The unveiling of a plan to merge two campuses in the Sausalito Marin City School District into a “world class” school is a promising step to constructively respond to the state’s ruling that the district’s current two-campus configuration amounts to unconstitutional segregation.
Now district leaders need to convince the communities on both sides of Highway 101 to buy into the plan. Drafting a new vision for the district may be a lot easier.
The plan, developed in response to state Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s ruling and in compliance with the settlement the school board reached with him, needs to move forward.
Now is the time for public give and take, a constructive community dialogue involving residents from both Marin City and Sausalito.
Becerra, last year, ruled that the district’s schools were effectively segregated, with one, smaller school in Marin City having a student body of mostly kids from minority households. The district’s charter school, meanwhile, was almost three times larger with a desegregated enrollment at its campus in Sausalito.
This division was exacerbated further by financing, by the school board’s decisions to make cutbacks in faculty and programs that diminished the educational offerings at the Marin City campus.
With a new superintendent — Itoco Garcia — at the helm, the district has the leadership and experience needed to bridge the gap and hopefully unite a district that has significant demographic differences, among them racial composition and wealth.
But over the past two school board elections, district voters have signaled that they support a change and an end to the longlasting tug-of-war between Bayside-Martin Luther King Academy in Marin City and Willow Creek in Sausalito.
Garcia says the plan is to create a single school that serves “as a model of educational equity, excellence and integration.”
Hopefully, stakeholders in this decision can agree with those goals.
Hopefully, Willow Creek parents who have filed a lawsuit contesting proposed cuts in the district’s funding of the charter school can agree with those goals and reach a settlement to end the legal fight.
It is time for wide-open public input; although that may be slowed by the public-health limitations caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Garcia and the school board need to be clear how those goals show up in the day-to-day programs and pupils’ classroom experiences in a unified school — essentially how the words in the 330-page plan translate into the top-quality educational opportunities every child in the district deserves.
Creating a unified school that only attracts children from one part of the district may only end the budgetary tug-of-war while doing little to integrate district classrooms.
It is time to search for answers and a solution that benefit all of the district’s students.
The district needs to look at the success Willow Creek Academy has had in attracting students. The academic approaches and successes found at Willow Creek should be reflected in a unified school.
They certainly need to be if the district is hoping to retain as many students as possible.
Already, Willow Creek has been losing enrollment as some parents — many of whom live outside of the district — understandably have worries about the possible financial problems, including laying off teachers, at the charter school.
Providing a single school with exciting academic offerings, opportunities and programs led by top-notch teachers may be the way to bring both Bayside-MLK and Willow Creek parents together.
The plan’s words are strong and promising:
“Working jointly the Sausalito Marin City School District and Willow Creek Academy intend to improve the educational and social outcomes of all current and future students enrolled in our public schools. … We are committed to engaging all stakeholders in a process that builds consensus around the best pathway for Willow Creek Academy and Bayside MLK to create a unified school solution.”
Turning those into a new, exciting and truly unified school is going to be the test.
