Principal problem

FEW SCHOOL PRINCIPALS can claim cadres of supporters and detractors as vocal as those of Dan Barton, principal of West Seattle's Gatewood Elementary School.

Since taking over at the start of the 1993-94 academic year, Barton has focused on improving the teaching staff while implementing a cutting-edge curriculum of learning for the 21st century. He's attracted a core group of young teachers devoted to implementing the changes he espouses.

He's also made plenty of enemies who charge him with everything from sexual harassment to a vindictive management style to an uncontrollable temper.

The two sides squared off this February when West Seattle Herald writer Tim St. Clair published a long piece on Barton. The furor continued over the next two months as most every issue of the community newspaper included at least one letter either supporting or blasting the embattled educator.

The controversy over Barton comes at a time when the importance of principals is paramount in the Seattle School District. Under the late Superintendent John Stanford's initiative, more power has devolved to individual principals, who are seen as the CEOs of their schools. While many criticized Stanford for his failure to demote principals who didn't produce results, Joseph Olchefske, his successor, signaled in May that he isn't a get-along, go-along administrator. Superintendent Olchefske demoted four principals, the first such demotions in more than a decade. Barton, however, appears to enjoy Olchefske's support.

"There's no question there's a lot of controversy here," admits the 44-year-old Barton. "What we're trying to do is unbelievably challenging."

As a doctoral student, Barton says he was struck by two pieces of educational research. The first was the prediction that, due to advancing technology, about 80 percent of today's kindergarten students will end up working at jobs that didn't exist when they entered school. The second was an estimate that these same students will change careers at least four times during their lives. Thus, the principal reasoned, the educator's job isn't just to teach students, it's to teach students how to learn.

While teachers have long realized that students learn in different ways (educational theorist Howard Gardner identifies nine types of intelligence), efforts have previously focused on showing teachers how to teach in multiple ways, thus enabling them to connect with each student on their own level. Now, the leading edge of educational theory promotes teaching students to learn using all the multiple intelligences. "We need to now focus on children as independent learners," Barton says.

Gatewood students are grouped in dual-grade classes (K-1, 2-3, and 4-5) that are team-taught by a trio of teachers. Instead of removing students from the classroom for separate classes on art, music, and physical education, these topics are integrated into the regular classroom work.

The Gatewood curriculum is supported by four pillars—invariably referred to as the "The Big Four"—cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, technology, and critical thinking. Computer literacy has become as important as literacy in our information-driven society, argues Barton. And, as the Internet continues to bring more and more information of varying accuracy into our homes, teaching kids the skills needed to sift through it all becomes an imperative duty, he believes.

For many current Gatewood teachers, the chance to work at the school makes them feel like they've died and gone to heaven—and discovered that heaven looks a lot like grad school.

Christi Kessler was excited enough about Barton's views to move from Portland last year to take a job at Gatewood. "It's incredible to have a principal who is so knowledgeable and is working to put the theory into practice," she says.

Second-year teacher Jeff Rettig says he envisioned himself as the young educational maverick pushing the classroom traditionalists. "I expected to be a person challenging most of the traditional things here and saying, 'Why can't we do this?'" he recalls. Instead, he says he has joined a faculty and principal devoted to turning educational theory into classroom reality.

Sumiko Huff, a first-year teacher who recently graduated from the Seattle University master's program, says the concepts Barton espouses are well-known to educators, but can be a hard sell to parents. From the outside, "it's tough to see how these reform efforts work," she says, "especially since a lot of these parents weren't taught in [this] way."

BARTON'S DETRACTORS are a diverse group, ranging from teachers he pushed out of Gatewood to unhappy parents. Parent Susan Hannibal praises Barton's intentions, but questions his follow-through. "We liked what he said—how he articulated a vision for children in the 21st century," she says. "But after seven years, I would expect more."

This year Hannibal investigated rumors of an official reprimand against Barton and hit pay dirt. She obtained a copy of the September 13, 1999, reprimand through a public disclosure request and distributed it to other parents.

The reprimand, issued by Seattle School District's personnel director Michael Jones, begins by scolding Barton for some minor transgressions (a few public uses of the word "bitch" and a middle-school-caliber sexist joke), then cites the larger issue of a breakdown of professional boundaries between the principal and staff members. According to the reprimand, Barton inappropriately discussed his failing marriage with teachers and attempted to socialize with staff members, including two teachers who complained of being invited for one-on-one sailing trips on the principal's boat.