Still Searching for Alternatives

The bell for first period rings and students start to come into the hallways from outside. Most of them are celebrating that it’s Friday while others pay no attention as they have their iPods blasting in their ears.

Already found sitting in the junior high classroom 110 with a chess board set up waiting for his opponent is Tim. Around him in the old classroom are posters of athletic icons such as Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan encouraging students to strive for achievement.

Tim is noticeably smaller than his peers – shorter, thinner, more fragile. Tim wears to school every day an oversized brown leather jacket with a white fur collar that looks like it came right out of an aviator movie. His glasses have a thin frame and fit his face tilting a little to the left.

Tim’s hair is all smothered on the backside, probably bed head, but he was the first one to get to John Marshall today, he always is and eager to play whoever wants to challenge him first.

Tim’s first challenger is his “behavior modification program” teacher Jabril Rashid, Tim strategically moves his little army around the board, taking Mr. Rashid’s pieces one by one. “You’re not going to beat me this time Tim,” says Rashid. “That’s what you think, check mate!” Tim shouts out with enjoyment. “So can we go to the lake later?”

Tim is part of one of the few programs left at John Marshall Alternative school after Seattle Public Schools granted them a reprieve year in Feb. 2007 to give the district time to decide where to place all the programs that John Marshall supported after the decision was made to close the school was final in July of 2006.

John Marshall is located in the neighborhood of Green Lake, just a few miles away from the very popular Green Lake Park. The school is one of the oldest established schools within the Seattle Public School District, although it has not always been an alternative school. The building will now be closed and the district is still to determine what will happen with the relic brick building.

This time last year there were almost 200 students now there are about 50 and that’s on a good attendance day.

John Marshall used to house traditional high school and junior high classes as well as their GRADS program for teenage mothers, an evening school, and their re-entry programs for grades 6-12.

After the announcement of the closure in 2006 the district stopped enrollment to Marshall causing most of the programs to dissolve and others to shrink dramatically. The re-entry program for junior high students now combines grades 6-8 and they have at most 15 students.

“This year has been tough here at Marshall, we have hardly been a ‘school’ in the traditional sense at all,” says Susan Knutsen, who has been teaching language arts for over 10 years now. “We’re teaching the students we have left and trying to deal with the reality, it’s sad.”

The re-entry program is designed for students who have been suspended or expelled from their regular high school due to behavior or truancy problems. After completing 48 days of the behavior modification program, or “behavior mod,” the students used to be given the option of returning to their high school/middle school or staying at Marshall.

The choice of staying has not been available this past year. There is no regular track for the students to return to.

Five programs remain but the numbers are small. The alternative school only houses ten students. This has made this year difficult for both the students and the teachers.

Integrating students use to be one successful way that the teachers would get students to cooperate. “These kids are fighters they’ve had tough lives. This year they’ve just been butting heads, it just takes time but they listen,” says Knutsen. If there is one qualification that a teacher needs before beginning work here at Marshall is patience. Between the bickering and the lack of concentration of the students, patience seems to be the quality that every teacher has.

“These kids come here not because they are bad but because they need a good example.” Says Mr. Rashid, “they need those ‘well behaved’ students to show them that they can sit down and write quietly, they need positive examples.”

The behavior modification program gives students who have recently been in conduct problems at their mainstream schools. The conduct issues vary with the students at Marshall from fighting, poor attendance, to disruptive classroom behavior.

Behavior mod., consists of activities that give students alternative ways of dealing with frustration and anger. The students are sometimes presented with situations and they discuss how to handle them without resorting to fighting or disruptiveness.

“You never know where these kids are coming from; you don’t know what’s going on at home.
We just have to understand that and the kids will listen if you just listen to them,” says Rashid.

The majority of the students are minorities – mostly African American and Hispanic. Tim is an exception as being one of the two white individuals in the junior high behavior mod program.

He may look sweet as he shows up early to challenge his favorite teacher at a game of chess but upon arriving at John Marshall just three months ago it was a completely different story.
When Tim arrived at John Marshall he was living in a homeless shelter, fighting everyday and pulling out his own hair from anxiety.

Tim came to John Marshall because he had no other choice – he has been kicked out of every other school he’s been to. “He’s got a mouth on him and he’ll talk back to anyone,” says Mr. Rashid. Tim would get bullied and attempt to fight back. Inevitably, he would get beaten up or start an even bigger brawl and end up out of school time and time again.

The counselors had no other choice but to grant him passed the closed enrollment of John Marshall as a last resort.

Today Tim lives with his social worker in West Seattle and sits quietly in class playing chess. Students try to get a rise out of him but instead of attacking them he walks away.

John Marshall has been coping with the fact that the programs will have to be relocated. At this point the only thing the teachers can do is reassure the students and continue to teach under the circumstances.

“It’s sad that the school’s closing… not only are teachers losing their jobs but students are losing a place to be,” says Knutsen, “a lot of us are very concerned that there’s not going to be a lot of support out there,” she adds.

Over the past year students at John Marshall were able to register for different schools. Because of the closing, students were granted first pick into mainstream schools by Seattle Public Schools. However, this does not guarantee that the students will have the same success rates as John Marshall had before.

The support that Knutsen is referring to was the students’ option to return to Marshall as an option for their mainstream schooling. Most of the behavior mod students struggle after they re-enter to uphold what they have learned and regress back to old behavior.

“That worries me because there will be re-entry that they’ll go back to, but it won’t be a school it will just be a program,” says Knutsen.

The trend is that the students wind up back in a re-entry program of some sort only a few months after going back to a mainstream school.

Students who do not graduate from the re-entry program by the end of the year will be moved to the program at Wilson Pacific, just 6 miles north of John Marshall. Other programs such as the GRADs program will go to South Lake. The evening GED program has already been moved to Franklin.

