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The fake news was almost the real news. The District’s recommendation only includes one elementary school closure, Beattie. They’re confident the plan maintains quality education for all students and helps achieve a better financial picture. Students will be relocated to Johnson, Lopez, or choice into another school. Human resources is working on a “dignified process” for staff placement. The entirety of the plan can be read here and a survey soliciting feedback about it can be taken here.
The findings in the plan reveal the District’s values. The rationale is presented transparently, they value the dual language program at Irish, the IB World curriculum, and the District seriously considered how closing one school and moving those students around would affect other schools.
At the same time, the effect of this recommendation, if accepted, on the families and students at Beattie is something to keep track of. There’s a fight a going on to save Beattie, and there’s a meeting tomorrow at the school, 7pm, about the closure plan. Another meeting will be held Wednesday at 7pm at Lopez to discuss how Lopez and Johnson will be affected.
A lot of people we talked to in building this story, especially those at Irish, are excited by the news of the recommendation. They should be, they worked hard, but it’s important to remember the news wasn’t good news for everyone. As I’m writing this, students and parents from Beattie are marching, chanting, and waving signs in the Martin Luther King Day parade stretching from Old Town to Campus.
Students march on MLK day to save Beattie.
As we near the end of this process, as the Board reviews the recommendation and makes their final decision I’d like to step back and look at the bigger picture, try to outline the context of this unfortunate process. It’s possible, if the budget picture doesn’t change for the better soon, we’ll continue to have these discussions. For the pending decision, and future conversations, there are some key issues, gathered from parents, students, teachers, officials, and community members over the last few months, that need to be addressed.
The Budget
According to the District’s webpage, PSD schools already had to cut 12 million dollars—with the zeroes for greater visual impact that’s $12,000,000—for the 2010-2011 school year which we are halfway through. This challenge grows more complicated with a further decrease in property tax revenues predicted for this year combined with the State's budget mess—good luck Mr. Hickenlooper. Another way to phrase this is “the Poudre School District cannot afford to keep all of its schools open without significant cuts elsewhere” which is the premise opening the Underutlized School Plan. As Assistant Superintendent Dr. Hahn adds, “Right now we still don’t have the picture of what the next funding cycle for the state as well what the fiscal realities will be for us from the Governor's office and the legislature as well.” This is the most fundamental challenge our community faces regarding our schools.
At the same time voters will remember recent passage of a Mill Levy and Bond issue to support our school district. A number of parents I talked to were hopeful and asked after the ballot, “does this mean we can take closure off the table?”
Ellen Laubhan, the District’s Director of Communication explains, “With a Mill Levy and a Bond those monies are designated, so each school went through a very in-depth process to determine their needs. The Mill is annual, the Bond is one-time capital construction, building improvements, over a ten-year period. So these monies are designated, and the district-wide funds that were on the ballot were not specifically to go to support small, or underutilized schools. That was an area that was considered but not an area that was put forth.”
The district places exceptional effort into communicating information to the public through forums and the PSD webpage. The language of the ballot initiatives was clear. At the same time, it isn’t clear why the biggest issue currently facing Poudre Schools was considered, but not put forth on the ballot. Rationally, the explanation of how these funds work is clear, but emotionally, many people, especially those families who call Beattie their neighborhood school, still feel they voted to support our schools.
Regardless, those funds are allocated and the issue now is how to get by in this era of flat growth and decreased funding. How the Board came to the resolution asking the District to come up with a plan to address the inefficiencies of underutilzed schools isn’t hard to understand. As Ellen Laubhan points out, “From a budget point of view, these schools that are fuller are operating more efficiently.” The other side of that equation, as Dr. Hahn states is, “It costs more to educate students in a small school.”
This is a new challenge for the Poudre School District. The district has been performing well even at a per pupil funding level that ranks low in the state. We already have strong, efficient schools. It’s the combination of funding loss and the end to the growth our community had been enjoying. “We’ve been fortunate,” Ellen Laubhan says. “This is an issue that every school district deals with eventually. We’d been growing, but now we’ve been flat for 6-8 years, now we have mature neighborhoods. We just haven’t have to deal with this.”
