Followup: ‘Biggest bake sale imaginable’ Saturday as Gatewood Elementary families raise money to keep a teacher

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

One day after news began to spread of a district-ordered teacher-reallocation move affecting two local elementary schools, one is launching a short-time, big-sum fundraising drive: $90,000 needed by Wednesday, to keep from losing a teacher.

We first reported Thursday afternoon on the situation that could result in one teacher being moved from Gatewood Elementary to newly reopened Fairmount Park Elementary. Fairmount has more students than planned for, the district says, while Gatewood has fewer first-graders than planned for.

While the district has not publicly identified the teacher that would be moved from Gatewood to Fairmount Park, Gatewood parents say the current version of the plan would move first-grade teacher Ms. Morgan. Parent Tracy Clarkson sent the photo at right, her twin daughter and son with Ms. Morgan, who is their teacher. Says Clarkson, “We are longtime West Seattlers, but new to Gatewood. We cannot lose this teacher!”

Another parent e-mailed more details about what will happen tomorrow, and beyond:

Gatewood is mobilizing. We need to raise $90,000 by Wednesday morning. We have about 10% thus far. Disbelievingly, our beloved teachers have each committed $500.

The parents of Gatewood and their children are planning to hold the biggest bake sale imaginable tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. at California and Myrtle and going on throughout the day.

We ask for any community support from everyone. Even if not a monetary donation, we appreciate moral support, too. The families and teachers could sure use it right now.

A donation account was set up late today at Chase Bank; you can donate at Chase and tell them it’s for “Friends of Gatewood.” Parents say online fundraising is not an option because they have to have the cash in hand by Wednesday morning, and online donations wouldn’t be disbursable that way.

They are hoping at least to get a time extension, and say that the district’s executive director of schools in this area, Israel Vela, indicated support for that in phone calls today to parents who had left him messages about this.

Meanwhile, the district responded to a followup question we had sent yesterday. At the ribbon-cutting for Fairmount Park on September 2nd, the day before the new school year began, it was announced they anticipated opening with 380 students. The current enrollment cited by the district is just below that. So why is an adjustment being made just now? District spokesperson Lesley Rogers replied with this backstory:

In August we decided to fund an additional teacher (the student projection [for Fairmount Park] went from 290 to 329, or 39 additional students). This was part of an overall district assessment that resulted in 26 schools having adds or pulls, with a net 2.0 addition. We also added in 2 schools based on high urgency (Arbor Heights and Alki Elementary).

We decided to wait to address FTE [full-time-student equivalent] adjustments due to the traditional student movement, wait list, data cleanup, and no-shows that happens in the first 2-3 weeks of school. The student enrollment reached 368 at 9/22 (Fairmount Park).

The other component was the budget situation. Our mitigation fund was depleted after the last 2 adds. We decided to wait to find out what schools have significantly lost student enrollment, as Gatewood, to transfer FTEs.

Overall, we are waiting for the official 10/1 counts that will be reported on 10/12 to recommend more staffing adjustments. At the same time we are using the current student count to identify the hot spots adjustments and deploy/execute earlier.

We’ll continue to follow up.

ADDED 5:26 AM SATURDAY: Overnight, we received the letter to the community, drafted by organizers of the fundraising drive. Click (or scroll) ahead to read it:

Dear Gatewood Community and the West Seattle Region,

After an intense past 48 hours of following updates from the district and Gatewood school administration, I am sharing dinner with my family at Zeeks Pizza and in a moment of reflection, comment that it has been tremendous to witness parents in our community being so proactive. I asked my kids if they knew what proactive meant; without missing a beat, my 4th grade daughter explains how she learned that word this week at school during her classroom’s Peace Circle time. She continued to explain quite eloquently how they are learning the 7 Habits of Happy Kids and that one in particular was very cool-the habit referred to as “Balance Feels Best.” She clarified how characters in a story represented the mind, spirit and body, and when you have those pieces in balance that one finds peace and happiness.

You know that feeling when wisdom is spoken from a young child. This urgent call to action is to foster the momentum of learning for all our Gatewood Gators without interruption.

