Trying to enhance science, technology, engineering and math education at Saghalie Middle School, the Federal Way Public Schools district is preparing to move Technology Access Foundation Academy to the middle school’s building by the 2017-2018 school year.
Despite being named a Washington STEM Lighthouse School in 2015, the middle school has “not realized the achievement results that we want,” according to district superintendent Dr. Tammy Campbell.
The lighthouse title came with a $20,000 grant and is given to a handful of schools that become tabbed to provide technical assistance and advice to other schools implementing the first stages of STEM education.
As the district tries to improve those “achievement results” at Saghalie, Campbell said TAF Academy has been named a School of Distinction for three consecutive years.
“At the same time that’s happening, TAF Academy for three years has been looking for a new facility,” Campbell said. “They’re in portables. They do not have labs in the way you need labs. They do not have a gym.”
The solution? TAF at Saghalie.
Campbell said Saghalie is currently built to house more than its 500 students, and moving TAF’s 250 students to the building is a good move for both schools.
“The Technology Access Foundation has a lot of grant sponsors,” Campbell said, adding that its political resources and financial capital, with a proven achievement record, will elevate Saghalie’s results during a time when Saghalie staff has been working on STEM education. “So the two together can really come together because I believe the Saghalie team of teachers will have something to offer as well.”
There aren’t many details at the moment. Campbell wants the community to give input before the change, and the district will spend the 2016-2017 school year designing the transition, which will kick off the following school year.
“The Saghalie staff, for example, this summer will be engaged in professional development that now aligns with the way TAF teaches,” she said. “We’re going to take our time and do it right.”
Campbell said one element the district is committed to is transporting TAF Academy students to their new location.
“We don’t feel feel it’s fair for kids who’ve signed up and for kids who are attending that school to lose out, so we’re going to transport them until they’ve worked their way through the program,” Campbell said.
Located in Kent, TAF Academy teaches sixth- through 12th-graders. It is co-managed by Federal Way Public Schools and the Technology Access Foundation.
Campbell said initial feedback from parents has focused on how the schools’ two cultures, will blend which she admits will be tricky.
TAF Academy Principal Paul Tytler will take over as principal at the school because of his experience in project-based learning. Campbell said the district will find another spot for Saghalie Middle School’s Principal Marin Miller.
“He’s been involved every step of the way,” she said. “He’s been very supportive.”
Figuring out what to do with the TAF site after the move is one of Campbell’s bigger concerns.
“In the north, we have an overcrowding situation,” she said. “So bad that we have 30 kids in some of our kindergarten classes.”
Campbell said Federal Way Public Schools in the north have been overcrowded for five to seven years. The district can’t put a bond on the ballot until 2018, and even if a bond were approved it could take up to five years before a school is built.
TAF’s move to Saghalie will alleviate some of that pressure, Campbell said.
One possibility is using the current TAF location as a temporary site for fifth-graders, because the district has to keep class sizes for students in kindergarten through third grade small.
Until then, though, the focus is on the move.
“We know there’s a perception around some of our schools… we’re being very proactive to sort of change that narrative,” Campbell said. “We are very serious about every single school having this narrative around learning, rigorous learning, relevant learning… That’s really what this is focusing on.”