Any solution, including or excluding closure, has to address these budgetary concerns. The November ballot is long gone, next year’s state budget doesn’t sound promising. As Mike Juniper, a parent of a student at Irish says, “All of these, the need for the mill and bond, the issue of closure, all have the same cause and that’s the state budget issue.”
Trust in the Process
Somewhere in this process something has gone wrong. Community members I talk to express distrust of officials in the district and the school board. The nature of these concerns isn’t as important as what they illustrate—severe distrust.
Although the district worked to create a deliberative process that includes community feedback at every step, the community members I’ve spoken to haven’t exactly felt heard. Maybe that’s changed now that their individual schools don’t seem targeted, but John Lynn, for one, is still fighting for the larger issue of neighborhood schools
John, who’s a visible leader in the Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood Schools, says, “the District is ignoring us. The Board is listening, and in fact, most agree the process is bad, and if they had known then what they know now, they would have done a better job. They seem reluctant to recognize the concept of ‘garbage in, garbage out’, that is, they seem unwilling to stop the process, somehow forgetting that they will not get anything valuable from such an invalid process.”
Part of this distrust seems to stem from the starting point of the process. Dr. Hahn explains, “The plan itself all emanates from the Board resolution, which the Board has asked us to address underutilized facilities, underutilized schools. With that we had to create some criteria around how we identify which of our schools are underutilized. We have a variety of data points around that. All the data points were applied to all schools. With that we have identified which of the schools within our district are the most underutilized per our criteria.”
There is a real attempt at fairness and transparency by applying the criteria broadly and to all schools. Still the questions of fairness raised by Mike Juniper and Shaunda Stahl at Irish in Part II of this series are present in John Lynn’s critique. Looking at our schools in terms of cold numbers just does not work for people. The data points are disputed, the numbers are distrusted. From the very beginning, the Coalition, and other active parents, have felt they’ve had to frame their arguments in ways that address the narrow values used to identify underutilized schools when these are not the ways they value their schools. Instead of focusing on solutions they’ve felt pushed to discredit the premises of the process.
Simultaneously, the energy and passion of the community conflicts with the slow, deliberative process and leaves people feeling frustrated. When I ask John about the impact of the community’s engagement at the December 14th Board Meeting he says, “As far as we can tell, nothing is being done. We believe the Board may be pondering the input received, and the general response indicated we were highly effective at demonstrating a much broader support base.”
When I talk to Dr. Hahn and Ellen Laubhan, it’s clear they’re processing and taking seriously the conversations from that Board Meeting. This is also clear in the final recommendation. I ask Dr. Hahn how he characterizes this sense of conflict, he says, “The way we’ve been looking at it is, we have competing value systems out in our community around one we have to be fiscally responsive, and responsible with tax-payer dollars as well as with utilizing our facilities efficiently but also maximizing education opportunities for students.”
These conflicts presented themselves clearly to the District when they held their small school forums. The entire process is complicated and emotional, but Dr. Hahn expresses gratitude for having all these values come into view, “every time you talk to someone you get a different dimension revealed, underneath that there’s a different value being expressed, and how do we address this topic with all those competing values? Ultimately, that’s what this process has allowed to surface, what are those competing values, so that we can make a solid recommendation to the Board by having all the information come to us.”
As community members respond to last week’s recommendation, it will be clear if they’ve felt heard in a meaningful way. It will also be clear if people were really fighting for all neighborhood schools or just their own. It’s possible the pressure put on the district and the passionate, creative solutions brought forth might disappear into the entropy of contentment knowing that one’s particular school was “saved.” It will be interesting to see, as PSD Schools move forward, how the questions, challenges, and alternative solutions with merit are considered.
As Lynette Salzman, principal at Irish points out, “The historical perspective is that Fort Collins has always supported its public schools, and it would be surprising if closing schools would be our community’s first blush at saving money in the school district.” The point she is raising is that our community has done everything to support the district, including passing the November ballot measures. Should this outpouring of support for our neighborhood schools not be handled well it could strain District-community relations. With recent ballot issues passing by narrow margins, it’s not clear if the district can afford to risk the support of families at Beattie.
