The Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation, or SWIFT, an initiative led by educational researchers from the University of Kansas, selected Willard and five other U.S. schools for their use of “inclusive education,” said Wayne Sailor, a professor in the University of Kansas’ School of Education and director of the SWIFT Center.

Inclusive education is a classroom model in which students of all learning types, such as gifted, special education and English as a Second Language students, learn in one general classroom setting rather than under separate programs, with the idea that all students mutually benefit from the shared learning environment.

“A big problem is that if you go into a typical low-performing school, there are lots of resources that could help, but they don’t connect with each other — special education being an example,” Sailor said. “It looks for its own resources and provides a system only for those identified as such.”

The six schools chosen by SWIFT are already successfully operating on an inclusive model and will be studied by Sailor and his affiliates so the advances these schools demonstrate can be applied elsewhere.

At Willard, inclusive education has been around for 11 years, said Willard Middle School Principal Robert Ithurburn.

“There is not so much an ‘us-them’ mentality,” Ithurburn said of the learning environment at Willard. “I think it’s more of a real-world situation.”

In the United States, there has been a trend toward including more students in general education classrooms, which has been accelerating for several decades, said Jennifer Russell, a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education who is now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

At Willard, students with severe disabilities have an instructional aid with them all day long, and there are teachers’ aids who check in on particular students throughout the day, said Jessica Lee, Willard’s teacher librarian. Lee is also a parent of a Willard Middle School student.

Teachers may also practice “modified education,” in which students of differing abilities can be given parallel assignments, with a co-teacher focusing on modifying the lesson for others based on learning needs, she added.

An increasing number of educators, including SWIFT researchers, tout the benefits of an inclusive classroom model over a segregated one, but it’s a model with potential that is not always realized, Russell said.

With $24.5 million in grant money from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs, SWIFT will spend now until October researching the six inclusive model schools, Sailor said.

As compensation for cooperation with researchers, each of the six model schools will receive a one-time payment of $16,500, Sailor said. He added that the schools additionally benefit from getting national recognition on the researchers’ website.

The schools will continue working and perfecting their model of education in the coming months.

“We’re excited to find out what we can do to be stronger, taking strategies and techniques from the other five schools,” Ithurburn said.

Contact Christine Tyler at ctyler@dailycal.org.

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The concept driving the program is straightforward: introductory music lessons for one hour every Friday after school, over the course of eight weeks. SCORE will pair middle school students with volunteer instructors in a combination of group and individual sessions that teach basic guitar, piano, bass and drums, with a focus on the former two. “We’re going to start off with very basic chords and move on to some scales,” said music director Danny McCarty, “and hopefully by the end of the project, they’ll all be able to play a song together in unison like a band might do.”

The curriculum is intentionally loose in order to allow each student to learn at his or her own pace. “We just want them to enjoy what they’re doing and not have any pressures of trying to fulfill a certain deadline or goal,” McCarty said. At the end of the eight weeks, students will hold a concert to showcase their new musical talents.

Although Berkeley Unified School District already has afterschool music programs, SCORE is unique in that its curriculum will be centered on rock ‘n’ roll music. The directors aim to actively and closely engage students. Although he finds all music education “very respectable,” SCORE Director Taylor Freeman seeks to fill a gap in the district’s current musical education by teaching the rock genre. “Most school music programs revolve around classical, jazz or contemporary music,” agreed Jill Coffey, BPEF school volunteers director. “So the opportunity to play in a band like group is unique in BUSD — especially for middle schoolers.”

The program also emphasizes that its instructors are to serve as role models for the children. For that reason, though there are no specific standards of musical ability required to volunteer with the program, SCORE is currently only accepting college students for its instructor positions, recruiting at universities like UC Berkeley. According to Freeman, the program hopes to bring in more tutors for individual instruction.

