Tag Archives: Madison

Headstart offices at Madison may move

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IMG_9470.JPG by Gexydaf
IMG_9470.JPG a photo by Gexydaf on Flickr.

The Old Madison School at 3101 South 43rd St., Tacoma, WA has apparently been at 3102 South 43rd at some time in the past.  According to Tacoma Public Library “The six-room school, designed by architects Hill & Mock, was completed in October of 1924 at a cost of approximately $35,000. It had replaced two portable buildings on the same site. The school doubled in size in 1957 and improvements made in 1967 and 1979. Madison is no longer an elementary school but currently houses Headstart and Early Childhood Education programs.” That information, as well as a historical photo of the building can be found here http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=1&pg=1&krequest=Madison+Elementary+School&stemming=On&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=5000

Currently the administrative offices for Headstart are located in the Madison Building. Headstart is a preschool program designed to promote school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services to enrolled children and families.

Currently there is a proposal to move the Headstart offices to the building currently housing Bryant Montessori and to vacant the Madison Building.

Bryant Montessori Might be Mobile

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Bryant Montessori, located at 717 S. Grant Ave., Tacoma, WA 98405 is one of the Tacoma Schools that might be flux. In 1998, this school received a grant to become a public school using the Montessori method. It now provides preschool to 8th grade education.

The original Bryant building was constructed in 1891 and was named after William Cullen Bryant who is remembered for writing Thanatopsis (alright I don’t actually know that poem, but here it is)

https://www.msu.edu/~cloudsar/thanatop.htm

The original building was lovely and held elementary through high school classes and also housed the school board offices and administration. High school students in the late 1800s paid tuition fees and in 1897 it was reduced from $2.50 to $1.50 per month. In any case after 70 years, the building was demolished and the “new” Bryant opened in 1962. A photograph of the original building can be found here. http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=2&o=2&n=15872&i=3774#text

The district proposal currently on the table is to close nearby Franklin Elementary School and use that building to house the Bryant program. Originally the intent had been to house the entire Bryant program at Franklin, but now it is looking more likely that the elementary portion of the Bryant program will move to Franklin and the middle school program would join Geiger Montessori which will move to the vacated Hunt Middle School. This would allow at least some of the Franklin students to at least have the option of staying in the Franklin Building if they wanted a Montessori style of education. Per the newspaper article below “A variety of programs, including Head Start and others, would move from the old Madison School site to the Bryant Elementary site”. Everybody clear?

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html

Update 7/11 Bryant Montessori is staying put.