In light of the recent proposed changes to staffing at Gatewood Elementary, this afternoon myself and Nicole Sipila, concerned and determined parents of Gatewood Gators, have created a direct drive fundraiser called Friends of Gatewood. The SPS district will remove 1.0 Seattle Public School Full Time Employee (FTE) driven by district enrollment criteria unless $90,000 is raised and delivered by Wednesday, October 8th. The Gatewood staff designed a learning system for this year that intentionally made a few classrooms smaller while sacrificing other classrooms to be at standard or at higher head counts. The next 4 days are critical. Act now!

Start giving now and this is how:

1.Before closing time at 4 pm, on Saturday, visit our local Chase Bank, Thriftway Branch, at 4201 SW Morgan St, Seattle, WA 98136 (www.chase.com). A Friends of Gatewood bank account was created (Friday) afternoon:

◦The checking account number is: 459084948, the routing number is 325070760

◦This account accepts cash and check donations. Deposit slips must be used to track transactions, particularly for cash donations. For cash deposits, please write “Friends of Gatewood” on the slip, and in addition, provide your name and phone number at the bottom of the slip (see attached Chase Deposit Slip for an example),

◦Donations are not tax deductible,

◦In the event that this direct drive falls short of our goal, we will communicate to all of our donors if you want a full refund, and if so, that will be done as promptly as possible.

2.Go to Saturday’s Bake Sale at California Ave SW and SW Myrtle at 10 am Saturday, October 4th (please note, that money raised from the baked sale will not be tracked and therefore not refundable),

3.Bring checks to Gatewood Elementary at the main office, ideally no later than end of day Monday, October 6 (Address: 4320 SW Myrtle St, Seattle 98136),

4.Bring cash – with your contact information and phone number- to Gatewood at the main office no later than Tuesday, October 7th,

5.In the event that you were not able to attend a community meeting held Thursday after school, or missed letters sent home with your student, attached are documents that describe the serious predicament that district budget shortfalls and enrollment mishaps have caused. Please read these for your information.

6.Lastly, reach out to your families, community business leaders and supporters of education.

For further questions, contact Natasha Hissong at natashahissong@earthlink.com or Nicole Sipila at alipis@clearwire.net

With gratitude,

Gatewood Elementary Community

Editor’s note: The text refers to attachments which we have not (yet) received; we’ll add if and when we get them.

54 Replies to "Followup: 'Biggest bake sale imaginable' Saturday as Gatewood Elementary families raise money to keep a teacher"

  • Alice October 3, 2014 (8:49 pm)

    I’m SO there. Got your back, Gatewood!

  • RS October 3, 2014 (8:49 pm)

    We’re Schmitz Park parents, but we’ll be there. This whole thing is stupid…very little beyond the education of our children is important and the best money I could spend would be on a teacher.

  • becoolSPSD October 3, 2014 (8:53 pm)

    Let me get this straight, the district is making Gatewood parents buy a teacher that is already entrenched and loved by her students? Having had our children in Seattle schools for 5 years now, I can say without a doubt, that the Seattle Public School District does NOT put their students first.

    I understand the need at both schools. No matter the final outcome, it will be difficult for students at this stage of the game. The job of the district is to ask, “Which solution will impact students the least. How can we do the least harm?” And yet again, they make a choice that hurts the students the very most.

    I really hope that the folks at SPSD read this blog. They need to get in touch with their community. They need to hear the parents and realize who they are serving.

  • FPE parent October 3, 2014 (9:07 pm)

    We’re a Fairmount Park Family… we will be at the sale tomorrow! Hoping Gatewood gets to keep this teacher AND that Fairmount Park is able to get the additional teacher that we need. The problem is with SPS Enrollment Services… the enrollment/waitlist system is broken and needs a complete overhaul.

  • Hopeful October 3, 2014 (9:10 pm)

    Hey everyone- from Gatewood and from those other schools supporting us… Have your kids come in their school shirts/gear tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be an awesome show of West Seattle solidarity? ;) thank you thank you thank you for your support!

  • bugsy momma October 3, 2014 (9:17 pm)

    Agree with FPE. There is just something crazy going on here when the enrollment/waitlist system is this complicated and mysterious. I have never heard of a system with this much churn in the first month of school. Why is that allowed?

