First Place Scholars, a school for homeless and low-income children, works against the clock to meet state requirements to keep public funds.
As teacher Laurie Reddy counted down from 10, the students in her class joyfully scurried to their desks, which featured their names alongside phrases such as “I respect others.”
Anatomical charts on the front wall foreshadowed what they were about to watch.
“All right,” Reddy announced, “Our voices are off, and our eyes are watching Bill Nye, the Science Guy.”
From the digestive system diagrams to the colorful reports on sea animals from an aquarium field trip, it might seem like a typical first-grade classroom. But when Reddy comes in each morning, she is planning more than her academic lesson.
“We are preparing for the reality that three of our kids may have slept in cars the night before, may not have had dinner the night before, may have witnessed abuse in their homes last night and are waking up and trying to cope with that,” Reddy said. “Our planning period is for how we support these children not just academically but provide a safe and loving place to be.”
First Place Scholars, a K-5 program, serves children who are homeless or living in poverty and aims to help kids who have undergone significant trauma to grow holistically. The overseeing nonprofit also offers family support services, including case management and low-income housing near the school.
First Place opened in 1989 and operated privately for 25 years. After voters narrowly approved charter schools in 2013, the school reopened as Washington’s first charter in September 2014. At the time, it was hailed by both opponents and advocates of the new legislation as a prime example of what a charter school is meant to be. (“First Place takes the lead” RC, Feb. 14).
But ever since then, the school has been fighting an uphill battle to comply with legal obligations under its new state contract, facing letters of concern, inquiries, corrective action and probation from the Washington State Charter School Commission.
On June 3, the commission called for a set of documents that First Place must provide to show how much progress it has made in addressing the latest concerns. Those fall into four categories: special education, services for English language learners (ELL), core education and finances. The deadline is June 15.
If the school doesn’t meet the deadline, it could face revocation of its charter; however, the commission’s Executive Director Joshua Halsey clarified that they are still in the stage of inquiry and investigation.
“We are not in corrective action,” he said. “We are in a process of gathering information to determine the extent to which they are in compliance, or out of compliance, for that matter.”
Halsey said that although progress at the school has been encouraging, the data administrators have offered to date has been insufficient to give the commissioners the assurance they need.
Linda Whitehead, school leader, said she feels confident that she will be able to meet the June 15 deadline and has requested to go before the commission in person during its meeting on June 18.
“We feel very confident that we will be able to deliver the things they are asking for,” Whitehead said, “simply because these are things we have been working on and gaining progress in since they were first brought to my attention.”
Administrators, parents, teachers and individuals hired by First Place to address the commission’s concerns — including a finance manager and a special education teacher — say the school has done nothing but move forward at a rapid and impressive pace toward fulfilling its obligations.
They also expressed confusion and frustration at what they see as excessive scrutiny from the commission in light of the progress that has been made, and say that the perception of First Place as a school in disarray is far from reality, especially considering it has already operated privately for more than two decades.
“I think what’s really important is there’s been a transition here,” said board member Rev. Harriet Walden. “I’ve seen good people work hard. I’ve seen that when you get qualified people in a position who knows what they’re doing, there is significant change, and that’s what’s happening here. All we need is a little breather, and a chance.”
A bumpy ride
Charter schools are privately operated schools that receive state funds and are meant to offer more flexibility in the ways schools serve students. First Place was one of the first 10 schools to be authorized but was the only school that opened as swiftly as it did. Both administrators and commissioners have since said that the school was likely unprepared to transition to a charter school and needed more time to prepare for requirements that came with the contract.
The commission began sending concerns in October 2014 that the school was in violation, beginning with a complaint about the Open Public Meetings Act and failure to have a solid safety plan and complete background checks on all personnel, among other things.
Right before the majority of non-compliance warnings rolled in, the school underwent a complete turnover in leadership. Walden, who sat on the previous board and put forth the motion to remove the board president, said she believes the former leadership was ineffective. Today, administrators include longtime activist Walden, former state representative Dawn Mason as board president and Whitehead, who has more than 25 years of experience in public education and is the former superintendent of Marysville School District. Both Mason and Whitehead said they came out of retirement to help the school survive its transition to a charter.
Most of the current administrators were not at First Place when it signed its charter contract and are now playing catch up. Whitehead said it was clear from day one that there were many things that needed to change. She said she has been working tirelessly to meet every non-compliance concern — a notable challenge — while keeping the school fully operational and attempting to raise funds.
Teachers and staff members say the change in leadership has been “night and day” at the school. The commission’s Halsey agreed that there has been positive movement.
“What I’ve seen since the new leadership has been, there is a school that is clearly on the right track,” Halsey said. “When you walk into that school, it is clear that the staff and school and volunteers love the kids and are creating a warm and safe environment. And that is what is needed in every school across Washington.”
