As humans, we naturally look for evidence to help us understand what is going on. However, as Sherlock Holmes noted in “Silver Blaze”, it is sometimes the absence of evidence that provides the most valuable clue.
And so it may be with the Jeffco Facilities Plan, where I have counted at least five important dogs that have yet to bark.
The Architect. There are many trends underway that will dramatically change the nature of K12 education over the next ten years, including the state-mandated transition from a system based on seat-time to one based on mastery of a defined sequence of competencies, increased emphasis on experiential/activity based learning, and greater use of adaptive, online, and blended learning technologies. Other districts have recognized that these will have a very big impact on their facility needs and the design of 21st century school buildings. But thus far, we’ve heard nothing about how these trends will affect Jeffco’s facility plans.
The Education Researcher. Have you seen the district present actual research findings on relative impact of K-6 versusK-5, and 6-8 versus 7-8 grade structures on student achievement? Or about the learning impact on a student who goes to a K-5 school then switches to a 6-8 school for sixth grade, and then switches again to another school (say, Manning or D’Evelyn) for grades 7 and 8? We’ve also heard claims that new buildings boost student achievement. But we’ve seen no research on that either.
The Director of Choice Enrollment. According to a new state law, schools that are closed by a district must be made available to charter school operators. While the current Jeffco school board will very likely reject new charter school applications, those rejections can be appealed to the State Board of Education, where they are much likelier to be approved. And if recent experience is any guide, opening new charters in Jeffco will lead to more students leaving district run schools. How do these second order effects factor into the facilities plan?
The Budget Director. Jeffco spends a billion dollars per year on its schools, yet at facility plan community meetings strong hints have been dropped that this isn’t enough, and that another mill levy override may appear on November’s ballot. But at these same meetings, one of the justifications made for closing and consolidating schools is to reduce the budget cost of maintaining a substantial amount of overcapacity in underutilized neighborhood schools. So why wouldn’t these budget savings also offset the need for another mill levy override?
The Diversity Advocate. I was struck last year by the vehemence of the opposition to moving the high performing Manning School into the facility now occupied by Everitt Middle School, which has a very low level of capacity utilization, even though that would have enabled more at-risk students to attend Manning. It struck me then that when it comes to diversity, there are a lot of double standards in Jeffco that nobody wants to publicly acknowledge. Yet here we are again, with adding additional classrooms to Manning being discussed at the facilities plan meetings, along with opposition to combining schools with very different student bodies, and the idea floated in Golden to turn Pleasant View elementary into a K-8 school that would draw at-risk students away from Bell Middle School.
All of these moves should logically draw the ire of Jeffco’s progressive diversity advocates; however, they have been strangely silent throughout the facilities debate. Full Disclosure: My kids all attended Wheat Ridge High School, where 50% of the students are at-risk, and achievement growth scores, along with the performance of the arts and athletics programs, are either the best or among the best in Jeffco. In my experience, diversity leads to excellence, even when you are in the oldest high school building in the district.
One hopes that before voting to put a bond issue and/or mill levy on the November ballot, the five members of the Jeffco school board will, like Sherlock Holmes, probe more deeply into the mystery of why these five dogs haven’t barked and what their silence really means.
Tom Coyne is a member of the Jeffco District Accountability Committee and Chairs the School Accountability Committee at Wheat Ridge High School. However, this column presents his individual view.