A blog post just went up Sunday at Latte Republic about “Schooling the District.” The blog post can be accessed here.
The blog is about a petition going around urging the school district to keep all the Whatcom students and staff together. As has been reported in stories, Whatcom staff have created a professional development community and teaching style that works best when everyone can be together. The way the curriculum is aligned between grade levels and subjects works best when teachers and students can interact between grade levels.
However, there is an error in the petition. It states that 13 scenarios are under consideration for where to house Whatcom students and staff during the 2010-11 school year. Actually, there is no set number of scenarios being considered at this point. The district has been gathering input from people through an online “survey” that started a couple weeks ago. There are 10 scenarios suggested within the survey that people can provide input on, and then there is an open-ended suggestion area for any ideas that hadn’t been discussed. At this point, all options are being looked at, with the exception of Lowell Elementary School, as a place to house students and staff while the school is being rebuilt.
I know there is a lot of concern about keeping students and staff together, as I stated earlier. But, in all the discussions and petitions I’ve heard about and seen, there have been no concrete suggestions about how to do this, only a plea to keep students and staff together. If people want to keep everyone together, then there needs to be suggestions that address it. If no one can come up with a way to make that scenario happen, then there’s no option but to split students and staff up.
The district “survey” (which is for input gathering and brainstorming, not for ranking suggestions) closes on Monday, Jan. 4 at noon. It can be accessed here. During the first week of January, school board members, district officials, administrators from Whatcom and potentially others (i haven’t heard if teachers/parents are being represented yet) will sit down and narrow the suggestions to the “best” two or three options. Those will then go back out to the public in another online “survey” to gather input and see if there are ramifications of any of those plans that hadn’t been considered. Acting Superintendent Sherrie Brown will make a final recommendation to the school board by the end of January.
I have found out that the full list of suggestions gathered through this first online “survey” will be released before the second survey starts, giving people a chance to see what kinds of things people came up with. Reasons for why ideas weren’t selected as “the best” should also be given at that time.
So, if you have an opinion or idea of what should happen with Whatcom students and staff, be sure to submit your input through the online “survey.”
thanks for posting this Kira. As a parent of two WMS students, here are some comments and concerns. At an ad-hoc parent’s meeting a couple of weeks ago, we were brought up to speed about some of the aspects of this whole process, and more importantly discussed some specific ideas to rally behind to enable our kids and their outstanding teachers to remain together- essentially to keep the core of what we know of as Whatcom Middle School functioning while the building is rebuilt. Many of us have some serious concerns regarding the transparency of this planning and decision making process, and although the survey may well have been intended to be more of a brain-storming rather than planning tool, there was widespread disappointment regarding the content (call it “half-baked-ness”) of the options presented to us. There are also serious questions regarding a push to build Aldrich Rd Elementary- this “solution” to the WMS problem may have serious consequences for the operation of other elementary schools in the district. Perhaps, though, the biggest concern was the clearly stated view- coming from a meeting between the PTSA folks and the acting superintendent- that no parents in any way shape or form would be allowed on the decision making committee that will propose, devise, and implement the interim plan for the WMS students. Might be a good thing for you to ask Sherrie Brown about.
As for specifics, how about:
Squalicum Lofts (Allsop property): This scenario places all WMS students at the Allsop property on Squalicum Parkway. The two buildings provide adequate classroom space to house all grades and teaching teams together, thereby retaining WMS as a school. The location allows access to the Birchwood trail, a ball field, and other outdoor possibilities. The buildings feature radiant floor heating, space for a cafeteria, high-speed internet, multiple classroom spaces, office space for teachers, parking, and good access for school buses. It’s within walking distance of the Columbia neighborhood, and the driving distance/time from Parkview, Sunnyland, Roosevelt, and Silver Beach is comparable to WMS.
many of us are excited about this option- we see it as a “win-win-win” for the students, teachers, the community, and could be an excellent example of a “public+private enterprise” collaboration to meet a real need in our community.
Otherwise, a plan to use space in existing elementary and middle schools to provide space to host Whatcom students and teachers is a clear second choice.
I personally think the loss of the real learning community at WMS that would occur if the students are scattered about the district (the various “integration options” in the survey) would be a mistake.
Bernie-
I hadn’t heard the Squalicum Lofts idea yet! Do you have any idea if this is something the Allsop family is willing to work with the school district on? Location wise it’s definitely the most feasible idea I’ve heard to this point.
