(UPDATED with new online petitions, plans for a Sunday rally, and more – scroll to story’s end)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
At least five West Seattle elementary schools have been told they’ll lose teaching positions as a result of Seattle Public Schools‘ review of where enrollment stood at the end of September.
While a district-wide list has not been made available, as first reported in our Thursday coverage, we were able to confirm Alki, Highland Park, Roxhill, Schmitz Park, and West Seattle Elementary Schools are among the ~25 schools citywide dealing with this.
Nothing’s completely final yet, though, and principals and their school communities have been scrambling to see what they can do to minimize effects. Here’s what’s new so far today:
*Last night at Schmitz Park, this area’s most populous elementary with 600+ students, the annual Curriculum Night for first- and second-grade families found principal Gerrit Kischner trying to explain how his long-crowded school – moving into a new building next fall – has wound up with a teaching position on the chopping block. And it found parents declaring that the ongoing funding challenges of public education are unacceptable and vowing action, including a letterwriting campaign. (They also are continuing the online petition we mentioned in Thursday’s report.)
*This morning, an Alki Elementary parent confirms that school has started a crowdfunding campaign to try to save the position that’s slated to be cut.
First, from the Schmitz Park meeting, which we covered at the suggestion of several concerned parents:
“Remember, the kids are going to be fine,” Kischner reassured the first-grade parents who gathered in the school cafeteria instead of dispersing to classrooms as would have been SOP – a change made necessary by the expected loss of the first-grade class that was to be taught by Julie Pietsch.
Several parents, including PTA president Robert Kelly, sported T-shirts in support of that classroom, P-8:
(“The fox says” is a reference to Schmitz Park’s mascot.) In the early going at the meeting, before the second-grade parents left to visit their teachers, he promised the organization would find ways to support the teachers in what he declared to be a crisis, and reminded parents that volunteer work would be important like never before.
Kischner said principals had found out about the cuts on Monday night. He said a group of them is meeting with Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland today “so we can say we did everything we can to lessen the impact on kids.”
For the students directly affected – they will now be in three classes of 28 students and one of 29, though the contractual limit for K-3 classes, he said, is supposed to be 26. He said the students who had started the year with Pietsch had been told, and were discussing what would be good about the change and what would be not so good about the change.
For the parents directly affected – Kischner tried to dissuade them from considering emulating what Gatewood Elementary had done last year when faced with the loss of a teaching position, fundraising to keep it. He suggested that it just wouldn’t be fair, when, unlike last year, other West Seattle schools are being hit too, some in less-affluent communities where fundraising might not be an option.
And then came his explanation of how it happened, though it seemed apparent that what the principals had been told didn’t make much more sense to them than it did to the parents.
He explained that Schmitz Park had begun the year with a “start-of-school substitute” position, based on the enrollment trends they were seeing and expecting. “As recently as Sunday, our numbers held,” justifying the position – but then on Monday, he said, a “new formula, new ratio” was applied to the budget for K-3 classes in Schmitz Park and four other schools (which he didn’t name), none of which, he said, “hit the mark.”
A parent asked how many more students Schmitz Park would have to have enrolled for the cuts to be canceled. “It’s not that simple,” the principal replied. “… The rules changed.”
That’s where he again mentioned that the affected principals were meeting with district officials today, saying they had some hope of effecting change, because “in so many ways, this doesn’t make sense.” If it’s a budget shortfall, they would hope to get specific numbers, because “maybe there are some things that should be cut first.”
Earlier, he had said that teachers in the newly enlarged first-grade classes would get “overage pay.” When they moved to Q & A, that led to an impassioned parent asking, “But how will the KIDS be compensated?”
Kischner thought perhaps they could find ways to get a part-time reading specialist or some tutoring support.
Right about then, a man who was leaning against the wall in the back of the lunchroom, as were we, said aloud in disbelief, “This is the United States of America, and we have to go with our hands out like that?”
Back toward the front of the room, someone said, “The numbers don’t really seem to add up.”
And shortly thereafter, parent Emily Giaquinta, introduced as having served as the “capacity chair” and legislative chair for the PTA, spoke about the big picture – the state continuing to fail to fully fund public education. She said that in meetings, she was struck by “how often (elected officials) say they want to hear from us – but how seldom we speak out.”
This, she declared, has to change. “If we don’t flood them with communication, nothing will be done. We have to start to get people organized.”
The letter template is now posted on the Schmitz Park PTA website, and, she said, can be amended any way a sender would like. “Do whatever you want with it. Just get it out.”
Also declared at this point in the meeting: It’s time to advocate for all West Seattle schools as a community.
Clearly moved by what he’d heard, Kischner made one final point: Though there were concerns around the city that the strike-delayed school year would start under a cloud, he has instead seen “palpable” energy, concern, and spirit.
BACK TO ALKI ELEMENTARY: Thanks to parent Amy King for letting us know about the Crowdrise campaign, which is past $5,200 as of this writing. She adds – in the spirit of what we heard at Schmitz Park last night – “We have also reached out to parents from the other West Seattle schools to work together in our response. There is a meeting this morning with reps from at least 3 schools, as we at Alki are very aware that we have schools in our WS community that will be hurt by this even worse than us.”
WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll continue to follow up on this; we appreciate all the updates and information received from parents and others so far – community collaboration has been our coverage style from the start – while we have other communications channels, e-mail to editor@westseattleblog.com is preferred. You’ll also find citywide coverage of the situation at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com.
ADDED 4:50 PM: Word of a rally and two more online petitions. First, the latter:
*”Our Kids Need Their Teachers – Rethink Budget Cuts” – petition here
*”Keep Alki Elementary Class Size Manageable” – petition here
*And Emily, who sent word of the latter petition, says: “Sunday immediately following the Seahawks game folks will be gathering at the Admiral Junction to raise awareness, support, donations etc. regarding the WS school situation.”
ADDED 6:43 PM: The district has sent this letter to parents, signed by assistant superintendents Flip Herndon and Michael Tolley:
Every year at start of the school, districts across Washington state compare enrollment projections with actual student counts. School districts receive state funding to pay for staffing based on actual student enrollment (counts) as of Oct. 1.
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) undergoes a staffing adjustment process to monitor enrollment at every school, adjust staffing levels relative to actual student enrollment, and comply with negotiated staffing ratios.
This process is not unique to Seattle. All districts undergo the same process of staffing adjustments by school relative to the actual numbers of students who enroll and attend. Staffing adjustment decisions are made to match student needs with limited staff resources across the district. In Seattle, 52,399 students enrolled in the district this year, according to the 10-day student enrollment count. That is an increase of 411 students over last year.
While we have more students this year, the number is lower than we projected by 675 students. This translates into $4.23 million less revenue, not including the enrollment decline effects on Special Education, Transportation or Nutrition Services.The reduction in staffing allocations will reduce the effect of the loss of revenue. The number of students who transferred out of the school district is higher this year than last.
As your principal may have shared with you, staffing adjustment recommendations were developed by a team of representatives from School Operations, Human Resources, Enrollment Planning, Special Education, Budget, Capital Planning, Continuous Improvement, and English Language Learning using enrollment data. The team considers multiple factors including equity and detailed school, class and program configuration. Staffing allocation analyses are conducted at the individual class and grade level. Staffing allocations were reviewed and approved by the Superintendent’s Cabinet. Some schools have additional enrollment and require additional staff. Some schools have lower enrollments and require staff reductions.
It is important to note, teachers and instructional assistants will continue to be employed by SPS. Each staff member will be reassigned to another school. This process is a careful matching of individual skills and qualifications of certificated staff to school positions and needs.
Eight start-of-school substitutes were added district-wide and funded centrally in schools where principals believed their enrollment number was going to be higher than the district projection. Principals used this resource to support start of school efforts. The goal is to reduce the number of classes without a teacher, and to mitigate for last minute enrollment changes. Based on enrollment counts and class configurations, seven of these eight substitutes will be removed from their schools and returned to the substitute pool because anticipated enrollment did materialize at the individual schools. The eighth will be converted to a teaching position to support enrollment.
The School Board has highlighted resource stewardship as a board priority, refocusing the district on the importance of assuring responsible management of its limited funding. While more students are enrolled this year, the number is still lower than projected. With less revenue district-wide, SPS must reduce the staffing budget from schools with lower enrollment and add staffing budgets to schools with higher enrollment to ensure our class sizes and support personnel are equitably distributed to best support all students’ teaching and learning.
Additional good news is that elementary schools have benefited from an increase in funding for teachers in order to reduce class size (about one additional teacher per building) as part of the Legislature’s action in June. And the district has invested more in staffing for unique situations (mitigation) than we did last year.
Reductions are never easy, especially after the school year begins. Average class sizes district-wide, however, are improved over last year at the elementary level.
We know that these changes are not easy for our schools, students, staff, parents and guardians. Such decisions are a delicate balance of financial resources and needs across the entire school district. Our district team takes this work very seriously and tremendous effort and thought goes into every decision about every classroom in every school as the team works hard to allocate limited resources to the greatest need. In a situation where one school loses a staff member, that individual is moved to a school which has less staff and desperately needs more.
Staffing adjustments are being finalized, and your school principal will communicate that information once completed.
Also, at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com, Melissa Westbrook has published an update with some documents she obtained related to enrollment and the teacher-shuffling process.
We e-mailed West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren several questions about the situation this morning, but have not yet received a reply.
ADDED: We did hear from McLaren Friday night. She shared with us the response she said she’s had for those who contacted her:
I’m sorry to say that I have little power to help in this extremely painful situation. We are in a similar situation in many schools district-wide. Although enrollment continues to grow, there were many unexpected student transfers from SPS to out of district schools at the last moment, so overall enrollment is down dramatically – about 600 students.
SPS cannot operate at a deficit; we are legally bound to stay within our budget, and so are having to make painful adjustments all over the school district. I am cc’ing Israel Vela, Executive Director of Schools in the Southwest region, based on the possibility that expected continued growth at Schmitz Park might bring more funding. However, I know that he and other district leaders have already looked at the picture very closely.
I can say that all of us in the district are reeling at these developments. I’m sure that virtually everyone working in the district understands deeply the hardship involved. At this point, it’s not clear why there were so many transfers.
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