Buckman Arts Focus Elementary School

This email was sent today to the Buckman Yahoo Group from Site Council Chair Kevin Downing:

Hello Dear Buckman Community,

Site Council members, Shirley Alhadeff, Laura Goodman, Lindsey Grayzel,
Claudia Mason, Linda Nichenko, Regina Pirruccello, Dawn Roberts, Brad Smith
and myself, have been working diligently, although behind the scenes, on
further developing our K-8 proposal since our community meeting in October.
We have been looking at issues like teacher certification, floor plans for a
K-8 at Buckman, opportunities for electives and other challenges that can
come with changing to a K-8 configuration. As you also may recall, we have
done polling of both parents and teachers to gauge support for the concept
too. Parents are strongly in support while teachers are more mixed. We knew
this was going to be challenging but we have continued to remain committed
to addressing issues and concerns that have been raised to make sure we have
the best proposal possible. We also have been working hard to begin to
identify those areas where we would expect a substantial commitment from the
District in order to make a Buckman K-8 as successful as we have come to
expect with any Buckman effort.

While we continued to refine our proposal, District staff were so impressed
with the original draft that they began an internal review, calling it one
of the best school configuration proposals ever submitted. Claudia met with
upper level District staff earlier this month expecting to gauge the level
of support for our proposal. District staff, while favorably impressed with
the proposal, noted a number of challenges that a K-8 configuration
presented and soon expressed support for a da Vinci-Buckman articulation
that could offer many of the same advantages at less cost and effort. As you
may know, this particular approach has been one of the ways that we have
explored as to how we can continue, extend and enhance the arts focused
curriculum and scholastic environment that many of us have found so
rewarding at Buckman. The net result is that District staff indicated to the
principals of both schools that the time may be ripe to truly look at a
Buckman-da Vinci articulation. Although what this means remains to be fully
discussed and crafted by both schools, in essence the two schools, with a
common arts focus, would be linked as a K-8 continuum. One outcome would be
that Buckman students who wished to apply to da Vinci for sixth grade would
be receive at least a preference for placement there. Further meetings are
planned and with a goal to present a refined proposal for consideration and
a decision by the District by mid January.

This is a turn of events that we had not expected but still regard very
positively. Our goal has always been to provide a K-8 arts education
continuum for Buckman students whether it be through the Buckman/daVinci
articulation or a K-8 configuration at Buckman. An articulation with da
Vinci addresses many of the issues we were looking at with a K-8
configuration while setting the stage for a ongoing strong arts focus with
further opportunities possible through high school. While this is the
strongest positive signal we have received on this matter, we have decided
to only put our K-8 effort on hold temporarily, while exploration and
decisions are made about articulation. We think this is in keeping with
prior direction from the community but continue to welcome your feedback and
comments. Please let any of the Site Council members know of your concerns
and contact me directly at 503.238.4665 or
vandown at teleport dot com.

Kevin Downing