One thing I’m still looking into (which is hard to do over break while everyone is gone) is whether or not rental on a non-district property would be covered by insurance. If so, that makes it much more feasible to keep all of Whatcom together during the rebuild, which from what I’ve heard around the community is definitely what people would prefer to happen. It would be a large loss to lose the progress staff and teachers have made at the school in test scores and curriculum alignment.
Thanks for your comments. I’m glad to hear there are some concrete ideas being researched and circulated of how to keep students and staff together in one place.
-Kira
Kira- thanks. The only thing I really know is that the district has made it clear that neither parents nor teachers are in any way, shape, or form allowed to even think about discussing details of a relocation proposal that would deal with a private entity. Aside from that, I also understand that some interested citizens have looked into the details enough to have a feeling for the currently available space and other aspects, and were kind enough to share some of this info with other WMS parents. One thing is clear- the available space can house all of the WMS students and teachers, and maybe even have left over space in case the administration wishes to vacate Roeder while it is retrofit. Most of the students could walk to this place, and it would retain a nice connection to the surrounding neighborhoods. As you mention, though, the best aspect is that it keeps together what is arguably the best middle school in town.
If I were an Allsop, though, I might consider this to be an excellent way to help out, and so would work to make this option feasible for the district, but of course I’m not an Allsop, so I really have no idea how they may view this possible plan.
On the questions/cost side, it seems like insurance should cover some expenses no matter where the students are (hopefully it works just like when you have rental car coverage while your car is in the shop). This also saves some expenses (it apparently costs $40k to move and hook up a portable classroom to utilities, which would be required for most of the in-district-space scenarios). We just hope that WMS is not used as a budget balancer in this process.
Hi Kira,
Just wanted to chime with Bernie here and echo his statements. Also wanted to clarify the petition with 13 scenarios. It’s true, it’s not accurate at this point. I wrote that petition, with input from others, and at the time of writing, the number 13 came out of a meeting with district officials. But immediately after that meeting and my writing, the scenario number changed to 10, with suggestions for more solutions encouraged by the district.
Our ad hoc parent group has come up with two concrete suggestions for the online survey that keep Whatcom kids together during the interim rebuild — the Squalicum Lofts solution mentioned above is our favorite, and we’ve also proposed a 2-school scenario using an existing elementary and middle school, in which Whatcom would function as a school within schools. We hope they will be considered.
“But, in all the discussions and petitions I’ve heard about and seen, there have been no concrete suggestions about how to do this, only a plea to keep students and staff together. If people want to keep everyone together, then there needs to be suggestions that address it. If no one can come up with a way to make that scenario happen, then there’s no option but to split students and staff up.
Clearly, Kira, you’ve not been reading other websites, you haven’t been attending the myriad of neighborhood and parental meetings, and you are not privy apparently to the organized efforts of those actively visiting alternative relocation sites. Its a shame that your information is so lacking on this multi-faceted issue. Your attempts to rally or report unfortunately appear to be very reductive. Without the highly available information about the multi-pronged efforts of smart, influential, resourceful, and dedicated Bellingham residents, your posts/articles leave out essential and ongoing developments in this ‘process.’
As well, you might begin following the money trail. The insurance estimates are somewhere. Clearly if a decision is to be made in 1-2 weeks, insurance monies must be known or estimated well enough to justify making a decision for the WMS community over the next two years. You may find that there is ample resource and some terrific ideas for housing the WMS community being already discussed, sites being visited [by a number of parties], and that there are some incredibly dedicated parents and community members who are working overtime to bring all available information to public view. You might ask the question(s) about how much money is available–and you may find that after litigation or settlement efforts (after all, this tragedy wasn’t an act of god), that the Bellingham School District has ample funds to make arrangements for WMS that represent the integrity we all hope our School system acts from. We look forward to your investigative and informed efforts.
Sally-
In response to: “Clearly, Kira, you’ve not been reading other websites, you haven’t been attending the myriad of neighborhood and parental meetings, and you are not privy apparently to the organized efforts of those actively visiting alternative relocation sites. Its a shame that your information is so lacking on this multi-faceted issue. Your attempts to rally or report unfortunately appear to be very reductive. Without the highly available information about the multi-pronged efforts of smart, influential, resourceful, and dedicated Bellingham residents, your posts/articles leave out essential and ongoing developments in this ‘process.’”
Yes, I have been reading other blogs and Web sites. Many of the discussions on the sites I’ve seen talk about desires of keeping students and staff together, or the discussions focus on negative comments about the school district. As far as attending meetings, I attend ones that I know about and can fit into my schedule. If no one tells me about a meeting, then I can’t attend.