    How much change really takes place after the initial school assignment process? It just can’t be that much. It’s not like dozens and dozens of people move into a neighborhood over the summer.

    Speaking of mysterious, can anyone explain what Lesley Rogers’ is saying above? What does all of that jargon really mean? Why can’t they speak in a clearer way? I am a former elementary school teacher and I have no idea what that means. Or is that a tactic?

    Surely, there is a better way to run things.

  • hollybee October 3, 2014 (9:34 pm)

    highland park parent here. this is too much. how sad that PTSA’s are now EXPECTED to foot the bills for beloved teachers! Shame on SPS!

  • WS mom October 3, 2014 (10:02 pm)

    I could not be happier that we have our child in private school! SPS is ridiculous!!

  • dsa October 3, 2014 (10:13 pm)

    What a bunch of nay sayers. If the Gatewood parents want to fund a favorite teacher which in turn would reduce class size, let them. I wish they could have a web link.

  • Concerned October 3, 2014 (10:26 pm)

    Meanwhile my son’s 4/5 FP classroom is over 32 at this point. SPS needs to figure this out.

  • dsa October 3, 2014 (10:36 pm)

    Yes, Concerned I agree, 32 is too many and that has to be the driving force for the Wednesday deadline. You could look at it as they are funding an additional teacher for FP since the one at Gatewood would not have to be transferred.

  • kayo October 3, 2014 (10:45 pm)

    Really SPS? A month into the school year and you pull this crap? Seriously? SPS should be ashamed of themselves! Figure out how to fund this teacher. Do not put it on the backs of the parents and the teachers ($500 of their own money!!!!) at this school. Everyone who has children in SPS needs to let the district know how we feel about this situation because if it is happening at Gatewood, it could (and probably already does) happen at any school.

  • Arbor Heights neighbor October 3, 2014 (10:48 pm)

    I’m sorry but I’m a bit shocked that we have so many upset people on this forum. Shouldn’t we all prioritize all SPS student needs? The question is what is the ratio of students per class after the transfer? So Gatewood wants to raise funds. Do it! But Before you continue to complain, realize that Arbor Heights kindergarten classes have 32/34 students PER teacher. The students are resilient and will be getting a new teacher and will also be going through some changes. Should we not be looking at our community as a whole?? There are sacrifices to be made. If there is a necessity like there is at Fairmont why not be a good neighbor. Is it that bad?????

  • Hopeful October 3, 2014 (11:04 pm)

    @arbor heights neighbor
    FYI/ The kindergarten classes at Arbor Heights are also currently expecting a change. They find out on Monday which kids get moved to their new kindergarten class. ;)
    Those kindergartens will be down closer to 2o capacity by next week.

    Fortunately, for Arbor Heights they’ve been planning this transition since August and have been able to interview and hire the teacher of their choice. If I were a FP I would be upset that my school wasn’t given the opportunity to choose the teacher but was instead assigned one from another school.

  • Best Interest? October 4, 2014 (1:11 am)

    Wow, I had a lot of blog catch up reading, and now just some questions.  If people donate to this to specifically fund this teacher, but not enough money is raised, then what happens to the money? Where does it go from that point? And if this isn’t a GW PTA initiative, then who is actually in charge managing of all this donated money? Not trying to knock the effort here, but fiscal  accountability is an important aspect. And what is the long term plan? If funding a teacher only turns out to be sustainable for this year, what happens next year?

    I’d also be interested to know what the 4th grade teacher wants–what if moving to a position at Fairmount Park is something they are on board with, or if it’s in their best interest? If the teacher is kept at GW only by private funding, and that isn’t resolved next year, where would the teacher land then? While I can totally appreciate the passion of the community to act, but also there seem to be some important details missing here.

  • Maggie October 4, 2014 (3:45 am)

    Call me crazy, but what SPS is doing seems pretty darn logical to me. The kids will not be scarred for life because they get a new teacher a few weeks into the new school year. They are working to best allocate finite resources. This is what we want our publicly-funded agencies to do :)

  • West seattle momma October 4, 2014 (5:38 am)

    Being a teacher in South Seattle and living in West Seattle, I love this neighborhood, but think it’s absurd that this much money is being raised to keep a teacher from being moved a mile away to help a new school.