As the school day ends the kids get more and more anxious for the weekend. “I’m going to the movies,” says Tim, “maybe we can go to the lake next week.” He might not be ready to face the changes of a mainstream school for next year, but right now that’s not what’s important. Tim just wants to focus on being a kid.

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes...

Gregg's Cycles - 7007 Woodlawn Ave NE

Since parking is practically non-existent in Green Lake Park and the surrounding neighborhood area many have chosen to use alternative transportation.

Seattle is known for "going green" and being ahead of the trend in conserving energy. Green Lake however seems to be ahead of the surrounding Seattle neighborhoods in doing this. Just around the 8 AM morning rush of commuters several packs of bikers can be seen at various red lights and stop signs up and down the Ravenna Blvd stretch.

I have been in the neighborhood to witness businessmen and women, school kids, as well as leisure bikers all hit the streets of Green Lake to reach their destination and these bikers are serious: they are out rain or shine.

It seems rightly so that a bunch of bikers would call Green Lake their home, not only it is a hub for recreation but it is a center piece of one of Seattle's best and original bike shops. Gregg's Cycles has been around since 1932. It now has 3 other locations but the one located on Ravenna is the original shop and is still owned by the third generation of R.V. Gregg himself.

This shop is a staple of the community and for good reason. There is great costumer service for every biking or recreational need. They sell a plethora of cycling gadgets as well as top of the line bikes, accessories, clothing, lights, water bottles, shoes... pretty much anything you need for serious transportaion biking, mountain biking, or just your kids first tricycle it can all be found right here at this store without the super high prices and huge atmosphere of REI they will even troubleshoot problems for free! (however, you do have to pay for repairs) It was even named one of the Top 100 bike retailers in the US by Boulder Sports Research.

Gregg's Cycles has now branched out into other neighborhoods since its small beginnings in 1932 which include locations in Bellvue and Alderwood.

To see a list of events sponsored by Gregg's Cycles you can find it on their website or just go here.

Take a Lunch Break

After spending a majority of my time in Green Lake the past few weeks I have one note of advice: Do not take a car.

If you absolutely HAVE to drive to get to the Green Lake area, good luck trying to find parking. I suggest checking the second lot on the northern side of the lake first if you’re visiting the park. It is a lot quieter on that end; however, it is not as close to the shops but well worth the 20 minutes you will spend circling the streets for parking. You can find the parking lot between 76th St. and Stone Ave.

The parking lot at the end of Ravenna Rd. is usually full, and once you pull in you get stuck waiting behind all of the other misfortunate drivers who were under the same impression that they were there to actually park their car.

Besides the parking dilemma (which is nothing new to most Satellite drivers) I have found that Green Lake is not only a hub for recreation but it’s the spot to be if you’re looking for a yummy spot to have lunch.

Most of the restaurants have convenient patio seating with views of the lake which make Green Lake a perfect place to schedule your next lunch date.

Green Lake Bar and Grill located just off of Green Lake Drive is one of these perfect lunch-date locations. There is a large choice of sandwiches and burgers like their classic cheese half pounder which seemed to be something that a regular would order.

If you’re looking for sea food then you can find it near that nice parking lot that I suggested earlier. Duke’s Chowder House has one of its five locations right here in Green Lake. Even though it’s a chain the chowder is still yummy and award winning (with 5 different types to choose from).

And for those of us on a budget there is the very eccentric Beth’s Café off of Aurora Ave will serve you breakfast 24 hours a day. It offers cheap, super greasy, but oh-so-yummy comfort food. And sometimes that's just what you need on a grey Seattle day, not to mention the hash browns are never-ending.

Paper and crayons are also available for you to express your more artistic side while waiting and dining here. The art from patrons is posted on the walls from the floor to the ceiling. Oh! and I can't forget it is also the home of the world-famous-12-egg-omlet.

If grease is not what your looking and you can't really decide what you want then Lakeside Plaza is also in the neighborhood. This commercial establishment boasts a Worlds Wrap location as well as several other cheaper eatery chains like Guido's Pizza, Tully's Coffee, a Marbletop Creamery, and an Ed's Juice and Java.

If you’re hungry after your run around the trail or you just happen to be in the area there is something for everyone.

Sunny in Seattle

Sunshine? 60 degrees? Clear skies? For those of us who aren't from Seattle all of this may sound strange.

The idea of having beautiful weather in Seattle is a foreign concept but after being here for 7 months I have found that when the sun does decide to come out the entire city comes to life and everyone comes out of their coffee shops and art galleries to bask in the sunshine. And if it's a particular destination you're looking for on a day like this Green Lake Park is definitely the hub of outdoor activities.

The neighborhood of Green Lake is a quiet little area with the lake as its center point. It contains everything that an outdoors junky needs: water recreation, basketball courts, a pool, and a 2.8 mile trail surrounding the lake.

All of it is commercially accommodated with sports apparel stores, bike shops, and healthy food restaurant choices.

People of Seattle and surrounding areas flocked to this popular destination on Saturday and they brought with them their caravans of babies, picnic baskets, dogs, and especially their running shoes. With so many activities to choose from you could spend the entire day at the lake.

You can rent a paddle boat, kayak, or surf board and venture out onto the water. You can simply take a stroll (or run) around the path. Some people chose to just lounge around the grass while the more active visitors literally ran circles around them playing everything from baseball to Frisbee tossing.

The basketball court was packed with anxious players shouting "I got next!" in anticipation for the next game to begin. A Brazilian dance and exercise group, Capoiera Males, from the SODO area even used the park to show off their traditional blend of fighting and acrobatics.

Green Lake is definitely a place you want to be if you like being outside and active.

A schedule of events can be found here if your interested in visiting Green Lake sometime soon. Just make sure its a warm sunny day!