That aside, he said, First Place has no choice but to meet its obligations as a public school, and emphasized that these concerns are not new.
“This is what they signed up for, and we expect them to be in compliance,” he said. “If they aren’t, we have an obligation to make sure that those students are getting the rights they are entitled to by law. We don’t have evidence at this juncture that indicates that all of their rights are being protected, and that is why we are acting the way we are.”
Whitehead said it has not always been clear why the data presented so far has been insufficient, but that she is grateful for the opportunity to give the commission the concrete evidence they want.
Meeting the requirements
The commission is now asking for 14 evidentiary documents, including master schedules of services being offered, copies of contracts, program descriptions, budgets and samples of student assessment “report cards” from each teacher.
One of the largest concerns has been in the area of special education, as the school lacked a certified special education teacher and the necessary staff. Whitehead said the school has since hired a special education teacher, a psychologist and a speech language pathologist and is currently interviewing candidates to provide occupational therapy.
The school must also offer compensatory special education services to make up for time lost. An initial plan for compensatory services drafted by the school was largely rejected by the commission, but Whitehead said they have been offering compensatory services after school since February, have logged the minutes and will be offering a summer program to make up the remainder.
Cori Ryason, the school’s new special education teacher, said she has seen the school’s special education framework shape up since she came on in March, and has been impressed with the way administrators have pulled together to address the commission’s concerns.
“They are on the precipice of something incredible,” Ryason said. “Next year even. We’ve had to respond to a lot of things, and it’s already so different than a month ago. We have a plan, and our documentation is organized. We have policies, procedures and we are seeing progress in our children.”
She said after working in several public schools, nonprofits and universities, First Place has been one of her favorites; the school allows her to work on an individualized level and develop the trust she needs to help kids grow.
“I’ve worked in a lot of different places — with the learning environment and the support here, it’s one of the best places I’ve ever worked in all my experiences in public school.”
Halsey said the school has not yet been able to give a consistent picture of how it is tracking student progress.
Several staff members said they believe part of the problem is trying to adjust to data-driven requirements in an environment that has not been focused on traditional evaluations in the past, given the population it serves.
For June 15, Whitehead plans on seeking outside advisers to review the data and determine the best way to present it to the commission.
Among the staff, there is little doubt that students are making strides. Sam, a first-grader in Reddy’s class, said he gets to meet with a mentor every Wednesday — a supportive role model who spends one-on-one time with students. Sam calls his mentor a “dementor” sometimes, but as an avid Harry Potter fan, he means it in the best way.
Much of Reddy’s time is spent breaking through walls that kids have put up as a result of their traumas. By mid-year, however, Reddy said the students were ready to take on rigorous academic activities. She and Ryason echoed that there are students at First Place who started the year illiterate and are now reading and writing in full sentences.
“They could write their names only because they’d memorized the symbols,” Reddy said. “That was mind-boggling to me.”
Whitehead acknowledged that of the four categories of concern, the financial one has been the most challenging. She said fundraising has suffered alongside negative media attention and the constant need to address noncompliance. First Place did not enroll as many students as it estimated — numbers that fluctuate often as students’ families get permanent housing or switch shelters — so it will also have to repay a portion of the state’s enrollment-based apportionment dollars next year.
The commission has asked to see an expense budget as part of its conditions, saying they are not convinced of the school’s financial viability. First Place has been working with the Puget Sound Educational Service District (psesd), an agency that assists school districts and state-approved private schools in Washington, to develop an expense budget for next year. Stephen Nielsen, assistant superintendent of psesd, said the budget will be completed by the June 15 deadline.
Not giving up
“The biggest struggle we have right now is getting the time we need to come up with what is necessary,” Walden said. “It feels like we can never catch up, and our best is not good enough.” Whitehead said she is is eager to address the commission in person on June 18.
Halsey said the commission is cognizant of the special circumstances and the obstacles that First Place faces, and that he believes the school has been given the time it needs to meet the commission’s requirements.
“We are sympathetic to First Place’s student population, and we are sympathetic to First Place being the first charter school in Washington,” he said. “And that’s why you see the commission working really hard to support and make sure they come into compliance.”
Board members say given the underserved population that the school specializes in, it would be wrong to remove public funding by revoking the charter.
Mason, board president, spoke of a boy who once couldn’t sit still.
“He couldn’t stay in his seat more than 50 percent of the time, and now it’s 90 percent,” Mason said. “What is the measure for that? In other schools, these students were allowed to be lost. We have a major crisis of educating poor children in the U.S. We have brilliant, gifted children sitting in prison because no one understood. We understand.”
Whitehead said she is not giving up anytime soon.
“I have to do this for the kids,” Whiteside said. “There is nothing in me, not one thing, that says, ‘I’m done.’ I will respond to as many complaints and noncompliance issues as they give to me. I will respond, because I do it for these students.”