by Karen Miller

With uncertainty in the air and schools closed for the rest of the academic year, Tacoma nonprofit Graduate Tacoma is making a new resource available to help students and parents access resources to help them during the pandemic.

Graduate Tacoma, in partnership with the Tacoma Urban League, has launched a database that gathers community resources available to students and makes them searchable.

The online directory is an opportunity for Graduate Tacoma to meet an unexpected and unique need in the community, Devin Kelly, director of data for Graduate Tacoma, said. It will also create awareness for resources that have already been in the community prior to the COVID-19 crisis. 

“We think it’s a great opportunity for people to learn about new things,” Kelly said.

Cecelia Garza, director of communications for Graduate Tacoma, said the Tacoma Urban League partnership is crucial to the project. The database is hosted through its website and the nonprofit helps provide funding. The data is managed by Graduate Tacoma.

Users can search by category including meal assistance, energy assistance, and many more.

The resource awareness fits well with what Graduate Tacoma hopes to achieve overall. Garza said the mission of the nonprofit is to help “all Tacoma students to thrive and come to their full potential.”

The COVID-19 database is crucial for now because needs have shifted for students and there is an urgent need to come together and help the community, Garza said. She said it is similar to their summer learning database, but the focus has pivoted due to the pandemic. 

What is Graduate Tacoma? 

Graduate Tacoma brings together community partners to fund projects, manage stakeholders, and create an environment where Tacoma students have the resources they need to succeed.

Initiatives by Graduate Tacoma include access to early learning programs and a government advocacy role.

One positive of Graduate Tacoma’s initiatives is the luxury of not being too in-depth and being able to have influence in programs across the board, said Tafona Ervin, executive director for Graduate Tacoma. It is able to have a role in overseeing situations and finding disconnects between policy, funding, and resources.

The nonprofit works with stakeholders to resolve those disconnects.

“(We connect with) people who have decision making power and also people who are deeply invested in the community,” said Garza.

What is happening now with coronavirus is a fluid situation, said Ervin.

“It feels like every minute of every day changes,” she said. That’s why she emphasizes a rapid response to getting resources to students. She described the new database as a “one stop shop of information.”

Ervin has been with Graduate Tacoma for six years and moved into the executive director role in 2018. Previously, she worked in higher education at the WSU Everett campus. 

Tacoma’s digital divide

Ervin said one important aspect to the database is how parents can find free, reliable internet. She said a goal of Graduate Tacoma is better understanding the digital divide. Not all students have reliable internet access at home. It is one of the topics of policy advocacy for Graduate Tacoma.

Ervin said the coronavirus has brought that digital divide to the forefront as schools closed and classwork moved online. But while the need is highlighted now, it’s always been there.

“We always knew that students needed more technology at home,” Ervin said. 

That’s one reason why the new database has a map sharing locations of free WiFi, but in the long run Ervin and Graduate Tacoma hope that internet access can become a basic need.

The COVID-19 database is updated regularly. It can be found at tacomalearns.org.

This article was originally published for members-only before being made available to the public. If you want to see articles when they’re published, please join Channel 253 as a member and help us sustain and grow our podcasts, events, and now written reporting!

Channel 253 asked freelance photographer Ingrid Barrentine to document Tacoma during a pandemic. Here’s what she found.

(You can also hear the interview with Ingrid on the We Art Tacoma podcast where she talks about her experience photographing for this series)

Downtown Tacoma

Lincoln District

Sixth Ave & Stadium District

Usually Channel 253 stories are members-only for three days before we make them widely available. But this photo series just demands to shared. Please consider supporting Channel 253 through a membership. You will support our podcasts, reporting, and receive a regular(ish) email for just $4/month or $40/year.

The move to make every Wednesday a one-hour late start hopes to give teachers more time for development

By Karen Miller

A change is coming to the Tacoma Public Schools calendar next year. 

The district will have a one-hour late start every Wednesday beginning in the 2020-21 school year. The move is a way to create more planning and prep time for teachers and staff districtwide. There will not be extra student instruction during this time. Start times vary by school, and are all one hour later than the normal school bell.

Wednesday was the day chosen after a 2019 survey of families and staff, according to the district’s website.

The move will not apply to SOTA, SAMI, IDEA, Willie Stewart Academy or Remann Hall. Preschool will also not have a late start except Bryant and Geiger where classes follow the regular school schedule.

Sara Ketelsen, a math teacher at Baker Middle School and a member of the union board, said the change will be positive for teachers and administrators. Especially it will be a time to work together in groups to advance student development.

“It allows teachers within the school day to get together and have collaborative time,” she said. 

For first year teachers, it will be especially important, she said. 

Being a first year teacher in a new school can be “isolating,” said Ketelsen, and part of the late start is providing a first year teacher mentoring time with someone who has been at the school and teaching longer.

The change in schedule is part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement between Tacoma Public Schools and Tacoma Education Association. The move is not related to the Tacoma Sleepyhead movement which has been advocating for later start times to improve student health. 

