Last night was the regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the Graham Hill Elementary PTA, but we didn’t manage to stick to the scheduled agenda. For only minutes before, the Seattle School District released its preliminary list of recommended closures, and our children’s school — our school — was on it.
I do not think it possible for most of my fellow parents and teachers in attendance last night to fully communicate to the district their sense of shock, disappointment and anger… but I can. I’ve got a soapbox politicians and journalists actually read, and I intend to use it.
So at the risk of being accused of NIMBYism, I want the district to understand in no uncertain terms: NOT MY SCHOOL!
Not this school… not the most racially and ethnically balanced school I’ve ever seen outside of the UN Headquarters’ on-sight pre-school. Not this jewel of the neighborhood… this incredibly tight-nit community of parents and teachers who have struggled through a half-decade of benign neglect from the district to create a school that would be the pride of all but the most affluent suburban districts.
Not this parent-driven experiment in education that could be used as a model for innovation, but instead is being tossed on the dung heap because district officials never bothered to take the time to understand its programs and its community.
Graham Hill Elementary is home to the district’s first and only pre-K through 5 Montessori program — essentially, a charter school within the school, but without all the unnecessary, politically destructive bullshit of the charter schools movement.
It may come as a surprise to many Seattle families that they even have a Montessori option. And considering the total lack of support we’ve received from the district in recent years, I’m guessing it might come as a surprise to some district officials as well.
But what won’t come as a surprise to educators and parents who have studied the literature or have an iota of real-world classroom experience is that those children who pass through Graham Hill’s pre-K program are incredibly more prepared to learn, at all grade levels, than their schoolmates who did not.
But all this is lost on a district that bases its decisions on demographics and statistics and goddamn WASL trends rather than the heart and the mind and thoughtful observation. 60 percent of Graham Hill students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, and nearly 20 percent qualify for English as a Second Language (ESL). This is not an easy population to educate, and our test scores reflect the many challenges of our students. But by looking only at our numbers and our address the district has always only viewed Graham Hill as “just another South End school,” oblivious to our unique educational offerings, and our incredibly strong and diverse community of families.
Why close Graham Hill instead of more obvious choices like the struggling programs at Dunlap or Ranier View, or the aging building at Van Asselt? Well, apparently, we’re just another South End school, so what’s the difference?
The difference is the parents. While many South End schools struggle to get any parental involvement at all, Graham Hill boasts one of the largest and most active PTA’s in the district. Out of a current enrollment of 360 students, we have 113 paid PTA members, plus many other non-paying members who routinely volunteer their time. Despite the preponderance of low-income families we manage to raise nearly $40,000 a year to pay for basic services, supplies and amenities the district no longer covers, as well as fund tuition scholarships to the pre-K program.
My daughter, now finishing up third grade, has attended Graham Hill since she was three years old, and during that time the district built a beautiful $4.8 million addition that they now want to scrap. It was during that time that parents took the expanse of broken asphalt that surrounded the building, and through $400,000 worth of fundraisers and grants — and a helluva lot of backbreaking labor — we transformed the schoolyard into gardens and playgrounds and a play field that is now used by the entire community.
Just last Saturday I spent hours laying pavers, putting the final touches on a playground studded with our children’s artwork, that the district now wants shutter. No other school in the South End could have done what we have done at Graham Hill, especially under the circumstances we endured.
For we have not only been the victims of benign neglect, we have been royally screwed by a district that has left us leaderless for most of time my daughter has been there.
Graham Hill has had 9 principals over the past 6 years… and they want to shut us down because of low test scores? I don’t want to hear anybody on the CAC telling me that our school is failing… for it is the district who has failed us, year after year after year!
It was with trepidation that we toured the school 7 years ago, but we were won over by a fabulous principal who had overseen a transformation at Graham Hill during her nine-year tenure. But between the day we enrolled our daughter and her first day of class, the district, in its wisdom had transferred our principal to another school, leaving Graham Hill virtually leaderless ever since.
Every time a principal leaves, be it due to sexual harassment or incompetence or personal health, the parents and teachers of Graham Hill have pleaded with the district to give us a voice in choosing the next principal… and nearly ever time the district just plugs in whoever is most convenient for them.
After the most recent disaster — the sudden resignation of a principal the teachers adamantly didn’t want, and who through mismanagement and neglect left our school budget in tatters and yet another interim principal “in charge” — we had an angry meeting with District Education Director Walter Trotter, at which he promised to make up for the lack of support and attention Graham Hill has received. In a follow-up letter signed by Raj Manhas, the superintendent assured us that “meeting current and future school leadership needs of the Graham Hill community is a top priority for both Mr. Trotter and me.”
Priority my ass!
There is no question that a round of school closures is long overdue in a district that has seen decades of steadily declining enrollment. But as they prepare to cut the heart out neighborhoods throughout the city, I hope that Superintendent Raj Manhas and his advisors give some serious thought not just to reacting to declining enrollment, but to considering its causes. For if today’s list of proposed school closures is any indication, educated middle and professional class parents will continue to flee the district in ever larger numbers while our schools continue their seemingly inexorable return towards 1950’s style segregation.
That is what is going to happen to the core of the Graham Hill Community, the families who have fought to maintain this program through years of district neglect. Many of us can afford to move to suburbs or even to send our kids to private schools. But we choose to live in the South End, and we chose Graham Hill because we wanted our children to grow up in a diverse and balanced community that is more reflective of the outside world.
But these are our children, and we’re only willing to put up with so much shit.
Should the district close Graham Hill, many of us will leave the district, and some the neighborhood. This will be yet another step towards the ghettoization of the South End schools, a process that hurts all our children.
I can and will write much more on this subject, but I’m volunteering in my daughter’s school this morning. While she still has one.
Interesting. Suddenly when it’s your daughter’s school, you turn into a conservative. What about all the progressive arguments for the betterment of Seattle? Aren’t you willing to do the right thing for the greater good? Progressives. Sheesh. You spout your endless Marxist rhetoric until you are forced to take your own medicine.
If a blogger had kids at any school to be closed, an equally passionate, heartfelt message could be delivered.
One can only imagine the difficulty that the administration and school board face in dong the fiscally responsible thing.
@ 1
Goldy’s not conservative. He’s ok with closing down some schools. You want to close down ALL of them.
NIMBY! NIMBY!
What a good little liberal goldstein is perfectly practicing the “good for thee but not for me’ of his progressive comrades.
God, I love when progressives expose their massive hypocrisy wrapped up in their own selfish indignation.
ASS: keep on hating. It’s the only reason you’ve got left for living.
I’m not hating, I’m MOCKING… do you understand the difference, comrade?
I have a larger point to make, but unfortunately did not have the time to state it clearly in this post, because I wanted to post this morning, and was due at my daughter’s school as a volunteer.
The District is closing the wrong the schools for the wrong reasons. Graham Hill was a failing school that was revived due to a strong principal, an energetic PTA and an innovative program. But rather than learn from our success, the district took away our principal, cut all funds supporting the pre-K program, raised our costs, required us to accept all comers who qualified for scholarship regardless of whether we could afford to accommodate them, and stuck us with a series of appointed principals and interims who have provided no continuity or leadership.
And yet, due in large part to an extraordinary faculty and dedicated community, Graham Hill has survived. Until now.
This is a kick in the face, and breaking of all the promises the district gave us. It also ignores the very real demographic reality that it is decisions like this that lead to “white flight”, whatever the actual skin color of the people fleeing.
If you want educated, middle and professional class families to leave this district, closing down schools like Graham Hill is exactly the way to do it.
They’re not shutting down the worst school in the South End; they’re shutting down the school that’s most convenient to shut down. (And I’m sure the thought has occurred to these folks that it’s also the school with the most valuable real estate.)
We should be closing prisons not schools, but then where would republicans have to work?
Goldy – KUOW’s “The Conversation” is featuring the school closure issue at 1 pm today. You should call them now and make sure you get some time on the show. What they’re doing to your daughter’s school is not only wrong, it’s incredibly short-sighted.
Goldy, I’m not being a smart ass here, but I have to wonder if you are learning anything at all from this about too much GOVERNMENT interference in our lives. You keep saying that the parents KNOW what it takes/took to turn this school around and that the powers that be are ignoring it. Can you NOT see the parallels that small government conservatives have be talking about all this time?
ASS: call it anything you like but people who know your commenting history here know hate when they see it.
I never have understood the way northwest school districts think they can close and later re-open schools as easily as if they were turning a light on and off.
My own experience, when my children were growing up in Edmonds, was not very encouraging. My daugther spent her first two years in one very crowded elementary school (Kindergarten and 1st Grade) while the school closest to us was being remodeled. (I don’t know why it takes two years to remodel a school, it really doesn’t seem that complicated – they could build an entirely new one during the summer vacation if they really tried). Then they re-opened the school closests to us, and she re-located there. But then a PTA had to be organized from scratch, which isn’t as simple as it sounds, and the school went through three principals in five years. A school is more like a living plant than it is a building with tenants. I figure it really takes somewhere between five to ten years for a school to become “established”, but unfortunately it can be killed much quicker.
It was quite a contrast to my own experiences growing up in the South. There, the schools are an integral part of the community, a meeting place for civic functions, with Friday night high-school football being a social gathering for the whole community. If a school wasn’t doing well, the people of the community wanted to know why – regardless of whether or not they had children in the school. It was a matter of community pride. I checked online, and found that all the schools of my childhood are still functioning – even the elementary school that was built in the 1920’s, which we considered obsolete by the 1960’s when I was there.
Of course, the downside of that position (of school as being central to the community) was one of the reasons why integration, and later busing, met with so much resistance in the 1960’s and 1970’s. But when I checked online, I saw quite a bit of variety in the colors of the faces in the pictures, so they seemed to have weathered the storm.
10 – Hilarious. Government interference like oh, collecting your phone records and snooping on your library use?
Well, Goldy, I wouldn’t worry too much. In typically Seattle Process Style, endless public hearings, additional task forces, focus groups, etc. will be formed to try to reach ‘consensus’ on the problem, and in the end, nothing will be done.
Unless the schools go totally broke in the meantime.
Seriously, you write a lot I don’t agree with, but I do commend you on your passion for your daughters’ education. If we had more passion like that in parents, our education system would be much better off.