Most importantly, the district needs to assess its process. When all this is finalized, the feelings of distrust and not being listened to might go away; they might even be replaced by a new, shiny confidence. But anger was a very real reaction in the heat of this process. These lingering sentiments will have an effect on the future of the district.
Alternative ideas
As the underutilized school plan states, “the Poudre School District cannot afford to keep all of its schools open without significant cuts elsewhere.” Naturally, the Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood schools, the affected families and staff, wanted to know what those “other significant cuts” might be.
At the December 14th Board Meeting dozens of questions and suggestions are raised. Mike Juniper asked why every school doesn’t attempt an innovation and efficiency plan to save money district-wide before we consider closing a single school. Chad Shavor from the Growing Project has taught in the district and continued to build a collaboration between the schools and Mulberry Community Gardens; he sees a lot of money saving, food-growing potential, combined with educational opportunities for the the district’s land holdings. John Lynn, and others ask, “They [the District] own[s] more than $5M worth of land that they are banking—some of which can never be used for District buildings or operations. Why not sell?” Or, “Furlough days will save a great deal more—$750K per furlough day, and we have 4 collaboration days that wouldn't impact instruction. And, our Superintendent makes $240K/year, plus benefits, and is in the top 5 highest paid Superintendents in Colorado. Why not cut his salary, instead of closing schools?”
Similarly, Lynette Salzman asks, “Could we consider furlough days, extended days and reduced week, paid bussing on a sliding scale...? Have any of these ideas been discussed at length?”
Even with the recommendation finalized these questions are still pertinent to keeping Beattie open. There’s more good ideas in the Efficiency and Closure plans drafted by the schools involved.
I ask Dr. Hahn about the ideas out there and he seems receptive, specifically to the idea of having more schools prepare Innovation and Efficiency plans. “One idea is that this model around those innovation and efficiency plans may be something that continues on beyond this one year. That has been in conversation as something we may continue to use. The schools that have been involved in this process have found it very invigorating. Our board and district are very interested in having schools carry on these conversations beyond this year.” The question that lingers is will this be done to save schools now, or save money later?
There’s passion and creativity behind these ideas. There are a lot of ideas being discussed, and it takes time to try them, but the question the Coalition to Save Our Neighborhood Schools raises, is ‘isn’t it worth it to slow down and figure out what it takes before we close a school?’ They don’t buy the assumption that we have to close any schools. Jumping to ‘Which schools should we close?’ without involving the community first, either through the ballot or a deliberative process, with the question of whether or not any schools need to be closed seems to be a big source of the conflict between the District and the community.
In any event, community members and the school staff who crafted these plans are going to want to see their ideas to save their schools attempted before the doors are closed.
Equity, Social Justice, and Quality of Life
The District’s starting point of identifying underutilized schools tried to be blind to socioeconomic status and ethnicity, but some people feel this isn’t possible. Factors of class and poverty are going to impact raw data and ignoring this fact is irresponsible. Identifying schools based on school choice without accounting for what impacts school choice hides serious issues. If the district wants to improve it’s Hispanic drop-out rate, if the district isn’t targeting schools they thought would go quietly, then they need to factor in who is educated at the schools on the closure list.
It’s awful that a parent should feel, “I shouldn’t have to live in a $300,000 house to walk my kids to school.” Or, that a father should feel he has to, as at least one did, bring a sign to the Board Meeting that says, “DON’T BE RACIST.” Their perspective is that trying to be blind to these factors is a great way to institutionalize discrimination and perpetuate injustice. As Shaunda Stahl, a teacher at Irish says she’s “fending for my Children,” because “these decisions were made based on numbers which is wrong in and of itself.”
Parents are raising the issue that any final recommendation needs to account for the impacts on lower-income families. This is a tricky question. Would community members feel the same if the district said ‘We’re closing Zach Elementary because, although it’s a new building these families can afford the burden.’ The question illustrates how hard it is to fairly account for these very real differences.
