Sardines: What over crowding really looks like

FACT:

Our schools are overcrowded.  Seriously, grossly, ridiculously overcrowded.

What does that mean in numbers? It means that a school that was built to house 500 children, actually has 800-900 children in it. This isn't  just happening at one school; it is happening at ALL our schools. It means we could build a new elementary every single year and still not have enough room in our elementary schools for all our children. It means that there are almost more children attending school in portable buildings than in actual school buildings. It means Chiawana is the largest high school in the state and Pasco High isn't that far behind.

We're talking about "bursting-at-the-seams-defying-the-laws-of-gravity" full!

But kids aren't numbers. They are tiny humans who must live and learn and interact.  So what does over crowding look and feel like?

Overcrowding is when six-year-olds only get eight minutes to eat their lunch because they have to get out to make room for the next bunch of  children coming in to eat.

No time to eat your carrots, just throw them away and keep the line moving!

Overcrowding is when 40 girls try out for a middle school softball team, so they have to take turns playing every other week.

Overcrowding is a high school where the average student has never even met the principal, let alone formed a relationship with him or her.

Overcrowding is a brand new art room filled with supplies that will never be used because the art room just got converted into a third grade classroom.

Overcrowding is children being marginalized as they become just a random face in a sea of students, feeling disenfranchised.

Dude? Who just touched my butt? This isn't a subway ya know.

Overcrowding is holding assemblies in waves because you will never ever fit all of your students together in one gym.

Overcrowding is precious children being reduced to the numbers they contribute to and a cog in the system that needs to be simply turned.

Overcrowding is a principal welcoming in over 125 new kindergartners a year, into a sea of nearly one thousand students.

Have you ridden a school bus to McLoughlin lately? Here's what you're missing.

Overcrowding is students who have to change teachers (and sometimes even schools!) weeks into the school year because there isn't enough room to stay in the class they were originally assigned to.

Overcrowding is an elementary student who only gets taught music once a week because that's all the time available to each of the forty different classes she has to teach.

Overcrowding is a place called Portable City, where your middle school student only enters the main building once a day for lunch at 10:20 because they have to eat in shifts in order to fit everyone in.

Overcrowding is high school teachers sharing classrooms because there aren't enough rooms to go around, some times as many as three teachers in one room.  English being taught in math rooms, and history taught in science labs. The visuals and extra learning tools we would expect to see as part of a world class learning environment are unavailable simply because of space.

I can totally scaffold these lesson plans to accommodate the needs of the 40 kids in my class, no problem, I'll get right on it just as soon as I can get back into my classroom after the band teacher is done using it.

Overcrowding is an elementary orchestra class that meets in another teachers classroom during their prep hour, depriving the students of a proper environment to practice and the teacher of a proper place to plan.

Overcrowding is kids who will never be able to play sports because there are already too many kids on the team.

Overcrowding is bullying and fighting because there are more than 2000 students in the halls at the same time and there is no way for administrators to properly supervise them.

Overcrowding is never having the option to change schools no matter what the hardship because no school has room for even one more child.

My school has a brand new art room, but I"ll never see it because it's being used for math.

Overcrowding is Art on a Cart. It sounds cuter than it is.  There are no rooms left for art or music to have their own space. Teachers must bring all their supplies from classroom to classroom limiting what  they are able to prepare and use with students.

Overcrowding is not having enough building administrators to cover the needs of all the children.

Overcrowding is students who have their opportunities to participate and excel in extra curricular programs limited because of sheer overwhelming numbers.

The more the merrier! I'm happy being "just one more!"

Overcrowding is when middle and high school teachers have to change rooms every hour because there aren't enough classrooms for them to have their own. They can't be at the door to greet students when they arrive because they are trapped themselves in the hall among the hundreds of students also making their way through the chaos. Teachers can't take a few minutes to answer questions after class because they are rushing out the door to get to their next room assignment.  Teachers are limited to the supplies and resources they can carry with them.

Overcrowding is spending 20 minutes of your 25 minute lunch time in line waiting for food that is likely to run out before you even get to the front of the line.

Overcrowding is when a school uses a closet for a special education classrooms because it is the only space left available.

If it's good enough for Harry, it's good enough for me!

Overcrowding is a small number of adults watching nearly a thousand children on a single playground before school every morning.

Overcrowding is decreased family involvement because it's not worth fighting the crowd of hundreds to get into the building on Monster Math night.

Wow. That's  a lot of kids.

Overcrowding is teachers not knowing the other teachers in their building.