Ignorant idealogues:
Parent/Community involvement was supposedly one of the primary criteria for deciding which schools to close. No suprise that a school that is particularly strong and successful in this area would have parents feel stabbed in the back for all their hard work, particularly in a school with a significant percentage of students from non-affluent and non-native speaking backgrounds. Take a look at the map of closings in the paper – almost all in the south-end.
Goldy:
You have my sympathy. Watching my son in north-end schools and talking to teachers and parents in the south-end, it is clear to me that it is a much harder slog in the south-end pushing against the tide of adminstrative neglect and disfunction.
I know that there are school administrators working in south-end schools who parents would not and will not accept in their north-end schools, and who are therefore delegated to south-end schools because politics and/or nepotism guarantees them a job. And the elite press plays along.
Is there anything anyone can do to help your school and any others that have been misunderstood or mischaracterized? Is this all a done deal now?
Goldystein, These are Democrat school board members. They know best. [hehe] JCH
This sounds like an excellent place to experiment with a charter school. The parents could be free to enroll or not, and the school would be self-managing. If students choose to be there, the funding comes with them.
So, why are you so against this idea?
I lack sympathy for those who rally against such ideas, and then are hit by the results of what they successfully campaigned against. Live with your dumb decision. Seattle schools are awful, and they won’t get better by leaving the current way of doing things in place.
RE: # 10:
I don’t know why you see this as a “big government/small government” issue. You really don’t really see government on much of a smaller scale than a school district. Because of budget problems, they have to cut somewhere, and Goldy thinks they made a bad decision. If it were my children’s education at stake, I would be raising hell too.
But let’s suppose that the school district did not have the budget problems it has now. Let’s suppose that instead of closing/consolidating schools, it instead uses the opportunity to lower class sizes in the affected schools. We know from experience that demographic trends ebb and wane, and that a school with lower class sizes will start to attract residents to the area with children. So the problem eventually corrects itself, if you give it the time to do so.
So perhaps the real issue is that despite the rather conspicuous display of wealth througout our community, we cannot seem to support our schools to the point where such “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” is necessary to balance the budgets. As my earlier post indicated, I grew up in the South where real money was quite rare, and every business gained in the community was met with considerable celebration. Part of the culture-shock I incurred when I moved out here was seeing the comparitavely widespread prosperity of the middle-class, yet there was this parsimonious reaction against spending money on anything which benefited the public. Now I moved out here some 25+ years ago, BEFORE Microsoft, Amazon.Com, bio-tech, and the other industries which multiplied the available wealth many times greater than it was before.
Of course, the standard reply from the anti-tax crowd is that “the money is wasted, there is plenty if they would use it right”, but I’ve heard that refrain so many times, applied across the board to every situation without any knowledge of the specific facts, that it holds no weight. Holding back money until the system doesn’t work well, and then saying “see, they can’t do the job, we should just close them all down” seems to be part of the political agenda of the anti-tax folks.
I think we would all be interested in specific suggestions of ways to be more efficient, but simply saying “put the Republicans in charge” hasn’t worked on a national level, so I’m not prepared to do that on a local level. Also, just turning it over to private schools which are quite willing to take tax money to educate selected students (and reject the rest) isn’t an option either.
Janet S – your lies are getting so tiresome. My kids are in a Seattle school and we’re very happy. Both my kids know how to read, write and calculate and better yet, apply that knowledge in a practical research project that stretches over the school year. Kids from our elementary go on to do well at the higher levels. A high school teacher we know says he can pick out graduates from our elementary just by their attitude towards learning and the way they go about their business.
Seattle schools certainly aren’t perfect but hardly are the schools anywhere else in the state especially given the stingy support from Olympia.
Charter schools and especially vouchers are part of the divide, eviserate and conquer strategy of the right wing. And you’re a sad relentless champion of that very resentment-driven agenda.
Two words: Teacher’s Union
washington state has one of the worst records in the “school” department…..so this, as sad as it is for you, comes as a surprise why?
the mere fact that you equate many different ethnicities in a school with it being “better” is nothing more than racism. don’t you see that?
charter schools = choice. and for all your BS, you progressives don’t want anyone to have any choice but you and your little band of fools.
goldy ,you are such a union whore it’s become embarrassing.
Janet S and those of her ilk would prefer a taliban-style system. No education or only religious education. It’s easier to keep the masses depending on the church if they haven’t learned to live without it.
Nobody gave a damn when they closed 10 schools in small Southeast Alaska communities , you know those places where without a scholl no parent in their right mind would settle . But Seattle liberalism not only killed the logging industry but turned vibrant opportunities into ghost towns . “And then when they came after my school and my childrens future , I looked around and there was no one to back me up as I’d rationalized their schools away “.
Follow up in light of For the Clueless’ comments:
I didn’t mean above to go full on attack on Seattle schools. I have been happy overall with how the schools have served my son, given that I dont have the money or the class conciousness to easily go private. Compared to Oakland, CA, or Chicago, IL, Seattle schools appear wildly successful. Yet the north-south disparities are disturbing, but hard to solve because of multiple variables, such as less affluent and educated parents, and a adminstrative/political elite that lies to itself about adminstrative competence in the south-end, or robs peter to pay paul by shifting competence north. On the other hand, there are many many parents like me in the north end who could figure out some kinda way to jump ship if the schools were noticably less effective.
To my mind, the last thing the less affluent schools need is to be cut out of the main stream still further by becoming charter experiments.
# 23….BINGO!
you would think goldy would have figured this out by now but i guess his head has been so far up the teacher’s unions ass that he hasn’t been able to think clearly……..
and i bet this won’t change that one bit.
in his wee mind this is probably karl rove’s fault.
that will be his next post.
spitintheocean:
Get your head out of the solvent can dude!
Alaska is run by and for Republicans and their corporate pals, and has been for a long time. If anti-liberal Senator Ted Stevens had wanted your over-logged over-fished communities to have schools, you would have schools instead of Bridges to Nowhere for his corporate pals. And he wouldn’t be supporting letting Alaska logs go to foreign mills and Alaska fish be processed off shore.
Careful ghost. Instead of “Washington State”, shouldn’t you substitute Seattle? I mean there’s some some properly red school districts in Washington. They aren’t letting down their kids, are they?
No charter school test case I’ve seen didn’t end up producing some crappy schools like military-styled boot camps in strip malls or places where students sat in a tiny cubes and talked to a computer all day. You call that choice?
There’s always plenty of choice when parents opt to involve themselves in their kid’s education. And if that means sacrificing some creature comforts in order to attend board meetings, run for the school boards and get involved in the PTA, so be it.
They’re not shutting down the worst school in the South End; they’re shutting down the school that’s most convenient to shut down. (And I’m sure the thought has occurred to these folks that it’s also the school with the most valuable real estate.)
Everyone should note the hypocrisy here, especially based on Goldstein’s “larger point.” There’s a reason why the School District chooses not to shut down the worst performing schools and instead selects schools throughout the city as a whole. Multiculturalism and/or Egalitarianism and other Marxist constructs. How can a good Marxist School Administrator deny the most impoverished, crime ridden and poorly performing schools to be closed. That would be entirely against their multicultural ideology that seeks to equate all schools regardless of their merit. In fact, in perfect keeping with multiculturalist dogma, Goldstein’s good school was chosen over a lesser school.
I applaud what Goldstein and other parents have done to improve their school. That’s they way it’s supposed to work. But, note that this is the same Goldstein who constantly preaches for other altrusitic and collective policies and projects that are less tangible in their impact. It’s easy to crusade for the “greater good” when all it does is raise everyone’s taxes or it effects “someone else.” Suddenly though, when faced with the prospect of his own daughter’s school closing, and the loss of his own hard work, Goldstein espouses many ideas that one would normally associate with conservatives.
This is the hypocrisy of the left today, and it’s why the left is losing.
Ghost: can’t you at least link to some Marsha Richards EFF propaganda to back up your animus towards the Teacher’s union?
28 – I’m laughing. What kind of a full-of-crap right-wing loser are you?
Seen Dubya’s numbers lately? There’s a loser for you.
Hey Peter @20-
Two words: Laughably irrelevant.
Goldy goes conservative:
Commentors like you crack me up: you keep wanting “left” leaning bloggers to be the red scare commies of your fantasy world, but, like Goldy, they are just run of the mill moderate left democrats, who are happy to support someone like Maria Cantwell.
P.S. Can you tell me one place where a Marxist government in power ever ever practiced multiculturalism? If there is one value shared by the hard right of the US and the totalitarian Marxist states of old, it is a distaste for multiculturalism. (to put it mildly)
P.P.S. I don’t think anyone has suggested closing any of the elementary schools because they are “crime ridden.” Your stereotypes and prejudices are showing. Are you in Alaska with your head in a solvent can too?
Lansing, Mich.-People convicted of certain felonies would not be able to receive welfare benefits under a plan approved by the state House. The plan also would restrict the amount of time most people could get welfare benefits to two consecutive years and a lifetime limit of four years. [………….But, but, but……What about the Democrat children?? This is soooooooooooooo racist!!!! Where is Jesse Jackson when you need hom???]
There was something nagging at me about the right-wing eruption that calls herself XmasGhost:
One of the teachers at my kids’ elementary school, a very popular, well regarded teacher is resigning to go work in a south-end Seattle school because she believes the north end is well served enough and the south end needs her. There’s the courage of conviction for you from a Seattle school teacher and member of THE TEACHERS UNION.
Good on her.
The Democrat NEA and the Democrat school board knows better than you, Goldystein. [hehe] JCH
# 26 , We were fishing not logging , but the absence of the logging industry made all industries fail because the numbers of students was too small to continue . Are fished were all processed locally in Sitka as well as all the local timber . Not shipped overseas or processed off shore , local , got it .
This all occcurred whil Bill Clinton was president and Tony Knowles ( big D ) was governor . Ted Stevens couldn’t stop the rhetoric llike yopurs that ruled the day and is only 1/2 true . So be it we migrated to Wash. state , I thought i’d study the liberal mind ( because i thought i was liberal) and try to understand why one person’s livlihood is disposable while the Duwamish is allowed to putrify .
