McGilvra Students Send Holiday Cheer to Soldiers in Afghanistan

Guest Posting By Regina Brown

In honor of Veteran’s Day and the upcoming holidays, the McGilvra Elementary School’s Student Council took on a special project -- personal care packages for Lewis-McChord soldiers who can’t come home for the holidays.

Kicking off the care-package drive at a school-wide assembly, ten students from the K-5th grade student council stood up in front of their classmates and gave a moving presentation about history, war, and what it means to be a veteran. Sergeant Morales, a local army recruiter who has spent two rotations in Iraq, talked about how much it means to the soldiers to receive these packages and messages of good wishes – especially from non-family members.

Armed with a wish list from the soldiers, the students got to work and soon the bins in the McGilvra school office were overflowing with donations including Halloween candy, Starbucks & Tully's coffee, notebooks, shower gel, and hand-warmers. In addition to the gifts, each class wrote personal cards to the soldiers.

“The student council did a fantastic job presenting the meaning of Veteran’s Day to their classmates, “ said Season Hamilton, Community Outreach Chair with the McGilvra PTA. “It was amazing to see all of the kids respond with such enthusiasm. We hope to do something like this every year.”

Forty boxes were packed up Thanksgiving weekend and shipped out to Afghanistan where they will be delivered by jeep to 118 young men and women from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. For more information on sending care packages to Washington-based soldiers serving overseas, contact Sgt. Morales at: SFC Rafael A Morales, 
U.S. Army Recruiter, 10706 5th Ave, Ste. D, 
Seattle, WA 98125
.

[Photo by Season Hamilton. Back row: Isabelle Hanson-Carlsen and Sergeant Guerzon. Front row: Drake Wright, Sophia Christothoulou, Emma Brooksbank.] 

Read More

What's new at McGivlra?

It's been some time since we last covered what's going on at our by-many-beloved neighborhood elementary school, John J. McGilvra. Our last coverage, in fact, was in December when we reported that McGilvra had again been given the highest quality-education rating by the School District. It was just about this time last year, however, that we reported something that was quite controversial: the fact that the District had reneged on its ten-year-old agreement with McGilvra's PTA. That agreement had limited class size in the School in return for parental funding of special programs.  We wondered what impact, if any, the District's decision had so far had on the School.

We had heard, anecdotally, that some parents who were concerned about larger class sizes had decided to remove their kids from the School or, in other cases, not to send their children to McGilvra in the first place.  If this, indeed, has happened it's not something that is obvious to the School District. According to Enrollment Services Planning Manager Tracy Libros, McGilvra experienced an increase of almost 30 students year over year.  The 2011-12 enrollment is 298, as compared to 269 students during the last school year.  That represents an increase of five students, on average, per grade level (kindergarten included).   It had been rumored that the District would be increasing the School's attendance-area boundaries for next year in order to further increase enrollment at McGilvra, but Libros reports that "there are no plans to change the assignment boundaries." This is not to say, however, that there will not be further increases in enrollment at McGilvra during the next school year, since it is not at what the District considers to be the School's capacity.  Projected enrollment for McGilvra is, in fact, listed at 305 in the School District's official recommended budget for this school year.

Seattle Schools, incidentally, takes exception to the use of terms such as "abrogated" or "reneged" with regard to the action it took on what originally was a 20-year contract with the McGilvra PTA.  In the opinion of the District, it simply exercised its right to pay the PTA $60,000 representing the discounted value of the school portables the parents had purchased for the School ten years earlier. That was an option provided for in the contract, so from Seattle Schools' point of view the contract was completed as agreed, neither rescinded nor cancelled.  It was simply contractually terminated at the tenth year.

A potential impact of that termination is what it might portend for the continued private financial support of McGilvra by parents and friends of the School.  So far, it appears that concerns were overblown. McGilvra's PTA just completed a very successful fundraising dinner and auction which, according to auction chair Shyla Wilcynski, was attended by over 300 guests and netted over $150,000 in proceeds for the School.  She reports, in fact, that this year is the first in which ticket sales, sponsorships, and advertising for the event covered all costs.

Big turnout for the 2012 McGilvra Auction

So if the District's action last year is having a negative impact on McGilvra, the reaction is perhaps too subtle at this point to be noticed, at least with regard to community support.  The whole issue of private fundraising for Seattle Public Schools, incidentally, was the subject of a front-page Seattle Times article earlier this year in which McGilvra's position as one of the top schools receiving private funding was highlighted.  A related article the same day cited the determination by McGilvra's parents to continue raising funds, reporting that their efforts had already brought in $300,000 to the School "this year" (a pre-auction estimate).