The point of this blog is for me to provide information and my observations, either about a local topic or news story that has further reaches than that, and then have public discussion about it. And as you have seen, discussion is what’s happening. As I’ve mentioned to you before, questions that arise here I do ask about. Unfortunately, Whatcom Middle School isn’t the only thing I have to cover, and the Bellingham School District isn’t the only district I cover.
I have been following “the money trail.” I have been regularly asking about the insurance and what will be covered. A good part of the answer to that question is dependent upon what the cause of the fire is determined to be (there should also be a report about the final damage estimate) Those reports are coming out some time this month (I just double confirmed that yesterday). The group of people narrowing down the scenarios for relocation (the group includes Jeff Coulter, Ann Buswell, two teachers, Acting Superintendent Sherrie Brown, and the central office administrative team) will be talking with several experts, one of them about insurance, to see what’s possible.
Thank you for continuing the discussion.
SLFLC,
maybe take a step back and look at this process from a bit more distance (and also ponder some of the differences between blogs and bona fide articles in a newspaper) before trying to take a reporter to school. As far as I could tell when Kira was the leader of our daughter’s brownie troop, she’s not psychic- so if you would have liked a reporter to report on some of the WMS parent discussions, then invite the reporter to cover the meeting. I recall, too, from journalism classes, that reporters need to do stuff like check facts, and this takes some time. Also, Kira is absolutely correct- until recently there had not been much in the way of specific and detailed proposals for where our kids should go next year and beyond. In part this is due to the district’s process- as parents it is clear (in the district’s view) we have no official role, so the various parents, organized in various ways, have had to improvise. Maybe the district will relent and provide a parental seat on this evaluation committee.
Do you really think there will be a clear indication of the insurance aspect of this problem in time for the district to plan for what do do with the WMS students for next year? We do not even have an official cause of the fire yet, and I would bet there will be some legal wrangling before things are settled. So, right now, the money trail has not been fully blazed.
As of yesterday, there was no plan to have parents involved in the narrowing-down process. Tanya Rowe said, “the input process was designed to have parents help generate ideas and provide feedback. At this point, the process becomes very technical and detailed and (the group) will be relying on experts” to help make some of the feasibility decisions. However, Jeff Coulter, Ann Buswell, two Whatcom teachers and an elementary teacher (don’t know from which school) will be working with the district administrative team to select the most feasible 2 or 3 options.
I think the quote you provided says a lot- it’s pretty clear that the “administrative team” feels they are the “deciders of feasibility”, and that there are not any parents of WMS students capable of delving into such a technical and detailed process. Aside from the fact the latter is not likely to be correct, it would seem prudent to have at least one parent on that committee- If you look at the just-posted summary of the survey, it’s pretty clear that there is only one solution preferred by the vast majority of the people who responded to the survey, and that the majority (9/10) of the solutions the deciders of feasibility proposed are strongly opposed. If the committee reports that the “lease an outside-of-district building” option is not feasible, there will be a lot of explaining to do, and the district might wish they had at least one parent from that committee to explain to those not savvy on all of the technical details why this strongly preferred choice was not followed.
Hopefully this is all just some temporary angst, and in a month or so we’ll be happily contemplating the implementation of a successful plan to secure a site such as the Squalicum Lofts to keep the WMS students and their teachers together, secure in the knowledge that the district did the right thing, and that the plans to rebuild Whatcom are going forward.
If a blog is sponsored by the Bellingham Herald, can you explain to the public why the reporter is somehow under different criteria in what is placed under a “blog?” It this is a personal blog, the information and the biases created might be explained. But it seems that to somehow imply a blog sponsored by a newspaper, and written by an employee, can/should be exempt from standards of accuracy seems a bit skewed.
“The point of this blog is for me to provide information and my observations…” However, misinformation of any kind, under any circumstances, with perfectly innocent intent–can still be labeled misinformation, yes? How does this blog deviate from professional reporting–if sponsored by the same parent organization?
Comments such as “But, in all the discussions and petitions I’ve heard about and seen, there have been no concrete suggestions about how to do this, only a plea to keep students and staff together” can create a sense that to place such a comment in print, embedded within a newspaper’s digital copy, somehow makes it true or certainly validates this statement in the eyes of the public. However, in this case, this comment is clearly not accurate.
And again, respectfully, does the following comment justify misinformation?
“I recall, too, from journalism classes, that reporters need to do stuff like check facts, and this takes some time.” At this point, the stakes are certainly high–as evidenced by the community response. I think that everyone involved needs to check their facts–as embedded in articles or blogs–or in public conversation.