(Image: Garfield HS PTSA via Facebook)
An afternoon walkout and surprisingly intense media coverage did nothing to sway Seattle Public Schools from its calculation that Garfield High School needs to drop a teacher midyear given the 23rd Ave school’s 2014/2015 enrollment numbers.
Monday afternoon, the district notified the school’s “community” that it was done reviewing its decision on the “state-mandated” enrollment adjustment:
After a review of the official state-mandated October 1 enrollment count, the district maintains its recommendation to shift the funding for one teacher from Garfield’s budget allocation to a school that is overenrolled.
Please know that this adjustment is not expected to affect a teacher of a core required subject and will not occur immediately; the affected teacher is expected to stay in place at least through the end of the first semester in order to minimize any disruptions to students’ schedules.
The full announcement is here.
CHS reported here on last Thursday’s student walkout to protest the cut.
We’ve asked the district for more information about its review of cuts at other area schools including Stevens Elementary this year but have not yet heard back. At Stevens, the school’s parent group has said it would work with Stevens and schools officials on a solution. The group is expected to help fund the teaching position at Stevens. We don’t know yet if that will also be the case at Garfield.
We also asked the school district last week for documentation of the same adjustment process they say played out in 2013 and 2014 but have not yet heard back on the request.
Sign of the times. We have as many millions as we need to build trolley-cars or dig downtown tunnels but we need to cut education to the bone, including mid-year cutting of teaching positions (not to mention, we start with a system that’s 47th largest class size in the USA statewide).
Politicians say, we can’t do anything because the money comes from separate funds! So our hands are tied. And, of course, on the last ballot we set up a separate fund for parks we can’t use for other things, and this election, we’re proposing to set up a separate city fund for transportation (advertising says buses, but the measure we’re voting on allows our city to spend money on any sort of transportation they like, including, of course, more trolley-cars.)
So Seattle winds up with a brand-spanking new late-19th century type transportation system, and oops, not enough money left over for education to even keep teachers in our schools.
Sorry about that students, the adults around here have other priorities!