There's more to this story--and we'll be following up with a later posting.

Read More

It's McGilvra Auction time again

Big event February 4/ticket deadline January 10

One of the great things about our neighborhood's John J. McGilvra Elementary School is the active involvement of the parents and other friends of the school, including the high level of financial support they provide to enhance McGilvra's educational mission. The school's biggest fundraising activity by far is the every-other-year auction, which attracted 350 supporters and raised close to $140,000 when last held.  Planners of this year's auction, the school's eighth, hope to do even better financially than that record.

The 2012 auction, which includes a sit-down dinner, will be held at the Seattle Design Center on February 4.  Among the major donated items that will be auctioned are:

• Great White Shark Adventure
• Progressive Dinner along the Pike/Pine Corridor
• Portland Weekend (at the Nines)
• Key Peninsula Beach House
• Mt. Rainier Cabin
• Suncadia Ranch
• Washington Coast Hosted Clamming Weekend
• Nicaragua Guesthouse
• Family Pizza Tugboat Cruise
• Mariner's box seats, Sounders memorabilia
• Recording Session at Crackle & Pop Studio
• Stay at the Principal's Condo on Marco Island, Florida.

In addition, there will be a wine wall, a desert dash, dancing, and a lot of student art on display. This year's art theme is Architecture:

The event gets underway with the silent auction (and the opening of the hosted bar) at 5:30 pm, followed by the dinner and live auction at 7:30 and dancing at 9:00.  Ticket prices begin at $75.

More information about this fun event is available at the McGilvra Auction website. A link to an early version of the auction catalog is available on the site. Items are still being donated---so it's not too late to get in on that action if you'd like to participate.

Read More

McGilvra scores high (as always)

The Seattle School District last month made public the annual School Reports for each of the schools in the system, and once again John J. McGilvra Elementary School had an excellent outcome.  This was the third year that the District used this form of academic reporting, and it was also the third year in which McGilvra was rated a Level 5 school, the top designation.  Slightly fewer than a quarter of the Seattle Public Schools qualified as Level 5 for the 2010-11 school year (which is the period covered by the recently released report). For the District, however, this is a substantial improvement over the 15% of schools qualifying as Level 5 in the previous two years.

McGilvra's greatest improvement, year over year, was the results of the School's 4th graders on the State writing test:

The School had made the improvement in writing skills a high priority, and it's clear that those efforts paid off.  For the District overall, only 68% of 4th graders were judged proficient in writing.

Reading was also one of McGilvra's strongest suits, with 93% of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders passing the State test (versus 74% for the Seattle overall).  92% of the School's 5th graders, meanwhile, demonstrated proficiency on the State science test (versus 64% for all schools in the District).

The School Report also provides an overview of the year-to-year academic growth of students at McGilvra, compared to the "typical" growth of students statewide.  64% of McGilvra's 4th and 5th graders met or exceeded what was considered typical reading growth for students from one year to the next.  In math, 60% of McGilvra's 4th and 5th graders were met or exceeded what was typical.

Another set of variables covered in the School Report showed the results of parent, student and staff surveys conducted during the academic year.  In several major categories, McGivlra showed improvements year over year.  For example, the "Family Climate" survey (measuring parental attitudes) showed 90% 'family engagement" in the School, up from 83% the previous year.  The "Staff Climate" survey, meanwhile, reported that 65% of respondents were positive about the "professional culture" or the School, while 79% were positive about "school leadership."  This was a big increase from the 50% who were positive about the professional culture the previous year and the 69% who were positive about the level of leadership.  The improvements undoubtedly reflect the change in principals that occurred late in the 2009-10 school year.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the positive feelings about the new principal were also reflected in the Family Survey: in the earlier year, only 66% of the parents answered that they were "satisfied with the leadership provided by the school principal." Last year that number rose to 83%.

McGilvra's average class size rose to 22 last year, versus 21 the year before.  This was the result of an increase in overall School enrollment from 257 in the 2009-10 school year to 269 in the following year.  A more dramatic increase in enrollment almost certainly took place this school year, and we will be reporting on that issue and its implications some time during the spring.

Those interested in reading the McGilvra School Report in detail can do so by following this link.  The staff, parent, and student survey information is available here.

