A little while back I had photographed each of the schools that Tacoma has on the list to potentially close. They included Franklin, Lyon, Roosevelt, Stanley, McKinley, Wainwright, Geiger and Foss. While not written in stone, the general plan now is to close McKinley, Wainwright and Franklin. Another proposal has been made to move the middle school Montessori program now housed at Bryant and the fledgling K-5 Montessori program at Geiger to the vacant Hunt Middle School Buillding. The timing on the move is unclear, but either 2011 or 2012. Thus, the now vacant Hunt Middle School would be the new site of the K-8 Geiger Montessori Program. There is talk of building a new building for Geiger Montessori, but again the timing is uncertain. The K-5 students currently at the Bryant Building would move to Franklin. The Franklin students would have the option of attending their current school and receiving a Montessori education, or attending an alternate neighborhood school, most likely Stanley or DeLong. Of course, that tentative plan might all change!
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html
It was in the early spring 2010 that the Tacoma School District decided to close H.F. Hunt Middle School because of federal rules targeting schools that perform poorly on state tests. At the time of closure, Hunt had 346 students and had been following the International Baccalaureate, or IB, model. Their mascot was the Scottie and their colors were green, white and gold. The IB program was switched to Giaudrone in the Fall of 2010.
The school building was constructed in 1958 and was named after Henry F. Hunt, a Tacoma educator for 34 years. At its height, the student population was well over 1,000 students.
Wow…. I went to Hunt from 89 to 91 when they were (for whatever reason then) bussing Hilltop kids there – I was one of them. Hilltop was extrememly violent then with the crack wars and it all funneled into Hunt as well. I learned to fight there. Some good though, Mrs. Randolph taught us to sew and cook (yes, even the boys were required to take home ec.) Mr Seis taught us how not to cut our fingers off in shop….. These classes were the ones that gave many kids the foundation to do constructive things with their lives. Maybe if everything hadn’t gone so pansy in the world and folks weren’t so afraid to get sued….. Maybe if kids saw a point to life and the faculty still cared….. Our test scores still mattered then even when you were worried about getting shanked at passing periiod for talking to someones girl…. Maybe if the school district got rid of all their bright liberal ideas and taught like they did in the 80’s… There would still be H.F. Hunt