Today I attended one of SPS’s community workshops on school closures; boy was it sad, just pathetic. When the Chief Academic Officer is too busy playing Sudoko to pay attention to the feeback community members are giving about a plan SHE helped author, you know you’re in for some nonsense.
I hope, speaking as someone who has been a part of school closures from the jump, that the multiple communities across SPS DO NOT DRINK THE KOOL AID. Do not fall for the okeydoke.
The District wants you to participate in a process that will pit you against your counterpart across town. Don’t do it.
SPS wants everyone to believe there just aren’t enough families with school aged children in the South End, not enough to justify keeping buildings open. We’ve gone from successfully creating small classrooms to now being viewed as “under enrolled”. SPS encourages South End families to send their children to school in the North End, all the damn time. In fact, they even provide transportation. Now South End schools don’t have enough students, and North End students have too many, which has caused the SPS to say it’ll build at least 1 more school in the North End to lighten the load a bit. Once again it is providing more to the North End, and using South End students to do it. When is SPS going to STOP bussing kids to the North End? When? And why doesn’t SPS want to change that policy?
Rainier Beach/ Cleveland High; The Superintendent came out and said that RBHS will merge with Cleveland High up on Beacon Hill. She also said that she’s looking at all options, that in fact Cleveland could wind up down the hill at the RBHS site. That is never going to happen. Cleveland is a historical building that was just remodeled in a huge way. There is no way in hell that those families at Cleveland are sending their kids down the hill. Cleveland is a larger building and it’s up to date. RBHS is damn near delapodated. So what is happening here? The District is betting that Cleveland’s muscle is bigger than RBHS’s, thus one knocks the other out of the fight, and the District keeps its hands clean while ALSO saying that it implemented community input in their decision-making. Bottom line- Rainier Beach High School is still going to close.
The African American Academy. Here we go. I’ll say it again; AAA should close. Why? It goes like this folks- let’s say you’re out in the cold, and you want desperately to warm your fingers, aching and chilled to the bone. A dog comes by and takes a shit- there it is, a nice, hot pile of shit, which, technically can keep your hand warm in the frigid conditions you’re in; wanna scoop it up? Do you want shit all over your hands just so you can say you have something warm? Well that is AAA; it is NOT the “Beacon on the Hill”. Did it have the potential to be at some point? Sure. Just like I had the potential to be an astronaut. The District has always ignored the Academy; It made the Academy an all city draw so that “troubled” [BLACK] youth from all over the city can be “encouraged” to attend. What that has led to is…a big fat mess. The building has never had the leadership or the resources to be successful. It is always a problem when one or two people, neither of which are the principal OR assistant principal, are calling all the shots. AAA is filled to its roof with high drama and dysfunction. It has never, nor will it ever be, a shining example of how to successfully educate the Black child. This is evidenced by the fact that it has NEVER made AYP, and that it is in its 5th year of failing under No Child Left Behind. None of us should ever settle for anything less than the best for our children. Don’t give Black kids a program that is failing and then defend it as being a program that is for Black kids. That’s nothing more than a slap in the face.
Also consider that the AAA had to prove itself via test scores and the like, to be a viable successful program, or it would be shut down; that agreement has always been in place, and now, time is up. Ms. Porter, that means your time is up too sweetheart.
Lowell/Hawthorne/Marshall The APP Program at Lowell won’t be split between Hawthorne and Marshall. I’m making that prediction now. Hawthorne may close, which would be interesting. Whatever goes down, their current principal should not be trusted with one child, let alone a building full of them.
More to come…including pics of Santorno playing Sudoku. You thought we didn’t get pics? Pah! You betta ask somebody!
Thank you for calling SPS on the bullshit, Sable. Thanks for taking time out of your very busy life to bear witness. Someday someone is going to write a retrospective on SPS, after all the buildings in the South End have turned into condos and the parents in the North End are celebrating the opening of yet another private school because, well, we just want the best possible education for our children… no, it’s not because there are more black children we just can’t let our children be part of a failing school system… The retrospective will be called “All the Wrong Moves: How The Road to Hell Was Paved With Good Intentions”. I haven’t felt this kind of impotence since the beginning of the Gulf War. Can’t wait to see the pics…
Wow. You guys are off the chain up there. Unfortunately, it reminds me of a few school districts over here.
Hmmm….funny how being Black can get you screwed over in the school system. Wherever you are in this country.