Read More

Merchants rally to McGilvra’s cause in March

If you thought that the recent dustup between the McGilvra PTA and the Seattle School District would lead to a decline in parental support for the School, it appears you’d be wrong.   The PTA is, in fact, about to embark on one of its most ambitious fund-raising efforts to date: a month-long partnership with local businesses to raise both money for and awareness of our high-achieving neighborhood public school.  The PTA hopes to benefit the businesses as well, urging McGilvra Elementary’s parents and supporters to shop the neighborhood aggressively in March, hopefully making this a win/win situation for businesses and parents alike.

During March, many Madison Park merchants will participate in the Round-up for McGilvra Elementary program, in which they will ask their customers if they’d like to round up their purchase balance to the next dollar, donating the proceeds to the McGilvra PTA.   Many businesses are also participating in the Night Out for McGilvra, a shopping and dining-out event planned for March 31 (4-8 pm), where a percentage of sales from each supporting merchant will be donated to the PTA.   Moreover, some businesses have agreed to make outright donations.

According to Don Philip, McGilvra PTA’s Vice President of Fundraising, the Madison Park Business Association was immediately on board to the idea of supporting McGilvra with a month of fundraising, once the idea was broached.  “This is a community school and you are community businesses, so why shouldn’t we work together?” was the PTA’s pitch to the merchants, he said.    Parents followed up by contacting neighborhood business owners face to face, including those who are not members of the Business Association. The PTA’s Karen Cretekos, who was involved in this outreach effort, says, “The reaction has been very favorable.”   Some merchants, she notes, even came up with their own ideas for helping the cause.

To date, the businesses that have elected to participate in the Round-up program or  to simply provide on-site cash jars for direct donations to the PTA are:  Bert’s Red Apple, Best Buds, Bill the Butcher, Canopy Blue, Cookin’ at Madison Park, Madison Park Cellars, Madison Park Hardware, Madison Park Jewelers, Madison Park Veterinary Hospital, Marshall’s Cleaners, The Original Children’s Shop, Park Postal, Red Wagon Toys, Scoop du Jour Ice Creamery, Spa Jolie, and Studio Karri L.

The merchants who’ve agreed to donate a percentage of their sales during the Night Out on March 31 are:  Bert’s Red Apple, Bing’s Bar & Grill, Cookin’ at Madison Park, Martha E. Harris Flowers & Gifts (covering gifts only), McGilvra’s Bar & Restaurant, The Original Children’s Shop, Red Wagon Toys, and IndieFlix.

According to Cretekos, Madison Park Café has agreed to host a benefit dinner for the McGilvra PTA on March 24, and Madison Park Conservatory has agreed to donate 15% of its breakfast and lunch sales on March 19 (10 am until 2:30 pm).   Bill the Butcher (Madison Valley) will donate 10% of sales from 3:30 until 7 pm every Tuesday in March (mention McGilvra Elementary and you will be entered in a raffle to win steaks and gift certificates).  The Attic, meanwhile, will donate 20% of all sales on Monday, March 14 (5-9 pm), and Arosa Cafe will donate 5% of sales between 9:30 am and 12:30 pm every day in March.  Other merchants making cash or in-kind donations include:  Mad Pizza, The Music Factory, the Madison Park Times, Key Bank, City People’s, Toby Lumpkin Realtor, and Tully’s.

The PTA’s efforts to involve Madison Park/Madison Valley merchants in its fund-raising efforts during March is only one element of the group’s plan to raise a total of $395,000 for McGilvra Elementary this year.  According to the PTA’S Philip, these funds will be used to provide enhanced education at the school, including enrichment programs such as music, that the students would not otherwise receive.   The PTA will also be using the funds raised to pay for tutors, particularly for those grades that have seen a big bump in enrollment this year.  

If you would like to contribute directly to the McGilvra PTA, visit ilovemcgilvra.com or mail your donation to: McGilvra PTA Annual Fund, 4111 E. Madison St. #46, Seattle, WA  98112.

[Photo courtesy of the McGilvra PTA.]

Read More

McGilvra prepares to move on

If they were hoping to hear that the School District would relent and not dramatically increase enrollment at McGilvra, those attending last week’s PTA meeting were quickly disabused of any such notion. School Board member Harium Martin-Morris was on hand to deliver the word from on high: the contract between the School District and the McGilvra PTA will be terminated and the School should expect as many as 300 students to be enrolled there next year.

The hundred or so parents and teachers who crowded into the school library Tuesday evening were given plenty of time to vent about the situation, but what followed was a productive discussion, led by School principal Mary Lane, about they ways McGilvra can adapt to the changed circumstances—and perhaps even thrive. Many parents who came to the meeting skeptical about the School’s prospects are reported to have had a change of heart after hearing Lane’s presentation.

