Present: Linda Carlson, Monica Rush, Jane Fellner, Karen Jensen, Dana Nelson, Helen Schinske, Heather Holmback, Roberta Russell, Rick Paulsen, Marilyn Day (Washington Middle School principal), Robert Isgur, Mark Johnson, Val Morris-Lent, Marian Sussman, Diane Brooks, Stephanie Bower, Joanna Cullen, Donna Hargus, Kim Kemp

Jane opened the meeting by reporting on the Garfield High School principal search. The search committee interviewed four candidates; the committee didn’t say "no" to any of them but asked for more candidates for the pool. The committee is reluctant to go into the new year with an interim principal, Jane said. There’s some talk of a co-principal arrangement.

WASHINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Marilyn Day reported that she has hired a science teacher to replace Bob Isgur, who is retiring. Monica Beckman has an engineering background and lots of experience with the physical sciences. She’s currently teaching in the Renton school district, and will teach 6th grade. Marilyn said she is still looking for a French/Spanish teacher. Bob Isgur reported that Colleen Stump had spent time with the WMS teachers. Marilyn reported that because of a computer system changeover, the school will have to have the master schedule ready by June 1, much earlier than usual. Class size for 7th grade APP students will be 30 next year, as the class units have shrunk from 5 to four. She said that the school had to reduce its neighborhood enrollment by 30 kids next year, but that much of the reason for that is the addition of a self-contained special education class.

LOWELL
Lowell is also losing several long-time folks, including principal Hal Kimball, first grade teacher Penny Tisdale and teacher Katherine Jones. Jane said that "If anyone knows anyone who would be a great principal at Lowell, it’s important to get a principal who’s not embarrassed to advocate for kids and teachers." She said it would be great to have a minority candidate. She encouraged folks to get the interview training from the district so they can participate in these selection processes. The group discussed ways to take up a collection across schools to honor the departing employees. In other Lowell news, there will be 82 more kids at Lowell next year than there are currently. The biggest impact will be at the third and fifth grade level. This will create more overcrowding issues at Washington for the 2005-2006 school year. Various strategies will have to be considered to deal with the overcrowding in the program.

CENTRAL OFFICE
No one from the district attended the meeting. Jane reported that the central office does not have a hire for the vacant Nancy Angello position.

She said that the district is beginning the nomination process for the 2005-2006 school year late this spring, and also said that the district is considering dropping the COGAT test as an admission requirement for Specrum, making the acceptance into Spectrum mostly based on achievement.

This is being floated as a way to cut down on the testing of thousands of kids each year, but Jane said there were issues around whether changing the criteria would tilt the program more toward high achievement kids, as opposed to high ability kids (leaving out high-ability kids that are underachieving, for example). Tests that are already being given that are being considered as Spectrum screening measurements are the Direct Reading Assessment, the WASL, and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.

Linda Carlson pointed out that you can have a high-ability child that’s underachieving because of a weak teacher. The discussion covered the different abilities that the various tests measure. Val Morris-Lent said that relying on the Direct Writing Assessment could further slant the programs towards children with high verbal skills (potentially leaving children with high mathematical ability out).

Jane shared the diversity breakdown of the newly eligible students for APP program for 2004-2005:

19 percent Asian; 4.3 percent black, 3.7 percent Latino, 1.3 percent Native American, 72 percent white.

Spectrum:

20 percent Asian, 5 percent black, 6 percent Latino, 1 percent Native American and 68 percent white.

Everyone agreed that the program needs to be more diverse. But Diane Brooks predicted that the pressure on both programs from middle class families will only increase because of the economy; the skyrocketing costs of private schooling and other cost of living considerations are making private schooling an option for fewer parents.

In other district news, Jane said the central office is allowing Lowell teachers to rewrite their report cards to better serve the curriculum and the population there.

GARFIELD
Val reported that she went to the PTSA board meeting at Garfield. Ms. Derse was asked what parents could do to make it easier on the next principal. She said she would like some number-crunching help on how different programs are working for different kids, something that APP parents might be able to help with. She also asked folks to stand up at board meetings and other arenas and to stand up for Garfield.

Val reported that the PTSA is talking about funding some readers to help Language Arts teachers with grading written work.

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Ann Gwinn