? But maybe not as full as RESMS? But it would be a start.
- The district and the Board made a written commitment to Licton Springs. Either honor that and create the right-sized room at RESMS or find them another central location. You cannot pick up an option school and put it in a location that is difficult to access. Or maybe the BEX IV money for a downtown school should be put to use to find a permanent location for Licton Springs.
- It does appear that the longer the district puts off any decisions on HCC (waiting on the Advanced Learning Task Force), the more urgent the problem will become. But I guess it's really just a convenient whipping boy because the Board and district leadership seems to feel the leisurely route is fine.
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