Encinalameda High?

In two weeks the AUSD school board will be choosing folks to sit on the district’s Committee to Consider High School Consolidation.  Yep, it’s a catchy title.  It’s not too late to submit an application to sit on the group (deadline: June 14 at 5pm), which will “analyze the viability, desirability, and effects of combining Alameda High School and Encinal High School into one comprehensive high school.” More specifics about the composition and charge of the committee can be found on the May 22 presentation to the board (pdf).

And no, if we have one comprehensive high school it wouldn’t be called Encinalameda, which sounds more like a Taco Bell menu item than a school.  But I’m going to keep using the word, because it makes me chuckle every time I type it.  I may even make t-shirts.

To be clear, nobody is talking about having only one high school in AUSD, just one comprehensive high school.  A comprehensive high school is one that, in theory, does all things for all people; college preparatory and advanced placement courses, vocational education, special education services, drama productions, a full sports program, etc.  While such a school may seem to you and me like the norm, the comprehensive high school began as a uniquely American phenomenon; it was conceived as a more democratic institution than schools in Europe and elsewhere that tailored their programs for a particular type (i.e. social class) of student.

In addition to our two comprehensive high schools – Alameda High and Encinal – AUSD currently runs two tailored high school programs.  Island High is a continuation school, tailored to meet the needs of students who for one reason or another need a schedule or support that isn’t offered at our traditional high schools.  ASTI – the Alameda Science and Technology Institute – is a tailored magnet school that does not run many of the programs available at AHS and Encinal, such as sports teams.  Nobody is talking about discontinuing those programs.

The current conversation about combining the comprehensive high schools has come about because AUSD is about a year away from opening up new classroom space in the historic Alameda High School building.  AHS expects to have  new classroom space for about 1,000 students, which coincidentally is about the number of high school students at Encinal.  Or maybe it’s not a coincidence – I really don’t know.

With the opening of new classroom space, the district has an opportunity to save some money through school consolidation.  Running a lot of high schools – or any kind of school – is expensive.  And AUSD runs a lot of schools, especially middle and high schools.

Admittedly, this graph is imperfect because the data came from different sources; the AUSD figures are based on district-provided data, the County figures come from Ed-Data.org, and the state numbers come from the National Center for Education Statistics. But the conclusions one can gleam from this graph are about what I would have expected:

1. AUSD runs elementary schools that are almost in line with county and state average, after the closure of Lum.  A year ago, the AUSD elementary average was 447 – considerably smaller than the norm.
2. Alameda’s middle schools are smaller than rest of the county – on average.  Lincoln, with over 800 students, is a large middle school, while Wood and Junior Jets (if we extract the 6-8 students from the rest of Encinal) are undersized.  And this doesn’t take into consideration the middle schoolers at Bay Farm.
3. Our local high schools are smaller than average.  And yes, this data includes our continuation school and ASTI, but the county and state figures don’t discriminate by type of program either.  This is a snapshot of everything, as imperfect as that is.

But wait, you say, if we combine our two comprehensive high schools – Alameda and Encinal – the resulting Encinalameda High will be huge!  Way bigger than the average high school size, right?

Sure, but again, these averages include every type of school.  There are several high schools in the county that are about the same size or larger than Encinalameda (at 2,600-ish students) would be.  In fact, here they are:

• James Logan High, Union City: 3,793 students
• Berkeley High: 3,113 students
• Castro Valley High: 2,917 students
• Amador Valley High, Pleasanton: 2,628 students
• San Leandro High; 2,597

It’s not a long list, but please note that the three school districts in Alameda County closest in size to AUSD are all represented here.  Berkeley, Castro Valley, and San Leandro are our closest comparison districts, and each operates just one comprehensive high school.

AUSD is, in fact, the smallest school district in the county with multiple comprehensive high schools.  In addition to our three comparable districts, the Dublin and New Haven (Union City) school districts are both considerably larger than AUSD, but run just a single comprehensive high school.

So why hasn’t AUSD already consolidated the two high schools?  Well, there are a lot of good reasons, many of which were brought up by our community the last time AUSD held meetings about high school consolidation, which was just three years ago.  As one might expect in a town where people stay for generations and look forward to sending their kids to the same decaying schools they attended decades earlier, some of the arguments are emotional.  Here are the “cons” from the district’s notes of the January 29, 2015 workshop, at which time the idea was to rebuild Encinal to accommodate the students from both sites.

1. Huge cost
2. No identified site/location
3. Less personal
4. More disruption to build on existing site
5. Have to make the “school” smaller population–compared to other schools
6. Capacity – building one site for now, but where to expand for growth?
7. Student services – theory of saving money is false; still need all the services; “economy of scale” is false
8. Cost – the opportunity costs – what else could we have done for $200M?
9. Disruptive effects on students for transition to a new school
10. Traffic
11. Fewer students consider one school as a neighborhood school
12. Half of student leadership opportunities, e.g., Student Council, Student Clubs
13. It is less “green” to build a new site versus renovating existing
14. Some repairs at AHS/EHS can’t wait; still have to do those
15. Loss to Park St businesses
16. AUSD also needs a District Office solution

In just three years, the situation has changed considerably.  If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to revisit and comment on each of the above arguments.

1. Huge cost
Since the work is already being completed and the money spent, this is moot.  In fact, moving 1,000 Encinal students into AHS would eliminate the need for much of the planned modernization and new construction at Encinal.  So change this to cost savings.

2. No identified site/location
Done.  AHS.

3. Less personal
Well, this depends on how you structure the new school.  There are plenty of examples of large high schools in the Bay Area and beyond that run more personal programs than what we already have.