“We want to find people who can build face value with the students, — really come in and mentor them so they develop a relationship rather than have different people come in every time,” Freeman said. His hope is that students will engage in these mentorships and be inspired to achieve and excel in academics. Coffey also discussed how student mentors might act as a “support system (to) encourage attendance and participation” in a confusing early-adolescent environment.

In addition to teaching music in closer settings, SCORE seeks to provide music lessons to all students regardless of financial situation. “We don’t want any kid to be limited,” Freeman said. “The baseline goal is to give kids music instruction and mentorship totally free of charge, no matter their level of privilege.” He identified availability and accessibility as some of the program’s top priorities, with the hope that all students will have equal opportunity to learn music. To make this possible, the program is holding an ongoing instrument drive, collecting guitars, basses, keyboards and drums.

At the heart of SCORE is a desire to engage and inspire students. Freeman and McCarty, drawing from personal experience, consider music a vital tool in the transition through adolescence. “I grew up playing music … and it’s what really inspired me to go to school,” Freeman said. “I wasn’t a super strong student when I was young — it was music.” Similarly, McCarty hopes to share the knowledge he has acquired through eight years of experience as a guitarist.

Depending on the success of the eight-week program, SCORE may just be the first stepping stone to a greater number of programs at other schools. But for now, the directors are simply excited about the prospect of reaching out to the community and effecting positive change for middle school students. “I think the main focus is just being a force of good,” Freeman said. “The music is the thing that’s the vehicle for all this.”

Contact Josephine Yang at jyang@dailycal.org.

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At the event, children from Berkeley schools dressed in aquatic-themed costumes and held races on top of the school’s dirt-filled pool — which the city closed in 2010 and filled with dirt due to lack of funds to support upkeep.

If approved by two-thirds of voters, Measure O will implement a parcel tax generating $604,000 in funds for pool maintenance and operations, and Measure N will create a $19.4 million bond measure for the construction and renovation of the city’s swimming pools.

“You’re sitting here looking at a pool filled with dirt, and that calls out for some parody and protests,” said Robert Collier, co-chair of the Berkeley Pools Campaign. “There’s nothing more ridiculous than a pool at a school much loved by the community … that’s filled with dirt.”

Collier said pools play a crucial role within the Berkeley community by being safe places for young children to learn how to swim and convenient locations for physical therapy for the disabled and senior citizens.

“Everybody should have access to pools — it is part of community life, and it’s good for health,” he said. “This event shows what our campaign is like. It’s a very sincere and earnest group of very dedicated people who care about their pools and community.”

Measure N would specifically provide funding to build a new warm pool at West Campus and to replace or renovate the pools at Willard and Martin Luther King Jr. middle schools. The less costly and contingent Measure O would pay for the maintenance and operation of just the warm pool at the Berkeley Unified School District’s West Campus site and the Willard Middle School pool, if Measure N passes.

Currently, the city only has two operating swimming pools, at King Middle School and West Campus, and neither is heated. The Willard Middle School pool closed in 2010, and Berkeley High School’s warm pool closed in 2011.

Barbara Gilbert, a member of local fiscal accountability organization Berkeley Budget SOS, said that while the pools play an important part in the community, they should not be the city’s top priority. The current financial condition of the city necessitates a better look at what should receive funding at this time, she said.

“The city of Berkeley has $1.2 billion in unfunded needs … so this is huge,” she said. “We don’t have unlimited money. You have to look at it as part of a larger picture.”

Gilbert denies that the city only has two public pools and said there are many other pools in the city, including UC Berkeley’s and the Downtown Berkeley YMCA’s pool.

“With a little cooperation and effort, arrangements could be worked out to meet some of the needs of the pool people at a tiny fraction of the cost of these measures,” Gilbert said.

But Kriss Worthington, a Berkeley City Council member and mayoral candidate, said people traveling out of their way to use these pools is ridiculous. Having the pools closer in Berkeley and connected to local schools is vital for the community in learning how to swim, he said.

“Having the pools at the schools is important, as it’s a way for teachers to regularly bring their classes en masse to come and learn how to swim,” Worthington said. “They’re not going to take their kids a long distance away from the school on a regular basis — that’s just not a realistic, practical alternative.”