But it was clear from the start of the meeting that before any discussion could take place on the question of “Where to from here?” there would have to be a discussion of “Why are we here in the first place?” On that score, Martin-Morris, who represents a district that includes McGilvra and extends north to View Ridge, did a good job of fielding the parents’ challenging (though generally not hostile) questions.

Former PTA President Bob Steedman questioned whether the School could physically accommodate 300 students, noting the small size of the School’s two portables, the inadequate cafeteria, and limited bathrooms. Martin-Morris responded by explaining the basis on which the District calculates “functional” capacity, and argued that on that basis 300 kids could fit into McGilvra. He noted that the Seattle Public Schools are growing at the rate of two or three small elementary schools per year (500 to 600 new students), and the district he represents has grown more than any other part of Seattle. The excess capacity at McGilvra will be needed to accommodate this growth, he said.

Skeptical audience members questioned why, if that’s true, the District recently sold the one-time Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Madison Valley. Martin-Morris responded that the MLK site was not viable as an elementary school because of lot size and anticipated repair costs, therefore not meeting the District’s needs. A parent also questioned why McGilvra was being expanded when there is apparently significant excess capacity at Madrona Elementary School. Martin-Morris said that Madrona has had management issues that are still in the process of being resolved. He went on to enumerate other issues impacting the School District, including the cutting of State funding and the fact that several Seattle elementary schools, because of the demographics of their neighborhoods, are already operating above capacity. He said the enrollment dilemma for the District as a whole is only going to get worse.

After about an hour of “Why, why, why?” from those assembled, a parent summed up the resigned mood: “Okay. This is done. This has happened, and now we need to deal with it.” Another parent agreed, saying “It’s not that they are picking on little McGilvra. It’s an uncertain time, but we need to be optimistic and positive. Grumbling among ourselves is not going to help.”

With that, the discussion moved on. Earlier in the meeting PTA Co-President Will Kilbourne had presented what he described as a wish list for the future of McGilvra, a set of principles that had been developed by an ad hoc committee of parents. The parents, he said, felt that small-group learning was important and that enrichment programs needed to be available in the School to allow for individual student growth. They also preferred single-grade classrooms.

Principal Lane, however, cautioned that whatever the School does to respond to increased enrollment should be research based and not simply re-engineering old approaches. “I challenge you to look outside the box and be creative in dealing with the new situation,” she told the audience. She noted, for example, “There are some very positive advantages in multi-age grouping. We do not see this as a negative approach.” What this would mean in practice is that there would be some classrooms with two grades, for example with second and third graders learning together. With the increased number of students in the School, she said, “it’s not going to be possible to only have single-age classrooms.” She added that multi-age learning would allow for better differentiation in teaching individual students at the School, with the challenge being to make sure the students are properly grouped. Another approach known as looping, where teachers remain with their students over a two-year period, may also have some advantages for McGilvra, she said.

Lane told the audience that “organizing our resources to support early intervention is a guiding principle” for McGilvra. One way to do that, she said, would be with the use of additional tutors. Kindergarten, which is expected to grow to 88 students at McGilvra next year, would be in single-age classrooms, as would first grade. This might mean as many as four separate Kindergarten classrooms if the projections hold up. Because of the probable imbalance of the number of students in Kindergarten compared to those in first grade next year, looping and multi-age learning will probably not be possible for those classes.

Lane reaffirmed her commitment to the School’s enrichment programs, including Art education, and noted that McGilvra’s literacy programs might even be enhanced by larger class sizes. “There are all kinds of things that we are looking at that are actually exciting,” she said. But the bottom line is that no decisions have been made regarding next year. “I know this is scary and you want what’s best for your children. We do too.”

Lane said that an on-going dialog with the PTA will be necessary for the School to be prepared for what’s coming, and she ended by urging everyone to keep an open mind: “We may get something that is even better than what we have.”

[Photo: Principal Mary Lane explains why change is sometimes okay.]

Read More

McGilvra grapples with a new reality

As we reported last month, enrollment at Madison Park’s John J. McGilvra Elementary School will be increased dramatically in coming years as a result of a recent decision by the Seattle School District to end a decade-long agreement with McGilvra’s PTA. That agreement, which had limited class sizes in the School in order to improve and sustain the quality of the students’ educational experience, was covered by a formal contract which still has another ten years to run. The District recently concluded, however, that maintaining the agreement would not be “equitable.” As a result, the decision has been made that McGilvra’s enrollment, which had been capped under the contract at about 250 students, will be ramped up to a projected 300 students, perhaps as early as the next school year.