4. More disruption to build on existing site
Not anymore.  As with #1, moving Encinal students into the available space at AHS actually requires less new construction than not moving them.

5. Have to make the “school” smaller population–compared to other schools
Huh?  I really don’t know what this comment means.  Moving on.

6. Capacity – building one site for now, but where to expand for growth?
Hmm.  AHS is about to create capacity for 1,000 more students, should AHS need the space.  I’d be curious to see what the long-term projections are for AUSD before I speak to this point.  It may well be that the new classrooms will be needed in a few years.

7. Student services – theory of saving money is false; still need all the services; “economy of scale” is false
I seriously think somebody just made this one up.  We saw this spring how expensive it is to try to run identical programs at two sites – both schools have to choose between running under-enrolled classes or not offering the classes at all.  For example, Encinal will have no beginning band class because there aren’t enough students to fund it – it’s too bad the interested kids can’t just enroll in the beginning band class down the street.

8. Cost – the opportunity costs – what else could we have done for $200M?
Well, I guess what the district did with the $200 million was renovate the historical Alameda High building – and put patches on the rest of our old schools.  Check.

9. Disruptive effects on students for transition to a new school
True, but consolidation can happen without “transitioning” them.  Send the incoming Freshmen classes to AHS until we’re down to one school.  There are creative solutions to this concern.

10. Traffic
Totally a potential problem.  Can you imagine another 1,000 students trying to get to and from AHS every day?  (And why, on an island that is three miles long, do so many kids get dropped off for school every day?  I digress.)  But again, there are creative solutions to this, one of which I’ll present below.

11. Fewer students consider one school as a neighborhood school
This strikes me as a purely emotional argument.  Did you know that most of the kids who live on Bay Farm Island already live farther from AHS than many of the kids that attend Encinal?  If the Bay Farm kids think of AHS as their neighborhood school, so will the kids who live a few blocks away but who are in the Encinal attendance zone. Again, we live on a tiny island.

12. Half of student leadership opportunities, e.g., Student Council, Student Clubs
I didn’t realize that high school student clubs put a cap on their membership… oh wait, they don’t.  Having one Muslim Student Alliance doesn’t reduce opportunity – it makes that one group bigger, cheaper to operate, and quite possibly more vibrant.  And the athletic directors at both sites have suggested that having one comprehensive school could actually increase sports opportunities – no more having to cancel that Encinal Golf Team for lack of interest.

13. It is less “green” to build a new site versus renovating existing
Sure is.  That’s why AUSD renovated an existing site.  Now, let’s not start unnecessary construction at Encinal.

14. Some repairs at AHS/EHS can’t wait; still have to do those
Yup.  See above.

15. Loss to Park St businesses
This was a concern when Encinal was the preferred site.  I bet some Park Street businesses are salivating at the idea of having an additional 1,000 kids hit town for lunch.

16. AUSD also needs a District Office solution
Seriously, how does this have anything to do with high school consolidation?  The district’s office space problem might actually be solved – and the office building sold – if we moved kids out of a redundant school and turned it into office space.

My biggest concern about putting all of our high schoolers on one site is that the physical demands on the site just may be too great.  It’s already difficult to move around during passing periods at AHS.  It may overtax the very small AHS cafeteria, kitchen, and front office.  And Alamedans love to complain about increasing traffic… though it doesn’t stop them from driving four blocks to go to the movie theater.

So here’s a thought: what if we operate one comprehensive high school, but continue to make use of both sites?  Let’s be creative and use the best aspects of both sites.  Encinal currently runs a popular marine biology class, and the teacher has pointed out how nice it is to teach marine biology right next to the shoreline.  Cool; let’s keep doing marine bio at at that site.  Also, at Encinal we have a football field in a beautiful location – which the Encinalameda Jornets (ew) should keep using.  Meanwhile, AHS has two theaters – Encinal has none – so let’s put the performing arts programs at AHS.  Encinal has a radio station, so keep running that program there.  AHS has a much better space for a library.  Encinal has had their pool fixed up.

The schools are literally on the same street – creating a master schedule that allows kids to use both sites is entirely possible.  Meanwhile, constantly trying to maintain two of everything means we struggle financially to have a good anything.

High school consolidation won’t be without challenges, and will require a good deal of forethought and creativity.  And I honestly don’t know what the cost savings would actually be, or if the changes would be worth those savings.  But it might be worth asking a few adults – and students, because student voices should be involved – to do some thinking and some work if it means that every high school student in Alameda has the chance to perform in a play on a stage, and not in a parking lot, as noted in this screenshot from the Alameda Sun.

The biggest resistance to high school consolidation – and as a third-generation AHS graduate I feel this myself – will be from those who want to protect Alameda’s traditions; the beloved mascots, the big-game, the east end-west end rivalry.

First, to those who think that our traditions and mascots are entirely ours, I give you…

Which came first, the AHS Hornet or the Berkeley High Yellowjacket?  I dunno.  They are so similar, the students and boosters groups at both school can’t keep them straight.

Um, whah?

Oh, and this one has bugged me for years…

Why is there a green helmet with the Encinal Jets logo?  Because it’s the New York Jets logo from the 1970s.

Rather than seeing consolidation as the loss of what we have, I would encourage the naysayers to also consider what could be gained.  It may be that reducing the east end-west end tension – and making everyone feel as if they are members of the same community – would be a good thing.  Maybe having one varsity football team would ramp up the level of play of that team and give us a state powerhouse to root for.  Maybe selling off Thompson field (and the district office?) would give AUSD the money to bring another elementary school up to 21st century standards.

All of this will be discussed publicly in the next few months, and I’ll try to keep up with the conversation.  Thanks for reading, Encinalamedans.