After six years, the partnership between Ballard High School and the Casa Maria Montessori preschool, which has been housed at the school rent free, is coming to an end. Tight budgets and a new program means the preschool has to move out the end of June.
BHS Principal Phil Brockman tells our news partners, The Seattle Times, that a new program for students with autism needs the space. “We feel badly that the early-learning program will no longer be housed at Ballard, but we really do not have a choice,” Brockman tells the Times.
The executive director of the preschool, Gail Longo, tells the paper that parents of both preschool students and some high school students are writing Brockman letters not to close the preschool.
The preschool program at Ballard was the last of its kind at Seattle Public Schools, in the wake of two similar programs closing at Nathan Hale and Ingraham. The partnership gave high-school students the opportunity to observe preschool students and learn about early childhood education. Students could even intern at the preschool for one period during the day.
You can read more about this partnership in this Seattle Times article by Andrew Doughman.
This article makes it sound like a budget issue but from what I understand, its not a budget issue at all… weird. I like the video attached to article at the seattle times website, so cute! Did anyone else see it?
It sounds like it’s not quite a budget issue but more of a space issue – there is just not room for the preschool and the new autism program. Both sound like they are very beneficial to the community but I imagine that necessary programs from highschool age students would take precedence. It’s just too bad there isn’t room for both.
It’s not last of it’s kind, there is a preschool program housed in Shorewood High School. The students also intern in the classroom.
sealemon – We’ve updated the piece to clarify that it’s the last partnership of its kind for Seattle Public Schools.
Yes, sounds like it isn’t much of a budget problem when you are mostly swapping one program for another. Its tough to glean much from the scant details, but I would imagine that an autism program isn’t any less costly that a preschool program, though it is possible that SPS will get some sort of outside funding for the autism program.
For a school proncipal, Mr. Brockman could use a bit of grammar touch-up:
“We feel badly” = incorrect
“We feel bad” = correct
Ha! PrIncipal! And I could use a preview on the spelling!
why wouldn’t you feel badly?
it’s an adverb and feel is a verb. sounds right to me.
@yep
Ok. Here’s the answer to this grammar riddle folks.
If you are not adept (good) at feeling, that is, you don’t do it well, then you /feel badly/. If you feel hurt or down (sad), then you /feel bad/.
So, yes, ‘badly’ is an adverb, here describing the verb ‘feel’. But it describes the /action/ of feeling, not the /type/ of feeling.
In this case, Mr. Brockman’s use was incorrect or he was misquoted. Occasionally, journalists /correct/ a source and in doing so create these types of problems for readers as well as for the source (and all the rest of us!).
Do you say “I feel happily” when you are happy, or “I feel sadly” when you are sad? No. You feel happy (=that you are happy) or sad (=that you are sad). Nor would you say “I feel well about doing such-and-such” — you’d say “I feel good about doing such-and-such.”
Strictly speaking, “I feel badly” implies that you cannot sense things by touch as well as most people can.
seems kind of nitpicky to me.
he’s the principal afterall, not the english teacher.
maybe he burned his fingers and can’t feel well–we really don’t know.
besides, I thought Brockman was the TV news personality and Skinner was the principal.
Didn’t pay any rent….free teaching by high school students….where was all that tuition going?
Ballard High School teachers have voted overwhelmingly for a “no confidence” motion against Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson.
There’s a post about it at seattleducation2010.wordpress.com
It says (in part):
“No-confidence motion
Whereas Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, is an ineffective leader in the following ways:
(…14 points follow…)
We, the teachers of Ballard High School, move to express our lack of confidence in her ability to move our school district, our teachers, parents, and students forward in a positive and equitable way.”
Does anyone here know more detail?
Snoopy – the tuition, which was paid by families of the preschoolers, mainly went towards the salaries of the Montessori trained teachers and an office assistant. As there were only 15-20 mostly part-time preschoolers per year, the budget was not very large. The staff of MMLCC supervised and taught the high school students in exchange for rent. Also, MMLCC paid for and offered teacher training, parent education, non-violent communication (NVC) workshops and various other community lectures regularly…although those were often funded by grants. It’s a real shame that it’s going to close. My daughter went to preschool there for 3 years, and we had only good experiences with the program.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the weekly music and language teachers….