The Democrat NEA and the Democrat school board knows better than you, Goldystein. [hehe] JCH
Commentby REP Pat Kennedy [D-Bitchslap the Black Security Guard At LAX]— 5/18/06@ 12:51 pm
Goldy many years back in the early 70’s we had the same problem in Bellevue School District and they close a school down two blocks away. When my children started school they went to a private school instead of being bused to another local school. They all three went there until I move to Lake Washington School District and then they went to public schools. Point being made the other school district intended to close only three schools, but closed five due to declining student’s enrolment. The private schools boom until the District got it’s head straight, that could that a short or long amount of time depending on how stubborn the leadership is and how soon they can get a good vision. Now if you want to educate your children move them over to the Eastside we would love to have you all in our neighborhood but leave your bad habitats in Seattle please. We do not believe in punishing your children because you have a poor political vision and yes we due believe in raising the bar so they have a bright future. I forgot we always vote in education when the schools need money, but hold the administration accountable for what they are doing for the students. JCH does have a good point about the NEA, Teachers who are failures and the School board that can not resolve problems until it is too late to find a proper solution. Goldy when are you moving and we allow Democrat and Republican campaign poster are allowed in the front yards and nobody flatten your tires if they disagree with you option. Need help packing, your neighborhood will be used for the sixties generation because they do not need schools.
Goldy – great piece, you made your case.
Orgnixe. Good luck
Sorry for the poor spelling , I think faster than i can type sometimes but my point is , people of goodwill go about destroying other peoples livelihoods and communities every day . Whether it be Southeast Alaska , Eastern Washington , Seattle or the razed mosques and schools in Fallujah , all done with well meaning Democratic complicity .
“Where is Jesse Jackson when you need hom???]
Commentby REP Pat Kennedy [D-Bitchslap the Black Security Guard At LAX]— 5/18/06@ 12:49 pm
When you need “hom”, WTF???
ROTHLMAO at JCH and his wasted education at Penn State.
Red districts not failing their kids? Care to name some?
I wonder if the school closures has anything to do with Pat Robertson’s latest word from God – that a tsunami will hit the Pacific Northwest sometime around the November election? God must hate us blue staters, according to Pat Robertson. If God hates democrats and democrat-controlled districts, why not just close down their education system and pocket, er, redirect the money to good suburban school districts that vote the way God wants people to vote? This is what God must want. Or, is Pat Robertson a lying, atheist, sonofabitch? Hmm.
klake at 37:
What the heck are you trying to say? Never mind, I am sure your logic is no better than your sentence structure. I hope klake’s kids learned how to spell and write better than klake.
Goldy—
Plenty of Washington Schools suck worse than YOURS huh???
How is it YOUR school Goldy?????
Do YOU pay for all of it????
Goldy’s School??? I think not. It’s called a PUBLIC School, paid for with PUBLIC dollars of which only a tiny portion are YOURS Goldy.
Elected Officials have many tough decisions to make now and in the future. The longer they wait, the more difficult the decisions. I’ll bet if YOUR daughter didn’t attend that school YOU would be silent on this Goldy. It is YOUR daughter….but it isn’t YOUR school. It’s the PUBLIC’s school…..collectively.
The CHICKENS ARE COMING HOME TO ROOST IN WASHINGTON after years of runaway spending on education. This is a healthy cleansing of some of the bullshit spilled all over the place.
Grow up Goldy.
For the Clueless @ 34: “There’s the courage of conviction for you from a Seattle school teacher and member of THE TEACHERS UNION.”
Well, there’s one example, and that’s great for her, but let me give you another one: a close relative of mine who was an educator for over 30 years in this state and last voted Republican, well, never, gave up on the WEA because all they ever talked about was salary,salary,salary.
I don’t blame the WEA for the problems with education in this state; everyone including the legislature, voters, district administrations, and parents are part of the problem, but the union does play its role, too.
Goldy—
Why don’t you set up a TIP JAR so all YOUR LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWN pals can contribute to YOUR school. Pass the hat at the next PTA meeting. Take some POSITIVE action to address Budget issues. Show some leadership for God’s sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ohhhhhhhhhh, I forgot, being generous with your cash is against YOUR religion. My Jewish friends would put their money where their mouths are. NOT GOLDY’S CROWD of neo-Jews!!!!!!!!!
I’ll bet Goldy cannot raise $100 from these KLOWNS for HIS school!!!
Cynical: Are you trying to be offensively ‘funny’ or just offensive?
spitintheocean:
Looking on the web, I see that Sitka has two elementary schools, one middle school, two high schools, and one correspondence school. So, what happened to your kids’ schools? (Leaving aside our presumed difference of opinion about subsidized logging of federal lands, I am interested). Doesn’t sound like a location with a big population of high-expectation college grads pushing their kids but I assume the schools could function pretty well with strong community support. On the otherhand, I can see how the sudden loss of community conintuity and stability with the loss of a major industry in a non diversified small local econommy could hit schools hard from a quality perspective.
I’m sorry the citizens of the US were unable to continue money-losing logging of federal forest lands in your district as a wellfare program for your community after they had decided it was not otherwise in their best long term interest to do so. Intensive natural resource extraction is sometimes not sustainable. Logging doesn’t have to be unsustainable but the post-60s timber industry has run it that way throughout their own property and that of the people of the US. Long-term sustainability of local communities has never been a timber industry value except maybe for Pacific Lumber in California before they were bought out by Junk Bond King David Horowitz.
So how is it the “liberals” fault here in Seattle that there are difficult financial problems to solve somehow? Not having enough kids? To much birth control? Minimum wage too high? Not enough unionized industry to draw workers to high paying jobs? Not giving Boeing enough subsidies to expand their operations here? What is the connection you are trying to make?
Why does the “deliverance wing” of the conservative party always want to blame unions for every problem? It’s not a union vs. management problem; this is a funding issue.
Bush and the Bush Republicans in congress are borrowing $2 billion dollars each and every day from foreign governments, like CHINA, to run this bloated government they’ve created ( so much for XmasGhost’s small government theory).
The Bush Republicans lost $8.9 Billion dollars in CASH in Iraq. CASH!!
The Bush Republicans just gave away another $70 Billion in tax-cuts.
Let alone all the billions of dollars in fraudulent contracts they’ve let and the looting of the US Treasury that’s occurred on their watch over the last 5 years.
This “local” problem Goldy is discussing is a microcosm of what’s happening nationally. Education is the key to our nation’s success and security in the future. All schools should be equally and fully funded from the federal government. There’s a point to be made form the bumper sticker that reads, “what if our schools got all the money they needed and the military had to hold a bake sale?” For the right wing zealots that doesn’t mean I’m for under funding the military, against the troops, blah, blah, blah. . . (gotta explain everything nuance of an analogy to a neocon, otherwise they’ll lie about what you stated.)
What is the harm in fully funding and educating Americans all the way through college?
I’ll tell you why; it’s the same reasons why the deliverance wing hates colleges; “they’re liberal institutions.” With a segment of the population undereducated there will always be a base for the Republican party to exist.
Konservative Krime Klown @ 47:
Don’t offer to make a bet you know you won’t keep!
# 12 said: “washington state has one of the worst records in the “school” department…..”
Funny, I just read a week or so ago that several Washington State schools made the top-20 list in the U.S. Of course, they were three high schools located in Bellevue, one of the most prosperious cities in the nation, where you cannot find a house of any type for less than half a million dollars.
I remember a year or so ago one of those schools held an auction as a fundraiser. They were auctioning off the best parking place on campus. Somebody’s father paid several thousand dollars so their kid would have a better parking space than the other kids! I guess it was a charitable deduction for him, and it “went to benefit the school”. I wonder how many other public schools could have their programs subsidized by this kind of parental subsidy? Is there any wonder why we have differences in the performance between schools?
I remember a year or so ago one of those schools held an auction as a fundraiser. They were auctioning off the best parking place on campus. Somebody’s father paid several thousand dollars so their kid would have a better parking space than the other kids! I guess it was a charitable deduction for him, and it “went to benefit the school”. I wonder how many other public schools could have their programs subsidized by this kind of parental subsidy? Is there any wonder why we have differences in the performance between schools? -Commentby rhp6033— 5/18/06@ 2:41 pm
Intentionally or just by sheer dumb luck, you eloquently made the case for SCHOOL CHOICE.
@52
That list of top schools by Newsweek is bogus. It’s based on one factor and one factor only: the number of AP tests taken by students divided by the number of seniors in the school.
Not by how well they do…just that they take the test.
And somehow, a district that wants to force all kids to take 4 AP tests appears with schools way at the top of such a list!
Best? Hah…read the data and realize what it’s all about…
Our attorney pointed out that exact information just this morning Thomas. He further mentioned that the schools that had the most kids TAKING the test also had the most kids FAILING the test.
Again, schools should be under LOCAL control, have to compete to provide excellence and parents should be the judge of whether they achieve that excellence. We as consumers expect it from Lowes, Microsoft, Ben and Jerry’s and Gene Juarez… why should education be less important than ice cream or hair?
What the heck are you trying to say? Never mind, I am sure your logic is no better than your sentence structure. I hope klake’s kids learned how to spell and write better than klake.
Comment by wayne — 5/18/06 @ 1:31 pm
wayne I went to the same type of schools you all have in Seattle so do not cry about my bad spelling and grammer. I sent my children to schools that would produce successful individuals not someone like myself.
Seattle and those who go to schools get to deal with the many challenges that I have over the years and listen to chaps like you rant.
Goldy, Perhaps if you doubled the property and sales taxes, and added a huge state income tax, the school would not have to close. Isn’t this the Democrat way? After all, it’s “for the children”!!!!! [hehe] JCH
2 words; private school
Once a school is closed, it is virtually impossible to get it re-opened. How sad, that our beautiful city can’t afford to educate its children, yet we have two new sports stadiums and are considering funding a third. There is something seriously wrong with our priorities.
I guess I’ll see you at the meetings on Tuesday Goldy, the school my daughter attends (and my son is set to start at in the fall) is not slated for closure, but is instead being offered up as an enticing new home (displacing the current students that come from all over the city) for students of an affluent neighborhood that fought their way off of the last closure list. I supported them in that effort and will do so again, I just hope that this attempt to turn us against each other (two great programs competing for the same facility) won’t work and we parents can fight together to keep our schools open. I understand that the city needs some financial relief, I just don’t think it should come at the expense of our city’s children, current and future. Closing schools is short-sited and rarely a good idea.