Although the north-side schools are not currently up for closure, the fairness of looking at Irish and Putnam has been a real issue for Fort Collins. The district, as Dr. Hahn notes, is taking into account how the city is changing, “Our potential growth patterns are even more outside Fort Collins and to the south.” But Principal Salzman, states, “we have learned that there is growth potential in the north areas of Fort Collins. Would we be short-sited to jump to closing north area schools with the potential for new housing development?” Revitalization of the north side of town, which always seems just on the verge of taking off, could make the closing of some of these schools seem painfully short-sighted.
The other problem hidden in any South versus North argument is that it’s code for “Rich versus Poor,” “White versus Hispanic,” and others harder to qualify, and perhaps unfairly attributed, value clashes around consumerism and the environment.
Most importantly, as demonstrated by the signs and suggests on December 14th, issues of social justice cannot be overlooked. Dr. Hahn says officials understand this and “we have to take those other components into account in our recommendation.” How much, or how well these concerns are answered is very important for the district and the families impacted by these recommendations.
The Value of Neighborhood Schools vs School Choice
Perhaps most obvious is the District’s need to sort out its values. Is it more important to have school choice as it currently functions, or to have all our neighborhood schools intact? It’s not clear if the efficiency question can be solved by smarter boundaries and a different approach to choice, but it is clear that these factors stack the deck against many of the schools on the closure list.
School choice programs have a Milton Friedman “greed is good” stink about them. It’s a fair question to ask if it’s a good idea to apply free-market, profit-loving principles to how we manage our public schools, especially when it’s not clear if our schools are “too big” or “too small” to fail. Especially when all of us are funding the schools. Ellen Laubhan acknowledges, “We are creating some unintended consequences with school-choice. Parents love choice, but they are creating some unintended consequences.”
Mike Juniper says, “The school of choice is a fine thing, but it undoubtedly does damage to neighborhood schools. The district should be educating people who express interest in choicing out of neighborhood schools about the benefits of neighborhood schools in general, and the specific merits of their neighborhood school. It does nothing as far as I can tell, nothing to do that.” This is the cost of choice—schools end up competing for enrollment. However, when schools’ core pedagogies, and the neighborhoods they call home, are different, the competition is inherently unfair.
In defence of neighborhood schools Lynette Salzman says, “there are many values to small, neighborhood schools. Among them are knowing all students and their families, making home visits multiple times per year, parents freely come to school events and bring family members, neighbors who get to know all school staff and teachers, parents and community members volunteer more as they are comfortable in the school, there is a much greater level of trust between school and community. Additionally, the community supports the school whether they have children in the school or not.”
The issue to be resolved, set up by the data points used to identify underutilized schools, is which is more important to Fort Collins: school choice, or neighborhood schools.
Not a Conclusion
As far as I can tell there’s no villain here. Like Dr. Hahn states, there are a lot of competing values. How these values are accounted, or not accounted for, in the District’s recommendations is something that is going to be felt differently neighborhood by neighborhood. Still, there’s time for the District and Board to answer and respond to the community and there’s time for the community to continue to challenge and collaborate with the district. There’s room to incorporate and ingore some of the great ideas that surfaced. Until that time is up there’s no conclusion to this story.
The only thing I can say is that this is justifiably an emotional, and intense process. Our schools, our neighborhoods, our children’s futures, our quality of life is at stake.
No one denies the success of some of these schools. Lynette Salzman describes what’s at stake this way, “good things are happening in the schools being considered for closure. Amazing children are LEARNING. We have a mountain of documentation to demonstrate their successes. It would set them back years academically, socially and emotionally to be removed from their school and they may never recover.”
Ellen Laubhan acknowledges, “it’s so difficult to look at a school as bricks and concrete, and roof, when it’s so much more, it is so much more than that. We are thrilled that our families like their neighborhood schools, there’s no greater thing. There were 300 parents here at the board meeting last week. They were respectful and talked positively about their schools, and asked questions. It is a joy to behold them caring so much.” |