The implication of this new policy is that there will be a 20% increase in average class sizes at the School, something the McGilvra PTA says it is very concerned about. Although the parents briefly considered a legal fight, they concluded that rather than fight they will have to regroup and find a new way to accomplish the goal of ensuring “McGilvra remains a vital community school,” in the words of PTA Co-President Maria Bridge.

When the contract was first negotiated with the District in 2000, it was seen by the McGilvra PTA as the likely solution to a problem that had plagued the School for many years. Although McGilvra was ostensibly a “neighborhood” school, only 10% of the 235 students attending McGilvra in the late 1990s were from the School’s attendance area, according to the PTA. Moreover, the quality of education at the School was considered low. Neighborhood parents decided to change the equation and hit upon lowering average class sizes as the key to improving the educational experience and attracting neighborhood kids into the School. The parents agreed to fund the purchase of two portable classrooms and to annually raise funds sufficient to pay for approximately three new teachers at the School. The District, in return, agreed to the enrollment cap. The addition of the portables plus the conversion of an interior space into an additional classroom resulted in the average number of students per classroom being reduced from 26 prior to the contact to 21 thereafter.

The agreement appears to have achieved its goals, according to the PTA. Neighborhood enrollment at the School substantially increased (to about 50% of the School’s attendees last year), while the quality of the education received by its students dramatically improved. Students at the School consistently outperform both their City and State counterparts on standardized tests, and McGilvra was one of only five Seattle elementary schools honored during the last school year with a Washington State Achievement Award. From the PTA’s point of view, the contact was working as intended.

So what happened? School District spokesperson Teresa Wippel provided this explanation: “We recognize and appreciate the key role that our parents and our PTSAs play in supporting each of our schools. We also believe it's in the best interest of Seattle Public Schools to make centralized decisions about staffing and class size so there is equitable allocation of space. By owning the [McGilvra] portables, we can ensure the most efficient use of the school's classroom spaces and determine the appropriate staffing level consistent with our funding formulas.” She adds that the District is not abrogating the contract with the PTA but simply exercising its right under the contract to buy the portables back from the PTA (an expense the District estimates to be $60,000 or less). That, however, effectively terminates the contract at its half-way point, giving total control to the School District to determine future enrollment at McGilvra.

The McGilvra PTA now has to deal with what is a fait accompli. Before telling the PTA that the contract’s enrolment caps were no longer operable, the School District already had increased the number of students at McGilvra. For this school year, 270 students were enrolled at the School compared to 246 students last year. There are currently 266 students enrolled; and of these, 70% are from inside McGilvra’s recently enlarged student attendance area, which includes Madison Park and surrounding neighborhoods. The big enrollment increase came primarily in the Kindergarten class, which grew from 39 students to 54 students, year over year. The PTA’s immediate reaction to this has been to hire part-time tutors as a pilot program to help reduce the adult-to-student ratios in the two Kindergarten classrooms.

McGilvra’s PTA has been raising well over a quarter of a million dollars each year to support quality education at the School. Last year, this funding represented about 20% of McGilvra’s operating budget, according to the District. In spite of the changed circumstances, says PTA Co-President Bridge, “Our PTA will continue to raise money to support our teachers and students at McGilvra. We think it’s more important than ever to do so.” She notes that funds raised by parents will most likely be used for academic enrichment, such as supporting the School’s arts programs and the library. Additionally, the PTA may give assistance in core academic areas, such as providing math specialists and tutor support.

Nevertheless, there’s concern by parents that larger class sizes will have a negative impact on the quality of education their children receive at the School. Ann Skrobut, who has two daughters at McGilvra, says she’s been frustrated with the School District’s leadership, though she understands there are a lot of very big issues on their plate and respects the work they are doing. Nevertheless, she adds, “One would think that they might focus their energy on the schools that actually need their help and leave the ones that are doing well alone. I feel like we have had more than our fair share of turmoil: poor leadership, lack of support for special education, and now too-big kindergarten classes.” That said, however, she believes that the McGilvra community will come up with creative solutions to deal with this new challenge. “The volunteers I’ve worked with aren’t going to let something we have worked so hard to build be compromised,” she adds.

