MARYSVILLE – Learning academies were popular in the 1990s, but not so much now.
“It was a big thing that shifted – kind of turned,” Marysville School District Superintendent Becky Berg said at a recent meeting with district officials and Marysville Getchell High School students, parents and staff.“The purpose of this meeting is for communication,” Berg said.
She said the Gates Foundation was behind a movement for academies providing “relationships – a sense of belonging.”
But many schools are changing back to a more-traditional campus because results of the change weren’t that impressive.
Assistant Superintendent Ray Houser this year is studying the data, such as graduation rates, availability of different classes, and so on.
In the meantime, MG has gone from four principals to one.
“We needed a ‘buck stops here’ person at the site,” Berg said.
Because of declining district enrollment, the school board also had to cut $3 million. So cutting administration there helped, too.
At the meeting, which packed the school board room, four stations “allowed each person to say what they want to say,” Berg said.
They could write a comment on sticky notes and place them on four posters. The topics were: What’s not working? What is working? What are you hearing? And what are you wondering about? Participants could also fill out a paper survey of the same questions, or an online survey available at www.MSD25.org/GetchellSurvey.
Some of the comments at the meeting included:
•Why return to a failed school model?
•Why take away student choice?
•Student voices are being lost
•Advisories are not working
•Lunch lines are too long
•Principals care more in a smaller community
•How can you study a system that’s no longer being used?
“It may seem like it’s an easy decision, but there are a lot of moving parts,” Berg said.
She added that some changes have been made, such as having 36 crossover classes in different academies.
“We try to make changes in the best interest of the kids,” she said.
Regarding the possible state change of requiring 24 credits to graduate, Berg said that would leave no margin for error. So students would need to have more courses each day.
“We want people to have electives,” she said. “We feel like we would need to change to have a little more wiggle room.”
