Compact Learning

MARYSVILLE — Its compact quarters are a stark contrast to the 83-acre Marysville-Pilchuck High School campus, one of the largest in Washington.

The Marysville Arts and Technology High School, tucked away in a tree-lined business park on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, has a single hallway for eight classrooms and a computer lab.

The school, which opened in October, is small by design.

“We don’t have tennis courts. We don’t have a gym. We don’t have a lot of things,” Principal Bruce Saari said. “We do have a small school culture.”

Arts and Technology is part of a growing trend: a school trying to give students stronger connections to their classes.

Both Marysville-Pilchuck and Marysville Junior High School have received grants to break their campuses into smaller learning communities that nurture more personal relationships between teachers and students — and students and their peers.V

“Smallness is big,” Saari said.

Math teacher Karen Berard has worked at both high schools and finds similarities in the students, but she says the small-school environment is allowing her to reach more of them.

Berard, one of the school’s six teachers, is energized at the tiny campus with 130 freshmen and sophomores in a school that eventually will expand to 230 over four grades — about a tenth the size of Marysville-Pilchuck, which had an enrollment of 2,467 in the fall.

On any given day, up to 20 students find their way to an after-school math tutorial. At three larger schools where Berard has taught in the past, she might see two or three in a week.

Part of the reason for the big turnout is that it is hard for students to hide at Arts and Technology where teachers know everyone and ties are required wardrobe when boys give oral presentations.

Parents are also kept in the loop. The tutoring program is promoted on report cards and in letters to parents whose students are earning anything less than a C.

Where Berard once would hand out failing grades for close to a third of her students, she now expects about 20 percent not to make the grade. And even that number is deceiving, because there are no Ds or Fs at the school. In their place is a “U,” for unsatisfactory, a mark for students who score below a 70 percent or C minus. Students earning a U must repeat the class until they can show they have become proficient.

“We could get down to 15 percent,” Berard said, referring to first-semester grades. “I expect failure rates to be way down. I don’t like failing students. There is no joy in that.”

Berard attributes much of the difference to the small size of the school, which she believes provides a tighter safety net for students who might slip through the cracks for either academic or social reasons.

She sees it as a teacher and as a parent.

Her daughter [redacted] sailed through each of the rigorous Washington Assessment of Student Learning statewide exams as a seventh-grader, but she struggled with grades on a large campus.

When the school opened in the fall, 13 percent of the students had faced court orders to attend school after chronic absences.

“A lot of kids came here because they didn’t fit in where they were before,” Berard said. “You are going to find some kids who felt lost on the big campus. My daughter really felt lost.”

The Marysville School Board recently visited the Arts and Technology school for a meeting, tour and discussion with students, teachers and staff.

“What I came away with is that sometimes the perception is it is a school that only kids that excel academically go to,” said Vicki Gates, school board president. “I think that might be the perception, but in reality it is a school that accepts all students.”

“It was better than I thought it was going to be,” said Maddie V., a ninth-grader. “I thought it was going to be a nerd school. It is a lot cooler.”

Saari, the principal, is an old-hand at creating new small schools. After 19 years in large high schools, he and five other teachers started the Bellevue International School in 1991. Six years later, he started the Lake Washington International School in Redmond. Both posted impressive test scores, but he said he was more pleased with the collegial learning atmosphere they nurtured.

Saari and the other teachers in Bellevue met on their own time for more than a year to plan the school. They knew the attributes they wanted: a commitment to academic standards, shared instructional approaches and information about each student, an emphasis on fundamental skills and a chance to later build on those skills in a meaningful way.

Saari was hired by the Marysville district last spring to start the new school.

Art and technology may be in the school’s name and a part of the curriculum, but they are not the main emphasis, Saari said. For instance, students won’t learn to program computers at the school but they may be asked to design a Web site on Macbeth.

Some students already have discovered that the small school experience isn’t for them and have transferred, Saari said.