    I challenge you all to go donate to scholarship funds so deserving students can afford to go on fieldtrips with their class or have warm jackets and shoes with soles. That’s my thought on the matter.

  • GW Dad October 4, 2014 (6:54 am)

    We’re raising money because FP needs a new teacher and we want to keep the teachers at Gatewood in place. What we’re doing benefits both schools and a large part of the West Seattle community. This situation was created by errors made by the Seattle School District, but we’re rising up in solidarity to make things better for everyone. Let’s do this, together!

  • NativetoSeattle October 4, 2014 (7:18 am)

    Having taught for 25 years, I strongly support keeping this teacher at Gatewood. Hiring another teacher at Fairmont Park is needed and SPS should fund that additional position.

    So much effort is put into establishing a positive climate in a classroom during the start of the year. The picture sure looks like the teacher and kids are happy. There’s a strong connection between social/emotional well being and student success. Why create one extra transition for another group of students?

    Don’t move a teacher who has probably gone above and beyond to ensure a strong start to the school year. If SPS doesn’t have $ allocated for situations like this, that’s sad.

    Our family will be donating today & hopefully it will truly be the biggest bakesale imaginable!

  • Ellen Bremen October 4, 2014 (7:52 am)

    @BestInterest?

    I am a Gatewood parent and the organizer of the bake sale. The finances are being handled by two former PTA presidents, both parents who still have second children at Gatewood and who have been long-time steadfast volunteers and supporters at the school. Here is an excerpt of a letter that will likely be published on the blog this morning and that was asked to be sent to the community:

    ” In light of the recent proposed changes to staffing at Gatewood Elementary, this afternoon myself and Nicole Sipila, concerned and determined parents of Gatewood Gators, have created a direct drive fundraiser called Friends of Gatewood. The SPS district will remove 1.0 Seattle Public School Full Time Employee (FTE) driven by district enrollment criteria unless $90,000 is raised and delivered by Wednesday, October 8th. The next 4 days are critical. Act now!

    Start giving now and this is how:
    1.Before closing time at 4pm on Saturday, October 4th, visit our local Chase Bank, Thriftway Branch, at 4201 SW Morgan St, Seattle, WA 98136 (www.chase.com):
    ◦Bank Account Name: Friends of Gatewood, the checking account number is: 459084948, the routing number is 325070760
    ◦This account accepts cash and check donations. Deposit slips must be used to track transactions, particularly for cash donations. For cash deposits, please write “Friends of Gatewood” on the slip, and in addition, provide your name and phone number at the bottom of the slip (see attached Chase Deposit Slip for an example),
    ◦Donations are not tax deductible,
    ◦In the event that this direct drive falls short of our goal, we will communicate to all of our donors if you want a full refund, and if so, that will be done as promptly as possible.
    2.Go to Saturday’s Bake Sale at California Ave SW and SW Myrtle at 10am Saturday, October 4th (please note, that money raised from the baked sale will not be tracked and therefore not refundable),
    3.Bring checks to Gatewood Elementary at the main office ideally no later than end of day Monday, October 6 (Address: 4320 SW Myrtle St, Seattle 98136),
    4.Bring cash-with your contact information and phone number- to Gatewood at the main office no later than Tuesday, October 7th,
    5.In the event that you were not able to attend a community meeting held Thursday after school, or missed letters sent home with your student, attached are documents that describe the serious predicament that district budget short falls and enrollment mishaps have caused. Please read these for your information.
    6.Lastly, reach out to your families, community business leaders and supporters of education.

    The Gatewood staff designed a learning system for this year that intentionally made a few classrooms smaller while sacrificing other classrooms to be at standard or at higher head counts. For further questions, contact Natasha Hissong at natashahissong@earthlink or Nicole Sipila at alipis@clearwire.net

    With gratitude,

    Gatewood Elementary Community”

  • flimflam October 4, 2014 (7:57 am)

    I could have sworn they said $40k would be needed to hire a new teacher – where has the $90k number come from?

