New Options-it's been done before.

[SpeakLoud]

Pathfinder was created back in the day by a committed group of parents who were passionate about creating a more wholistic public school experience for their children. Why not create another one? West Seattle needs a new elementary school. I do not want to see SPS waste money on redrawing boundries AGAIN or adding portables to already tight packed spaces. And Westside should be able to stay in the building that they worked so hard to renew.

I say lets fight for a new option school-lets tell SPS what WE want before they make the decision for us.

If wishes would come true what would you want to see in a New West Seattle Option school?

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[redblack]

preferably something that uses fairmount elementary, for which the school pays rent to SPS.

don’t go barking up the taxpayers’ tree for new construction for a corporate/private charter school.

and if you’re going charter, publish the “lottery” results, so that everyone can see who and how the students are chosen.

have fun.

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[SpeakLoud]

It would still be a SPS-it would have to be as we do not have charter schools here. And the school district will be barking up your tree very soon for $ for new construction with the BEX IV…but I’m completley sure what that is-just know it is related to funding and building?

I like the idea of transparent lottory-maybe a town hall thing-everyone gathers and we film it for youtube? But then how do you avoid the racial indifference? I would want to make sure that ethnic make-up of the school was at least equal if not greater then the % of the community?

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[kootchman]

That would be simple enough I think. Make the case for the lottery. I don’t know exactly what the racial “indifference”” clause means, It sounds as if you are not indifferent..you would prefer mixed ethnicity. if you want to make the community was of equal racial percentages, then you are defeating the whole notion of a lottery, which is a random selection by definition. Widely advertised, to all of West Seattle, including Delridge, White Center… I would guess that you should achieve an ethnic diversity reflective of the community. Historically, charter schools are a response to “low performing” schools and attempt to draw from the low performing school, as an alternative for parents who are not content with the education at the former. Good luck! As redblack points out, their is randomness only within the population allowed to enter the lottery. ( I think that is what he meant) Seattle school should have those stats easily available if not already posted. Many of the lotteries are actually conducted “live” which is more transparant.

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[JoB]

kootchman…

there you go again…

hubby only plays the lottery when the “odds” are in his favor..

an odd choice of words to my way of thinking since the draw is pure chance.. no matter how the odds are stacked..

but in this case.. his view has merit.

The chance of a minority winner does decrease with the number of non-minority entrants..

it would be nice if we lived in a world where diversification didn’t matter.. but we don’t.

what those who trivialize diversification fail to realize is the benefits of diversification to the majority population.

kids who are exposed to different cultures, different languages, different ideas early in life have a definite edge in a global marketplace.

diversification is not only the right thing to do..

it’s in the self interest of every parent who wants their child to succeed.

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[Julie]

If you want to do this, I suggest contacting the Alternative Schools Coalition for advice. Having been involved in the creation of one parent-created public middle school, and having been the first instigator for the group who started Pathfinder, as well as being very involved with its formation (back when it was AE#4), I suggest you will need all the help and patience you can muster. Perhaps the new media will expedite the communications you’ll need, but bureaucracies are bureaucracies forever.

The district has historically been unfriendly to any notion of non-standard schools. To get your school started, you may find you need to compromise many of the principles with which you begin. Nevertheless, the effort can pay off eventually, even if for other people’s children, years down the line. (We started work on AE#4/Pathfinder in 1988, but that followed an unsuccessful attempt for a similar project in the early 1980s–and the project that eventually became Pathfinder took advantage of a temporarily friendly school board, which put “replication” of successful alternative programs on its “to-do” list. This doesn’t happen very often!) I believe the school opened in fall of 1992?–probably 7 or 8 years (and lots of work in each of those years!), after the earliest discussions, and different from the goals with which we initially began.

Please do not take this as discouragement. Our efforts eventually produced a school that has given so many West Seattle families a choice with which they are happy.

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[SpeakLoud]

YES to charter schools-there has to be a way to create them that meets these needs. If parents have choice they can move out of the schools they don’t really want to be in anyway that would leave room for the families who do want to be involved. And before you say charter schools don’t do any better than typical public schools you might want to start looking at newer research:

And even if at best charter schools are ‘the same’ I can ssure you the parents are happier and the culture of the school is far more positive and connected-but of course no one tests for that!

Oh yeah-they are also cheaper.

From 2008:

‘This analysis finds that, for the fifth consecutive year, New York City charter school students, on average, are outperforming their district school peers….Demographically, about 62% of the city’s charter school students are African-American compared to 32% for the city; 30% are Hispanic compared to 39 % for the city.’

http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/view/projects/1?page=yes&id=2&parent=&csr_res=351

This info is from the UW-Center on Reinventing Public Education

Hey-we have NOTHING to loose by trying.

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[JoB]

charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate with more flexibility than regular public schools.

they are operated at public expense by a non-profit board of directors.. not by the local school board.

perhaps it isn’t the teachers or their unions that is the problem?

perhaps it is that political training ground we call a school board?

“http://www.studentsfirst.org/blog/entry/understanding-public-charter-schools#”

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[hopey]

The blog Save Seattle Schools is covering the topic of charter schools:

http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2011/10/charter-schools-first-in-series-what.html

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