Overcrowding is students not knowing the other students in their building.

Overcrowding is not forming relationships, not making connections, being lost, and not belonging.

Just keep packing them in like sardines.  It won't make a difference.

OPINION:

In my humble opinion, there is no such thing as a bad bond in Pasco right now.  We need more space. Seriously! WE NEED MORE SPACE!  It doesn't really matter where. The west side is the most crowded. The elementary and high schools are the most crowded.  Some schools are horribly overcrowded. Some are grossly overcrowded. A few are just extremely overcrowded.  But EVERYTHING is crowded.  So no matter what is on the upcoming bond, we NEED it. WE NEED IT! I don't know what we need most. But there is no such thing as a bad bond at this point. We need schools of all shapes and sizes and locations. We need more schools. Every kind of school!

Well....
all kinds of schools except not preschools.

The one thing we don't need to pay for right now is a preschool.

We are overcrowded. DUH!  Why would we bring in more kids when we don't even have room for the k-12 students we've got right now?  That's just crazy!

And while any bond is a good bond at this point, there are some that are better than others.  One new building is good. Two new buildings is better. Three new buildings would be awesome! Ten new buildings would be pefection.

But let's be realistic. We can't actually run a bond with ten new buildings on it.  But what we can do is run a bond (and run our mouths) as if we actually have a clear picture of how we are going to deal with how massively behind the growth curve we are right now.

The school board recently agreed on a bond option that includes one new elementary, rebuilding Stevens, and adding a couple of classes to CHS and Marie Currie.  Those are all great things. Those are all things we need. BUT REALLY? IS THAT THE BEST WE CAN DO?

The school board thinks the community won't vote for a bond that's too high. They also think the overcrowding isn't THAT bad. And they have said they don't want to have to run another bond for 5 or 6 years.  We are several thousand children over capacity today.  We will be several thousand more children over capacity in five years.  Is one new elementary going to be enough? Obviously not.  We need more.

I believe the community will vote big (you did for the levy *thanks*) and that we need more than just one new school and a couple of classrooms on the bond.

There isn't much time to change the boards mind, but if they hear enough from the community about what you are willing to support on a bond, they may overturn this week's vote in favor of a better plan.

CALL TO ACTION:

1. Let the school board and the bond committee know what you'd like to see on the next bond. Let them know you will support a big bond. Do it today!
2. Get involved with the bond committee and help raise awareness about the bond.
3. Tell your friends why you support Pasco schools.
4. Vote for school bonds (no matter what) and encourage your friends to do the same. Voting no on a bond only punishes kids.  The board does not EVER get the message you are trying to send.  They still think the last failed bond was because no one wanted a middle school.   ??? 

Good luck my friends.

Prioritize. It's what adults do.

Question: Which one of these kids is more important?

Child A

Child B

Child C

Child D (Ohmigosh he's so CUUUUTTTEEE!!)

Child E

Go ahead and take your time. No rush.

Can't decide?

Oh wait- you think all children are equally valuable?

Good!!!

Congratulations you just passed the "decent human being" test!

Yes, all children are equally important.  All children are inherently valuable and deserve to be loved and cared for by adults.

All right now that we have agreed that all children are equally valuable, I'm gonna head to the store and get some groceries. But what am I gonna buy for the two billion children of the world?  I mean they are all important right? They all need to eat. I can't just buy groceries for my own kids can I? That would be crazy selfish. We just agreed that ALL children are equally important.  So I have to take care of them all. I have to use my resources on all of them. Right?

2 billion bottoms? We're gonna need a lot more toilet paper!

Of course not. That is not only ridiculous, it's impossible. I literally can not provide food for all the children of the world. If I try, every child will end up with about half a grain of rice before I run out of money and nobody gets to eat. Well, everybody can eat the half a grain of rice, since it's gluten free, but they will not be very satisfied.

Even this epic pizza cannot feed all the children in the world. 

The truth is ALL children are important, but not all children are my responsibility.   

Every parent is responsible for providing food for their own children. Every parent is not responsible for feeding all the children of the world.  

Now if you happen to be pretty successful at feeding all of your own children, you might (out of the kindness of your heart) want to take a look at your neighbor's children and see if they need some food too. And if you have resources to spare, you could feed them too. Or you could donate some money or food to a food bank or homeless shelter. Or hire ninjas to sneak food into their pantries if you're feeling really jaunty about it.