  • Rope October 4, 2014 (8:15 am)

    What District Spokesperson Lesley Rogers is saying is, “We botched this up.” The District depleted the budget allocated to address necessary adjustments due to staffing needs. So, they made a lot of adjustments. Their numbers for FP are all over the map. Early projections figured on 290 students. That was bumped up to 329. At the ribbon cutting the stated projection was 380 students. The October count will be less than 380. The difference between the high and low estimates is 90 students. Ladies and gentlemen what we have here is seat of the pants student enrollment projections. “We blew the budget and still got it wrong!”

  • S October 4, 2014 (8:23 am)

    Why hasn’t anyone stated or looked into a getting a lawyer to help with this matter. There has to be some type of legal steps that could be taken to prevent this from happening or at least delaying it a little longer to raise the 90k needed.

  • Heidi A October 4, 2014 (8:28 am)

    Arbor Height Neighbor and Maggie, you are falling for another SPS trap – making schools fight over a few crumbs, they are good at the art of distractions. The money for one FTE isn’t all the money that the district has.

    Millions are currently being spent on consultants studying a hypothetical downtown school while current students go without. $2.6M was recently transferred from the rental revenue fund to the general fund with no explanation of what is being funded with that money. The issue should not be either we pay for an FTE at Gatewood or an FTE at FP. The district has the resources to fund an FTE at FP without dirsputing two grade bands at GW this late in the year.

    If you want to be informed about district finances Board meeting minutes and agrendas are posted at http://www.seattleschools.org.

    District watchdogs also follow the finances and mismanagement over at http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/ (I don’t always agree with their opinions, but they do report the facts).

  • Kadoo October 4, 2014 (8:31 am)

    Maggie, I’m with you.

  • Boots October 4, 2014 (8:45 am)

    The District spokesperson demonstrates the root of the problem. The District fails to recall that there are children attached to the numbers.

  • J October 4, 2014 (9:43 am)

    Speaking as a teacher, setting up and mentally preparing for the year is an exciting and exhausting part of late summer. The September comes, and you fall in love with a group of children, help them learn to build community, and make friends (while teaching academics). You specialize in a developmental level. Taking someone out of this community and asking her to start over, in a grade level three years higher with a few days to plan, learn the new standards, new children, dynamics, families, routines…not as exciting as the late summer was. For this, I will over spend today on cookies support the effort to keep the learning community intact.
    The next battle is a bigger one, but for today, we can all pitch in to help this small group of children and 2 teachers keep the momentum going.

  • Ann October 4, 2014 (9:47 am)

    There are two many chiefs in the District. Many schools now have two principals where one was sufficient just a few years ago. As in every area of society today, management pays itself first. Lose some assistant principals, get main principals back to work, and keep teachers who do the real job of teaching kids.

    Classroom sizes are too big especially at primary.I don’t know what it is going to take to change the culture of Seattle Schools which is beginning to look more like Walmart than a public school system.

  • Best Interest? October 4, 2014 (10:17 am)

    @Ellen, thanks for following up. In the case the goal is not met, what happens with the money that is not asked to be refunded? Does it go to the PTA as a donation? Kept in the bank? Donated? Spent elsewhere?

  • Simple Math October 4, 2014 (11:38 am)

    So … roughly 80 first graders at Gatewood have been enjoying smaller classes of 20 each for about a month now.

    It is sad, but that class size is a luxury in our public school system. Let’s table that debate for later :) But seriously, no one else has classes that size outside of private school.

    The current proposal is to consolidate the four classes into three and move the teacher to another school to alleviate super-large classes on that end.

    It seems pretty simple to me that if the parents of those 80 kids want to keep their small classes they should each pony up about a thousand bucks. That combined with what’s been raised already would solve the problem. Then they would have private-school sized classrooms for a fraction of the price.

    I’m not discouraging their fundraising, by all means they should have at it. I’m just saying that’s a huge chunk of change that will benefit a proportionately small number of kids…. a subsidy of $1,125 per kid.

    Mine’s first grade class was 29, which over the year slowly trickled down to 25. Learned everything we needed just fine. Ultimately parent involvement is the biggest predictor of student success. Looks like plenty of that for these kids and I mean that in a good way :)

    This year, 2nd grade, we started in a class of 31 2nd graders and were just moved to a 2/3 split. My child was very sad to start, but we’re a week into it and is already pretty much over it. Loving the new class, etc.

