MARYSVILLE — The federal government is mandating changes at two schools in the Marysville School District if they are to continue receiving certain federal funds, according to MSD Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland.
Nyland announced this news during a Feb. 26 Business Before Hours meeting of the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, noting that it applies to Tulalip Elementary and one other school in the district, the latter of which he was only informed of via e-mail on the evening of Feb. 25.
“The president is taking over 5,000 local schools, with no debate or vote in Congress,” Nyland said. “These are the poorest schools, and Marysville is the poorest school district in Snohomish County. We’ll see if the government does as well with our schools as they’ve done with Afghanistan, health care, jobs recovery and our banks.”
Nyland was unable to name the second school on the list for Marysville, but he informed his audience that the district has already begun working with Tulalip Elementary staff and the Tulalip Tribes to try and meet the challenges that they’ll face.
Tulalip Elementary had failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning for five years, putting it into Step 4 of “improvement” status as a Title I school. However, MSD Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller explained that Tulalip Elementary was chosen for a federal takeover for failing to meet an additional state standard, averaging its progress over the past three years, that was introduced in December of last year and has received tentative approval from the federal government.
In order to qualify for federal “Race to the Top” grants, states with schools that have been designated for such takeovers must have those schools adopt one of four federally sanctioned models:
1. Turnaround, in which the school principal and half its existing staff members are replaced, and programs including curriculum revisions, extended learning hours for students and increased professional development for staff are implemented.
2. Restart, in which an outside agency is contracted to run the school, similar to a charter school.
3. Closure, in which the school is simply shut down and its students are sent elsewhere.
4. Transformation, in which the school principal is replaced, its existing staff members are retained but subjected to more stringent new standards of evaluation, and all the programs of the turnaround model are implemented.
As of yet, Miller could not say which model Tulalip Elementary will adopt.
While Tulalip Elementary has not met its Adequate Yearly Progress mark, Nyland characterized it as having made significant yearly progress nonetheless.
“These two schools have seen our biggest gains in test scores, and they’re getting punished for being poor,” Nyland said. “The state has already created a structural inequity, in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
Nyland was referring to the state legislature’s proposal to increase schools’ levy lid by 4 percent, which he deemed a violation of the state’s constitutional duty to provide education “without regard to race or caste.”
“I can understand, in our current economic circumstances, why the state can’t make it better,” Nyland said, of what he identified as the inequity between richer and poorer school districts. “I cannot understand, or accept in good conscience, why they would choose to make it worse.”
Nyland estimated that the Marysville School District is already facing a state funding loss of approximately $4 million to $5 million this year.
“I admire and applaud Dr. Nyland for putting such passion into his wording,” Chamber President and CEO Caldie Rogers said of Nyland’s visibly emotional address, before the audience applauded him. “There’s a good reason he was voted the top superintendent in the state, the year before last.”
Check the MarysvilleGlobe.com for further updates on this story.