However, if you are homeless or your kids are going to school without a coat because you can't afford one, that probably isn't the best time to volunteer to be "snack mom" for the soccer team. Not even "Snack Ninja" despite how cool that would be. Basically, if you are struggling to take care of your own kids, you probably shouldn't volunteer to take care other people's kids.

Getting your kid a coat: Priority.

Getting super cute cupcakes for the football team: NOT a Priority.

Similarly, if you are crying yourself to sleep at night because your pantry is empty and you don't know what you will feed your kids tomorrow, you probably shouldn't be trying to sign papers to adopt someone else' kids. It doesn't mean you are cruel and it doesn't mean you hate children, it just means you know how to "adult".

I was gonna fill these shelves with like books but I decided instead I wanted to
buy a couple of ponies because all kids like ponies and not all kids like math.
No, I don't know where we're keeping the ponies or how we will afford to feed
the ponies for years to come.
Stop talking about this. Do you hate ponies and children or something?

As adults we understand that there are things in life that we must do, and things that we can do.  We can not even begin to work on the cans until we have taken care of the musts. That is called adulting. We all have to learn to do it. This is what separates us from tweens and puppies. The ability to distinguish between wants and needs. Between cans and musts.

Now, let's pretend that instead of being a parent you are actually a school district. And let's imagine that buying food is like buying curriculum.  And just for fun let's pretend that your house is really New Horizon's High school.

Now imagine you see some really adorable preschool children on an adoption web-site. What should you do?  Those cute little toddlers are so sweet looking! And we all agree that they are every bit as important as your own children, but.....

THEY CAN NOT BE YOUR PRIORITY. BECAUSE ADULTING.

Right now PSD is moving at lightning speed to get a Pre-K center built to serve pre-school aged children in our community.  That is a totally worthy goal. Those children are every bit as important as any other children on the face of the planet.  Plus they are adorable in ways that acne-prone, awkward teenagers are not.

But....

YOU CAN NOT MAKE THEM YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. BECAUSE ADULT.

Where there should be books, our cupboards are bare.

Where there should be a roof over our childrens' head, we instead have chronic flood conditions at New Horizons, Stevens, Longfellow, and McLoughlin.

We have 17,000 children to take care of, and honestly, things aren't going smoothly. We have growing pains on an epic scale and thousands of children we are legally obliged to care for in portables. We had a hard time passing our last bond but all three elementary schools from that bond are already at capacity. Yet, for reasons no one can explain, PSD wants to bring in a few thousand more, all the while claiming that we are too poor to feed and house the ones we already have.

WHY?

If you can't take care of your current responsibilities, you shouldn't be trying to take on even more. That is irresponsible. That is a failure to adult. It may seem magnanimous to care for people that you don't have to care for, especially if they are super cute, but it's not. Not if you aren't taking care of those you are already responsible for. Shirking a less glamorous responsibility to volunteer for another, more adorable one doesn't make you awesome, but it might make you a less-than-stellar adult with terrible judgement.

It's time for PSD to make its current responsibilities into priorities, and take care of the students we have before we go looking for more. That's the adult thing to do here.

Logic vs. Emotion

Remember that time in Finding Nemo when the dentist brags about how he found Nemo "struggling for life out on the reef, and I saved him!"

That well-meaning dentist is our school board, and they want to "save" all the fish.

Building a pre-school to help underprivileged children sounds like a great idea right? I mean who wouldn't want to help all these cute little kiddos?

Feeling warm and fuzzy in support of a preschool!

Former board president Ryan Brault claims that large numbers of Pasco students come to kindergarten 2-3 years behind grade level and having never held a book or a pencil. When asked how to improve tests scores and graduation rates, he said he felt our best option was to build a mega-preschool.

In fact the entire school board has been shedding public tears over the disadvantaged preschool students  in our district. They included a pre-k center on the bond that failed in 2011. This could have been in indicator that voters didn't think pre-k was the best place to spend our tax dollars. But the board was not dissuaded from their goal. Despite not getting voter approval, they took 7.5 million dollars last spring and set it aside for the building of  a giant pre-school (the total cost of the preschool was estimated at 15 million dollars, but the board is hoping to get matching funds from the state- yeah the same state that our board claims is failing to fund k-12).

Feeling a little bit disenfranchised by my elected representatives.

It's no surprise that not everyone supports this idea.  The board claims we can't afford to fairly pay the teachers we already have. They have failed to provide curriculum for the students we already serve. Buildings like New Horizons are in unconscionable disrepair. We are over crowded and bursting at the seems. In many ways we are failing the students we are currently responsible for, yet the board feels the best use of our money is to bring in even more students!

