Lakewood’s “village” is gathering to learn how best to educate the city’s children.
The Clover Park School Board and the Lakewood City Council will meet in a joint session tonight to talk about their priorities and address community concerns about low test scores, behavior at school and other issues.
“We are very aware of the problems,” School Board President Carole Jacobs said.
She sees the meeting, to be facilitated by retired Sumner School District Superintendent Donald Eismann, as a way for the School Board to showcase its priorities and enlist all the help it can get in attacking lackluster Washington Assessment of Student Learning scores and turning out graduates better prepared for college and careers.
Lakewood City Council members have priorities to share, too.
Mayor Doug Richardson views the meeting as a workshop that will help define the city’s role in taking care of its children.
A tentative agenda posted on the city’s Web site last week listed a number of “items for discussion,” carefully avoiding the potential for conflict. They include deciding on ground rules and goals up front; discussing each panel’s priorities; talking about major issues; and figuring out how to achieve the overarching goal “of collaborating to benefit the community.”
“The focus is on the kids, the students,” Richardson said.
There has, however, been some finger-pointing in recent months.
Some frustrated residents took their complaints about the city’s schools to the council rather than to the School Board.
And Councilman Pad Finnegan has been a vocal critic for months, complaining that poor school district performance could hurt the city’s economic growth.
When council members last week discussed the tentative agenda for the workshop, Finnegan complained that it missed the mark on the biggest question: What will Clover Park officials do to improve student performance in the classroom?
City Manager Andrew Neiditz presented a proposed agenda that covered issues such as the district’s reputation and trying to dissuade students from transferring to University Place or Steilacoom schools.
Councilwoman Claudia Thomas said the city’s objective shouldn’t simply be to point out the district’s failures.
The city must figure out what it can do to help “in a positive way,” she said.
Jacobs said Friday that the School Board is working hard to address a range of problems.
Only about 30 percent of Clover Park’s 10th-graders passed the math portion of the WASL in 2007. That’s 20 points lower than the statewide average. And many residents have complained that there’s too much unruliness in some of the city’s schools.
After a series of meetings with the public during a superintendent search over the last year, the School Board set five priorities: raising student achievement; communicating more effectively with residents, staff and students; enlisting the help of the community in educating kids; focusing on a variety of issues in middle and high schools; and evaluating student conduct and improving behavior.
Those priorities will be tied into the plans to improve the city’s 11,700-student public school system, Jacobs said.
Everyone must work on ways to help the city’s kids “in school and out of school,” she said.
“We hope to say to the City Council, ‘How can you help us?’ These are our citizens. These are not just kids in school. These are our citizens,” Jacobs said.
The sentiment that it takes a village to raise a child “is not just a phrase, it’s reality,” she added.
Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659
Staff writer Brent Champaco contributed to this report.
What: Joint meeting of Clover Park School Board and Lakewood City Council
When: 6 p.m. today
Where: Gary and Carol Milgard Family HOPE Center, Chief Leschi Room A, 10402 Kline St. S.W., Lakewood
Open to the public? Yes, but no public comment will be taken.
More information: Go to www.cloverpark.k12.wa.us or www.cityoflakewood.us or call the Clover Park School District superintendent’s office, 253-583-5190.
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