Charter school offers parents another choice - Marin IJ - June 12, 2006 - Jennifer Gollan and Don Speich

Charter school offers parents another choice
Jennifer Gollan and Don Speich


Willow: Students Elijanae James (left) and Abby Camaren work on a project during class at Willow Creek, a charter school in Sausalito. (IJ photo/Robert Tong)

Now in its fifth year, the Willow Creek charter school in the Sausalito Marin City School District has distinguished itself with a project-based approach to learning, mandatory parent participation and multiracial classrooms.
"We're really committed to providing kids with what California students had in the '70s," said Carol Cooper, Willow Creek's principal. "We are working with the kids really hard to improve."

The school earned a score of 709 on the state's Academic Performance Index in 2005. The API, which ranges from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, is derived from a series of state tests administered each spring. The school's score last year was the second-highest score in the district behind Bayside School, which earned an API score of 723. The state's benchmark is an API of 800.

Willow Creek was established in 2001 as a charter school, which is publicly funded but independently operated. Parents began pushing for the charter in 1999 because they were frustrated with the quality of education in the district.

"The main thrust to Willow Creek's education is an emphasis on the basics and a strong commitment to project-based learning and environmental education," said Lisa Goodrich-Boyd, acting president of the Parent Council, which represents 90 families at the school. "For parents who really want to send their kids to a public school, it is kind of taking that leap. Especially in Sausalito, where we have a lot of families who do not send their kids to the public schools here.

"As a parent, it is encouraging," said Goodrich-Boyd, whose son is a second-grader at Willow Creek. "It is really the best of public school education - it is what it is supposed to be. Our school offers children the ability to interact with the world that they will see when they are adults. It encourages them to learn the academic skills, but also the social skills they need, which is being able to interact with multiethnic groups and different socio-economic groups."

Willow Creek officials say the school's ultimate success will depend on its parental support and its innovative approach to curricula.

Willow Creek spends about $6,500 per student annually, putting it far behind the average of $22,232 spent on each pupil in Sausalito's traditional public schools. The disparity in per-student expenditures is largely attributed to the district's higher administrative, payroll and special education costs, Cooper said.

About 21 of its 138 K-8 students, or 15 percent, are from low-income families. By contrast, about 55 percent of the district's students are from low-income families.

Parents are required to volunteer at Willow Creek 50 to 70 hours a year, depending on how many of their children attend the school. Throughout the year, parents fulfill their volunteer commitment either by helping with administrative tasks in the school's office, ferrying children to field trips or distributing students' lunches.

"Parent participation is the most critical component, so requiring parent participation allows us to be selective in terms of the parents that care, and we all believe that if you have parents who care enough to put time and energy into the school, you will get better results," said Mark Trotter, one of nine members on the Willow Creek School Board, and a former Sausalito Marin City trustee.

Also, about 20 percent of Willow Creek's students are bused to school from outside the district, including Richmond and elsewhere. An equal number of students hail from both Marin City and Sausalito, Cooper said.

The school's racial makeup is diverse: 30 percent of the students are black, 27 percent are white, 27 percent are Hispanic, 7 percent are Asian, and about 9 percent are either multiracial or are unaccounted for in state figures.

By contrast, in the Sausalito Marin City School District black students account for about 54 percent of the enrollment; white students, 16 percent; Hispanics, 18 percent; Asians, 6 percent; and about 6 percent were either multiracial or unaccounted for in state figures.

"We have a much larger racial mix from Marin," Cooper said. "I assume it's something about the program that attracts them (parents)."

On a recent school day, children of different races sat hovered over math problems and intently followed the teachers' spelling lessons.

In one classroom, eighth-graders showed a visitor an example of the school's project-based learning, called "Making History." Students in grades six through eight had built a map dotted with various symbols representing where their assigned teams had traded wares or weapons or food, all in an effort to advance their civilizations and to learn about early history. Students reflected on their day-to-day experiences with the projects in journals so teachers could monitor their progress.

"It gets them excited about the process of learning," Trotter said. "These kids aren't memorizing facts and figures, they are learning what shapes a civilization. They are turned on by it. It is a brilliant way to teach."

Cooper agreed, and added that the school had not caved to mounting pressure on public schools to improve API scores by limiting lessons to test content versus projects, art and other subjects.

"We absolutely don't teach to the test, but we include state standards," Cooper said. "I'm hopeful we'll continue our upward march."

The school has taken a hard line with discipline, which this year has meant no expulsions, down from a few last year.

"We have made it really clear to the teachers that it is their classroom," Trotter said. "So if a student is being disruptive, it is their job to get the kids out of the classroom. What we are trying to do is put as much control as possible in the hands of the teachers for discipline."

Students who repeatedly misbehave are written up by the teacher. Beyond that, students could be referred to Cooper's office. Two suspensions triggers an automatic meeting with the school board and their parents.

Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich@marinij.com