By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“Helloooo, Gatewood!”

That’s how West Seattle High School principal Bruce Bivins (photo left) greeted the Gatewood Elementary PTA last night as he and 1st-year Madison Middle School principal Henterson Carlisle (photo right) made a guest appearance to tout, and ask questions about, their schools. It was an introduction of sorts, because until the new Student Assignment Plan attendance-area maps were finalized, designating Gatewood as a feeder for Madison and WSHS, it had been more aligned with West Seattle’s other middle/high-school pair, Denny/Sealth.

Because of the way the feeder groups are set up, projections suggest Madison and WSHS could be under-enrolled within several years, while their south-end counterparts could be stuffed, so the principals are faced with the task of marketing their schools as well as running them – to make sure potential enrollment is maximized. (WSHS has its open house coming up this Thursday night, 6 pm, as Bivins mentioned more than once.) Their selling points – and Q/A – after the jump:

Carlisle said Madison currently has about 900 students, with each grade level “split in half” into “teams,” which he said allows for stronger relationships with teachers. In sixth grade, they’re rotating art and foreign languages, with a focus on “building our Chinese program” in hopes that students could be ready to enter second-year Chinese upon entry to West Seattle HS. He also talked about his school’s music program – with jazz and orchestra going to out-of-state tournaments – and full middle-school (7 sports) athletic program, plus the after-school MOST (Madison Out of School Time) program, 2 hours, 4 days a week, with “cartooning, martial arts, web design …” And he ticked off the school’s overall awards for test-score improvement, School of Distinction in 2008, Great Schools Award (new name) in 2009.

“I’m trying to think of everything going well for Madison,” he noted, while running through his list, and then moved on to a special-education highlight, autism inclusion, before concluding with some talk of advanced learning. Madison has been the only middle school in Seattle not to offer the Spectrum program, which groups second-tier advanced learners in often-self-contained classes; Carlisle contended that Madison hadn’t offered Spectrum because the school’s Challenge program of “deeper assignments” was “certified as an advanced-learning program.”

Madison is supposed to be offering Spectrum starting this fall, though Carlisle suggested a lot of details remain to be worked out: “We’re still looking at how it’s going to fit, lot of little things we’re working out, making sure this program is fair, equitable, that all kids have access … as we sit down with a design team to see what that’s exactly going to look like.”

Before wrapping up his opening remarks, he mentioned the student-led conferences we featured in this WSB story last week.

Bivins began by observing that what’s been set up in West Seattle with the new plan – a path with the same students potentially staying together from kindergarten through the end of high school – “can be a positive – there’s an advantage to maintaining cohort energy all the way to college.”

His points included West Seattle High School’s long history – “we’ve been in the community almost 100 years … with a lot of community-partnership support.”

The music program is growing next year, he pointed out, adding a string orchestra (as noted here). In sports, “we go to State, we win divisions, there’s a lot of spirit and pride, it’s an exciting place to be.”

Academics? “We’ve increased the honors offerings for 9th and 10th grade, more seats in advanced placement. … 91 percent of last year’s graduating seniors were accepted to the college of their choice. About half 2-year, half 4-year, but if you look at the seat availability in our state, that’s how it’s broken out anyway … We pretty much guarantee that if you stick with us for four years, we’re going to get you where you want to go.”

The first question Bivins took during Q/A stayed on that subject, and he added more to the issue of WSHS students’ progression to college: “We’ve been really pushing taking (the tests for college) … Both of the past years, our students have received over a million dollars in scholarships, and we’re the only school I know of that has for the past three years had a Gates Millennium Scholarship winner each year – they only give a thousand in the nation, and there are millions who apply.” (We noted last year’s two winners in this story about WSHS Awards Night.)

Later in the Q/A, one of two WSHS teachers who had accompanied Bivins, Jeff Ursino, had a warning of sorts for parents who continued asking about whether certain courses were offered at the school: “Parent to parent advice, i have middle schoolers – lots of (courses) are offered but if your kid is going to qualify for those programs, they have to start in middle school. It’s kind of unfortunate – I used to say that if high schoolers aren’t working hard, they’re closing doors in college. But now, if you’re not working hard in middle school, you’re closing doors in high school.” That might mean making sure the student’s taking advanced math like algebra, to be sure you can qualify for honors-level science. (Carlisle says this year, Madison has five Algebra 1 classes and one geometry class, and next year there will be a chance for students to get high-school credits for taking advanced courses like those.)

The first year of high school is a “make or break time” as well, principal Bivins pointed out, adding that WSHS has levy funding for an extra emphasis on helping make sure 9th graders get the support they need to move into 10th grade. Carlisle also discussed intervention “to really identify students that need a lot of extra help, to prevent failure and build study skills.”

With so much talk about Madison and WSHS now aligning, what if, because of the new assignment maps, a student is going from Denny to West Seattle HS? Graduation requirements are the same around the system, Bivins pointed out; the district is working on “curriculum alignment.”

In the end, it was clear Gatewood parents – like any parents – just wanted to be sure their newly designated feeder pattern would serve their children well. WSHS teacher Ursino had one more stat to throw out – “You’re preoccupied with how many (students from the school) get into college – but what you should care about is how many are still there in sophomore year. Look at the Westside class of 2008 – college sophomores now – 86 percent of them are still in school – 16 percent higher than any other public school you can find in West Seattle.”

The very specific geographic reference drew laughter – but also underscored the reason the principals, and teachers, were there to speak to the PTA: The rules have changed, literally and figuratively, and with a smaller population set to feed into Madison and WSHS for years to come, they can’t take anything or anyone for granted, and need to get the word out about what, and who, they offer.

Info on the new SPS assignment plan – including a lookup feature that will tell you which elementary/middle/high school area you live in – can be found here. The ongoing list of SPS open houses – again, WSHS has theirs Thursday night at 6 – and tours is here.