“You have some kids who miss the big American high school experience,” he said. “Attrition comes with the territory until people know more about you.”

That was also the case in the first three years at the international schools as students, parents and the communities got a feel for what the small school offers, he said.

Some Marysville teachers have questioned opening the new school — which has a $34,900-a-month cost for lease, utilities and capital improvements — at a time the district is facing financial problems, said Elaine Hanson, president of the 650-member Marysville Education Association teachers’ union.

Even so, Hanson said she has seen that the school has a lot of promise for students of many ability levels. “I’m all for smaller learning communities,” Hanson said. “I just want to make sure there is equity.”

Kaitlin O. returned to public school this year after two years of being home-schooled. It was solely her decision to try Arts and Technology, said her mother, Rachel.

“She has blossomed,” Rachel O. said. “I think for her it is important that her teachers know who she is. I think that makes a difference. She really isn’t just a face in the crowd.”

Other students freely acknowledge they enrolled at the new school at their parents’ insistence.

Brian C., another ninth-grader, said the teachers have high expectations and a good grasp of what individual students are capable of.

“Because they know you,” he said, “they can take you to a different level.”

Arts and Tech School Seeks to Teach Special Skills in a Smaller Setting

Marysville–A Penguin might seem like an odd choice for a school mascot, but according to ninth-grade student Stacey Lawler, the Antarctic waterfowl has a lot in common with the Marysville Arts and Technology High School.

“Some people might underestimate us because we’re smaller, but we’re unique,” said Lawler of both her school and her school’s black-and-silver-hued mascot.

The school is certainly unique in both its size, nestled in the corner of an office park on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, and its age, having just opened its doors to 130 ninth and tenth grade students on Oct. 22 of last year. But according to Marysville Arts and Technology High School Principal Bruce Saari, what truly makes the school stand out is the emphasis it places on both the community within the school and the extra set of skills it seeks to instill in its students.

“College professors and graphic designers alike will say that no software program out there can make someone an artist,” said Saari. “One of ur goals is to teach our students to think and see as artists, so they can take that training into the digital realm and apply it in all areas of their studies.”

As its name suggests, the mission statement of the school has been to create a learning environment where artistic disciplines, computer design technologies and academic fundamentals are all part of the curriculum. To this end, all students are required to take a year of art classes and receive intense instruction on how to use these new tools before they’re allowed to have any hands on experience.

“I always make sure to tell people that we’re not just ‘playing with computers’ at our school,” said Saari. “It’s only after a great deal of training and preparation that our students can begin to apply their knowledge properly.”

Saari cites the math program as an example of how the school combines “an outstanding high school education with a special emphasis” on these additional skills.

“For our math curriculum, we require Algebra1, Geometry and Algebra 2 because these courses are proven to develop fundamental skills,” said Saari. “We then couple these courses with the use of a cognitive tutor software program that stresses problem solving applications. In this way, we can offer the best of both worlds to our students.”

Student access to computers remains constant in all the school’s subjects and classes, from cell structure models designed on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for science courses to public presentations put together with Microsoft Powerpoint for social studies courses. After less than a full year of instruction, many students at the school have become so comfortable and familiar with these new tools that they’ve even wound up teaching the adults in their lives a thing or two.

“I helped my dad out with Access, said ninth-grade student Victorial Pontrantolfi. “He was having trouble with it, so I put together a list of his business clients for him. I’m scared sometimes how much I know about this stuff now.”

“My mom was putting together a presentation and looking for someone who knew how to use Powerpoint, and my brother was trying to do a school report, so I showed them both what I’d learned,” said Lawler. “Once you learn the language, it’s like knowing how to write and talk in Chinese. It blows me away.”

Maddie Voie, recently elected vice-president of the school’s Associated Student Body, recalled how well her and her fellow class officers’ newfound technical skills saw them through their presentations to the Marysville School District Board of Directors Feb. 17.

