news
BY ALAN PITTMAN
Diffusing the Choice Bomb
Could a Harris-Eastside merger help 4J?
A
proposal to possibly diffuse one of
the more explosive school choice vs.
equity issues before School District
4J has emerged.
The proposal may involve the possibility
of a merger or some other kind of hybrid
collaboration between Harris neighborhood
Elementary and Eastside alternative
elementary.
“We’d like to explore a solution for our
schools that might be found in a joint project,”
said Harris teacher Mary Christensen with
Eastside teacher Susan Gusinow standing at
her side. The two spoke three hours into a
fi ve-hour emotional hearing before the school
board Feb. 20.
Three years ago Superintendent George
Russell recognized a problem the district has
been struggling with for decades. He reported
that the district’s school choice system had
cherry-picked the white and wealthy kids,
leaving neighborhood schools “poorer and
browner.” On Feb. 8 Russell announced his
“Schools of the Future” proposal for school
closures, relocations and enrollment limits to
help address the issue.
One of Russell’s more controversial
proposals was to close Harris neighborhood
school (67 percent free and reduced lunch,
FRL, and 25 percent Latino) and give its
building to two co-located alternative schools
— Eastside (5 percent FRL, 1 percent Latino)
and Fox Hollow (10 percent FRL, 1 percent
Latino).
Harris parents testifi ed that closing their
poorer, browner neighborhood school to
make room for the richer/whiter alternative
schools was inconsistent with the stated
goals of the district and unfair. “This is how
we save Harris Elementary,” joked one mom.
“All we need to do is change the name to
Harris Alternative School.”
Amid the heated debate Feb. 20, the
proposal from the seemingly competing
Harris and Eastside teachers drew whoops
of applause. Christensen said nine teachers
from the Harris and Eastside school had
met recently to discuss the dilemma. She
noted the two teacher groups had “shared
pedagogies and passions” and believed in
working together they might fi nd a way to
meet district choice and equity goals “while
preserving and furthering the spirit of both
schools.”
Christensen asked the board for more time
for the two schools to discuss the possibility
of working together and work out the details.
“We found it very exciting; it’s also a little
scary for some people in this room.”
School Board members Craig Smith
and Charles Martinez both said they were
“intrigued” by the teachers’ testimony.
“Whether we’re talking about a hybrid or
some kind of merger, that needs to be pursued
vigorously,” Martinez said.
Here’s a look at some of the more obvious
pros and cons of the merger/hybrid idea:
Pros
• More diversity. Merging one of the
poorest, most Latino schools in the district
with 4J’s wealthiest and whitest school would
take a big step towards diversifying a district
segregated by school choice. A co-located
Eastside/Fox Hollow would be 8 percent
FRL, but a merged Eastside/Harris could be
near the district average of 35 percent FRL.
The district and education researchers have
found that schools with concentrated poverty
often struggle with performance. Some
Eastside parents have said they would like to
diversify their school.
• More equity. Avoiding the closure
of Harris would avoid the perception or
reality that the district has unfairly chosen its
poorest, brownest children to bear the brunt
of school closure.
• Less disruption. The current
proposal would disrupt fi ve schools: Harris by
closure, Eastside by moving, Fox Hollow by
moving and Parker and Edison neighborhood
elementaries by adjusting to accommodate
displaced Harris children. A merger would
affect only Eastside and Harris.
• Synergy. District offi cials and some
Eastside parents have noted that their
alternative model of mixed grades works well
with addressing the diverse needs of students
who are both ahead of their age group and
behind. In turn, Harris teachers offer the
experience of helping diverse lower-income
students who can be more challenging to
teach.
• Improved enrollment. A merged
school would have about 320 students. That
would save Harris from threatened closure
for dropping below the district’s 300-student
target.
• Less crowding. Many parents
testifi ed that they favor smaller, more intimate
schools for their children. A merged or hybrid
Eastside/Harris would have about 110 fewer
children than a co-located Eastside/Fox
Hollow.
• Fox Hollow likes it. Fox Hollow
parents forcefully opposed moving them
from their current building to co-locate with
Eastside. The parents expressed concerns
about leaving their attractive school site for
crowding, classrooms in trailers, traffi c jams,
weakened language immersion and possible
inter-school friction with Eastside.