However, Ketelsen thinks the late start will be a positive for older students. Research does point to later start times being beneficial to the sleep hygiene of older students, she said.

Teachers are often pulled in other directions, said Ketelsen, including coaching, parenting, and personal time. This will allow development to be built into the learning day. Currently, that planning time is done outside of work hours and with other factors sometimes is hard to fit in. Especially, she said, that time to collaborate with other staff in the building. It’ll allow teachers to build into their lessons what they discuss with other staff. That hasn’t been available in the past.

“We [teachers] are consistently building the plane while flying it,” she said.

Ketelsen has worked in Tacoma Public Schools for 13 years, including time at both Lincoln High School and Baker.

Other districts around the Puget Sound region have also switched to weekly late start, one of which is Fife where Tacoma parent Diana Busch is now a licensed practical nurse. She previously worked as a nurse for the Tacoma School District and her two children attend Tacoma Schools.

Busch said the late starts will give teachers crucial planning time, something she’s noticed in her new district.

“I anticipate this being positive for (Tacoma) staff,” she said.

It allows time for things like paperwork and consulting with other teachers. That was the biggest difference Busch saw when moving to Fife. In Tacoma it was sometimes hard to fit in administrative tasks during the day. 

“There was… minimal time when I was at work without students,” Busch said. “It’s incredible how much easier (late start) felt.”

While this is a positive for teachers, Busch said it could put a strain on families, especially those who commute. The district will not provide childcare for the late start days. 

The district said on its website that it has communicated with daycares and community partners about the late start, but it is up to those groups to decide what services will be provided.

The school year begins September 9, a Wednesday, but will not include a late start. The first late start will be September 16. 

As of now, schools are not in session until at least April 24 due to coronavirus concerns. It is not yet known how this might affect the coming school year.

The school district was unable to comment on the start time change due to the coronavirus outbreak and forced closure of schools. The district did refer to an FAQ available on its website for more information.

By Sean Robinson

It’s official: Pierce County Councilman Doug Richardson is running for sheriff.

Richardson, 65, said he intended to formally announce his candidacy on social media this week, following through on a plan he’s been considering for months.

“I really believe that I can provide leadership in the department in these challenging times,” he said.

He knows his candidacy is unorthodox; he has no law enforcement experience. He’s a retired Army Reserve Brigadier General, a former mayor of Lakewood and he’s spent the past eight years on the county council, but he’s never been a cop. Typically, county sheriffs are commissioned officers.

State law includes provisions for civilian sheriffs. They must undergo at least 80 hours of law enforcement training approved by the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission.

Richardson said he’s taken a close look at those requirements.

“There is a path toward running for sheriff and being certified,” he said. “There is a clear path to that.”

He added that he’s spoken with local and regional law enforcement leaders in and out of the county about his plans, and received encouragement, though he declined to name names before his formal announcement.

“I’m kind of humbled by the reaction of their significant support for me doing it,” he said.

Richardson’s county council stint, including the last few years as chairman, has given him a fine-grained look at the agency’s budget, largest of any county department. The 800-member sheriff’s department handles law enforcement and operates the county jail.

If elected, Richardson said he would focus on three areas: Deputy safety, incident response times, and recruiting in “this difficult climate.” He noted the department currently has 24 vacancies, and pending retirements will increase that number.

“We need very aggressive recruiting, and we also need to see whether or not we’re injuring ourselves on who can be recruited,” he said. “I am very committed also to improving training and doing everything we can to improve safety for our deputies, and really making sure residents are getting the kind of response they want to see out of the department.”

Technically, sheriff is a nonpartisan position, but partisan alliances could play a role in the campaign. Richardson, a Republican, would potentially draw support from Pierce County Republican leaders and organizations.

Richardson’s likeliest opponent, Detective Ed Troyer, hasn’t made the decision to run yet. Asked this week about his plans, Troyer said he is still gathering information and consulting with a group of “kitchen table” advisors.

Troyer, longtime spokesman for Sheriff Paul Pastor, has spent 35 years in the sheriff’s office, 10 as a patrol deputy. He said he hopes to build on the foundation created by Pastor, and continue to develop future leaders within the department.

“I have nothing bad to say about Doug Richardson,” Troyer said. “I hear he was a great mayor and a great councilman. I just don’t understand why he thinks with no law enforcement experience, that he can lead an agency of 800 people.”

The jockeying for Pastor’s position began last year, when he announced he did not intend to seek re-election, and would retire this spring, after 19 years on the job.

That moment is approaching swiftly; last week, county council members formed an ad-hoc committee to review applications for Pastor’s soon-to-be-vacant position. Committee members will weigh the merits of each candidate in closed executive sessions. The successful applicant will serve as interim sheriff until a new sheriff is elected.

Applicants include members of Pastor’s current command staff, but not Troyer. Richardson didn’t apply either, and he’s recused himself from the committee’s deliberations.