Port of Seattle Commissioner offers use of Port properties for classes this fall

School districts statewide are searching for a way to reopen schools safely, and Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins has an idea: Why not hold class outdoors at one of the Port of Seattle’s many parks?

“As a Port of Seattle commissioner, we’ve got 60 acres of green spaces around the city that would be excellent places for kids to do outdoor education,” Calkins said. “And when I saw recently that one of the Seattle school board members had posted the idea of exploring outdoor education, I thought why not chime in and let him know we would love to work with them on that kind of opportunity.”

“So our parks run up and down the Duwamish River, along Elliott Bay, basically throughout areas of the city where there are really lots of residences, lots of students, and as an ulterior motive, we’d love to have kids get exposure to the things that we do at the Port of Seattle, the maritime and environmental jobs of the future that could be a part of their education as well,” he added.

So how would it work? Would they set up tents and desks? Are there enough restrooms?

“We haven’t yet started the conversation with Seattle Public Schools and, really, they’re the experts on the education component. We’ve got locations. And, in fact, we have been working on a couple of different workforce education youth initiatives, in which we have a robust internship program that involves about 100 high school kids each year,” Calkins said. “So we do have some experience in what it’s like to bring kids on our property, give them a good education.”

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“We know that kids do really well in outdoor settings, and we also know that while there are certainly benefits to virtual learning, in-person learning satisfies so many of the needs for our kids, the needs for social interaction, the needs to engage with their professional teachers,” he added.

Calkins says that they even have some facilities in place that could be adapted to a school-like atmosphere, so it wouldn’t necessarily be starting from scratch.

“Many of our existing parks already have restroom facilities, have already hosted camps and other outdoor education opportunities, so we’re not starting from square one,” he said. “We do have some facilities, and the way I think about it, … it’s not necessarily that we need to totally replicate all the services that would be available in a standard school.”

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“But working together to come up with innovative ways to provide in-person education in a safe manner means doing some outside the box thinking, figuring out who’s got the resources and capabilities to do it.”

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