“We had about an hour and a half to put everything together on Powerpoint, but we were all amazed by how well it came across,” said Voie.

Saari was impressed but not surprised by his students’ performance under pressure.

“When these students give their presentations in the classroom, the critiques are as extraordinary as the presentations themselves,” said Saari. “Their audience of fellow students listens respectfully, and offers them fair and mature guidance on what their strengths were, as well as how they can improve their performances. After a while, they can’t help but become adept at it.”

Saari also attributes many of these accomplishments to the sense of community and commitment that the school seeks to foster among its students, starting with the application process.

“We want our students and their families to make an informed choice when they select our school, so that they’re getting exactly what they expect,” said Saari. “The purpose of the application itself is not to screen out students, but to make sure that students and families are reflecting on their choice, rather than making a reflexive choice. That being said, we’re still accepting all students who send us completed applications. Our biggest challenge right now is getting the word out to the community.”

To achieve this end, 899 eighth-grade and ninth-grade students’ families have received notices by mail this year inviting them to apply to the school. Saari sent out more than 1,000 similar envelopes in the spring of 2003 when his promotional efforts faced an even greater challenge.

“I was brought on board in an advisory capacity around March of last year, and by April 1 I was the school’s first and only hire, so I had to conduct between 15 to 20 evening meetings with interested parents, sometimes only one or two at a time, in ordert to sell them on the idea of this school,” said Saari, who also cofounded the Bellevue International School and the Lake Washington International School in Redmond. “The building itself didn’t even exist yet, but by the time we started conducting interviews for the teaching staff in June, we’d already recruited all 130 of our students. These families were wiling to take a very big risk on us, and I’m grateful to them for having so much faith in our vision.”

“When we first walked through the door, this whole place was still a construction zone, and I wondered how they were going to hold school here,” said Lawler. “But even if it hadn’t wound up finished or furnished by the time we started classes, I still think it would have turned out to be a pretty decent school. It’s the people inside of a school that make it great, not the tables or desks they sit at.”

“I was terrified of this school at first,” admitted Pontrantolfi.” I even had a nightmare that there were only going to be four people in my whole class. But I don’t think you can realize how beneficial a smaller school is until you’re in it. I’m getting about the same grades that I was before, but I’m actually understanding the work more now. And all the teachers talk to one another, so they all know your strengths and weaknesses.”

“If there are two tests scheduled for the same day, one of the teachers will move his or her test back a day, to give you enough time to study for both,” said ninth-grade student Bethany Hayes. “Everyone who’s here wants to be here. The teachers and the students like to work.”

Although certain details of the school’s PE program and extracurricular activities continue to be worked out, especially since the school has no gymnasium, Saari pointed to the progress that the school has achieved in these areas so far, including their participation in basketball intramurals and the institution of a host of clubs devoted to everything from drama and music to chess and poetry.

“We have to take things one step at a time, keep our footing sure and remain focused as we go,” said Saari.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much room this school has to grow,” said Voie. “We only have ninth and tenth-grade students right now, but we’ll eventually expand to have freshmen all the way through seniors going to school here. This is our opportunity to start from scratch on the ground floor of something new.”

Judge To Hear Complaints In Bid To End Teachers Strike:

MARYSVILLE — A Snohomish County Superior Court judge this afternoon will hear two complaints asking to declare the Marysville teachers strike illegal and order teachers back to work.

But yesterday, teachers, students and parents tried to keep to many of the routines they’ve cultivated over the past few weeks, amid anxiety over what today may bring.

Teachers walked picket lines for a state-record 43rd day, several students rallied in hopes of encouraging a settlement, and parents and other residents remained split in their support of teachers and district leaders.

Evidence of that community divide could be found yesterday in the form of a yard sign — “Erase the School Board” — and in the rude gesture of a driver as he passed a picket line.

Judge Linda Krese will hear the complaints, by the Marysville School District and parents group Tired of the Strike, at 1 p.m.