    We are in the district to the South of you, Highline. They call this ‘balancing’ and do it every year, as needed, around this time. Not a ton mind you, but really they have no way of knowing who will walk through the door on the first day of school (that is why private schools charge non-refundable deposits). An extra 10 kids can send things haywire. They are maybe more up-front about it because I expected it to happen when I saw the numbers at the beginning of the year.

    Just my two cents.

  • Cha cha October 4, 2014 (12:33 pm)

    It’s my understanding that a very good mentor teacher at GW volunteered to leave for FP yesterday. I agree with wsmomma that this money could be better spent elsewhere on children in true need.

  • goodgraces October 4, 2014 (1:00 pm)

    @Cha cha:

    I heard the very same thing. Such a voluntary switch/move would make this fundraising unnecessary. Why is this not being reported on?

  • West Seattle Mom October 4, 2014 (1:02 pm)

    Back when I was in the 6th grade (years ago) I was in a 5/6 split class and a month into class they pulled a teacher from a nearby school and moved the 6th graders into their own class. I don’t remember an uproar from either school.

  • fulana October 4, 2014 (1:05 pm)

    @flimflam The 90k comes from salary+benefits.

    @West seattle momma, I totally agree. I wonder how many of the people donating to this fund would be totally opposed to having a city-wide general PTA fun so that all children in our city would get equal slices of the philanthropic pie.

    To everyone else: I’m not without compassion for this situation but every Seattle teacher signed a contract this year that put us in this exact situation. Highline teachers have the same thing in their contract. White Center Heights and other Highline schools just went through the exact same thing except they didn’t have the same community response. It is troubling that as long as you have the money and the time, you can mobilize for your own benefit while hundreds of teachers and students in less well-to-do neighborhoods survive this without much hoopla. Lots of love and compassion and giving happening all around without a whole lot of EQUITY.

  • fulana October 4, 2014 (1:07 pm)

    @Anne You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to Principals. None.

  • Sammy October 4, 2014 (1:32 pm)

    Yes, a teacher has volunteered to go. Save the money for a bigger need.

  • Melissa October 4, 2014 (1:37 pm)

    And no one has still explained where the money is going to go if it doesn’t get used for its express purpose. Ellen Bremen, the organizer, gets defensive when questions are asked about it and provides the same talking points that were already available, but refuses to answer the question about where the money will go if it is not spent on this teacher. WHY?!? This is an IMPORTANT question that must be answered in order for this to have any credibility at all. No fundraiser has any credibility without being able to explain where the money is going to go.

    It is also inappropriate to disparage those who legitimately question whether this is an appropriate expenditure given the dollar amount in relation to the number of students who will benefit, the long-term impact, etc.

    This whole thing plays on emotions and the desire to “save” a well-liked teacher (although it’s not like the teacher is going to lose his or her job) and errors of the SPS, but that does not necessarily mean that the proposed solution is the best result nor the best course of action. There are questions that need to be addressed and answered here, especially in light of the VERY significant sum of money that is seeking to be raised and the fact that there is no real accountability for that money. Even though this is all happening fast, the questions still need to be answered.

  • GW Dad October 4, 2014 (2:53 pm)

    From the original post above:

    ◦In the event that this direct drive falls short of our goal, we will communicate to all of our donors if you want a full refund, and if so, that will be done as promptly as possible.

  • WS parent October 4, 2014 (2:58 pm)

    Ellen’s comment called out that with the exception of the bake sale (where names are not being tracked) $$$ can be refunded if the fundraisers don’t make the #. Full disclosure, I am a GW parent so even if # is not met I’m happy to let them keep my $$ to fund other school needs for the year.

  • GW Dad October 4, 2014 (2:59 pm)

    Also, a teacher volunteerring to go only changes who is going, it does not solve the original problem: FP needs another teacher, and the district’s plan is to transfer a GW teacher to FP. Again, we are raising money to keep our GW teachers in place, so FP can add a new teacher.

  • Julie October 4, 2014 (3:10 pm)

    These parents asking the public to subsidize their choice of a teacher for their children. Perhaps all parents should have such a choice.