Mouse droppings in classrooms at New Horizons High School
Photo credit: Eric Hayes

It doesn't really seem like the best use of funds at this particular moment does it?

Fortunately the community has made a pretty big fuss, and the school board appears to be listening. They've actually scaled back their plan a considerable bit. They recently announced that they were looking at purchasing a building and renovating it (for $2.5 million of our dollars plus another $2.5 million in hoped for matching state funds) to make a pre-school center. Monetarily speaking this is a much more fiscally responsible idea.

Cautiously Excited!

I'm excited that the board is looking at other options and that the price tag has come down dramatically. I love the idea that our community could support the needs of our population. This feels like a solid compromise. It feels good.

But million dollar decisions shouldn't be based on feelings. They should be based on fact. Just because this new idea is better than the last doesn't mean its actually a good idea.

I love children. I LOVE adorable, chubby, little, baby-faced preschoolers!

Oh  my gosh! Can't you just eat these little darlings up!

I want what's best for them. What is REALLY BEST, not just what FEELS GOOD.
So what is best?

Starting to get confused again.... having doubts....

Are we sure pre-school is even a good idea? While we are here squabbling about making sure our kids haven't fallen behind, other countries are actually trying to slow down early childhood education.  In Finland (where test scores and international rankings are nothing to sneeze at) children don't even start kindergarten until children are seven years old. The country has just began compulsory "pre-school" starting at age six. SIX!!!

Read more about it: HERE    and    HERE

We are trying to load up 3 and 4 year olds on a bus to make sure they get to their mega pre-school in time to learn to read. While our more successful European friends are keeping kids out of school until they are much older, and even then they focus on play and social skills. Not reading and writing.

Amy Phillips claims that pre-school will have the single most powerful long-term affect on student achievement. But research doesn't exactly back that up. Unfortunately their are no studies showing whether having curriculum is important (apparently in every place but Pasco that is already a given). But there are studies showing a lot of other contributors, namely quality teachers and parental involvement.

Here's a report that the number one factor in school success is good teachers:click HERE
And another one: HERE
And here's one that sites parent involvement as the number one factor in academic success: HERE
And another one that points out parents as the key: HERE

If improving educational opportunities for all of Pasco's kids is our goal, then quality teachers and parent involvement need to be on our list of things to get done. But how?

A lot of the issues surrounding attracting quality teachers have begun to be addressed thanks to the recent teacher strike:  providing adequate instructional resources and supplies along with competitive wages. Now how do we improve parent involvement? For the sake of brevity let's just look at this issue in respect to pre-school and kindergarten students. If the goal is parent involvement shouldn't we be focusing on helping parents become better teachers in their own homes? Wouldn't bringing books to the children be more beneficial than bringing the children to the books? (The READY for Kindergarten program does this, and it's amazing! Read more HERE!)

But under-privilaged kids need pre-school, right? To reduce the achievement gap, right? It would be wrong not to help them.

Now I have guilt!

First let's recognize that public schools are charged with the task of providing an education to children in grades k-12. That's it. They do not have a mandate to provide school to children under the age of five. BUT for the sake of argument lets assume that getting kids an early start would make providing that k-12 education easier later on. Let's assume that kids MUST go to preschool and talk about ways to make that happen.

Many parents simply put their own children in private preschool. What if parents can't afford it? What if the preschool can't provide for the special needs of a child with a disability?

There is actually already a program in place that serves low income and/or disabled children in our community. It's called Head Start and ECEAP. And it's a great program!   Read more about it HERE.
Families qualify based on need and students get an amazing preschool education that includes whole family activities and classes for parents (remember how important that parent involvement thing was?).

What about kids who aren't poor enough to qualify for head start? Or what if their parents work and can't take them to pre-school. What about the kids who are just in daycare all day?

I'm glad you asked.

This year our state legislature passed a law requiring ALL state licensed day-care facilities to provide preschool type services.  Seriously!  All licensed day-care centers have to also be preschools. So all those kids who are sitting in day care all day long are actually already going to be getting to go to preschool!

I'm confused. Why are we building a pre-school?

Who is left? What kids are we talking about that still need access to a pre-school and don't have it?

The answer is none. NONE.

Pasco school district is trying to do something that feels good, but it MAKES NO SENSE.
Building a pre-school for underprivileged little children feels like a good idea. Unfortunately when you take away the emotion the logic behind it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.


The good news.... if we don't need to build a pre-school, there is still plenty of money left in the bucket to relocate New Horizons! Let's get 'er done!