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Title : 2019-2020 High School Enrollment Issues, Continued
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2019-2020 High School Enrollment Issues, Continued

Two items came across my desk about the district's high school enrollment projects for this school year and how many of the comprehensive high schools have experienced problems because of it.

The first is an essay by School Board candidate, Eric Blumhagen, about the high school enrollment calamity. 

This crisis was preventable. In February, District staff issued a preliminary budget that predicted a drop in high school enrollment. In May, SPS presented enrollment data to the School Board based on actual student registrations. This information showed that SPS had registered 1,650 more students than were included in the February budget. That’s an entire high school worth of students!

SPS now has the challenging task of hiring as many as 50 high school teachers district-wide. It’s no surprise that it’s hard to hire good teachers after the school year has started. While all SPS high schools are short-staffed, some schools have a larger gap between their official budget and the start of school enrollment. Rainier Beach should have 4 more teachers than their official budget. Chief Sealth should have 5 more. Roosevelt should have 7 more teachers. Garfield should have a staggering 11 more teachers than the budget allowed.

Additionally, the teacher shortage can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. High school students with flexibility may decide to simply leave these overcrowded classrooms for other options, including online coursework or charter schools. When they do that, SPS loses funding from the state.

The next is an article from Crosscut, highlighting the plight of Rainier Beach High School during this crisis. 

Steven Miller, Rainier Beach’s International Baccalaureate coordinator, said considerations like students’ collective performance in different academic areas went into making the cut. The team decided to eliminate a social studies teaching position, concluding that students would suffer more if they missed math or science instruction.

Now, 10th graders at Rainier Beach are slated to receive just a half-year of history instruction during the 2019-20 academic year. Students will also receive less instruction in visual arts as a result of the cuts.


“The scheduling is like a massive Sudoku puzzle,” Miller said, adding that it’s not yet clear how this will work logistically. “Half the kids might get it the first semester and half the second.”

Mr. Miller's comment about scheduling echoes what parent Kellie LaRue has said for the better part of a decade.  She also believes that the people at JSCEE just don't get how high schools are different from K-8 and the master schedule is everything.

For Rainier Beach, a federal School Improvement Grant had plugged budget holes in prior years. But the grant expired before the start of the new school year and before dollars from the district’s recently renewed operations levy kick in.

Students at the Sept. 4 rally called attention to financial predicaments impacting Chief Sealth International and Franklin high schools, which also serve predominantly low-income students of color and lack parent-teacher association resources. However, neither school is facing staff cuts, SPS spokesperson Tim Robinson said in an email.

Data from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction indicate that spending amounted to approximately $15,424 per student at Rainier Beach during the 2017-18 year — nearly 19% over the statewide per-pupil figure.

Important point here:

The largest factor that goes into estimating per-pupil spending calculations is teacher pay. In Seattle, these expenditures are calculated based on the salary requirements of an educator with 11 years of experience, the district average. To get that number, the sum of teacher pay, federal funding, state money and local dollars is divided by a school’s total enrollment.

However, teachers at Rainier Beach have an average of just seven years in teaching under their belts. At Roosevelt High School, by contrast,  teachers average nearly 16 years of experience. As a result, both schools incur much different costs in reality than they do in district estimates, which misrepresent how much money either school actually receives, Miller contends.

“What this effectively means — and what per-student spending doesn't capture — is that a school like Rainier Beach is effectively subsidizing a school like Roosevelt since both schools are recorded as paying the district average salary for one [full-time employee], regardless of the actual cost,” he said.

But there are also some statements in the story that don't seem to ring true.

Once a school’s needs are assessed, the district issues a budget in the form of staff and the pay they require. Secondary funding sources like grants and money raised by parent-teacher organizations go toward filling funding gaps.

While some high schools certainly raise more money via PTSAs, I doubt very many of those dollars go to fill funding gaps.  Most high schools don't have any staff who are paid for by PTSA dollars.  And, the big money in high school comes from booster clubs for music and athletics. 

What's next:

The Rainier Beach staff plans to launch a fundraiser in October as part of an effort to reinstate the teaching positions that were cut. 

Rainier Beach is currently 33 students over enrollment projections and is among the schools to be allocated additional staff. 

Also of interest:

Students have also urged the district to expedite its plans to construct a new Rainier Beach school building, which is currently expected to be finished by 2025.

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