Seattle schools were broken years ago. Why do you think most of the people with kids fled to the suburbs.
Fact is the district is too large and should be broken up into at least 4 smaller districts. The parents have no imput as it exists. They have all their numerous “in-put meetings”, but if you haven’t figured out it’s all a sham by now, you deserve what you get.
By the by, how many in the administration were fired over their slovenly bookkeeping? The place should have been swept clean, but in public school you never have to take your lumps for incompetence and Seattle school are grossly incompetent AND inferior.
@ 59 T(L)GND
I heard a school district person on the radio say they hoped to save “about 5 million dollars” by closing these schools.
Five. Million. Dollars.
The state of WA or the city of Seattle could fart out 5 million dollars. All this heartache and pain and stress over 5 mil? Why, we easily dole out millions more for wheat subsidy or government “retreats”. Doing this for 5 mil is just wrong.
To all you conservatives out there who are hell-bent for vouchers:
Put your money where your mouth is. No voucher program in America spends for than a few thousand dollars, and no voucher program operates for more than a few thousand kids. Face it: conservatives don’t want to fund education the way it should be because they are cheap. They are cheap.
And what about teachers? You guys rail against teachers and their unions, but you don’t want to pay more for better teachers. You’re happy with teachers making 30K to start. News flash: good teachers are leaving the profession due to lack of good pay. I have an idea: pay teachers more and make it easier to fire bad teachers. And not just a little more, let’s pay them double. A good teacher is worth it.
Just for the record, the survey that shows Bellevue schools in the top 100 of the country has legitimacy. Yes, it measures how many AP tests taken, as a percentage of school population. But what you didn’t point out, or don’t know, is that students who take at least one AP class tend to have a higher success rate at college, regardless of demographics.
Bellevue’s policy is that anyone who wants to challenge him/herself is allowed to take an AP class. Everyone, including me, assumed that this would lead to mediocre results and lower test scores. Wrong. The number of students getting 3 points or more (considered passing) is the same as the average nationwide. So, the tests are open to everyone, and the quality has remained high.
Why? Because of high expectations. In Seattle, high schoolers have troubles getting more than five classes. In Bellevue, high schoolers take seven classes. Requirements for graduation are stricter in Bellevue, as well. Yes, they are encouraged to take at least one AP class. Do you really think we should not expect great things of all our students?
By the way, not everyone in Bellevue lives in million dollar homes. There is a large immigrant and ESL population.
No good teachers are working for less pay in the autonomous PRIVATE SCHOOL SYSTEM, which educates its kids far better, with far less money and far less resources. I’d LIKE to be able to put my money where my kids are – 18 little days ago I had to PAY 1/2 of my yearly $5700 in property taxes… the shchool theft porion of that would buy a whole hell of a lot of private education – even at somewhere like Holy Names or Bellarmine where tuition is in the 10k range.
Tell us again how much the union thugs and thives are spending per child in their monopoly. We all know its far more than that.
i>Tell us again how much the union thugs and thives are spending per child in their monopoly. We all know its far more than that.
Commentby howcanyou be PROUDtobeanASS— 5/18/06@ 4:49 pm
Speaking of thugs thieves, care to elaborate on the funding for “No Child Left Behind?”
You’re happy with teachers making 30K to start. News flash: good teachers are leaving the profession due to lack of good pay.
Commentby Will— 5/18/06@ 4:39 pm [,,,,,,,Bull shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For every public school “guvment union” teacher job, there are hundreds of QUALIFIED applicants. “Education” majors in college are the bottom of the barrel and simply cannot or will not compete in the private sector. With a small exception for strong math and chemistry majors, K-12 teachers are in the public sector for life. Your comments are uninformed and are the Democrat union’s talking bullshit to the taxpayers.]
Oh look, another JCH post:
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Goldy—
One of your many weaknesses is your inability to distinguish NEEDS from GREEDS. It is GREEDY to attempt to save YOUR school at the expense of someone else. If YOU want to save YOUR school, YOU fucking pay for it you CHEAP BASTARD!!!! Goldy and his chums can buy the damn school….fund it privately…and name it after fucking Goldy!!
I thought you Progressives believed in doing what was best for the ENTIRE KOMMUNE-ity????? How is wasting valuable Kommune-ity resources to unnecessarily keep open Goldy’s school a Progressive thing to do?????
You KLOWNS beat everything, you know that!
Alas, Mark Twain must have had Goldy and his chums in mind when he said, “Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them, the rest of us could not succeed!”
Alas, Mark Twain must have had Goldy and his chums in mind when he said, “Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them, the rest of us could not succeed!”……………………………………………………………..GBS, Thank you, Best regards, JCH Kennedy
Brighton v. Graham
Brighton: Caucasion Students: 2%
Graham: Caucasion Students: 20%
Naturally – Graham should be closed. Brighton also has a new building.
Van Asselt v. Graham
…
Van Asselt: Caucasion Students: 1%
Graham: Caucasion Students: 20%
Naturally, Graham is closed.
The state of WA or the city of Seattle could fart out 5 million dollars. All this heartache and pain and stress over 5 mil? Why, we easily dole out millions more for wheat subsidy or government “retreats”. Doing this for 5 mil is just wrong.
Commentby Will— 5/18/06@ 4:33 pm
Will you can do like the us poor working folks you can have a car wash or a bake sale.
RUN, GOLDY RUN .
Will has absolutely no concept of where those tax dollars come from does he. $5 million here, $5 million there……pretty soon you are talking about real money!
The Seattle School District budget is not SUSTAINABLE you sustainability freaks!!!
If ignorance is BLISS, then Will is one happy SOB!!!
gbs do they take taxes out @ mcdonalds.
@63
The merit is almost non-existent.
You said ” But what you didn’t point out, or don’t know, is that students who take at least one AP class tend to have a higher success rate at college, regardless of demographics.”
That’s based on a study done in the 90s (by the DOE) when AP classes and tests were taken *only* by kids who were academically qualified. Of course they did better in college!
When a district, like Bellevue, strongly encourages all students to take the courses and exams, it nullifies the findings of the very study you (and they) promote — since it was based on AP classes and tests being taken only by the academically strong and qualified.
It’s like saying Major league baseball players succeed when they face fast pitchers. So, we’ll have all high school kids face Major league pitchers. Therefore, they’ll have more success in the Major leagues.
Put it that way, the false conclusion is easy to see.
Finally, you say “3” is passing. With the watered down AP experiences that Bellevue has led, many colleges are removing 3s and often 4s from their “passing” lists. Some aren’t even giving credit for 5s.
This is a dangerous path that aims to weaken the strong and make everyone mediocre. Very egalitarian but destined to fail on its face.
Finally, and most interestingly, Bellevue itself has acknowledged this and created a special, new gifted program at high school because the AP classes weren’t cutting it for kids with capabilities. This, from the district, that said elite programs for the few are bad … goes out and creates a new elite program that flies in the face of everything that came before there.
Goldystein, You must understand that the Democrat NEA and the Democrat school board know best. This is really not like you!! [hehe] JCH Kennedy
It is ironic that the district spent $4.8 million to renovate Graham Hill just two short years ago, and that is the amount they hope to save by closing 11 schools today. Craziness.
It is ironic that the district spent $4.8 million to renovate Graham Hill just two short years ago, and that is the amount they hope to save by closing 11 schools today. Craziness. -Commentby babybeluga— 5/18/06@ 7:52 pm
Craziness.
Welcome to a school board, a city, a county and a state run by democrats.
…something about be very careful what you wish for…
GBS @ 65: “Speaking of thugs thieves, care to elaborate on the funding for “No Child Left Behind?””
That’s interesting you point that out, given your previous post about how the feds should fully fund schools. Given the track record of NCLB, I’d think you (and everyone else) would NOT want the feds involved in schools at all. Remember, with funding comes rules, and something tells me you wouldn’t want Republicans in Congress telling you what you can and can’t do in schools.
If funding is the issue for you, why don’t you take it up with Olympia? Adequate funding of education is in the state constitution….
68
Mr Cynical – your constant derivations of your ‘K’lown comments only seem to detract from your arguements! You would be much more effective by stating only the facts to make your points!
Keep at it Goldy. By the way, soapboxes are used by loudmouth’s in the park, what you have here is a “bully pulpit”
Gee, that’s a pretty powerful statement you got there Goldy. If we had school vouchers, it wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe you should consider supporting them!
Goldy, fails to mention what many of the vocal Graham Hill parents don’t realize. Up until February of this year I was the Co-President of the PTA at this school. I took on the aforementioned position, because I felt that I could work to serve the whole community, both the parents/students in the Montessori program and those in the Traditional program as well. Prior to my taking on the role, ALL PTA board members were Montessori parents and had been for a number of years. I resigned my position, because it became apparent to me that I wasn’t serving the whole community, but rather a few select Montessori parents and their schedules and needs.
I, as well as my Co-President, worked tirelessly to recruit parents from the Traditional program to get involved, volunteer, and be active. You have to understand though that this population has been ignored by the ruling Montessori parents for years and thus, they were not eager to volunteer their time. We were successful on a limited scale and have, amongst the Traditional population, raised involvement, input and moreover awareness.
Graham Hill is a school divided and is seen as such within both the district and the surrounding community. Many current parents and students are already leaving. I being one of them, as my daughter tested into the district’s honors program. Surprisingly we have more children from the Traditional program testing into the district’s honors program, than we do from the Montessori program. My former Co-President is also moving her son for the upcoming school year. Rather telling isn’t it?
If this were a business would the customers have the right to select the new president of a company? No, but the parents of Graham Hill have insisted that they should be able to hand pick their principal. I am an educator, as well as a parent, and I can tell you that this is not a reality. The Montessori parents at this school feel that they can make demands of the district to meet their needs. For example, we spent exhaustive PTA meetings last year discussing making the school into a K-8 school, even though our teaching corps was adamantly opposed to this. Why was this time spent? Again, these same Montessori parents in leadership roles were stressed about the middle school options available to them in our end of the city, so they decided to propose to the district that we become a K-8 school, despite our faculty opposition and the fact that we had no room to accommodate this proposal.
To conclude, a school which is constantly complaining and as vocal as this one is, eventually places itself in the role of a “problem child”. How does one solve this situation when faced with an easy out–eliminate the problem.