Corinne Crabs, a McGilvra parent actively involved in the PTA, is also concerned about the new enrollment levels. She says that studies show that lower class sizes are especially important for children in Kindergarten through at least the second grade. Her husband, Karl, shares this concern, adding that the process also bothers him. “I’m always suspicious of greater centralized decision making,” he told us. “I hope the central planners at the District actually have some ideas about how to keep parents engaged at the individual school level. It seems that the District should be facilitating all that funding and energy coming from the PTA, instead of becoming a bigger bureaucracy.” He adds that he’s still hopeful the PTA can find a way to keep McGilvra an outstanding school.

For its part, the McGilvra PTA is being circumspect, at least in its public pronouncements. Co-President Bridge admits, however, that the termination of the ten-year contract with the District is a disappointment. “We as a parent community felt strongly that this agreement benefitted all of the children at McGilvra, as well as the School District,” she says. “Under our contract we were able to not only educate significantly more students by increasing the capacity of our school at parent expense, but to do so with excellence.” She adds that the PTA was “very flexible in trying to negotiate a fine-tuning of the agreement to meet all of our needs, but the District stated that they were not interested in the same kind of partnership that we have had together.”

Bridge tells us that the McGilvra PTA will be investigating how some Seattle public schools with larger class sizes than McGilvra’s have still been able to maintain high academic achievement. The PTA will simply have to consider assisting the School in some new ways. “Our teachers and parent community have met daunting challenges before,” she says. “Suffice it to say that the parents at McGilvra will do whatever we can to continue to support our incredible teachers and do the best for our students.”

[The McGilvra PTA met last night to discuss the implications of the School District’s decision to ramp up enrollment. We will provide a full report on that discussion in a posting later this week.]

Read More

School District reneges on agreement

McGilvra shines, but will it always?

When the Seattle School District issued its new school rankings late last year, John J. McGilvra Elementary scored at the top, receiving a “5” on a five-level scale. It was a bit of a “no duh” moment. As we previously reported, McGilvra’s students last year significantly outperformed both their City and State counterparts on the newly introduced Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) tests. Because the District’s new school rankings are primarily based on whether a school has a high percentage of students passing the MSP reading and math tests, McGilvra’s showing was essentially pre-ordained. Shockingly, however, McGilvra was one of only 11 elementary schools and one K-8 school in the district to be ranked at Level 5. There are 52 elementary schools and 10 K-8 (kindergarten through 8th grade) schools in Seattle, 13 of which received a “1” ranking.

Why are McGilvra’s students performing so well? One of the reasons, certainly, is the fact that the parents of McGilvra students have taken an increasingly active role in the School’s operations over the past decade, including providing a significant level of private financing to the School. That funding effort began in earnest with the decision by parents in 2000 to fund the purchase of two portables so that McGilvra could have more classroom space and thus reduce class size. At the time the portables were purchased, the School District entered into a twenty-year contract with the McGilvra PTA under which the District agreed to use the new teaching space to reduce class size. The PTA committed to fund the hiring of additional teachers for the School as well as covering the purchase price of the portables.

As a result of the agreement, the McGilvra PTA for the past ten years has been providing a substantial subsidy to the School, one which currently exceeds a quarter of a million dollars annually. This outside funding, according to the PTA, represents about a fifth of the School’s total budget and is sufficient to pay for approximately three classroom teachers. As a result of this support, the School in recent years has been able to staff two classrooms per grade (Kindergarten through Grade 5) with an average of only 21 students in each classroom.

From the point of view of McGilvra’s parents, the contract with the District has worked as intended over its first decade. Now, however, that agreement has been thrown into dispute. The PTA believes that the School District is in violation of the agreement, and the parents have hired legal counsel to help them make their case. At issue is the District’s decision to allow a significant increase in enrollment at McGilvra this school year. The PTA believes that the 10% increase in the student population at McGilvra conflicts with a District commitment to maintain enrollment at no more than 250 students. There were 246 students at the School last year, and there were 270 students enrolled at the beginning of this school year (266 students as of January 1). The biggest increase occurred in the kindergarten class, which went from 39 students in the 2009-2010 school year to 54 students today. The fourth grade class increased from 39 students to 48 students; and all of the other classes also increased in size, except for the third grade, which declined.

The District apparently does not agree that it is obligated by the 2000 contract to maintain enrollment at the 250 student level or below, as the PTA argues. Nor, apparently, does it accept the PTA’s additional contention that by terms of the contract, kindergarten enrollment was not to exceed 20 students per classroom. This year’s kindergarten enrollment is 35% higher than that maximum level.