I’d be interested in more of your perspective on the Lowell split — could it actually work to split the program between Thurgood Marshall and B.F. Day, as I believe is now being considered? Is there any way to prevent the crap that happened at Madrona? I’m pessimistic about the whole thing because it leaves us going from one crowded school to two crowded schools, and from one program with no room to grow to four programs with no room to go (the two halves of APP and the regular programs in the receiving schools). Even if everything goes swimmingly and Thurgood Marshall and/or Hawthorne/B.F. Day’s regular program becomes more successful and popular as a result, it doesn’t do the neighborhood much good if no one else can get into the school, does it?
Helen
Helen, I do not think that Lowell is going to split, based on it’s impressive base of support, I think it will manage to stay together. I could be wrong, but I think so. If anything, the special ed program that is housed there WILL stay put.
We have to keep in mind that the District wants to give the appearance of doing the right thing for underprivilaged children in the south end. Splitting the APP program and pushing it father south, appears to provide more APP opportunities for those who otherwise would never have them. Personally I think every cluster should have APP readily available.
Beyond that, Hawthorne may close altogether, which, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Thanks, Sable. It does seem as though the special ed population there is going to be too expensive to move (the schools they went to would have to have upgrades to handle their needs, for the most part). That means Lowell is back in the mix and at the moment it looks likely that half of APP will stay there, and the other half (since there appears to be no other central school building available) will go either south (probably to Thurgood Marshall) or north (to B.F. Day, which has programs for homeless children and is extremely diverse). Most would far prefer a north/south or central/central split (B.F. Day was originally suggested as an alternative to *either* TMarshall or Hawthorne), but those don’t seem to be options on the table at the moment.
My own feeling is that if they can’t manage a north/south or central/central split, it is not worth splitting Lowell at all, but I am convinced they *will* split it. If they could only find room for it and the programs it’s housed with to grow, I would in fact be all in favor of the split. (It’s not much of an opportunity to put APP in the south end and then not have any slots open up. They’re *supposed* to take everyone who qualifies and enrolls, but will they be able to go on doing so?) As things are, I am worried. I do think there is still a chance good may come out of this process all round, but a lot will depend on the principals and teachers who will have to clean up the mess.
This is all changing every day, though. It wasn’t long ago they were telling us in no uncertain terms that the kids in special ed WOULD ABSOLUTELY be moving out, no matter what else happened. Now that’s apparently not the case. I think a lot of what my dad would call argle-bargle is going on behind closed doors.
Helen,
Thank you for your thoughful comments, I am glad to have your voice here as a part of this discussion.
Even though I agree that BF has a marginalized population, I doubt that will wind up as the APP site, simply because the district is thinking in terms of color; the long standing critique has been that children of color do not have access, and in some way they need to rectify that…or at least appear to rectify that.
I absolutely agree that moving the programs to buildings where there would be no greater seat availability is ALSO not an answer to the problem, which leads me back to a new AP program in the South End, which is sorely needed.
Just moving APP south is not enough. Kids from the South End schools test for APP all the time; but they don’t get in. Is it because they are not as smart? Hell to the no. I always say about SPS, its sytemic racism exists because of the people who work in the system- there are MAJOR perception issues where gifted children of color are concerned, and sadly, it’s not as easy as taking a test and getting all the answers right. I speak from personal experience. I have a child who is Einstien off the charts smart…he can test into APP in Renton or Kent…but not Seattle.
We also have to keep in mind that while the current proposal for APP might not allow additional students to enter the program, it WILL drastically improve test scores for the buildings it is in, and thus the south end as a whole. Sneaky but effective.
You are right, this is changing every day, and the fact of the matter is that the original proposal was nothing more than a jumping off point the district has provided; now it’s counting on individual school communities to duke it out to the end.
Sable, you are right on. “Choice” and free bussing away from the “bad schools” (wink, we all know what that means) has been the thing that has devastated schools in the SE. Of course nobody wants to go a schools that is concentrated with poverty. “Choice” has created a segregated school system, by choice. It’s not bad teaching, bad administration… it’s segregation and isolation that makes schools undesirable. Reducing choice, and bringing everybody back in, to mix it up, is the equitable (and cheap) way to make that happen.
We’ve been told explicitly that test scores of kids in APP would be kept separate from test scores of the general ed population of the school(s) APP would be moving into. That APP kids are NOT being used to “improve” the test scores of any schools.
The question I have still not seen answered:
How exactly will moving APP into (say) Marshall help the general ed kids there?
Playing Sudoko, that is beyond disrepectful. I am wondering, what is the new school being built in the northend of town? I have not heard of this.