Enough said.
Goldy:
Send you kids to private school. Problem solved.
your democrat government at work. How long has the state, city and county been run by libs. What has it gotten you.
Well, at least seattle is signed on to the Koyoto accord!
” This will be yet another step towards the ghettoization of the South End schools, a process that hurts all our children.”
Really??? Last I check, the south-end was getting pretty gentrified and expensive. hmmm..
I can’t believe what sheeple American idiot Democrats are being about our energy policies. At present, we cannot drill for oil in any of the 50 states or offshore.
We are pumping billions and billions of dollars into the pockets of the Saudis etc, who in turn use our money to fund wahabbist terrorists.
And now Cuba is allowing China (a match made in Hell) to drill off the American coast. And the environmentalists aren’t saying a word (because of course, communist China is more PC than anything American, and the idiot “progressives” love Fidel).
I for one am sick of this. The political balance and climate of the world is being changed in a way that endangers America because the Democrat liberal environmental extremists will not allow us to produce or use our own great resources. Their phoney mask was ripped off over ANWR. That place is a postage stamp sized wasteland and they still came up with some utter dishonest rationalizations to prevent drilling there. Then the libs bitch that Bush is responsible for high gas prices. No new refiners……No nukes, no drilling, 50 cents a gallon more Federal gas tax, no will mills off Kennedyland! Face it: Democrats are traitors to America. And 40% of Americans are too stupid to see through them because they “gets da guvment check” and are scared shitless that they will have to find a job in the private sector. And now, AL GORE’s flys in a private Gulfstream, jumps in a limo, and stays in a royal air conditioned hotel suite to tell us about global cooling……….er, global heating, NOT A WORD about how much fossil fuel 1.3 billion commie China “progressives” use, or 1 billion Indians [Country of India] use! No, ONLY white American Republicans cause global warming!!! Well, You Dems are fucking idiots, and most Americans are not buying your socialist bullshit!!!!! Finally, fuck you GBS, DON, Leftturn, and you other “progressive” Democrat parasites. Atlas has Shrugged, and you liberal idiots will have to tax each other!!!
Mr Cynical – your constant derivations of your �K�lown comments only seem to detract from your arguements! You would be much more effective by stating only the facts to make your points!
Commentby sillyguy� 5/18/06@ 8:09 pm
OKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
With all these public school closings the “big” cumcumber business will have to come up with alternative strategies to raise revenue. Hehehehehe
Just put her into private school. You’ll be shocked at how much better an education she’ll get. And then you’ll be glad that the school closed, so that you were forced to look for better alternatives, even though you weren’t originally aware that there were better alternatives.
Hey Gang:
Ever see DOOFUS W. BUSH talk?
ust put her into private school.
Comment by Yo W. Bush — 5/18/06 @ 9:45 pm
Yeah, “private school”, the land of sunshine and rainbows. Just put the kids in “private school”.
What a fucking moron.
The more I’ve thought upon this the more I’m inclined to comment. You see I had never visited your site Goldy until today, because I saw you front and center with the media afterschool. I was curious as to what your infamous blog would contain on this subject. I must say here that I like Goldy he is a witty, sarcastic, interesting person.
I’m curious, you mention the ethnically diverse environment at the school, but in actuality how diverse is your daughter’s classroom? The reality is that the Montessori program is 98% white in its make-up. The majority of the students at the school are in the Traditional program and that is where the ethnic diversity comes into play in the classroom. The Traditional classroom is 98% minority.
Further, of those members of the active PTA you speak of, how many are minorities? I would wager to estimate that only a handful fit that criteria. The ruling Montessori parents don’t care at all about the diversity of the school, unless it is to tout it to accomplish their goals.
I am the wife of a black man with bi-racial children, so I take significant umbrance at the diversity of this school being used as a pawn to garner the goals of a majority white, dominating, few. Yes the school is diverse, within one sector.
Further, the school district hasn’t decided what to do with the Montessori program, so your daughter may gain the same “quality” education that she currently is receiving, simply in another location. If anyone suffers from this move by the district it is the disenfranchised, ethnically diverse parent/student population within the Traditional program who are losing THEIR school, because of a few Montessori parents who see fit to push their agenda at the expense of others.
In my previous entry I noted that Traditional parents were not included in the PTA or in volunteering. It took me half of last year and continued attempts to volunteer to finally be allowed to do so, and that was only because the job didn’t fit any Montessori parents’ schedule and even then the sitting PTA President came in every week for 2 months to watch me to ensure that I did a good job. At a fall fundraiser, you, yourself, Goldy were guilty of alienating a Traditional parent. She came into “your” kitchen to volunteer to prepare the food for the evening and she was confronted by you as to who she was and why she was there. She actually works in the culinary field and as a parent simply wanted to volunteer her time. She felt embarrassed and harrassed and expressed to me after the fact that she wouldn’t be volunteering any more time as a result. She didn’t fit your normal crew of Montessori parents. Unfortunately, this has been the practice for years and thus has led to apathy on the part of the Traditional population.
It’s sad to say, but this school has brought this action upon themselves. One doesn’t see ones faults easily.
Thomas – Explain to me why a school like Harvard or Stanford should forgo tuition money to give credit to those who take AP tests. They don’t, because they want you to take their classes. But state schools still give credit for 3’s, 4’s and 5’s, as do many second tier private schools.
So your logic is – don’t give opportunities to those who are willing to work hard. Keep them out of the elite programs, keep telling them they aren’t smart enough. My experience is that those who work hard succeed above those who are just smart.
What Bellevue did was respond to parent requests for a continuation of their gifted program past middle school. Have you got something against offering programs that best meet the needs of students?
I’m trying to figure out what your problem is with Bellevue. The district listens to parents, and responds. If you don’t like that, don’t move there. Stay in Seattle, and get half the education for the same price.
Goldy,
I wish you luck in your fight for the school. Your daughter Katie is a cutie and it wasn’t fun watching her cry on TV. It is totally unacceptable that Seattle can’t find another way to solve the money crisis than to hurt children and families. I have a hard time trying to figure out how a school district can pay a water ‘expert’ 100 grand for a two page paper last year and claim they have to close schools because they need a lousy 5 million.
Maybe the Gates Foundation and all of those other multi-billionaires up there need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are paying back their communities! It is truly a shame for a city who throws millions all over the place to have such a low priority on education. Unfortunately it won’t change until the leaders in that city are held accountable.
You should blast the school district with Freedom of Information Act requests and follow the money……. I don’t think you would like what you would surely find.
Good luck!
@94
Goldy-
So, as usual, are you forgrtting to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth? A very telling post by an informed, active parent. To quote Goldy, “Hummmm…”
They are closing Seattle Schools, but they can always seem to pull millions and billions of dollars out of their asses for Millionaire Sports team owners, Another in a long list of sad days in Seattle Education. Maybe they could look at what the Administrators are raking in each month while they are contemplating cuts!
No wonder Goldy is “busy” as his next post indicates. Busy alright, digging himself out the hole he dug in this post.
Goldy looks like just another two-faced liberal if you read through the comments in this thread. Apparently Goldy wants the kind of choice you’d expect from a private school, but paid for by the Public. Comment #94 is pretty ugly. Is Goldy telling the whole story on Traditional vs. Montessori, or is this another case where he’s cheerleading an agenda, this time, his own?
@95
Nothing against Bellevue. Nothing wrong about kids working hard. Nothing against reacting to parents. Nothing against kids being challenged.
I’m just pointing out that the things that are done/said there is inconistent. And conclusions (or beliefs), like yours, don’t fit the facts. They make for nice articles, but they should be based on the data. So..let’s look at the data.
Check out Bellevue’s own listing of SAT scores during the past decade (they’ve been on this AP for all kick for awhile). Their Math SAT average grade (from their own website!) has gone up the same as the state and national average over ten years! How could you look at this and think their approach yields more success?
Finally, your comment about top schools not accepting 3s or 4s but state schools accepting them belies your own arguments! High bars…high standards are what you want and the leading schools say that 3s and 4s these days aren’t cutting it. Shouldn’t you be using the arguments that you use to support Bellevue’s approach and suggest the state universities should maintain the same high standards as leading private universities? Otherwise, you present yet another prima facie inconsistent argument.
Seattle schools have problems — they are not alone.
Janet @95 again
About the gifted high school. Across the country, AP is the program for gifted and talented kids. Why is Bellevue, king of AP, not able to meet the needs of gifted kids with AP?
The answer is the watering down of the classes and the curriculum.
SO, they create an elite program. Their opening up of AP was all about making it available to not only the elite. See *any* contradictions here?
Actually, the reason the gifted high school program was established is because this group has moved beyond the challenge presented by the AP curriculum. We have several tiers of abilities in the district, and the programs are designed to best meet the needs of each. I’m having problem seeing what your problem is with this, and why you think it is elitist rather than trying to meet the needs of the population.
We are also trying to bring up the lowest levels, and make sure everyone is challenged.
The AP program has replaced what was the honors program. In most districts, honors is whatever the teacher says it is. With the imposition of AP, honors is now defined on a national standard that colleges accept as rigorous. Harvard and Stanford may not give college credit for AP classes, but you sure better have them on your transcript.
Janet,
You say the population has moved beyond the challenge of AP. So, somehow, the talented population in Bellevue exceeds the talented population everywhere in the country? I don’t think that rings true.
Elitist is the argument the Bellevue administrators have rallied against for years as they claim AP was open only to the capable kids. I’m using Bellevue’s own words….elminiation of the “elitist” AP program is how it promotes its AP for all beliefs. Now that that has shown to fail capable kids, Bellevue rolls out a new program that can only be defined as elitist — thereby creating a program that is in 100% opposition to its stated objectives!
Therefore, the AP program in Bellevue doesn’t meet the needs of the talented kids…whereas in schools across the country it does. Back to my first point — either the talented kids in Bellevue blow away talented kids from the rest of the country in capability — or perhaps the AP thing isn’t really serving its purpose.
Yes, of course schools should meet the needs of all students. However, that should be done with a consistent approach. Per above, consistency is lacking throughout.
To the point of transcript….colleges look for kids to take the most challenging curriculum available. If everyone is taking “AP”, what options do kids have in this regard?