Marysville School District spokeswoman Judy Parker said that if Krese orders teachers back to work, the schools will be ready to open tomorrow. Meanwhile, Marysville Education Association (MEA) President Elaine Hanson reiterated that the strike would end when School Board members offer a fair deal.

Parents and students said they would follow news of the court hearing closely, while the 650-member MEA plans to rally today outside the Snohomish County Courthouse in Everett.

“In this community, (today’s) a pretty huge day,” said Steve Soule, organizer of the group Parents For Kids, which says it supports any solution that gets Marysville kids back to school and is seeking community volunteers to teach students while teachers strike.

“It’s a day of reckoning, so to speak, and both sides think they’ll win. Whatever the judge says will set a precedent. But, if the injunction fails, or it passes and teachers violate it, the community will be divided even further.”

Outside Marysville Junior High, math teacher Janice Clancy and special-education teacher Mike Wray said they planned to go to the courthouse and were optimistic that the judge would not force teachers back to work.

If the judge does issue an injunction, the two said, the union would meet to determine what to do next. But they said they don’t want to be forced back to work without a new contract.

“We’ve been out here six weeks. We can’t go back without a change,” Wray said. “It would be throwing away everything we’ve been doing, and it would be turning our backs on all that.”

Added Clancy: “I always felt appreciated before and that what I did mattered, but with the contract (the district is) offering, I don’t feel that way.”

Across town at the district’s new 145-student Arts & Technology High School, Principal Bruce Saari sat in his office, the lone person in the building. Outside the school, housed in the town’s old Hewlett-Packard building, the empty parking lot collected piles of leaves. Inside, new computers and science equipment sat unused.

Saari, who was instrumental in the 1990s in establishing the Bellevue International School and Lake Washington International School — both well-known for high student achievement — said he’s anxious to begin work at Marysville’s $524,000 small-school endeavor.

“It’s been challenging,” he said. “We’ll start the year late but still have a successful year because there’s so much important work to do. We’re just going to roll up our sleeves and get to it when we can.”

At Marysville-Pilchuck High School, junior Shyra Roe and sophomore Haley Matz were getting ready to run laps at the track.

“Everyone’s frustrated, even the people who don’t like school,” Roe said. “Everyone wants to be back. I don’t get why they can’t solve it while we’re in school.”

SEATTLE TIMES PUBLIC SCHOOLS PROFILE

Principal: Bruce Saari – 1 year(s)

Academic highlights: New small high school opened in fall 2003. The arts, computer technology and academics unite to develop higher-order thinking skills and to provide creative opportunities in all subject areas. School opened with 130 9th- and 10th-graders and will grow until it reaches 250 students in grades 9-12. Curriculum and quality instruction encourage a climate of discovery and participation. Alternating 75-minute class periods.

Improving student achievement: Ongoing emphasis on fundamental skills and the application, extension and refinement of these skills daily. Socratic seminars. Block schedule. Curriculum is underlain by essential questions. Culture of scholarship, friendliness and respect.

Technology used for: Students use Rhino 3-D, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash and several key Adobe products to learn and create projects: live-motion cell division in biology, ancient runes and icons for a Macbeth Web site, fractal explorations, graphic presentations in social studies. Emphasis on arts, technology and academics encourages creative exploration and integration.

World languages: A foreign language will be selected and offered in 2004.

Sports: Informal small-school sports program.

Extracurricular: Student newspaper, Student yearbook, Student magazine, Future Business Leaders of America, Chess club, Honor society Drama club, jazz ensemble, golf, choir, focus-week activities.

Safety: Closed campus. Staff supervision.

Student guidance: Home rooms.

The arts: Photography, Drawing/painting Graphic design. Performing-arts enrichment activities will be added during the school’s first year.

What’s new: School board approved new school concept in 2003 and hired Bruce Saari as principal. Saari is co-founder of Bellevue’s International School and Lake Washington’s International Community School.