For Sausalito Marin City School District officials, they are hoping (to borrow generously from “Field of Dreams”) if they build it they will stay.
They are the parents and children who are now attending Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito — some 75% of the district’s enrollment.
District trustees last week agreed to move forward with plans for construction bonds to transfer the two campuses — Willow Creek and Bayside-Martin Luther King — into a unified, top-notch, state-of-the-art school system.
It was a historic vote.
The district has made impressive progress in building community support for unifying its charter and district-run campuses into one school system.
A state investigation and ruling that the current two-schools system amounted to racial segregation and the school board’s settlement agreement with the state to come up with a plan to correct that serious inequity have provided the marching orders for action, both for the district and, repeatedly, from the community.
The state has given the district a short timeline to implement an effective plan to correct an educational chasm that has been allowed to exist — and widen — for far too long.
Last month, voters in the district gave their support for the district’s plan. A significant majority — 73.8% backed the district-sponsored Measure P that calls for issuing $41.6 million in construction bonds for capital improvements needed for a unified school system.
These improvements only provide the structural and modernization measures. Building top-quality classroom instruction, educational programs and opportunities and academic achievement are likely going to be a greater and more important challenge. Bringing together school leaders, parents and teachers to be on the same page toward dismantling social and racial barriers and providing every child the same top-level educational experiences is a sizable mountain to scale.
Passage of Measure P was a solid community endorsement that the district is headed on the right path and district residents want to see successful unification of the district’s K-8 program and a top quality public school system.
That means a school system that parents of the Willow Creek charter school, the district’s Sausalito campus, want to send their children to. That means a program that unifies the district’s Sausalito and Marin City campuses into a unified, opportunity-rich program that serves the district’s diverse community.
Having “world class facilities” is critical, says Superintendent Itoco Garcia.
Recent elections have reshaped the school board and the appointment to replace Trustee Josh Barrow, who recently resigned, are also important steps in keeping the district headed in the right direction and strengthening community support.
Implementing Measure P, successfully fulfilling the district’s promises to voters, is an important first step. Building a strong faculty, community backing and a “world class” curriculum that reaches every child — whether they live in Sausalito or Marin City and regardless of their family income or their race — are going to be even more important in making unification a success.