Finally, I note you completely ignore the data. With this effort underway for many years at Bellevue, the math SAT scores have gone up the same as the national and state average (where such AP -for-all programs don’t exist). So…with all this AP push…kids till perform the same. Does that not give you even the slightest doubt about the real challenge presented in the Bellevue AP classes and the learning that was done? And further explain why a new gifted program is required for kids who do have capabilities?
The articles read well..but the data speaks volumes.
68
Mr Cynical – your constant derivations of your ‘K’lown comments only seem to detract from your arguements! You would be much more effective by stating only the facts to make your points!
Commentby sillyguy— 5/18/06@ 8:09 pm
sillyguy he has class and needs to keep you folks thinking.
Graham Hill is a school divided
A bifurcated school? Graham Hill is not alone. Some schools in the North End have “accelerated” or “gifted” programs and as a result such a school becomes a placed “divided” between the “smart” kids and the “not so smart kids”. The situation with the parents is just as weird. Parents tend to get a little strange when it comes to their kids.
This is certainly not healthy and we steered clear of such a situation when we picked a school.
Where are all of Goldy’s attack dogs? Shouldn’t Roger Rabbit be strolling through right about now to call natsim a liar and a fraud and somehow tenuously link her with the Bush administration? Shouldn’t Goldy’s loyal brown shirts be defaming this obvious peril to the established order? Very disappointing.
Goldy is busy now contacting politicians and offering all sorts of in-kind favors and pro bono slander for the next two elections if only they will spare his precious Montessori program.
106 – You wingers just spew your hate. You look more ridiculous everyday with your Dear Leader’s approval about to be mired in the 20’s.
Kyle @ 80:
What I tried to convey in my posts is that funding should come from the federal level, curriculum should be set at the local and federal level.
You’re right, however, that the republicans would try to include things like ID, flat earth, and the world is only 6,000 years old. Too bad the republicans can’t follow the Constitution and leave religion out of public institutions.
“your democrat government at work. How long has the state, city and county been run by libs. What has it gotten you.
Well, at least seattle is signed on to the Koyoto accord!
Commentby joe smith— 5/18/06@ 9:02 pm
Yeah, good point. Everyone knows red states like Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky are real powerhouses of K-12 education.
Good call.
Thomas – I think you misunderstood me, or I wasn’t clear. The AP program addresses the needs of our highly capable student population.
The new gifted high school program has about 10 students in it, and addresses a very small a specific need requested by a group of parents. It could be considered to be a “charter” approach to schooling, much like International School and Robinswood alternative HS. They address specific needs because not every student fits in the same slot. Bellevue is aware of this, and works to address it.
Because of demographics (and secondarily an excellent curriculum), the average Bellevue student is at a higher level of education than the average student in the state. At the school my children attend, college attendance is around 95%. The AP program presents a challenging curriculum to those who choose to tackle it, and almost all students choose to take at least one AP class.
Recent studies (not data from the 1990s) have shown that those students who take at least one AP class in high school have a higher success rate in college. Some who never considered themselves college material have taken an AP class and realized that they were smart enough to move on, and have been very successful in college.
Not sure why this is such an issue with you, or why you continue to accuse us of elitism.
Hey GBS-
General Bull Shit. Bring something to the argument, you dimwit. What in the hell do you know about those states, anyway? Just that they are in the South? So you assume alot. You are nothing but a tin foil moonbat. Got any of your own kids, I doubt it. At least Goldy has a little dose of reality to hug and kiss and acre for. Makes you see alot of things more clearly, but what would you know, idiot.
Fair point. You need more info, so here you go.
Of the four states I mentioned All of them were in the bottom 15 of states in scholastic achievement.
Of the bottom 15 states in scholastic adherents 13 of them were RED states.
Of the top 15 states 10 were BLUE states.
So in conclusion. . .
Go FUCK YOURSELF ASSHOLE!
natsim @94………thank you for that post…what a classic moment.
goldy…our wee little goldy….a HYPOCRITE??? gosh …say it ain’t so!
so this nice helpful woman comes in to volunteer and goldy basically attacks her as if he is the territorial governor of the little province known as “progressive -land”…..
i can see it now. LOL
well…at least we all know she wasn’t frightened by his VOICE. heh heh heh…..
Natalie @84 & @94,
I don’t know what your personal issues are, or what kind of chip you have on your shoulder, whether you are mentally unbalanced or just the most oversensitive, insecure person I’ve ever met — though you seemed like a nice enough person at the time — but I hope you are satisfied… because it is likely that it was vicious race-baiting lies like yours that ultimately led to Graham Hill’s closure. Your hateful categorization of the PTA and the Montessori program as racist is despicable, and has only served to exacerbate tensions and destroy morale. And many of the people you spitefully denigrate have spent over a decade devoted to this school, and all its children.
You were PTA co-president (until you suddenly quit mid year, without warning, leaving all of us in the lurch), so tell me… of the $35,000 this racist, exclusive PTA raised… how much of it went exclusively to the Montessori program?
$8,000, that’s how much. And you know what it’s spent on? That’s the Pre-K Scholarship Fund, whose sole purpose is to keep the program as diverse as current economics allows, by paying the tuition of families who can’t afford the $290 month. Everything else we do is for the entire school, and always has been. The Montessori classrooms don’t get an extra dime.
And what do you really know about the history and culture of Graham Hill from your brief tenure there? From your comments, apparently nothing.
Graham Hill had a wonderful principal for nine years, who turned around a failing school, and oversaw the implementation of the district’s first and only pre-K through 5 Montessori program. And what did the district do… they plucked her from us and moved her to a mostly white school up north, and assigned to us a new, first time principal.
The parents were disappointed, but we trusted the district, and gave the new principal every opportunity to succeed. He was a strong leader who demanded respect from students, and seemed to run a tight ship. I never heard a single bit of grumbling from parents about his administration, and expected him to be around for a long time. Thus we were all shocked and surprised when he suddenly resigned… apparently after several allegations against him that he was sexually harassing teachers.
Dismayed by this experience the parents asked to play a role in choosing the next principal, and the district agreed. After much searching we brought in Barb, a wonderful principal who had experience in both traditional and Montessori programs, and who was an excellent match to our school. She too ran a tight ship and a tight budget, and both our programs continued to improve, but unfortunately, family health problems forced her to first take a leave of absence and then, announce her retirement.
Having had a positive experience in choosing Barb, we expected the same courtesy the next time around, but at a meeting with district officials which we were led to believe was intended to discuss the selection process, we were surprised to learn that they had already assigned a principal… a principal that had had problems elsewhere… an assignment that made our staff very unhappy.
The district told us that they understood our needs better than we did, and that Joanne was the perfect match for our school, but really, this was just an assignment of convenience. We had absolutely no input whatsoever, and the assignment was made with absolutely no understanding of the unique programs and community at Graham Hill.
But worse than that, Joanne was an incompetent manager who couldn’t balance our budget, who contributed to our declining enrollment by NEVER moving anybody off the waitlist (she apparently didn’t know how) and who never actively advocated for our school or brought in any programs. In fact, we almost lost our part in the cherished Dance Chance program because she failed to submit the forms to PNB, and we would have lost it if one of our teachers hadn’t intervened.
Don’t get me wrong… Joanne was a lovely person and all my interactions with her were great. In fact she personally intervened to help my daughter get the classroom assignment we wanted after she was split from most of her friends. But a good principal must be a good manager, and that she isn’t. She never got a long with the staff, and eventually stepped down this year after a year and a half of turmoil, leaving our budget in shambles. (To her credit, she lasted longer than you.)
When you count all the interims, Graham Hill has had 9 principals over the past 6 years, and Joanne is the only one the parents had a role in removing. This lack of stability in what had been a thriving school is a disgrace, and it’s the district’s fault, not the PTA’s.
Perhaps you didn’t know all the history, because you weren’t there, but the rest of your mischaracterizations are just plain dishonest. You’ve walked the halls, you’ve been on the playgrounds… where’s the racial tension? You’ve been to the school events, jam-packed with families from the entire community, where’s the racial divisiveness. Apart from one person who showed up at one PTA meeting last year to accuse us of opposing Joanne because she was black (an ironic accusation considering the one principal we had a hand in choosing was also black)… where is all this racial tension?
The Montessori program is NOT 98% white, as you deliberately mischaracterize it (my daughter’s class is 56% white,) but no, it no longer reflects the diversity of the general population. But that is the district’s fault, not ours. When we had a strong principal who actively recruited children from the entire community, when we had funding (not just adequate funding, but any funding) from the district to support the pre-K program, and when the district didn’t seem to be deliberately undermining our efforts, the Montessori program was almost entirely reflective of the larger student body.
Six years ago the District stole away our principal, our advocate and our leader, and if the parents haven’t been able to make up for that loss over the 8 principals we’ve had since, it wasn’t for lack of trying. When the district pulled all funding for the pre-K program, and we were forced to charge tuition, we provided scholarships in an attempt to maintain diversity… originally 15 out of the total pre-K 48 slots. But as costs went up, it became increasingly difficult to afford the scholarships.
And then, the final and most destructive blow was when the district opened the New School a few minutes down Rainier, with big private grants that allow it to provide FREE pre-school and all day kindergarten. How the hell are we supposed to compete with that? We’ve been losing families ever since the New School opened, because they simply can’t afford our tuition fees.
Has the Montessori program become whiter? Absolutely, but that’s solely because the pre-K program that feeds it has required us to charge higher and higher fees, and the truth about race in this part of the city is that the more affluent families who can afford it are white. That’s reality.
So what’s your solution? Fight for funding? No, eliminate the Montessori program that keeps many of these educated, middle and professional class families in this South End school. Yeah, that will make the district more diverse.
And yes, the PTA is largely composed of Montessori parents, but let’s be absolutely clear that the PTA has always served the entire school. There is only one Montessori-only event — the end of year picnic to welcome new Montessori families — and the only fundraising we do specifically for Montessori is to fund the Montessori scholarship fund. Every other dime we raise goes to serve the school as a whole; Montessori receives no extra money. Zilch.
And while we’re on the subject of serving… how dare you take some second hand report of some interaction during the fall sock-hop and accuse me of being racist or exclusionary. I’m in the middle of preparing and serving a meal for 350 people, and you say I offended somebody by asking who they were, and why they were there? Could it possibly be because I didn’t know who they were or what they had volunteered for? You write:
“She didn�t fit your normal crew of Montessori parents.”
