Olympia’s Alki program is well worth the investment

I am writing to encourage the Olympia School Board to fund a 0.4 position for the Alki middle school program at Reeves. Alki is a multi-age, team-taught, interdisciplinary program which focuses on collaborative and experiential learning.

Alki has been in successful partnership with Reeves Middle School and the Olympia School District for 17 years. Alki students leave middle school ready for the academic challenges of high school and the social and developmental challenges of adolescence.

Recently, the Olympia School District surveyed parents, students, educators and administrators about their top concerns for school age youth: intervention for struggling students and student health were the top priorities for all queried. Alki is in direct alignment with those priorities and has proven to support students regardless of grade point average, socioeconomic status, individual educational plan or any other factor that traditionally creates barriers to success in school.

The Olympia school district has shown its dedication to ensuring families have a variety of choices in education and I hope that Alki will continue to be a valuable and viable option for South Sound families for years to come. I would like to end by quoting Alki alumni student Laurel Thompson, who eloquently spoke at a recent school board meeting in support of Alki: “Alki made me much more confident about who I am, and how I fit into the world. Alki made me ready for high school because it made me ready for life.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Olympia’s Alki program is well worth the investment."