The September 25th Board Meeting began with a public hearing on the Freedom Farm upgrades requiring the Budget Extension for Capital Projects & Interfund Transfer of State Forest Revenue in the amount of $4.5m. Over 100 former and currents students and staff showed up in support of the farm.
The Freedom Farm is Funded
One current student spoke in favor of the transaction, saying, “I truly thought I would never make it through high school…I now come to school every day…I am engaged, getting good grades, and feel like I have found a community that sees me and understands me for me.”
“We lack basic classroom infrastructures like desks,” remarked another student, who said that the farm had a portable that lacks working heat and air conditioning. She continued, “Yet, we have been resilient and continue to offer a life-changing school experience…School systems have struggled to improve since the Industrial Revolution. And we are here to change that.”
While community members favored the upgrades at the Freedom Farm, they were concerned with the transparency of the process and the need to open the budget following the Superintendent’s stated desire to raise the district’s ending fund balance. The Freedom Farm program upgrades and the transfer of funds was unanimously passed at the end of the regular board meeting, thus opening the previously passed 4-year OSD budget until November.
During board member comments, Director Seidel assured the community, “I really appreciate that for some folks, who have just been joining us in the boardroom in the past couple of years, this feels like a new conversation. This has been a conversation we’ve been having since the Freedom Farms inception…It is not slapdash. It is not recklessly planned.” Vice President Tourtellotte- Palumbo then apologized, “I’m sorry, the vote tonight for the Freedom Farm has probably been one of the coolest things that I’ve done since I’ve been on the board.” There is no public documentation of steps the board has been taking toward the Freedom Farm expansion.
“We have been resilient and continue to offer a life-changing school experience…School systems have struggled to improve since the Industrial Revolution. And we are here to change that.”
Freedom Farm student
The board meeting itself primarily focused on the Outcome 5 Monitoring Report. Outcome 5 focuses on a love of learning and students discovering their passion.
Panorama Survey results
Information on 9th Grade on Track, the metric of students on track to graduate at the end of their 9th grade year, were fairly flat but 7 points above the state average at 77.6% as of the 23-24 school year. Metrics among the student population experiencing housing insecurity were as low as 20%.
Director Flores commented, “I appreciate that we are using disaggregated data, but I think that we need to try to not say students with an IEP…if we could just continue to use the student-forward language and stay students with a disability, that’d be great.” There were further findings on self-efficacy and positive feelings later in the meeting that were found to be inconclusive and mostly flat.
AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination)
AVID is an academic support program being integrated districtwide. In speaking to AVID, the mission of the program was disclosed to be closing the opportunity gap by preparing all students for college and career readiness. Principals Anthony Brock from Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Sean Shaughnessy from LP Brown Elementary School, and Callie Jones from Hansen Elementary School, along with Shawna Cardona who teaches the 8th grade AVID elective, spoke to its integration through all grades in the feeders on the Westside.
According to Principal Jones, “The other big thing we’ve instilled at Hansen as a new tradition is our Future Fridays. … So, like, tomorrow, the Capitol Coug crew is coming to welcome Hansen students to school, to get them excited about being there. We’ve had Thurgood Marshall students come on these Fridays to welcome kids to school, and I’ve heard already from some of my fifth graders, they’re excited to go to Marshall because they want to come back and welcome kids to school.” The program has not been implemented at any Eastside middle schools.
“As a person, it helped me learn more about something I wasn’t familiar with, and I think it was just, like, a really good growth opportunity.”
Jack, Avanti ACE program student
Regarding the 9th Grade on Track metric, Director Flores asked, “From your experience at the elementary or at the middle school level, how are you feeling that using the AVID evidence-based strategies are going to help us have less kids being credit deficient and not being on track?”
Principal Brock said in part, “The target of AVID, is the academic middle, the student who, absolutely has all the skills and is lacking maybe the structure and those strategies that other families may teach to their students.”
The ACE (Arts Career Exploration) program at Avanti
Following the AVID presentation, Cecily Schmidt, an art teacher at Avanti High School, presented information about the ACE program with letterpress artist, Hukee, and Avanti student, Jack. The program, which has been running for 4 years at Avanti, pairs students as interns with local working artists. ACE has made use of Inspire Olympia grant funding, along with the state Arts Commission, among other funding streams. Schmidt mentioned that a key component is 40 hours of student time with teaching artists.
Jack said they were initially disappointed in being paired with Hukee as a teaching artist because they were focused on becoming a tattoo artist. Jack said, “As a person, it helped me learn more about something I wasn’t familiar with, and I think it was just, like, a really good growth opportunity. For me…and the other student that we were working with.. I think we came in more often than the 40 hours that we needed, because it was really fun for us…I feel like I really got a lot out of the program.”
Hukee expressed her experience feeling about the program, saying, “I think it’s a really unique experience for students to get to work with artists in the community. They already get to be around really incredible, amazing adults in the schools where they’re at. But to be able to be invited into artist studios, and to really become a part of that, to take ownership in that, and the work that they do, I think, is so important. And for me, the work that I do with the students is really about letting their voices come through, … It opens opportunities.”
Outgoing Director Huffman asked, “So the practical side of me says, ‘What the students are learning?’…it’s great to be an artist, and I’m thankful every day that people are. But one of the things that I hear when I talk to the artists is how do I run a business, right?” Tracks in the ACE program include entrepreneurial, commercial, and fine arts.