Yeah… my normal crew is Dan and Ronnie… so what are trying to imply? Not only did I not know who this woman was (a white woman by the way, for those who have taken Natalie’s use of the term “traditional” to mean black), I had no idea which program her child was in. In fact, I had no idea which program your child was in. I’m sorry… but the Montessori parents don’t wear stars on their bellies. (Oh, and by the way, you say this woman I offended would never volunteer again… well she didn’t mention any of this a couple weeks ago when we were both volunteering, preparing food, for the breakfast before our annual Earth Day playground cleanup.)
Instead of looking around for opportunities to take offense, perhaps you should have looked at the party that was going on around you… families from the entire community, of all races and ethnicities, packing the school for food and games and dancing. This wasn’t a “fundraiser” as you describe it… the meal was free, paid for with voluntary donations (mostly from the Montessori parents you despise), so that all the families could attend… even those who find $2/person for french bread pizza, salad and desert a pricey night out. This has always been a community building event for the entire school, and it has always been my favorite event of the year, the one with the best turnout, one for which I spend all day shopping, preparing, cooking, and serving food… not to mention cleaning up afterwards… a task almost nobody ever signs up for, but yet, the same dedicated group of parents always seem to stick around afterwards to do.
And for this you call me a racist and exclusionary?
As for the composition of the PTA… well, I didn’t see you offering any ideas on how to make it more diverse during the few months you were leading it. The school is 60% free and reduced price lunch, and 20% ESL, and culture and language barriers, plus the day to day demands of working families makes it difficult for many to get involved. Could we do a better job of recruiting from the traditional program, absolutely. I’m all ears. Tell us what we’re doing wrong instead of characterizing our intentions as racist.
You say we’re turning away volunteers? Give me a break! We’re desperate for volunteers! We’re desperate for more PTA members! We were so desperate for PTA officers that we even chose you as co-president, after only one year in the school, and despite the fact that you had small children that were sure to make the task twice as overwhelming.
If you couldn’t hack it, fine. But don’t tell me it’s because the Montessori parents are elitist racists who care nothing for the rest of school. There are parents who have poured their lives into that school, trying to make it better, trying to keep it going through all the lack of leadership at the top… and you go around spreading these vicious rumors, apparently with the intent of shutting us down.
And one final comment while we’re on the issue of race. You write:
To me, that’s a bizarre definition of diversity… a classroom where only 2 percent of the children are white… like many of the schools in the South End. I hate to break it to you, but at 20 percent of the population, it’s little blonde-haired white girls like my daughter who are the minority, and I can’t believe that I’m being accused of racism for choosing to send her to a school where only one-fifth of her fellow students look like her, or come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
We could afford to move out of the district… we could put her in private schools.. we could send her to a mostly white North End school. But I choose to live in the South End and send my daughter to Graham Hill because I want her to grow up with the kind diversity I lacked as a child. I won’t her to grow up in a community that is more representative of the real world.
I don’t want my daughter to go to a school that is 98 percent white. But neither do I want her to go to a school that is 98 percent non-white. She lives in diverse city deserves the right to go to a diverse school.
But if we follow your advice, and punish the Graham Hill families, traditional and Montessori, because a strong group of educated, mostly-white, middle and professional class parents had the gall to be actively involved in their children’s 80 percent “minority” school, you are sending a very clear message that we’re not wanted here. That our efforts to promote a strong, balanced community at Graham Hill is not only unwanted, but reviled.
And most of us will go elsewhere, because quite frankly we’re tired of fighting the good fight, and then being accused of being racist.
And what you’ll end up with is total and complete segregation. You’ll have a bunch of 98% minority schools in the South, and a handful of predominantly white schools in the North, and never the twain shall meet.
But oh… I forgot, Natalie… 98% minority IS your idea of diversity.
Goldy, The Democrat NEA union and the Democrat school board know what is best for your daughter. [hehe]
I don’t want my daughter to go to a school that is 98 percent white. But neither do I want her to go to a school that is 98 percent non-white. She lives in diverse city deserves the right to go to a diverse school.
The biggest error in your thinking Goldy is that you feel the need for your school and your daughter’s experience to reflect the local population by color. Is there something wrong with just judging people based on merit and the content of their character? Are you implying that because you did not go to a school that had a rainbow of colors or cultures that now you are more racist, or that the makeup of the schools in your youth made it harder for you to judge people by their merits as you got older? Or are you implying that simply being exposed to other colors or cultures would have better framed your world view as opposed to interaction and judgment of those individuals based on their ideas and actions? In your world, are we all locked into predetermined behaviors because of our color? Do I need to fit a profile because I am black?
Defining anything in terms of color or culture is racist. Why not simply look at people as individuals and realize that there are no true stereotypes? When I go to my daughter’s school, I don’t see colors, I see faces. And I make my judgements of each person by how they treat others, their work ethic and their ideas.
It sounds like you’ve worked really hard for your daughter’s school. How great. If only more parents put in that kind of effort and those efforts were localized and unions removed to allow each school more local leeway, the public school system might actually even work. But as long as people like you feel the need to compensate for color, culture, sexual orientation, gender or other, in both your personal and political life, that will continue to be the largest barrier preventing any progress toward truly eliminating racism and the cleaver the divides us all.
natsim, you have no right to speak untruths about other people. Your “former co-president”, our current PTA President, is not leaving the school. Her son will be returning to Graham Hill next year. Shame on you.
Reading the back-and-forth between Goldy and Natsim is fun. I can’t judge he-said she-said back-and-forth of PTA politics, but a couple things have become clearer.
In broad terms, there are really two schools here: a big, poor, black school with bad test scores and without much parent involvement and a small, rich, white school with good test scores and a lot of parent involvement. They just happen to be in the same building.
This situation allowed Goldy to feel all culturally sensitive and politically correct about sending his daughter to a “diverse” school, while allowing her to still be educated in a good, small, rich, white school.
Of course, the situation also linked the fate of the two schools. So when it finally came time to axe the failing school, his daughter’s successful school finds itself on the same chopping block. I can’t help but appreciate the irony of fate that has ensnared Goldy in his own politically correct window-dressing.
The children and parents of both of these schools will be inconvenienced. In the end, the rich, white kids will end up in another rich, white school, probably without the multi-cultural window-dressing, and get a fine education. Unfortunately most of the poor, black kids will end up in another failing school, but perhaps a few will land in good schools that really integrate them, instead of just using them as window-dressing.
Our experience at Graham Hill has been wonderful. We worried about a school divided but haven’t found that to be true at all. Our child’s class is 1/3 minority, far more diverse than our previous preschool. I think much of the controversy between traditional vs Montessori is manufactured, I honestly don’t see it and wouldn’t want to be there if I did. The overwhelming majority are fighting to save the school as a whole, not a program. Anyone who is not is not representing the PTA. We are unified.
Whatever your opinion, you can’t argue with the facts: the district claims that G.H. is on the list due to poor academic performance but there are numerous area schools with worse records in academics plus lower enrollment, little to no parent/community involvement, higher costs and decrepit facilities. The CAC and District officials have some hard questions to answer.
Content @116,
It’s not color, it’s culture. Color is just a convenient tag for talking about these things. But the reality is that, at least in this district, it’s a generally accurate (though not always) predictor of socio-economics and education levels of the families.
Race itself is an artificial construct, and in fact, it doesn’t do our school justice to talk about blacks and asians when in fact these communities are endless diverse in themselves. But we were being accused of being racist and so I had to respond using similar terms.
David Wright @118,
No, you are completely wrong. Both programs are successful programs, both have excellent, dedicated teachers. Test scores are not that much different between the programs, and there is a certain amount of children moving between them. Not everybody is suited towards Montessori, and the same is true of traditional.
And if anything, as Natalie implied, it’s the Montessori school that is more likely to have put Graham Hill on the chopping block, because people like her have obviously been busy spreading lies about a racist PTA and and all the divisiveness within the school.
We are one school, with two programs. The fact that the PTA is predominantly drawn from Montessori program is largely socio-economic. We are the parents who are fortunate enough to have the time to volunteer.
Goldy @120,
I appreciate your taking time to respond.
While I’m sure that Natsim exagerates when she says that the Montessori school is 98% white and the traditional school is 98% black, I’m also sure that there is a racial disproportionality, with more black kids in the traditional school. Whether that disproportionality is large enough to call one a “white kids’ school” and the other a “black kids’ school” is a matter of subjective semantics.
What you yourself admit is that the Montissori school has wealthier and has more involved parents. Those two characteristics are better predictors of academic performence than race, anyway.
For just that reason, I am highly sceptical of your assertion that the “test scores are not that much different.” I tried to find the differentiated test results on the web, but both the seattle school district and the Seattle times school report only had unified results for the entire school. (Which, by the way, are not very good: only 25% met 4th grade WASL standards.)
If you could back up your assertion by posting differentiated test results, I and others would be more likely to believe your characterization that the two schools are equally good, and that the richer, whiter one with the more involved parents just “happens” to “suit” your daughter better.
Your rebuttal is rather interesting, Goldy. I never used the term racist or exclusionary, you did. I also am not mentally unstable. Although, those who are mentally unstable rarely see themselves as such, but my general practitioner has never diagnosed me as such and she has been my physician for about ten years. Personal attacks upon me are rather unnecessary.
The incident that I related about the Traditional program parent (you are right is white, as many of our Traditional parents are) who volunteered to assist you in your efforts was not heard secondhand, but was told to me firsthand by her when I met her at a party which our daughters attended. I’m glad your inquisition didn’t hinder her from giving of her time.
What I mentioned about my Co-President’s child attending another school in the fall, that was learned secondhand, as she announced this fact to her own PTA board in March and I was told of this by the PTA Secretary. I knew that the Co-President was looking at other schools for her son, long before I began seeking schools for my daughters. I only began my search when I learned of her qualifying for the Spectrum program. She, however, had been searching for schools for her child since last Spring.
I don’t feel that I left the PTA in the lurch. As you know I had a Co-President and a full board, who were quite capable of taking over and have been doing so. My decision to do so was a hard one, borne of the desire to spend more time devoted to my children and my family and less in serving a smaller population than that which I signed on to serve.