However, Gilbert disagrees with this assessment and said that upward of 90 percent of the people who use Berkeley pools get there through public transit or by driving.

“I don’t buy that argument,” she said. “Very few people are within the radius to walk to pools. If those parents want their kids to go to a pool, they can take them to King or the YMCA. Most people do that — that’s just the way it is.”
Angel Jaramillo, a 9-year-old student at John Muir Elementary, hopes the measures do pass, since he believes the pools would be great places to go during the summer.

“I’ve never seen it filled with water and everything … so I kind of feel a little bit sad,” he said. “It is an important issue and for a good cause — I hope that they bring the pool back.”

Contact Andy Nguyen at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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If passed by voters, the measure would build a new warm water pool to replace the one that closed down last December at Berkeley High School, renovate the pool at Willard Middle School and improve locker rooms at King Pool in North Berkeley.

The $19.4 million bond was lowered from $20 million, which city staff estimated would have cost approximately $25 a year for a Berkeley homeowner with property value of around $330,500. The parcel tax would cost about $15 for a homeowner with a 1,900-square-foot home to fund the estimated $604,000 operational costs for the pools.

The council’s unanimous vote marks a milestone for pool advocates who support the “restoration” of the city’s pools after an unsuccessful attempt to pass a pool measure in 2010 under Measure C, which narrowly failed during the June 2010 primary election and would have generated funds to renovate the pools.

More than a dozen community members spoke at the meeting in favor of the measure, highlighting concerns of accessibility to swimming pools in South Berkeley, availability of a warm pool for individuals with disabilities and overhead budget cost, which several community members suggested could be reduced by hiring an impartial external project manager.

“One of the lessons learned (from 2010) is that real attention needs to be given to administrative overhead,” said Robert Collier, co-chair of the Berkeley Pool Campaign. “Voters care about the number figure. We want maximum value.”

Katya Rochell was one of a handful of community members who spoke on the need for a warm water pool for residents with disabilities. Since the closure of the last warm pool she said she has been unsatisfied with her next closest option.

“The warm pools helped me out,” Rochell said. “I am a disabled person. Now I have to swim at the Y, and they say they are accommodating to the disabled, but it is full of teenagers … I miss my adult swimming class.”

Another measure proposed for the November ballot includes a $30 million bond for watershed and street improvements. Debate on the measure was centered on what the focus of the proposal should be, with council members split over both watershed and street improvements.

“I think the streets are horrible. I think the streets are falling apart,” Bates said. “(They) are the most important issue and we are ignoring it.”

The watershed measure will be discussed and possibly voted on at the July 10 council meeting. The council will need to make a decision regarding the measure by the July 24 meeting in order to place the item on the ballot.

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The group’s members, Saturday Night Live actors Andy Samberg, Akiva “Kiv” Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, have been friends since they attended Berkeley’s Willard Middle School. Now, they are going to give their old school district the biggest single donation it has ever seen, Berkeleyside reported.

The Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl competition allowed consumers to submit 30-second commercials, one of which would air during the Super Bowl Sunday. The Lonely Island had originally planned to submit an ad that would also air, but decided to give up their 30-second slot to another consumer-created ad.

As a reward for The Lonely Island’s generosity, the Doritos brand vowed to give a quarter of a million dollars to the music group’s charity of choice — which was the Berkeley Unified School District.

“The Lonely Island guys are a class act, and they have embraced what this contest is about beyond our expectations,” said Tony Matta, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America, in a January press release. “Their generosity will now create a life-changing opportunity for two of our consumers, and we plan to pay that forward by making a donation of $250,000 to the charity The Lonely Island was competing for, the Berkeley Unified School District.”

The Lonely Island was formed in 2001, and in addition to “I’m on a Boat,” is famous for its skits “Lazy Sunday,” “Jizz in my Pants,” and the Emmy-winning “Dick in a Box.”

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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