Olympia School Board approves pilot reading program for Lincoln

The Olympia School Board voted 5-0 Monday night to adopt “Wonders” from McGraw Hill as the new elementary English Language Arts curriculum for the district.

The nearly $1.12 million curriculum purchase will be available for all of the district’s elementary schools, except Lincoln Options Elementary School.

Instead, the 300-student alternative school will pilot a program known as the “Lucy Calkins Units of Study in Reading.”

“I’m really excited that at least we get to pilot it, and we get to try it, and they gave us two years to try that,” Lincoln principal Marcela Abadi said after the meeting. “I’m not so excited about the strings that are attached to it (the board’s decision), but am willing to do that because the ‘Lucy Calkins Units of Study’ does fit with our program.”

The district’s multi-age Montessori programs also will be allowed to use a different curriculum from “Wonders,” officials said.

For the second week in a row, the School Board’s meeting attracted a standing-room-only crowd of about 75 people, many of whom were Lincoln parents or staff members.

A nearly 30-member committee had considered six programs for the new elementary school English Language Arts curriculum, which covers reading, writing and other communications skills. The committee did short pilots of two programs and ultimately chose “Wonders” to replace a curriculum adopted in 2002.

During a presentation to the board, Olympia superintendent Dick Cvitanich said Lincoln is “uniquely wonderful,” but he believes that’s because of a high level of parental involvement at the school, not its curriculum.

Cvitanich also said he was disappointed that Lincoln staff members refused to pilot “Wonders.” He said he wants the school to adopt “Wonders” if it can’t show student growth during the pilot program, as measured through standardized assessments.

After the superintendent’s remarks, Abadi said her staff didn’t refuse to pilot “Wonders.” She said they couldn’t figure out a way to pilot the materials because there weren’t enough children in one of Lincoln’s classrooms to make the materials work.

The “Wonders” program doesn’t fit well with multi-age programs, such as the one at Lincoln, she said. Abadi said she believes it’s a quality program, but it was designed for traditional single-grade classrooms.

School district spokeswoman Susan Gifford said it’s going to cost between $53,000 and $77,000 for the pilot at Lincoln.

“The estimated cost includes the teacher training and curriculum materials, including books for the classroom libraries, a program for teaching foundational skills, and materials for providing grade-level interventions,” she said.

During the public comment portion of the School Board meeting, Lincoln parent Duane McCatty said he was surprised but thankful for the superintendent’s recommendation.

He said he believes the school will be able to prove that the Lucy Calkins program is the right choice for Lincoln.

“We accept your challenge,” McCatty said.

School Board member Justin Montermini said he’s not a fan of standardized testing, but he encouraged parents to consider how opting their children out of those tests could affect the pilot’s outcome.

School board president Mark Campeau added that the tests that would measure the effectiveness of the curriculum will take about three hours out of the school year.

“I think it’s a fair compromise,” he said.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 1:58 PM with the headline "Olympia School Board approves pilot reading program for Lincoln."