The PTA stated its position in a letter from its legal counsel to the District in September, following which representatives of the District and PTA met to discuss the situation. At first it appeared that the School District was willing to debate the issue and come to some workable compromise with the PTA (a so-called memorandum of understanding or MOU). However, a December 8 memo from the PTA Board to McGilvra parents makes it clear that the negotiations have broken down. The memo states that “the District’s attorney advised us that he had reviewed our draft MOU with the ‘very top’ officials in the District and the District was no longer willing to enter into any type of meaningful MOU or clarification of our Agreement.”

The memo further states that the District’s attorney told the PTA negotiators that “the District would prefer to terminate the Agreement with the McGilvra PTA altogether.” Since under the terms of the agreement the School District is obligated to repay the PTA for the costs of the portables if it cancels the contract, this would be an expense for the District (estimated at $54,000-$60,000). That’s not much money, however, relative to what the PTA is providing the District on an annual basis. And, as the PTA board notes in its memo, “Obviously, we do not want a $60,000 buy-out. We want to continue our Agreement.”

That, however, appears not to be an option. Given the District’s response, the PTA believes it has limited choices: 1) sue the District, 2) give up and walk away, or 3) “develop a new way forward to make sure McGilvra continues to be a nurturing and wonderful school for our children.” The memo from the PTA board to the parents makes clear that the third choice is the one the PTA is embarking upon. What this means may become evident over the remaining course of the school year, as the PTA works with McGilvra’s Principal, Mary Lane, to determine what McGilvra would look like if there “was not a dime from the PTA.” The purpose of that exercise, says the PTA Board, is to “make sure the PTA is not funding something the District would otherwise be required to fund.” Once that is known, the PTA says it will develop a plan for funding needed programs at McGilvra in future years.

The McGilvra PTA/School District contract was negotiated ten years ago under a previous Seattle Schools administration. Although current School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson told McGilvra parents at a meeting last January that the agreement with the McGilvra PTA would “for now” remain unchanged, her commitment apparently did not extend into the new school year. In certain quarters there have always been questions of elitism and “fairness” surrounding the concept of a public school in an affluent neighborhood receiving private funds to support the education of children in that school, money that is not made available to the public school system as a whole.

.

It seems that the District’s attitude toward this kind of “special arrangement” has changed. The question now is: how will the parents and the School adjust to this new reality? We will explore that issue as the situation at McGilvra is clarified in coming months.

Read More

McGilvra still scores high

The beginning of the new school year provides a good excuse for an update on the academic ranking of our own McGilvra Elementary School. Last year, as you may recall, the State ditched the controversial WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) test. The newly elected schools superintendent, Randy Dorn (who was promptly arrested for drunken driving soon after assuming his new leadership/role model position) had campaigned against the WASL. So at the end of the last school year third through eighth graders took a different set of tests, the MSP (Measurements of Student Progress), which covers four academic disciplines: reading and math for all grades; writing for fourth and seventh grades, and science for fifth and eighth grades. With the exception of the writing test, MSP will ultimately be an online test for each of the six grades tested, though last year none of McGilvra’s students took the tests online.

The results are now in for all of the State’s schools for the 2009-10 academic year—and it’s no surprise, given the school’s consistently high scores on the WASL tests, that McGilvra again proved to be a high-achievement school under the new testing regime. Last year, as we reported, between 83 and 95 percent of McGilvra students passed the various WASL tests. This year, McGilvra’s passing scores ranged from 79 to 93 percent on the MSP.

On average, McGilvra outperformed the Seattle Public Schools by a 23 point margin on the eight tests, while the School beat the State’s overall passing scores by an average of 28 points. Looking at these numbers another way, the average passing score for all of Seattle’s 3rd, 4th and 5th graders was 64%, versus 87% for McGilvra’s. That equates to 36% more of McGilvra’s students having passed the MSP than passed in the Seattle Public Schools overall.

The biggest achievement gaps were seen for the fifth graders, who at McGilvra passed their three tests with an average rate of 87%, versus an average passing rate of 57% for the Seattle Public Schools. Notably, McGilvra fifth graders scored very high on the science and math tests (84 percent passing on both tests). There was a huge 50-point gap between the passing scores of McGilvra students and those of Washington students on the MSP fifth-grade science test.

Reading proved to be one of the strongest subjects for McGilvra students, with 91% of the third and fourth graders and 93% of the fifth graders passing the MSP. The average number of McGilvra students passing the math tests was 85%. Writing, however, proved a tougher subject, with only 79% of McGilvra fourth graders passing this test, just 14 points higher than for the City as a whole. This is an area that the McGilvra staff has been working on for several years, but 91% of its fourth graders passed the WASL writing test the previous year. It is likely, given the new MSP data, that special emphasis will continue to be placed this year on this crucial subject.

