Letter: The Highs And Lows Of Cottonwood Creek Elementary

A letter to the editor from parent Eman Tai Ahmad:

Over the last few months the discussions about the future of Cottonwood Creek K-8 School have driven those of us who love this school and community to new heights of painful anxiety. The problem is that while many know about the rocky start Cottonwood Creek K-8 School (CCS) had, not many have heard about the amazing strides DUSD, the CCS staff and students have made in making this remarkable school a place of educational excellence. To remedy the over emphasis on the negatives, it seems high time to let people know what is going on at Cottonwood and remove the ever present specter of being deemed a failed experiment and shut down. The constant negativity and insecurity hanging over the community has hurt the school more than any facilities issues or programming difficulty.

Speaking as a parent who has volunteered hours and hours at the school and had a front row seat to all the obstacles, developments and achievements of CCS, it seemed prudent to share some perspective on the concerns and achievements of Cottonwood Creek.

A Gym — It is clear that not having a gym is a difficulty we have at CCS. But the reasons that this is a problem are not simply because 6-8 graders need a place for physical education and after school athletics programs, but because we lack any congregational space aside from the Multipurpose Room (MPR) which is in use for most hours out of the day for lunch and classes already. As a result, it is a constant jigsaw puzzle of scheduling to accommodate everyone and inevitably teachers and students feel the strain of having their classroom space shared for multiple uses. And while classroom space being used for multiple purposes is not an issue isolated to CCS in the overcrowded schools throughout the district, it just seems it was overlooked in the planning of the school because this has been an issue since day one of the school opening, and continues to be an issue today even though Cottonwood hasn’t reached full capacity yet. It seems obvious that having a locker and gym space with additional flex space would greatly ameliorate this situation.

However, the idea that sending our CCS 6-8 graders and their amazing teachers to one of the two overcrowded middle schools in DUSD would improve this situation is a fallacy. Rather they will be sent to already overcrowded schools to sit in portables for class and share classrooms used for many multiple purposes all day long with other students whose schools are now even more overcrowded. Many families feel that moving our students into that situation would put them at a terrible disadvantage.

After school Athletics Program — Our Athletics directors have not only worked hard they’ve made it happen. CCS fielded all sports last school year except for wrestling. In fact, our students were able to be on multiple teams of their choice. Our teams were complete but smaller and many players got lots of time on the court. Sometimes this leads to student athletes being tired during the game or many of the players being beginners at a sport. Yet, most athletes appreciated having more time on the court or field. They also appreciated the chance to lead their teams and rise to the challenge of developing their skills and school spirit. Cottonwood is just beginning to develop that spirit and community that is so integral to school sports. In the years to come the student athletic teams will have more support and may be able to begin training in earlier years of their educational career. These student athletes and coaches are just beginning to work out the kinks over the last few school years that have been unusual, to say the least!

World Language Department — The district aimed to hire both French and Spanish teachers for CCS students for the 2019-2020 school year. For the 2019-2020 school year they were unable to hire a Spanish teacher for CCS not because the number of classes of world language was minimal but because no teacher was available to the district. There was discussion of sharing a Spanish teacher across school sites and grade levels to enable CCS students to avail themselves of that opportunity. However, they were unable to find a Spanish teacher to take the position. As such, all those students interested in taking Spanish were offered to join the French class and most of them decided to make that shift. After a two year recruitment process they were able to hire a teacher for Spanish and this year we have 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes of Spanish and a growing world language department.

Electives at CCS — While there may be fewer elective choices offered at CCS, students were always able to take their first or second choice of electives and sometimes both by taking zero period. This school year the elective slate offered includes Engineering, Robotics, Green Architecture and Ecology, Drama, World Language, AVID and more. Within the last year CCS has developed opportunities for students to utilize the new 3D printers, expanded the AVID program to start in the elementary grades and work up through 8th grade, worked with Drama students on a Spring musical production that allowed the 1-5 graders to audition for and participate in the musical numbers, and invited the world language students to share their language skills with the community through a language and cultural event. In addition the CCS Music program has an excellent Music director, who is building an amazing program that has already come so far. This year CCS has the following opportunities for students 4-8 grade: Symphonic Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, Beginning, Advanced and Honors Orchestra. CCS is also debuting a Winter Drum Major, Winter Percussion/Percussion Ensemble, and Winter Guard/Color Guard.

All these programs and the students involved benefit from working with the same teachers and coaches from 4-8 grade. This enables he students to hone and develop their skills and collaboration with the coaches, teachers and each other for a longer period of time. These are the benefits of a K-8 program that are often overlooked.

Enrichment programs and clubs — In addition to all of this Cottonwood has a great afterschool enrichment and clubs programs. Some offerings are a virtual CCS Book Club (K-5) with a special monthly Kindergarten wide Storytime, Creative Writing Club (4-5 grade), Chess club (5- 8), Debate team (5-8), Math team (5-8) and a chapter of Girls Who Code for the third year running (6-8)! With hundreds of students participating, all of these clubs are offered with professional coaching and will be holding school and district wide tournaments as well as participating in regional competitions, like the Alameda County Science Fair where CCS aims to expand on last year's cohort of 11 submissions, of which some placed.

Last year, despite COVID and testing challenges online, many CCS students participated and placed at the National Level in Math Counts and Math Kangaroo, four of whom placed 1st Nationally. To further support the students’ excellence, DUSD accommodated our accelerated math students by having not only an Algebra 1 class, but a class for Geometry at CCS this year. It is this kind of support from the district that will enable Cottonwood to give students every opportunity and capitalize on the benefits of a small school setting.

Many CCS families believe in the vision of CCS as a K-8. What they want is a strong commitment and partnership with DUSD to bring this vision to reality. This doesn't include thrusting 6-7 graders from CCS over to severely overcrowded schools for a few years only to move them again to another middle school or a brand new high school. It also doesn't include the potential loss of the great staff members because of all this upheaval. Rather, DUSD should spend the next few years building not only the brick and mortar of the new comprehensive high school and new middle school but developing the programs and plans for what kind of education those schools will offer.

A few things that CCS would have benefited from getting a head start on were building a strong staff community earlier, developing and setting plans for student intervention and resources, character and community development, thoughtful planning to provide diversity and inclusion engagement, student leadership programs, setting up vendors for enrichment options, looking for team coaches, raising support from local businesses to help purchase team jerseys, or 3D printers or guest speakers or setting up a plan for a comprehensive world language program or musical instruments or library resources so that students can enter the new school and not miss a beat. These would all benefit the planned new schools tremendously.

Let the CCS 6-8 graders be where they are. Build the new middle school and Emerald High School. The staff at DUSD is striving to help those without the imagination to see the potential of CCS to envision the future that they see. The only obstacle is the lack of imagination and vision on behalf of some people. Reassure those parents who are concerned about lack of district support by continuing to support CCS. DUSD's increased support over the last year and half has shown in the opportunities and achievements Cottonwood students have had. The staff and families are doing their best to bring the vision and promise of a K-8 in Dublin to fruition. This trust and support is what is needed to build a great future for Cottonwood Creek School and this is where the focus needs to be.

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