  • Paul October 4, 2014 (3:28 pm)

    West Seattle: We are 1/3 on our way to the fund this program. To continue the fundraising we are going to do a pub crawl. The pubs that have signed on are the Feed Back Lounge, Beverage House and The Bridge. The fun begins at 7:30 pm come and play with your friends and neighbors.

    See you there

  • GW Dad October 4, 2014 (3:45 pm)

    Well, it is a public school. We’re choosing to do what we feel is best for all kids at Gatewood & Fairmount. I’m proud to have the choice and chance to make a difference for the good of all.

  • Rope October 4, 2014 (4:24 pm)

    The district is the problem. Not even the State and the Fed trusts them with money. Seattle is a “high risk recipient of federal dollars”. When the District is mismanaged all students suffer! It is all a matter of how much you are willing to take. Apparently Gatewood decided rolling over and playing dead was no longer the best option. More power to them!

  • confusing October 4, 2014 (5:49 pm)

    I do think we could solve a lot of problems with lower class size. But the schools who need the most help wouldn’t have this kind of financial support from the community and families. And can other schools raise money to hire teachers to lower class size? I think we need more information. How was gw able to make that decision to have twenty kids per class? I want lower class size for all! Could sure benefit our kids who are struggling.

  • confusing October 4, 2014 (5:56 pm)

    I think every school could benefit from lower class size. Greatly. How was gw able to make that decision to have twenty kids per class? Can every school raise money to hire more teachers to lower class size? The schools who would benefit the most though might not have that kind of community and family resources/support. Bigger issues of social justice and equity. But I am curious to know more. Seems like info is missing. I’m an sps teacher and west Seattle parent.

  • gatewoodmomof3 October 4, 2014 (6:02 pm)

    I think that a lot of commenters don’t understand the reasoning behind the effort being put into keeping this teacher at Gatewood. I guess if I weren’t a parent at Gatewood I wouldn’t understand either. But after having 3 children at Gatewood,for a total of 7 years now, these teachers are not just teachers to us–they are family. My children consider them to be more like aunts and uncles than teachers. I know if someone told me that a family member of mine had to go join another family, I’d do everything humanly possible to prevent that from happening. Just throwing my two cents in… this isn’t some random person to us. It’s a person we love and care about and want to remain a part of our Gatewood family.

  • An Arbor Heights Parent October 4, 2014 (6:24 pm)

    When I first heard about this issue yesterday I was extremely disappointed. While it’s important for our district be “fiscally responsible,” it’s imperative for our schools, teachers, etc. to be able to plan the year in advance to avoid chaotic disruptions after the beginning of a new school year. The reactive decision making, that’s all too common in our district, needs to STOP. This year Arbor Heights was on the opposite end of the “problem”; SPS refused to acknowledge PRIOR to the start of school that we’d need a 3rd K class sighting not everyone shows up. Well, everyone showed up and more. Both these situations share the same roots, and we are ALL effected. The district’s enrollment system is BROKEN; so is the way they distribute head-count and $$$’s. I hope this situation illuminates what the issues are and what can be done to make it better.

    What are your ideas to for change?

  • KM October 4, 2014 (6:43 pm)

    I know very few trust the school district, and I can see why. That is mind, is there any guarantee that the funds raised would keep the teacher at Gatewood AND hire a new teacher at FP? I don’t think SPS has a good track record of doing the right thing, especially financially. I’d be reluctant to hand them the money.

  • Right? October 4, 2014 (7:27 pm)

    West Seattle School District

  • Lafayette Parent October 4, 2014 (10:05 pm)

    Lafayette parent checking in. I’ll swing down to the bake sale and get some cookies! Good luck to you I think it is awesome what you are doing. Kudos!

  • Wsparent October 5, 2014 (8:40 am)

    Is there an update on total funds raised thus far?

    • WSB October 5, 2014 (8:59 am)

      WSP, it’s in the Saturday story.

  • AHMom October 5, 2014 (10:06 pm)

    Wow! I just read this post. I really feel for the GW community, especially the first grade students. It seems to me that more teachers are going to need to be hired with growing enrollment so why not just hire for FP and keep GW, b/c class sizes will probably increase at GW next year anyway. Why lose a teacher to only have to turn around and rehire next year?

    Heidi A. is right. The district pits our schools against eachother. I am guilty of having fallen into that trap myself.

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