Mosley student Jeremiah Castillo spoke at Tuesday's public comment period.
“Good evening, everybody. I'm a junior at Mosley. And I've been going there for all three years of high school. [...] The teachers there made me realize that there's more to life than just having fun. You have to work hard to play hard. And over there, they taught me that I can ask for help. Asking for help is really important, because sometimes you might not want to, but it's what you need.”
Jeremiah said he went from being a ‘D’ and ‘C’ student to making A’s and B’s — and added that diversity is valued at Mosley.
“We have Brazilian kids; we have Jamaican kids; we have Caribbean kids, we have Asian kids [...] And everybody there feels so comfortable with each other,” he said.
Jeremiah was joined by four of his classmates at the podium. Gerald Chavis also spoke, becoming emotional about the closure.
“Mosley has turned into a safe and welcoming space for students, including myself. The cultural diversity of our school is something that we take pride in. We come from different corners of the world. This mix of culture created a unique environment where we feel accepted,” Gerald said.
A Mosley parent, Rachel Hladik, came with her son, John, to the meeting and talked about what the school has meant to them.
“How is it different from when you were in middle school, like it was like a chore to get you to go to school, and you had lots of issues with peers and things that you're not having now?” she said to John, a freshman at Mosley.
“With that, there was a lot of me being made fun of, mainly because of my dyslexia, for dysgraphia, or my ADHD. I can do the work better, more efficiently,” he said.
This small, tightly-knit community feel is what the students and parents say they value. They said that they get personalized attention when it comes to their academics.
The decision will affect 52 students — and 15 staff members. And the district has maintained that their best interests are top of mind.
Staff will be offered other positions in the district’s schools, and Assistant Superintendent Julie Varnman said they will support students in finding a school they like — whether it’s one of the specialty schools like SeaTech or Isaac Bear or a traditional high school.
“This has been a discussion over time and how to match student needs with the services and resources that we have. So given that we don't have endless resources, it's about matching. It's about understanding there's a priority need, or a more substantial need or an equally important need [...] for students such as a ‘newcomer school’, such as students with extensive disabilities that need programs,” Varnam said.
At the board’s agenda review meeting in November, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Patrice Faison offered Mosley as a potential possibility for a newcomer school, meaning students who come from another country can get acclimated to the area in a year or less. Faison said that the district had 504 of these students just this year.
And she apologized for confusion in the community, where some assumed that Mosley was already slated to become a newcomer school.
“I did not make that clear at the agenda review and I apologize for that. That has nothing to do with a newcomer school that is still hypothetical and depending on a number of things,” she said.
Regarding the Mosley closing, Faison told WHQR earlier that they’ve tried to “boost enrollment for years” and that the space had been “underutilized.”
Another point of contention was that some of the school board members said they were unaware of the plans to close the high school.
Chair of the board, Pete Wildeboer, said that “his heart went out to the [students]”, and added that the district needed to have a full plan before they close a school — and that in the future, that decision needs to be brought before the board.
Board member Pat Bradford said she was “sorry for the lack of the compassion” that was written into the letter informing parents the high school was to be disbanded.
During the discussion of Mosley, Board member Hugh McManus brought up how much of the public schools' money is now being diverted to private and charter schools. He asked Chief Financial Officer Ashley Sutton how much was diverted to charters last year. She responded it was $7 million — and that it would be more for next school year.
McManus used this as a springboard to say that the board’s hands might be tied to keep a small individualized school with the lack of state funding for it. They also discussed how the $866,000 grant for the school is finishing this year.
Catherine Coleman, who is the Innovative Partnership Grant Coach at the school, told WHQR she wants the community to know the following about the current high school program.
“CRA takes high-risk students and [ones] with poor attendance and low test scores — dedicated staff get to know these students and make a difference in their lives. The school has no bells and whistles, no sports programs or other carrots - yet the kids come to school regularly and want to do well and graduate. They plan their own school dance with little to no funding, they teach each other to play soccer during lunch and they run their own self-service library,” she wrote.
Coleman conceded that the district does have to make a “tough decision” and “if it is in the best interest of the district to close the school — please consider how it should be handled to ensure these students who are now thriving do not become dropouts and the staff who have worked tirelessly do not leave the district.”
Board member Stephanie Kraybill said she supported the district in finding alternatives for these students but that it would come at a cost.
Moving forward, after the students and parents showed up to advocate for Mosley, the board has voted to continue the discussion at its January meeting — although officials are unlikely to reverse course.