Interestingly, McGilvra’s teachers were slightly less experienced than for the Seattle Public Schools as a whole (11 years on the job versus 12 years), but they are more educated (72% have master’s degrees or higher, versus 53% for the Seattle Public Schools overall). The student/teacher ratio is also better at McGilvra than for the City as a whole (14 students per teacher at McGilvra versus 18 for all Seattle schools on average).

Finally, it is worth noting that the composition of McGilvra students is different in several ways from that of Seattle’s schools as a whole. Only 23% of McGilvra’s 257 students were classified as minorities in the last school year, versus 56% for the Seattle Public Schools. And only 8% of McGilvra’s students were receiving free or reduced-price meals, a low-income-family measurement. For the Seattle Public Schools that figure is 43%.

Read More

From China to McGilvra

Mary Lane takes control

It was with a certain sense of déjà vu that I sat in the McGilvra principal’s office today for a chat with the School’s incoming head, Mary Lane. The new school year is about to begin and McGilvra is under new leadership. That, of course, was also the situation last year when I sat in the same office talking to the then-new principal, DeWanda Cook-Weaver, about her plans for the upcoming school year. Those plans, as we now know, didn’t quite pan out.

When listening to Lane, however, I had the strong sense that this time the School has someone in the top job who’s likely to be around for the long haul. I fully expect to be interviewing her at the end of this school year about all that she and her team accomplished in her first term.

But before we get to her plans and objectives, let’s do the bio. Lane is a Virginia native who began her career in education as a 3rd and 4th grade classroom teacher. She’s a bit coy about how long she’s been an administrator but admits to having been a principal “for many years.” This experience included stints at schools in the Olympia area, as well as Hawkins Middle School in Kitsap County. Then, after eleven years in Washington, she packed up and moved to the Dominican Republic, where she served as an assistant superintendent of a school district catering to the children of expats. She followed this up with a move to China, were she served as principal of a large private school, Shanghai American.

Why go overseas? “I was at a point where I was able to do it,” she says, “and I wanted to experience education in a different way. Change is good—every five to seven years or so.” She learned a lot during her seven years abroad, she notes, but her goal was always to return to Washington. And when the McGilvra position came open this year it was one of several job prospects she considered. Lane decided that after having lived in Shanghai, she might have found Olympia to be too small. But Seattle was the right size—and McGilvra was the “perfect match.” Her goal had been to live downtown and be close to her work, preferably located in an old red-brick schoolhouse. Well, she achieved all of that. She now makes the short commute to Madison Park’s 1913 brick elementary from her new abode in Belltown.

So how does she like it so far? Well, first a nod to what she terms the ”highly involved” parents (some might say notoriously involved parents) of McGilvra. “They’re delightful, dedicated, and interesting,” she tells me, “but I don’t see this parent group as at all different from what I’ve dealt with in the past.” She notes the similarity of McGilvra’s parents with the parents of kids in the private schools she’s administered. “These are parents who are very interested in their children’s education, people with high expectations.” And it’s certainly better to have “highly involved” parents, she adds, than the other thing.

Next, a nod to the “wonderful, talented and dedicated” teachers and staff of the school, who she has discovered are “nice people too!” She says she’s making it a point to try to sit down with each one individually, asking three basic questions: what are your concerns, what are your hopes, and if you could change one thing, what would it be? She’s not telling me specifically what she learned, but she notes that she was surprised by the consistency of the responses. And she professes enthusiasm about the level of interest everyone on the staff has in their own professional development. She says she believes that this bodes well for new methods of delivering education at McGilvra.

She points, in particular, to the rollout this year of a different kind of literacy program in the school that encourages students to take more ownership in the learning process and, hopefully, view themselves as authors. For innovative programs such as this, she notes, “we have the luxury of being able to look at growth, since the students in the school are already doing well.”

What she hopes to foster at McGilvra, she says, is “a professional learning community, one that focuses on what we want to accomplish so we know when we do accomplish it.” This means working together, understanding student data, utilizing new tools, and setting goals. “We need to create cultures in our schools where teachers have as many ‘light bulb’ moments as the children have.”

It’s a tall order, but she’s ready to get started. And next Wednesday, the first day of the new school year, a full school assembly will get to see the new principal in action for the first time.

“It feels good be home and in a community,” she says in closing. “I think this is the right fit.”

Read More