School board questions changes at Hillside.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Despite the recent laudatory reassessment from the Alternative School Review Team, some Eugene School Board members said Wednesday that they're still tussling with the question of whether to endorse Hillside Alternative Elementary School's program modification.

"In my own mind, it's quite a conundrum," said board member Eric Forrest, referring to the critical question of whether the school's new emphasis on global studies truly sets it apart from other schools, as is required by district policy.

Others said they must trust the judgment of the review team, which has scrutinized documents, visited Hillside and talked extensively with staff members about the curriculum.

"They certainly were there and I was not," Craig Smith said.

Before the discussion, Superintendent George Russell laid out his rationale for recommending the board find that Hillside has "substantially met" its expectations for program change. The board will vote on March 7.

Hillside, along with three other alternative elementary schools, underwent initial reviews a year ago; the remaining four schools were assessed this year. Alternative schools enroll by lottery and strive to offer a distinctive instructional program, such as language immersion or mixed-grade groupings.

Russell concluded in 2005 that the district's system of open choice and alternative schools has contributed to growing concentrations of low-income, minority and special education students in some neighborhood schools.

Historically, alternative schools have attracted disproportionately high percentages of advantaged children.

Reviewing alternative schools was one way Russell and the board sought to smooth inequities. The team considered distinctiveness, viability, diversity and the effects of alternative and neighborhood schools sharing a campus. Hillside, which shares a campus with Adams Elementary, was the only school deemed lacking distinctiveness; that finding triggered the requirement for program modification.

On Wednesday, Russell said that last year he would have recommended merging or closing Hillside had the school board not rebuffed his suggestion to allow those as possible outcomes in the first round of reviews.

He said he remains "somewhat skeptical" that Hillside's international theme is distinctive and related to a pre-existing element. The board wanted to see an evolution of an existing focus, not something entirely new. But he said he had "empowered" the review team to ask such questions, and had to have faith in their work.

Russell's lukewarm endorsement was a concern to board member Charles Martinez, who said the key question for him is whether the international theme is an extension or a reinvention. He said he wished he'd seen evidence, rather than just an affirmative declaration by the review team.

Given the benefits inherent in alternative school status, Martinez said the bar needs to be set high. As of Wednesday, he said he's not persuaded that Hillside has met that standard.

Hillside, which opened 30 years ago, has long emphasized the advanced mastery of basic academics, with daily homework and single-grade classrooms. The review team said that, while Hillside did it well, that approach wasn't unusual.

In altering the program, Hillside teachers said they drew on existing elements relating to global studies to develop a framework for an integrated, sequential international curriculum.

On Wednesday, several teachers and parents told the board that the focus is indeed an evolution, and that it differs significantly from what any other school offers. Parent Diana Richardson cited several examples, including the international thrust of the schoolwide "book of the month" selections and regular assemblies featuring international speakers and art.

Another parent, Ann Reeder, invited any skeptics to visit for themselves. "I know what is happening at Hillside is different," Reeder said. "Our curriculum, our governance and how we develop the character of our students is different."

Teachers Debra Gelzer and Debbi Heinrich said the criteria on which Hillside has been judged haven't always been clear. "We feel we were asked to modify and stay the same" simultaneously, Heinrich said.