District Puts South End Schools on Notice—by Giving Them a Couple of Million Dollars

Rainier Beach High School, Cleveland High School, and Aki Kurose Middle School have been plagued by declining enrollment and mediocre test scores.

A A A Comments (1) By Nina Shapiro Wednesday, Sep 19 2007

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Somehow, that never quite came off. Four academies quickly dwindled down to three, which have, in Fisher's words, since dwindled down to two "watered-down" academies—even though Cleveland's sprawling new complex of buildings was designed with four academies in mind.

Consequently, Fisher says he is skeptical of this latest plan. "Our scores aren't going to magically go up because we have three new teachers," he says, echoing Singh's concern.

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Rainier Beach’s student body is about a third the size of that of other city high schools.

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School Board President Chow, who represents Southeast Seattle's District 7, acknowledges Fisher's sentiment. "I know enough about education to know that just throwing FTEs [full-time staffers] is not going to make it happen," she says.

But Chow says she is encouraged by the fact that the district has dedicated an administrator, former principal Pat Sander, to work closely with the schools on drawing up effective plans. And most everyone agrees that the scrutiny of southeast schools is a good thing, even if some would have liked that scrutiny to be extended to other schools in the neighborhood. ("The bottom line is limited resources," says Chow, explaining why it wasn't.)

"I was pretty impressed," says Rainier Beach PTSA President Laverne Andrews, speaking the day after the meeting in which the principal talked about the initiative. The Rainier Beach community has not always been receptive to proposed reforms. Last year, it nixed a district proposal to partner with a nonprofit called the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) and create a technology-focused school within the school (see "Schooling the District," Dec. 6, 2006). "Basically we were told their intentions were to come in and just take total control of Rainier Beach," she says, adding that it was presented to the community as "a done deal."

But Andrews, at least, feels that this time the district is coming to the community in better faith. "I'm happy they're finally getting something for us to work with," she says.

nshapiro@seattleweekly.com

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