• Less cost. The Harris building is
big enough to serve Harris/Eastside without
adding trailers. A co-located Fox Hollow/
Eastside would overcrowd the building and
require the district to spend up to $2 million
on building improvements and putting four
classrooms in two double-wide trailers.
• Established precedent. During
the last round of school closures three years
ago, co-located Evergreen, an alternative
elementary, and Edgewood, a neighborhood
elementary, worked out a successful merger
that some said they hoped could serve as a
future model for other schools.
Cons
• Possible Eastside opposition.
Harris parent Meg Hamilton agreed with the
teachers that the district should “consider a
hybrid or a blend” of Harris and Eastside.
“There’s interest at both our schools.”
But Hamilton was not joined at the
microphone or in later testimony by an
Eastside parent, and it remains to be seen if
those parents would oppose a merger. Harris
would gain by not being closed, but Russell
has not put Eastside under a similar threat.
If Eastside lost its alternative school
status, it could also lose or dilute the many
advantages that the district has bestowed on
alternative schools. Through district policy
and/or parental fundraising, alternative
schools can often have smaller class sizes,
fewer of the most challenging lower-income
and high mobility students to teach, a more
homogenous group of top performing
students, protection from school closures
and stable class sizes, the school district has
reported.
Some comments from Eastside parents
include statements welcoming diversity.
But some other comments have attacked the
district and the media for “scapegoating” the
school for lacking diversity. It is possible that
if the professional teachers back it, they may
be able to make a merger work and convince
any reluctant parents.
• Friction. If Harris and Eastside don’t
merge into one neighborhood school but
rather somehow co-locate, the district could
get more of the friction that it was trying to
avoid by moving Eastside from co-location
with Parker. Parker parents and teachers
complained that they suffered from crowded
classrooms with hard-to-teach kids while
down the hall Eastside had concentrated top
students in small classes. If the two schools
instead merge into a larger alternative school,
the diversity gains could be lost over time as
alternative schools are not required to admit
neighborhood kids.
• Neighborhood school effects. The
4J proposal would move Harris kids to Parker
and Edison. Without some of the Harris
kids, Edison (23 percent FRL) could be less
diverse. Parker is at about the district average
for FRL, but at 247 enrollment, may need
Harris kids to avoid the threat of closure.
Some of these effects could be mitigated by
redrawing school boundaries.
• Smaller schools. An Eastside/Harris
merger could leave Fox Hollow and Parker
below 300 students. District offi cials have
stated that they would like larger elementary
schools to save money and offer large school
amenities. But no parents testifi ed that they
want larger elementary schools. It’s also
unclear how the district would save money.
In the past, the district estimated a $200,000
annual savings from closing a smaller school,
far less than the $2 million it proposes to
spend on additions and trailers to crowd
students into one school.
• Fox Hollow issue remains. Fox
Hollow would continue as an advantaged,
small alternative school largely lacking
diversity. But it’s also unclear how co-location
with Eastside at a convenient south Eugene
location would increase the school’s diversity.
• Real estate. The district could make
a few million dollars by selling the 7 acre
Fox Hollow school site to developers. But
the development could be controversial,
and neighborhood and city opposition could
eliminate or reduce the sale value.
The School Board has tentatively
scheduled a possible decision on Russell’s
proposal for Wednesday, March 19.
ew
WELLNESS CENTERED DENTISTRY
300 COUNTRY CLUB RD., STE. 290 • EUGENE, OR 97401 • (541) 868-2008
A Holistic Approach
to Dentistry
Individual care for individual people
At Wellness Centered Dentistry we take the time
to find out what is important to you
so that together we can design a lifetime strategy for
achieving and maintaining a beautiful healthy smile.
Call today and experience the extraordinary people
and unique setting that only
Wellness Centered Dentistry can provide.
(541) 868-2008
DR. ROB
WHICKER
“Because the Mouth Bone is Connected to the Body Bone”
BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
EUGENE WEEKLY FEBRUARY 28, 2008 13