Mixture of Celebration and Challenge Face Shoreline Public Schools and Shoreline CC

The budget crisis facing public education in Washington state has resulted in a lot of grim news lately for those invested in it—which could be anyone.

At the same time, there is a lot to be proud of in Shoreline as its two largest educational institutions are facing a crucial time in their history, on a collisoiin course where only the fittest will survive and thrive.

It’s a time where there’s a “mixture of celebration and challenge,” said Shoreline School District Superintendent Sue Walker, who began her education career in Shoreline in 1973.

Shoreline City Manager Julie Underwood and City Council invited Walker and Shoreline Community College President Lee Lambert to an education summit at Shoreline City Hall, Wednesday night to discuss the state of K-12 and higher education here. Nearly 150 people came to hear the discussion.

Shoreline’s economy depends heavily on the health of the Shoreline School District since it is the largest employer in Shoreline, according to Walker, with 1,165 employees, 613 of them certified and 552 classified.

Still, the 67-year-old district is much smaller than it was four decades ago. In 1969, when the Baby Boomers were in K-12, the district had 17,000 students, about twice as many as it does now.

While schools have closed, demographics have changed with only 54.8 percent of students identifying as white, a 10 percent drop in the last six years. Students speak seventy-six languages, and 18 percent speak a language other than English at home. Six percent the district’s students are in English Language Learner classes.

Also the bad economy has resulted in a 7 percent rise in students who are on free-and-reduced price lunch, 28 percent of all district students.

However, the main point in all of this, is that, “We don’t want any demographic not to achieve at the same level,” Walker said, adding that public schools are American society’s great equalizer.    

When it comes to test scores Shoreline does very well. In reading, science, math and writing, Shoreline students outperform the state average at every level.  Washington state also has the highest Scholastic Aptitude Test scores in the nation and Shoreline students score significantly above the state average, Walker said.

The on-time graduation rate in Shoreline is between 84.3 and 90.9 percent, and between 91.5 to 96.1 percent of all students graduate eventually. The dropout rate as calculated by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is low at 2.3 percent.

Most Shoreline School District seniors go straight to college with 70.4 entering two or four-year institutions after graduation. Nearly 90 percent eventually enroll in college.

The district went through serious belt-tightening in 2006 after facing a fiscal crisis that required it to be audited by the state. However, now that the district’s own finances are healthy and it has built up its reserves, state funding has declined by $6 million over the last three years. The district used to get 65 percent of its money (the total budget is nearly $90 million) from the state and now gets only 60 percent of the total from the state.

The loss of I-728 funds has meant larger classes in remedial reading and math, fewer extended learning opportunities and cuts in professional development for teachers. Parents have to pay for all-day kindergarten and families who can’t miss out.

“We should have all-day kindergarten for everyone,” Walker said.

Fircrest School is another challenge the district faces, Walker said, with it being the only center of its kind for some of the most highly challenged students in the state, who suffer from autism and other disabilities. Twenty-four students, most of them long-term residents, are served at Fircrest and the state support is inadequate for their needs, Walker said.

“We continually tell legislators it’s not fair to citizens,” Walker said. “We can’t use local funds—it’s illegal technically—if this program is going to be there they have to support it. It’s a crisis waiting to happen. More students are being placed without the resources to support them.”

The district is also building new Shorewood and Shorecrest high schools with bond money passed by the voters in February 2010. Shorecrest’s gym should be done next fall and the performing arts wing should be completed next winter. The rest of the school, the three-story academic wing, could be completed by winter of 2014.

Shorewood is scheduled for completion by fall 2013.

The district’s levy passed Nov. 8 with nearly 63 percent of voters voting yes. The levy, designed to reduce class sizes, will provide money for 10 classroom teachers.

Despite its challenges, Shoreline one of the top school districts in the state, ranking in the top 5 percent statewide, based on student achievement data.

Lambert, an Army veteran who was born in South Korea, began his career as a lawyer and worked in the King County Prosecutor’s Office before working on civil rights issues at Evergreen State College and later worked as an administrator at Centralia College.

Lambert assumed the Shoreline Community College presidency in 2005 and has been focused on technology, closing the student achievement gap and environmental sustainability among other things.

Higher education institutions face a crisis, he said, and only the paranoid will survive.

“There’s an opportunity to rise to new heights or signal the beginning of the end,” he said. “That’s where we are in higher education today.”

Online education is growing at a double-digit pace and by the end of the decade, the primary mode of education will likely be online not face-to-face in a classroom.

Globalization is also redefining the entire landscape in education and one in three jobs in Washington are tied to trade with China the state’s largest training partner. Washington is still exporting more goods to China than it imports with Boeing and agriculture leading the way.

Amidst these trends, the college like everyone else is getting less money. In 2008, the college received $23.8 million from the state, which was 61.8 percent of its budget and now receives $18.4 million, only 53.4 percent of the budget.

As a result tuition has been raised from $2,699 for 15-credit load for three quarters to $3,439, a $739 or 27 percent increase.

More and more faculty are part-time instead of full-time and that trend is likely to continue.

Shoreline also features state-of-the-art automotive training programs by automakers like Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. But most of the people taking those classes stay in Lynnwood or Edmonds when they come because Shoreline lacks business class hotels.

Shoreline has the 32nd largest international program for community colleges in the United States, Lambert said. Students from Asia, the Middle East and Africa have created an environment that supports learning from each other while learning necessary skills.

 It’s also been recognized for its workforce development and auto programs. It’s literary magazine, has been ranked number one in the U.S. as well. Shoreline CC students have also been named in the top 20 in the U.S. by USA Today and in the top 50 in the U.S. by Coca-Cola.

“We have to have the collective mindset for change,” Lambert said. “We got to think like the immigrant, the artisan, the waiter. America has got to compete and our biggest competitor is China.”

Shoreline Community College and the Shoreline School District are local gems for Washington and the nation, Lambert said, “but it’s not sustainable without some new revenue to continue the great work that’s happening.”