Kerri Kite-Pocklington, a physical education teacher at Edison Elementary School, points out a vintage staff photo in October 2018 at Edison Elementary School in Centralia.
Elementary school teachers in the Centralia School District received their grade and building assignments Tuesday for where they will be come fall.
“All six of our schools will have new teams, so we will have a lot of professional development for climate and culture building,” said Kerri Kite-Pocklington, co-chair of the Centralia Education Association. “If you look at my school for instance, we have six new teachers in Edison that need to be trained or learn the ways of Edison School.”
According to figures from the district, nearly 90 percent of teachers will continue teaching their current grade level assignment. Nearly 70 percent will remain at their current school and nearly 60 percent will remain at both their current school and continue with the same grade level assignment.
“We were always hopeful that we would not be displacing a large number of teachers from their current grade level,” said Centralia School District Superintendent Mark Davalos. “They worked really hard to learn that grade.”
Kite-Pocklington said it took about four hours to place teachers, which was the amount of time the CEA co-chairs and school district staff had scheduled. She said the figures of the new assignment were about what she expected.
“I think it’s real close to what we thought,” Kite-Pocklington said.
Ed Petersen, public relations and communications coordinator for the district, calculated the number of teachers whose assignments will change.
“My figures are based on the number of classroom teachers, including specialists like music and PE teachers,” Petersen wrote in an email. “It does not include all CEA represented employees like counselors and facilitators (unless the facilitator is also a classroom teacher). All of our specialists, counselors, therapists, etc. are remaining at their current building assignment. … So that leaves us with 109 classroom teachers (including music and PE teachers).”
Of those 109 teachers, 34 will move to another building, 11 are set to change grades they teach this fall and only one teacher will switch both grade levels and buildings.
Principals at the five elementary schools met with teachers individually Tuesday to discuss assignments, starting at noon. Teachers had as much time to ask questions as they needed, Kite-Pocklington said, which ranged from five to 35 minutes. The district also provided letters to each teacher about their placement.
“We all agreed we were going to wait until Tuesday so we could get things ready,” Davalos said. “We made sure we had letters, so it would be spelled out clearly. … Tuesday the principals wanted to meet with each teacher one on one, face to face and have that discussion with them respectfully.”
Kite-Pocklington said there were a “range of emotions” when teachers learned their placements.
“I think most of the emotions were released, because it had been an unknown for so long,” said Kite-Pocklington, noting that it had been roughly 13 months between when teachers learned they could potentially move either grades or buildings and when they found out their placements. “... The initial (reaction) was relief, then everybody processes change differently.”
Davalos said if teachers are moving buildings, but teaching the same grade that it will be a continuation of the professional development they have already been doing.
“Teachers at different grade levels will get different support with materials and training,” Davalos said. “... We have a lot of other work still to do in our buildings and our new schools. We are already talking about and communicating what those next steps are going to be.”
These changes are the result of a $74 million bond voters in the Centralia School District approved in 2017. The bond is funding the construction of two new K-6 elementary schools to replace Jefferson Lincoln and Fords Prairie, as well as a full, like-new remodel of the high school.
This fall, all five elementary schools in the district — Jefferson Lincoln (K-3), Fords Prairie (K-3), Edison (K-3), Oakview (4-6) and Washington (4-6) — will transition to the K-6 configuration. The teachers will move buildings this summer.
