After months of hearing the Centralia School District say it got the K-6 idea from visiting Olympia schools, I decided to do some research. Guess what? Olympia went away with K-6 over 20 years ago.
I can’t wait to hear them try to get out of that lie.
I also decided to call other districts in our area. I spoke with 12 districts (Olympia, Tumwater, Yelm, North Thurston, Shelton, Chehalis, Adna, Aberdeen, Elma, Longview, Kelso and Rochester). Guess what I discovered? There is only one district that is still K-6 (Aberdeen), and that district is eliminating it next year.
Not only is Aberdeen eliminating K-6 next year, Yelm and Tumwater eliminated it this year.
Why? Call and ask them! Curriculum alignments. They no longer benefit a sixth-grader being at elementary level. So why is our district pushing this when no one else is doing it, and are moving away from it? Especially when our scores are low in comparison to other districts on almost every subject.
Why is this being forced on our community and our students? We are moving toward something all of the higher achieving districts have moved away from and have completely eliminated.
Why is our district lying to us? Do they even know? Or are they listening to the suggestions and “research” Superintendent Mark Davalos feeds them? Have they done their own research? I am guessing, no.
Research actually shows more of a benefit from not having K-6. Are they showing us that? If not, why?
I have a pretty good idea, and a fairly educated assumption after my visit to St. Helens, Oregon. We should all email our superintendent and ask him how many times the St. Helens School District reconfigured under his leadership. Or I can tell you — three out of his four years.
He is a liar. He lied to get the job here. He lies about research and he smooth talks people into believing he has facts. The only fact is he is running our community into the ground just the same as he did at the last place he was at.
I also find it very disturbing that their meeting minutes clearly show dates his evaluations were done, yet there is now no record of them ever existing. I am not sure how they disappeared. My guess is only one person can answer that.
He got the job at Centralia while he was still under contract in St. Helens. They let him out of it after they made the smart decision to not renew his contract for one more second. That is how we got our lovely leader. Lucky us. Good for their board for making the right decision. Now I think it is time for ours to wake up and do the same.
Candice Richards
Centralia
