MLTHS abandons small schools model

Mountlake Terrace High School will abandon its controversial small schools model this fall and return to being a traditional high school, due to declining enrollment.

Whether that change is good or bad and what it means for students next year depends on who you ask. Staff members have been split on the model since its inception.

While some have felt that it’s a waste and has destroyed the Terrace they knew, others say it’s offered the best teaching experience they’ve ever had.

Terrace broke itself into five small schools in fall 2003 with a grant from the Gates Foundation. Each school has its own staff, electives and focus. Originally, students attended one school for all four years. This year, for the first time, juniors and seniors were allowed to take classes campuswide.

The Gates Foundation pulled funding from the program in 2005.

The small schools model costs more, said principal Greg Schwab, adding that the fiscal details are complicated.

“We need more teachers to run small schools – that’s the best way I can explain it,” he said.

About three weeks ago, officials found out the school was projected to drop in enrollment by 75 students next year. That means a loss of 1.8 full-time equivalent teaching positions.

Officials began crunching numbers. They found keeping the small schools model would mean deep cuts elsewhere, Schwab said.

“The things we would have to cut are things that would cripple our ability to function as a school,” he said.

Keeping small schools would have meant, for example, cutting the athletic coordinator and classified staff, running without technology support and increasing class sizes, he said. By returning to a comprehensive high school, those things are retained and class sizes are kept at 31, he said.

Some teachers are upset and others relieved about the change, while others are ambivalent, said Nalin Sood, business teacher and basketball coach.

“This is something that people are pretty passionate about and have spent a lot of time making it work,” he said.

Personally, since small schools started, Sood has missed knowing a large number of students. With small schools, he knows only about one-fifth of the student population, and hasn’t been able to reach out to as many to try out for basketball.

Participation in after school activities took a hit with small schools, Sood and other teachers have said.

Critics of the small school model have also argued that students self-segregate into different schools based on academic expectations, and that there is no academic advantage to them.

As for the future, Sood said that Terrace is a great place and can go on being great even with change.

Vince DeMiero, an English and journalism teacher, is less optimistic about the future.

The increased personalization he’s seen in the Discovery School, his small school, is remarkable, he said. He fears that will be lost next year.

DeMiero works closely with his colleagues in other subjects, since they teach the same group of students.

“While we have some of the brightest young kids, there are also several kids who have educational needs that are pretty challenging, and I feel like we have been able to do things because we know those kids very well,” DeMiero said. “That’s been a unique experience.”

Small schools are also nimble – many times, he and his colleagues have made decisions over lunch and been able to implement them right away, he said.

The change could mean some teachers leave.

“I do know there’s several amazing educators, new and veteran, who came here because of small schools,” DeMiero said. “I would be concerned that if the comprehensive model is not something they feel comfortable teaching in, it would result in a decision to leave.”

Some have questioned why the decision was made unilaterally. The decision was made without teacher input because it affected teacher’s jobs, Schwab said.

As for the implications of the change for the school, including how it will restructure and how registration will be handled, that is still being worked out, Schwab said.

Students have already registered for classes and incoming freshmen have chosen their small school.

Graduation requirements are not different in each small school, so students shouldn’t be affected in that regard, he said. What could change is their access to electives, since some small schools offer their own electives.

But in general, a comprehensive high school usually means a greater offering of electives, since elective class offerings are driven by enrollment, Schwab said.

He said that the decision to end the small schools model had been difficult for him personally.

“This is very frustrating for me personally,” he said. “On some level I came with the intent of trying to make this model work, so there’s a part of me that feels a large amount of personal defeat over this.”