Nor have I spread rumors and lies about GH. If anyone asks me why I resigned, and some have, I, honestly tell them the interactions and events that led me to make my decision to do so. I don’t seek out people to voice my opinion to, and as a matter of fact, this is the first time I have expressed my views in a public forum.
I am proud of the contribution(s) I made to the PTA. You ask what we did to involve the Traditional program parents? For the first time, albeit late (late October), we sent our PTA welcome packet out in the four major languages that we serve in our school (Spanish, Laotian, Vietnamese and Chinese). We posted outside the school on readerboards in various languages notification of our meetings. We enlisted the assistance of our ESL staff in translating flyers that went home to our ESL families.
The most important effort in enlisting Traditional parents to volunteer, was simply to ask them. No one ever had asked them personally to help. When I needed assistance in distributing the fundraiser, which needed to be done fast with a lot of work involved I asked two Traditional parents, both black (since race is so important to you) and both agreed to do so. In fact, that afternoon two Traditional program fathers, one white and one black, who each have a student who has promoted out of GH in the past and who each currently have two children at GH, showed up to lend their support and told me that they were never asked to help in the past. These are parents who have a long standing relationship with the school, as their children have gone completely through the school, and have never been approached to give of their time.
The one mother who volunteered in this endeavor, gives a lot of her time in her daughter’s classroom and I have pressed her to be more involved with the PTA. She has attended many meetings. I have not done so, mainly because I work teaching math at SSCC on the evenings of the meetings, but also because I don’t choose to be involved anymore. She told me yesterday morning that she is ready to start her own Traditional Program PTA. This isn’t fueled by me or my comments to her, but from how she is treated, which she tells me about, at the meetings and her overall view of the school as well.
My own daughter came home last fall and told me that the Montessori students were smarter than the Traditional students. I asked her where she heard this and she said from her peers on the playground. I told her that this wasn’t true at all and that the two programs simply offered a different method of instruction. A fifth grade Traditional teacher told me this year that her students felt that they were treated differently than the Montessori students. The school rule is that students are not allowed in the building before 9:10 a.m., unless they are preschool students. The Montessori teachers, however, allow their students to come into the classroom. The Traditional teachers abide by the rules, so the Traditional students felt that the Montessori students were being given preferential treatment. The division is real and it exists on all levels–parents, teachers and students.
I was told on a neighborhood playground, when I introduced myself to another mother and it came up in conversation that I was the Co-President of the GH PTA, that she lived a block from the school, but avoided the school because she was aware of the division that existed within the school. I had not mentioned anything other than my volunteer position up to that point. She said she didn’t want to deal with all of that. She was white and an educator.
The issue isn’t racial. I just don’t think it right to use this as a marketing tool to gain support, when those who are using it don’t have diverse classrooms.
You say “one school, two programs”, which sounds much like the slogan that my Co-President and I adopted for the year of “one school, one community”. The idea of “one school, two programs”, is still divisive to some extent.
You are correct we have very well, across the board, attended events that draw all members of our community together, but as you are usually in the kitchen, I don’t think you look at the socialization at these events. I urge you to do so. Parents within programs congregate together, no real effort is made to meet and introduce themselves to anyone other than those they know. The same can be said of the children.
Goldy, I didn’t personally attack you, other than to mention your interaction with a Traditional parent, so I don’t feel the personal attack upon me was necessary. Some have said that I alienated some parents while in my role, but that mostly stemmed from the fact that I put more of my emphasis and recruiting towards the Traditional program than the Montessori, in order to try to bridge the divide.
This closure decision may never even come to fruition, although the school district does need to do something to rectify its financial woes. Much of what needs to be done, could be accomplished in revamping their central operations, rather than school closures. I having been an educator within SPS and married to one who is currently, know firsthand the waste that occurs throughout the district. The reality is though that more and more parents are fleeing the public school system and/or seeking alternative programs like the Montessori program thinking that it offers something a step above the norm. This is exactly why the district will most likely retain the Montessori program within some facility within the school. It offers a diverse method of teaching that is attractive to some.
For the record, I am a parent of students in both programs. My eldest is in the Traditional program and my youngest is in the Montessori preschool (she came off the waiting list in January). Had my eldest not qualified for Spectrum I probably would have stayed at GH. I don’t know that my youngest would have stayed in the Montessori program though. Not because I hate the Montessori program or the parents, but I found through personal experience that my oldest daughter learned so much in her Traditional program setting and I don’t see my preschooler learning a whole lot in the other program setting. I, being an educator, prefer the direct instruction style and feel that it results in more learning when done correctly and we have an exceptional Traditional program Kindergarten teacher, who does so. Again, my personal choice.
I,in contrast to what you think, believe that GH has a lot to offer in terms of having both of the programs, but they both must be represented in our community forums, i.e. the PTA, and they must work cooperatively and as a community in order to accomplish the necessary gains and goals. One group can’t be the only voice.
I commend the Montessori parents for their involvement and hard work, but they do need to be more inclusive in order to approach the district as a united front representative of the whole school, rather than as a few from one program.
Klueless WTF are you rambling about:”106 – You wingers just spew your hate. You look more ridiculous everyday with your Dear Leader’s approval about to be mired in the 20’s.”
Please tell me how does this MESH WITH THE TOPIC ABOVE? R U STUPID or R U JADF?
Here is a telling statement about Goldy: “I wish you luck in your fight for the school. Your daughter Katie is a cutie and it wasn’t fun watching her cry on TV.”
It’s a good thing Katie has a good looking mother!
Natsim: Okay y’all I’ll say it. A liberal reverts to personal attacks when they run out of steam. All the have left is invective and vitriol! You were attacked for making a personal admission of your experiences. If you look at this past election cycle and the liberal mindset, you’ll conclude these Goldyites revel in personal slander bytes on HorsesAss.
GBS: Federal funds account for less than 10% of the school budget. It’s been that way since … well for a long time. The problem with WA State are the liberals in the three goverment parts have so many constituencies (now the illegal alien joins this list) that the state has cut back on their education funding to make all of the “Rainbow Coalition” happy. This forces biyearly levies with stupid supermajorities of greater or equal to 60%. Why is this GBS? Why won’t the legislature allow 50.1% approval?
I believe the hens are back to roost. Profligate local school budget issues are not from the federal government. They are from the (MTR) FUWA and (Cynical) King Kounty Klowns and (me) I Don’t Give a Nickles; state and local goverments. Yes the $5 Million is problematic but look at the I don’t Give a Nickles projects list. Go scream for some money from one of those projects. Go scream to the people who want to build nice west side waterfront property. Go scream to those who want to build a “viaduct” tunnel. Or better yet, have Tim Eyman write an initiative for you to stop this “madness”. Oh yeah, Tim is on the right side of the political spectrum and badmouthed so much by the Goldyites he wouldn’t give you all the time of a minute let alone a day!!!! Hehe hehe hehe!
You continuously vote these tax and spenders in and when crunch time occurs you scream to the HorsesAss community. Your other problem is many of us conservatives are tone deaf to your issue. Sorry Goldy, but as one wrote long ago: Sympathy is in the dictionary between shit and syphillis. All I see from the liberals who entered blog notes is shit from syphillis laden minds! Just reread entry #106
I suspect you were closed & left leaderless BECAUSE you were active & innovative. Your school is MORE WORK to manage. The principal thing is scandelous. We had the same thing w/ our neighborhood middle school, Meany. Every time you get a new leader, you expend a lot of time & effort getting to know each other & learning to work together. It is so discouraging.
I do think some decisions were correct. Moving Summit-12 (all city draw, most expensive trans cost per student) more centrally is smart. Merging MLK w/ TT Minor is a good move initiated by the schools themselves.
In our neighborhood a large # goes private based on how the Seattle District is run and assignments allocated. These are active, well educated (not rich) families.
When we applied to Seattle schools – we were assigned to NONE of our choices. The district didn’t care they just figured “we would go private”. I don’t understand why they allow a significant % of families to get assigned to a school they did not request. This drives families away & contributes to a declining student population. Mosts PRIVATE schools are ADDING capacity/students & many are rebuliding facilities. Imagine if that energy were spent in the Seattle School district. Sigh …
God, that’s pitiful–and disgusting. Everyone’s a liberal until something or somebody threatens to take away “their” shit. Then they go all conservative. “Not my school,” indeed.
First of all, it’s not “your” school. The district–the government–does owe your child an education; BUT THEY DON’T OWE IT TO YOU TO GO FURTHER IN THE HOLE JUST TO KEEP OPEN A SCHOOL BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE, LIKE, BUMMED IF IT CLOSED. That’s selfish and stupid–and just like a conservative. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Here’s a suggestion. Grow up. Be thankful you live in a country with public education. And get your head out your ass and realize that your daughter’s education–and the world– won’t end if she has to go to another school.
#12 said “(I don’t know why it takes two years to remodel a school, it really doesn’t seem that complicated – they could build an entirely new one during the summer vacation if they really tried).”
Why is it that people think that their absolute ignorance about a given topic makes them uniquely qualified to comment about it? Is it American arrogance or just a sign of stupidity? I have construction experience and you clearly have no clue what the hell you’re talking about.
Just because you don’t know why it takes two years to remodel a school doesn’t mean that it automatically takes less than two years, dumbass. And I’d love to see you build a school during summer vacation. And with the time left, perhaps you can build a rocket to go to the moon.
Janet @ 110
You said “Because of demographics (and secondarily an excellent curriculum), the average Bellevue student is at a higher level of education than the average student in the state.”
RED FLAG JANET: If this is true, you should be dismayed that Bellevue’s Math SAT has gone up the exact same in the past 10 years as the state and the nation! If Bellevue students are superior, as you suggest, does this not worry you about the AP focus and its actual impact?
You said “Recent studies (not data from the 1990s) have shown that those students who take at least one AP class in high school have a higher success rate in college.”
Please cite the report. The most recent AP report (2006!) shows that it has NO impact on college success for science. Here is the link to the Harvard study: http://www.news.harvard.edu/ga.....05-ap.html.
Please cite the reports to which you refer — especially since you say it isn’t the late 90s DOE report that analyzed AP only when the qualified were enrolled in the courses.
Not sure why this is such an issue with you, or why you continue to accuse us of elitism.