District transfers won’t be honored in the fall, and teachers and parents say vulnerable families will be affected; declining enrollment and other challenges prompt district decision, officials say

Nearly a quarter of students attending Washington Elementary School in west Medford have been notified in recent months that they won’t be able to return next year.

District officials say declining enrollment and a push to reduce the number of blended-grade classrooms at all district elementary schools factored into the decision. Parents and teachers, meanwhile, said they believe the reduction is being made to justify eventual closure of the campus, which the district denies. They also said the school is more than a place to learn and has long been an important hub for the community’s most vulnerable families.

Transfers revoked for 51 of 227 Washington students

Medford School District officials, in a statement provided to the Rogue Valley Times on Monday, confirmed that they began contacting families of transfer students in late February via phone calls and letters (See a copy of the letter with this story at rv-times.com).

By the end of June, 51 of 227 total students will be automatically dropped from enrollment and transferred back to their home schools, according to the district. Students on transfers from outside the district, and those being asked to leave Washington, can apply for transfer to another MSD school, and district officials will review “based on space, availability and the resources at the (new) chosen school,” the statement said.

District officials, who cited declining birth rates and families opting for public school alternatives such as homeschooling as the reason for the drop in enrollment, also said transfer students at schools other than Washington are not affected by the decision to reduce enrollment at the South Peach Street campus, which they said is one of 11 schools in the district with fewer than 400 students.

The district’s “capture rate,” or percentage of school-aged children living in MSD boundaries, compared to those enrolled, was 74% as of November 2023, according to numbers provided by the district. Nationally, school-age children attending public schools decreased from 85% to 79% between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years, the district said in the statement. The decline was accompanied by an increase in students enrolling in private schools, homeschooling and other alternatives, officials noted.

Washington staff says vulnerable families rely on school for support

Teachers and families of the Washington Elementary community voiced frustration at transfers being revoked and called the school an important lifeline for the community’s most vulnerable families.

Jodi Smith, teaching and learning facilitator for the school, said morale has been impacted by the impending loss of a quarter of the student body and that the historic school, opened in 1931, provides everything from meals and summer reading to access to medical and counseling services and after-school programs.

Smith, who began teaching at Washington in 2011 and volunteered her summers to run a summer reading program, said a high number of students transfer to Washington for needed consistency.

A Medford native whose husband and father attended Washington, Smith planned to teach at her own grade school, Griffin Creek Elementary, until realizing the level of need at Washington.

“Once I stepped foot inside Washington, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I couldn’t believe the lives of some of our kids,” she said, noting that teachers step in to help with everything from oral hygiene, utility bill shortages or furniture to being named as temporary placement options for families with active Department of Human Services cases.

“All the trauma I had in one class last year was unbelievable. Kids in foster care, counseling, kids who have experienced the suicide of a parent, non-bio people raising kids, the list goes on and on. … We have so many at-risk kids,” Smith said.

“Students are either on transfers because of longevity or because they are behaviorally successful at our school. … We believe that it’s a calling to work there. It’s not just a teaching job.”

Chris Gallegos, Washington Elementary’s social emotional advocate, voiced frustration at students “being uprooted.” Gallegos began his teaching career at Washington 25 years ago and said school culture centers around serving the large percentage of at-risk students at the school.

“A lot of these kids don’t have both parents, so we’re kind of fulfilling a role. … We have had a lot of really dedicated good people who have stuck around for these kids. One of the main reasons for me — because I’ve been offered to move over the years and do different things – was that they need me there,” he said.

“The kids I’ve talked to who have gotten the letter or phone call, they’ve come to me because they were upset. … Any move is tough on a kid… and a lot of them have already been through quite a bit in their lives.”

While district officials said they have no plans “currently underway to close Washington or any other school,” Smith and Gallegos said closure of Washington has been, Gallegos said, “thrown out there more than once” during school and district meetings in recent years.

During an April budget committee meeting, district officials said the district was operating more elementary schools than were needed.

Gallegos said the closure of Washington would be “catastrophic.”

“It’s a proven fact that, when schools close down in low economic areas, it’s just not a good thing. … It’s such a hub in our area for kids to know they have a safe place to come. We at Washington are vested in trying to get these kids to succeed and show them there’s more out there than just that little mile area that they live in,” he said.

“My biggest hope is whoever takes control of the district realizes that losing Washington… would be truly detrimental to the community.”

Parents voice frustration at students leaving school

Dropping three of her four children at Washington Elementary on Monday, Phoenix resident Crystal Walker said she gets emotional at the thought of her children — ages 7, 9 and 10 — leaving the school they’ve attended since kindergarten, each year marked by a “beginning of the school year photo” with the historic school bell outside the entryway.

Walker credited Washington staff with providing consistency when she was unable to — from helping her first-grader who non-verbal during preschool but who is now thriving to offering a host of services including counseling and after-school care.

“There were times where our kids didn’t have consistency and stability but, for 9 years now, our kids have had that structure and stability that they deserve and that they need… and Washington has been a huge part of that,” she said.

“I did not have structure and stability as a child so, as an adult, I know what it felt like as a child to bounce around from school to school and not have those connections and lifelong friends. That school is their community of friends and support system, and it feels like it’s all being ripped away from them.”

Medford resident Chad Cain said he spent years battling addiction, impacting the lives of his five children. Washington staff, he said, offered “unwavering support” during his recovery, which began over 11 years ago, and again in September, when his wife unexpectedly died during his youngest son’s first month of kindergarten.

“I was an addict my whole life, dragging my kids through the system. They were going from school to school to school when I was in my active addiction. I got sober 11 and a half years ago and my kids have been going to Washington ever since,” Cain said, noting that his older students are now on the honor roll, which he credits to Washington.

“Washington has been an anchor for my family. … We’ve had an inter-district transfer for 7 years.

“They started at Washington, and we didn’t want to yank them when we moved into the Jefferson School district,” he said. “Because of our inconsistencies in the older ones’ lives, we wanted to keep them at Washington, so they didn’t lose that support system.”

Cain said he owed his children’ s academic successes largely to their time at the school.

“The teachers and staff at the school… they’ve been through it all with me and my kids,” he said, noting that his kids were “heartbroken” to learn of the impending transfer.

“When I wasn’t consistent, Washington elementary was.”

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or buffy.pollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.