Candidate responses on HCC and school consolidations

From Ben: In case we don't get a time to chat, let me put down a few thoughts on Decatur and the general question of school closures. · As you may have seen in this piece that I wrote for Post Alley, I do not believe that closing schools is a sound strategy. Closing schools will not reverse our enrollment declines or close the special education funding gap, which are the structural drivers of our deficit. I will be a No vote on school closures. · More pointedly, once we start the school closure process we will spend the next 2 years mired in a divisive process, with communities pitted against each other and parents nervous about what's going to happen to their school. The fact that the Decatur community is organizing to save their school/cohort is only proof of that (not that you are doing anything wrong, activism is always great). · I believe that we as a District are undervaluing small and unique schools as an asset. They serve diverse populations with unique needs, they are enmeshed in their communities, and they are a great way to attract new kids! We should not evaluate them based on efficiency, we should evaluate them based on effectiveness. · I also believe that we have, at best, a half baked strategy for the future of advanced learning. It seems to me that we have begun to dismantle the HCC program without a real replacement or giving clarity and dependability to families enrolled in the program. I will work to reverse that. · As a School Board member I will fight to keep schools open, to grow enrollment, and to work in Olympia to create structural changes that could make a long term difference in public education. That's where I will spend my energy. I should be clear, even if elected (which I am not yet!) I couldn't promise a specific outcome for a school, a principal, or a community. A single Board Director just doesn't have that kind of authority. But I am committed to fighting to keep communities like Decatur intact and even helping to grow them. Please feel free to share this with other Decatur parents-- I appreciate your support and would be grateful for their votes!

[ note: This is NOT the candidate's words. It is a write-up by the parent who collected these of a call they had with the candidate ] I spoke with Candidate Debbie Carlsen this morning and here are some of the key points I heard from her. Apologies for how rushed and rough this is but I wanted to get this out as soon as possible. (Disclaimer: This is my perspective on our conversation, I have not run this summary by Carlsen.) Carlsen feels strongly that closing schools should be a last resort and has a lot of concrete ideas about where we can get funds and how we can move forward today without closing schools. There is a lot of information on her website and candidate statements about this. Regarding her thoughts on if she thinks the current HCC replacement plan is adequate, she has clearly heard from HCC families, there isn't really a plan and that needs to be a priority. Students furthest from educational justice (i.e. 2e, etc) should be elevated in the discussion and she would be happy to do what she can to advocate and set expectations. Continuity is the best approach for our HCC program. She believes this should be heavily weighted towards the opinions and involvement from students, families, and educators approach. Again she emphasized being supportive of a continuity approach that implements the least disruptive strategy. I was able to share concerns about classroom sizes should HCC be integrated; in many cases it would force several scenarios for split classrooms that may be less than ideal. The notion I was trying to share is all of the roadblocks our programs could be faced with when considering consolidation of our program into neighborhood schools. The thread in what I heard from Carlsen today is that she puts a lot of trust in community experts, especially when it comes to HCC needs and those furthest from educational justice. I believe she would be dedicated to help any process at SPS be more transparent and engaging to students, families, and educators in a more timely manner vs. now which feels like lots of decisions are being made in a closed room. She believes engagement and input from the community should be much broader and deeper than a 2 minutes statement at a school board meeting. I am particularly drawn to Carlsen’s ideas around disability justice as higher percentages of HCC students are neurodivergent, 2e, and have overall learning differences. These are the students I am personally most concerned about in HCC transitions and school closures. I also asked Carlsen who she is supporting in the race. Here are her choices: Ben Gitenstein Gina Topp Lisa Rivera Smith (because of her view on needing more community engagement)

Hi [removed], Thank you for your letter. I have come out strongly that school closures should be the last resort after every other option has been explored. And if school closures are considered, that community should be brought along and listened to, to ensure the process to be the least disruptive. I believe if a program is being dismantled like HCC, there should be a replacement program and strategies presented beforehand and community should be brought along and integral to the process. One of the board's guardrails is to invest in community input, especially those communities furthest from educational justice and I expect the board to hold the district accountable to this guardrail. Happy to talk further too. Thank you!
Debbie

Hi [removed], With Covid and a change in Superintendent, the implementation of the transition from a cohort to a neighborhood model has not followed the timeline expected when the board voted for the transition in 2019-2020. I have been speaking with Superintendent Jones about this extensively over the spring and fall and have drafted an update to Policy 2190 Highly Capable that would align SPS with state law requirements, including more detailed reporting to the school board about services provided to HC students. As the parent of two twice-exceptional children in SPS, I completely understand the concerns about asynchronous development. I believe the commitment made to students in the current cohort to remain in a cohort through fifth grade is important, as well as the commitment to transition the program in SPS to a neighborhood model. I am likely an outlier in seeing the challenges of budget and enrollment as an opportunity for SPS to make some choices to better meet the needs of our students and community, even though the changes will be challenging for some. With so much possibility, and available building space, what I will be prioritizing is clarity and timelines so that families understand the trajectory of the district and, within that, what is available for their student. As examples only (I expect SPS Superintendent and staff to present the board with implementation and operational plans) I would imagine several possibilities for Decatur. I want to really stress that these are examples ONLY as I see the situation, and NOT any concrete plans I am aware of from SPS administration. But given my institutional knowledge and what I know are community priorities, I could imagine a few solutions: Decatur students rejoin the cohort at Cascadia, with transportation, and the Decatur building is shuttered or converted back to another purpose such as early learning; Cascadia transitions to a neighborhood school as the current students in the elementary cohort move on to middle school Current Decatur students finish through 5th grade at Decatur with a transition to another use following behind the last class Decatur students share space in the Thornton Creek building or other nearby elementary school (the new John Rogers building) I know this is a tough time with so much uncertainty. My priorities for 2024 should I remain on the school board include a directing the Superintendent to provide one-year, 5-year, and 10-year facilities and budgeting plans that map out school consolidations and projected enrollment changes, subject to change but public for everyone to follow, and a regular monthly community engagement session with the board at different locations throughout the school district so that we can all work together as a whole community for the benefit of our students and district. Services and supports like Highly Capable, Special Education, and Language Access and Multilingual Support need to be clearly outlined and defined within that facilities/school plan. We need to shift from a collection of relatively independent schools with public funding to a system of public schools, and that is going to take a shift in communications and clarity that I believe everyone is really eager for. We know that enrollment is declining now, but all indications are that the district will grow; we need to best use the resources that we have now for our students today, and look to the future when needs will change, based on housing and the percentage of children within the population in Seattle. And that includes following through on commitments to current HC cohort students and a more inclusive future. Thanks for reaching out - happy to reply to other questions that may come up.
Liza