No money, few rules. How two Olathe schools met the state’s challenge to redesign schools

When the Kansas State Department of Education announced last year it was looking for school districts willing to come up with innovative ideas to help students succeed in the rapidly changing workforce, the challenge was admittedly nebulous.

The 14 schools to be chosen through an application process would take on all the work of piloting those ideas at their school site. There would be few guidelines — and this catch: They would get no extra money to help implement them.

Schools would also need buy-in from 80 percent of their faculties and support from their communities.

And yet, when Westview Elementary school fourth grade teacher Jessica Kilby heard about the Kansans Can School Redesign Project in a speech by Education Commissioner Randy Watson, she said she ran home and talked with her husband, friends and family.

Kilby and her colleagues were eager to take ownership of a system that was clearly not working for their students.

“The most appealing part to me as a teacher was that we could have input in it and it wasn’t just coming from up top or the state or the district leaders,” Kilby said. “The chance for teachers to be a part of it was pretty enticing to me.”

It’s been six months since the state named Westview Elementary School and Santa Fe Trail Middle School in Olathe as pilot members of the redesign project — a statewide initiative the state department of education will eventually require every district to participate in.

Now, halfway through the pilot year, the two Olathe schools and 12 schools from six other districts are implementing new approaches to challenges specific to their schools.

The flexibility to move away from traditional schooling has “been the most empowering thing,” said Westview Elementary School Principal Jon Bell. “We’re not just buying a curriculum from someone else. We’re not just copying somebody else’s model. We’re really developing a model for the needs our schools have.”

Last August, Bell asked his staff what teachers wished to participate in research teams to undertake the redesign. Everybody in the building, he said, joined a team.

A new way to triage

On a recent morning, Westview Elementary school students emerged from cars and school buses and headed to a classroom to meet their “family” for breakfast.

The elementary school on Troost Street in Olathe has struggled to provide emotional support for students dealing with unstable home lives, trauma and emotional issues that impede their learning, Bell said.

Some fifth grade students are not graduating at grade level, sometimes because students requiring special needs, English or gifted services often have to leave the classroom to get them.

Character traits, such as individuality and social skills, that are more frequently touted as assets in the modern workforce, aren’t reinforced by the traditional idea of school.

And calls to Bell’s walkie-talkie to address problems with student behavior have become a normal part of the school day.

“Why do we take that sense of individuality from them so soon and so quickly?” Bell said. “That’s why kids don’t like school, because they don’t have any voice. They don’t get to make choices. They are told what to do all day every day.”

Without the flexibility to make innovative changes, Bell said, teachers have often been forced to participate in a system that clearly wasn’t working for their kids.

Starting in January, school staff created a new blended fourth and fifth grade classroom that staff calls “the den.” For two and a half hours each morning, students meet in personalized groups with other students with similar needs or aptitudes.

Multiple teachers and specialists run the class, so no one gets pulled out of the classroom when students need support. Students often get paired with students who are on similar levels, even though everyone is working on the same project or assignments.

And the joint classroom time means that teachers and aides now have common planning time to streamline their curriculum and learn from each other.

“Family breakfast” is another idea at Westview. It’s designed to combat not having enough staff to meet with students who want to talk or work out personal issues.

Eight students of varying ages meet with the same teacher every morning to eat breakfast and chat about their personal lives with their school “family.”

“We’d find we didn’t have enough people to triage all of those kids who wanted to talk about such and such happening last night and ‘I’m really worried about this,’” Bell said. “This is our way to make sure that every kid has that chance to check in with someone in the morning.”

Implementing ‘Exploration Days’

At nearby Santa Fe Trail Middle School, teachers have brainstormed a similar solution for a different challenge: kids being late to first hour.

School staff wondered if creating a “soft place for kids to land in the morning” would increase their enthusiasm for getting to class.

This month, students have attended a “Cyclone Start-Up” session each day before school. They work on goal-setting with their teacher, who also spends the time mentoring students.

Students return to that classroom for a “Wrap-Up” session at the end of the day, where they review goals again.

Like Westview, Principal JJ Libal said, the school surveyed students, teachers and parents as they brainstormed redesign ideas. Students asked for choice in everything from the classes they take to their activities.

As a result, the Santa Fe Trail community is piloting “Exploration Days.” In February and March, the school will spend the day immersed in unique classes or experiences: Zumba, culinary, robotic, computer science, among others.

Libal said the school would use data and feedback to determine what ideas to keep.

“In May, we’ll be able to start rolling out a schedule and what this would be like going into August,” Libal said. “That’s our goal, taking the best things we have and putting them in place in May so by August we can hit the ground running.”

Becoming the Mercury 7

The Kansas State Department of Education named its inaugural seven school districts the “Mercury 7,” an ode to the Mercury 7 astronauts. They have already designated an additional 29 schools to begin exploring aspects of redesign, though those schools did not receive mentors from the state as the Mercury 7 schools did.

“We’re getting ready to do something we don’t know of any other state having done,” education commissioner Watson said when the project finalists were announced in August. “We’re going to deconstruct the traditional school system and build what Kansans believe best meets the needs of today’s students — choice. And, we’re doing all of this with existing resources, no new buildings and the same educators.”

By the time of the announcement, the state had determined that schools need to focus on five elements — social-emotional growth; kindergarten readiness; personalized learning high school graduation rates; and post-secondary completion/attendance.

“One of the jobs that I think educators all have to have is being futurists,” said Olathe’s Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Jessica Dain. “We have to be staying in tune with what is needed after they graduate. We have to realize that we always are going to have to be changing to meet the changing needs of our students once they graduate.”

The lack of specifics on how to do so, as well as any additional money to pull it off, were intentional, particularly since the state eventually plans to roll every district into the redesign initiative.

Starting next year, the Mercury 7 schools will be considered model programs. Olathe is the only local school district to participate in the inaugural year, and the largest district participating.

“Schools could say, ‘Hey, there’s not enough time. There’s not enough resources. There’s not enough money,” Dain said. “Well, you have 14 schools that just did that.”

In Meghan Bartek’s second grade classroom at Westview, two ‘family’ groups met before school this week.

As they ate breakfast, Bartek helped along a conversation about conflict and how to support friends having a hard time.

Slowly, students talked about the issues on their minds — my middle cousin keeps fighting, I’m having trouble getting to school on time. My mom’s TV isn’t working.

“I think this is the most fun I’ve ever had in education because it has been so much guided from us and our ideas,” Bell said. “The conversations I’ve had with people just sitting down and problem-solving has been amazing and a lot of fun.

“It’s also the most stressed I’ve ever been in education...I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights.”

Bell said the effectiveness of the changes on both student culture and test scores remain to be seen, but there are positive signs.

Students in the new blended fourth and fifth grade classroom have enthusiastically named themselves “The 45 Squad.”

When the school needed a handful of extra iPads to see if fourth and fifth graders not having to share iPads would help performance, administrators pulled through.

Then there’s those walkie-talkie calls.

So far this year? Zero.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 10:57 AM with the headline "No money, few rules. How two Olathe schools met the state’s challenge to redesign schools."