The Highline School District will not seek federal school improvement grants for two small schools on SeaTac's Tyee High campus, but instead develop internal program changes.
The district was informed in January that Odyssey: The Essential School and the Academy of Citizenship & Empowerment (ACE) were eligible to apply for the federal grants because they are among the lowest achieving schools in the state.
Highline applied for and received two similar federal grants last year to transform SeaTac's Chinook Middle, located next door to Tyee, and White Center's Cascade Middle.
Board members unanimously approved Superintendent John Welch's recommendation after listening to teachers, students and former students at Odyssey, who voiced concerns about the school and the proposed changes.
Board president Sili Savusa remarked the comment session was more like a community meeting than a staid school board meeting. In reaction, board member Michael Spear declared the district should organize "an authentic listening session post haste."
Welch recommended that Odyssey "complete a design framework for the school whereby successful completion of the subject area and content expectations are achieved through competencies."
Odyssey principal Joan Ferrigno explains "competencies" as measuring skills and knowledge by having students demonstrate they have mastered a certain set of criteria in various subject areas. She said the set of criteria would be developed from national and state standards.
Welch also recommended that Odyssey add online learning through computers blended with instruction from teachers.
He said that students who do not want to continue at Odyssey under a competency-based approach would be allowed to transfer to other small schools at Tyee.
The competency-based program at Odyssey would be considered a school of choice and be open to students throughout the district, according to Welch.
Administrators will conduct a "recommitment conversation" with each Odyssey teacher to determine if the staff member wants to continue at the school under the new program, according to Welch.
Voluntary transfers will be allowed. Welch noted the district can also administratively transfer teachers.
Odyssey social studies teacher Mike Williams charged the changes are being made without listening to the community.
He said the competency-based approach might hurt the school. Opening Odyssey to all district students would dismantle a neighborhood school, he added.
Williams also called for the firing of his boss, Ferrigno.
Welch's plans for ACE include developing "an internal school improvement process and timeline focusing on the improvement of student achievement in math and literacy." Board member Susan Goding suggested that "core curriculum" be substituted for math and literacy.
Both schools would receive a minimum of $125,000 per year for three years from the district to support the plans.
Welch indicated the chances that the federal grants would be awarded to Highline were less than last year because there are more schools eligible and less funding.
Board members also approved formation of a new alternative middle school.
Big Picture Middle School will be based on the model of Big Picture High School, which is currently located on SeaTac's Glacier site. Both Big Picture schools are project based with personalized instruction.
The new middle school would start with two classes of seventh graders (40 students) in the 2011-2012 school year and grow to a seventh and eighth grade program in 2012-2013 with 80 students.
"Finalizing the location and space is the last big hurdle," Welch said.
Big Picture High is outgrowing its Glacier site so a new site must be secured for both schools, according to Welch. The Manhattan site in Burien is a possibility but it is currently being leased to the Federal Way School District as a temporary home for an elementary school.