EDMONDS — Pink, turquoise, red and brown.
Every bead, big and small, tells a story.
Hundreds wind around a string in a frame in the Edmonds School District lobby.
Each bead represents a student who graduated from Options, an educational program designed to help kids struggling in traditional schools.
No more beads will be added.
After 14 years, the school is closing.
Facing a budget shortfall, Edmonds School District administrators decided to close the school to save $201,400 a year. The program’s 12 staff members were offered jobs at other schools in the district, and each school is now expected to help those kids with behavior issues who traditionally were sent to Options, spokeswoman Debbie Jakala said.
“It’s a sad thing,” Options teacher Sherry Weersing said. “As a teacher, initially I was frustrated and upset, but when you look at the larger picture, you have to understand that the dollar crunch is hitting all of us.”
Options was a last chance for many kids who were on the brink of being suspended from the public school system. Many students had difficult childhoods and viewed the school as a family of sorts.
Housed with other programs in the old Woodway High School building in Edmonds, Options was designed for kids with behavioral issues.
Unlike most alternative schools, Options dealt with kids who were assigned there by administrators at their previous middle or high schools.
“When students would come to us, they weren’t happy and they let us know that,” said Stefani Koetje, a transitions specialist at Options. “It was very much the place that nobody wanted to go. However, once a student had been with us, the loyalty to the program was very apparent.”
In addition to the basics, Options students studied social skills in small classes. They set life goals and worked toward them. When Options staff felt they were ready, the students were sent back to traditional schools.
Jacquie Staggs said the school saved her two sons.
They were failing in traditional schools. She felt teachers and administrators labeled one of her boys as a bad kid because of some mistakes he had made.
At Options, things were different.
“They looked at my kids as kids, not as horrible people,” said Staggs, a single mom who does clerical work for a coffee roaster. “If it wasn’t for that program, I would have two dropout kids right now.”
Up to 80 students could attend Options at a time, but since students were constantly coming and going, the program’s enrollment was always in flux. There were 78 students enrolled on the last day of school in June.
Each class had around 15 students working with a teacher and a teaching assistant. Staggs’ son, Kyle, 14, said the small classes and attention from teachers helped him succeed. He started classes at Options in January and graduated from the program this spring.
“Before, I got F’s and D’s — and when I got there, I had all A’s and B’s,” he said. “All the teachers there treat you like you’re an actual person and don’t judge you on anything that’s happened in your past.”
In mid-June, staff and students at Options gathered for one final bead ceremony.
One by one, while candles burned, each teen slid a bead next to beads from 14 years’ worth of students.
For the first — and last — time, staff members added their own colorful beads to the string.
“None of us were leaving by choice,” Koetje said. “We were being transitioned, just as the students were.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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