10 Seattle schools targeted for closure By DEBORAH BACH SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Thursday, April 21, 2005
Parents gasp, heckle as draft plan is announced; more than 3,500 students would be displaced
Faced with multimillion-dollar budget deficits, Seattle Public Schools administrators yesterday outlined a cost-cutting plan that would close 10 schools, eliminate a popular alternative program and create two middle schools.
Under the sweeping restructuring proposal, more than 3,500 students would be displaced -- a sobering fact that outraged many parents last night.
The 46,000-student district would also return to a neighborhood school system and scale back an expensive, citywide busing program. District-contracted bus service would be eliminated for middle and high school students attending classes outside their neighborhood. Those students would instead be provided with Metro passes.
Sharla Laurin of West Seattle, who has two children, listens to School Board members as they announce a draft plan of closures at a board meeting in Seattle. The plan calls for shutting 10 schools and displacing more than 3,500 students. (April 20, 2005), Credit: Karen Ducey/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
There was no public comment period during yesterday's School Board work session, but members of the standing-room-only crowd gasped, called out comments and heckled administrators as the proposed closures were announced.
Parent-teacher groups meeting last night were already talking about how to fight the proposal.
"It's not over at all. In some ways, it's just beginning," said John Eickelberg, a parent-leader at Montlake Elementary -- one of eight elementary schools scattered around the city that are targeted for closure.
"The PTA intends to do everything it can to demonstrate to the district the extraordinary value that Montlake Elementary has," Eickelberg said.
Superintendent Raj Manhas has said the closures -- and other cost-cutting measures -- are necessary to help head off a projected $20 million shortfall in the district's 2006-07 budget of roughly $440 million.
District officials estimate that the restructuring plan, slated for a board vote July 13, would save $2.6 million the first year, including costs associated with closing and restructuring schools, and $3.2 million annually after that.
The long-term savings to the district's capital fund are estimated at $61.5 million, stemming largely from avoiding renovations needed at several schools on the closure list. The transportation savings are difficult to estimate, district financial director Steve Nielsen said, because some students would be grandfathered into the proposals and it's not known how many would ultimately require bus service.
While Seattle Council PTSA President Lisa Bond said she was impressed with the "original thinking" that went into the plan announced yesterday, she'd hoped it would bring the district closer to bridging the budget gap.
"If we're going to make a move that's this painful, I'd be happier if there were more savings," she said.
Under the district's proposal, the following elementary schools would close: Alki, Bagley, Rainier View, Martin Luther King, Montlake, North Beach, Pathfinder K-8 and Orca. John Marshall Alternative High School and the old Hay school would also be shuttered.
Pathfinder, currently housed at Genesee Hill, would be relocated to Cooper School. The New School @ South Shore would be incorporated into Dearborn Park Elementary, and the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, now located in Hay, would move to T.T. Minor's building. Existing students at T.T. Minor and Cooper would be reassigned.
The restructuring plan also includes expanding the Orca alternative program to K-8 and moving it to Whitworth Elementary, whose students would be reassigned. John Marshall students would be moved to the Wilson-Pacific building, and the evening school program at Marshall would move to Meany Middle School.
A Montessori program at Bagley would move to Greenwood Elementary, and additional space would be created at Olympic Hills, View Ridge and Rogers elementary schools.
A new middle school would be constructed on the South Shore site, something South End parents have long been asking for, and the Genesee and Hay buildings would be shut down.
The proposals, which district officials emphasized are still preliminary, are likely to be divisive. The Seattle Education Association, which represents teachers, instructional assistants and school office staff, has backed school closures, saying they are necessary in an era of declining enrollment.
But many parents and students, including those who attended yesterday's meeting holding signs opposing the plan, say school closures should be a last resort.
The recommendation to eliminate Summit K-12 -- an alternative school in northeast Seattle -- to create a new middle school in the northeast was blasted by parents.
The proposal also drew an emotional response from board member Darlene Flynn. A mother of three whose children attended Seattle public schools, Flynn said: "I'm a parent of color who beat the odds in this district. The reason I beat the odds is Summit K-12."
The proposals were developed by dividing the district into six regions -- northwest, northeast, Queen Anne and Magnolia, the Central District, West Seattle and southeast. Manhas and staff then looked at the capacity and enrollment of each school in the region, longer-term demographic predictions, and whether the region as a whole had a shortage or surplus of school seats.
Tanya Beverly talks with her daughter Mariah, a third-grader, after a day of school at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Madison Valley. (April 21, 2005), Credit: Dan DeLong/Seattle Post-Intelligencer
District officials identified schools in each region for possible closures, considering building condition and capacity, proximity of nearby schools, the school's popularity among parents and students, and how many children in the surrounding neighborhood can walk to school. Schools with larger sites had a better chance of retention, while those with portables were viewed as less desirable.
In eliminating the district's "open choice" enrollment model, the recommendations would change the reference areas for some schools that previously accepted students from anywhere in Seattle. TOPS K-8 school, for example, would limit its assignment area to the Central region, providing much-needed elementary seats for children living in the Eastlake area.
Attendance at Alternative School No. 1, now an all-city draw, would be limited to the northwest, northeast and Queen Anne and Magnolia. Similarly, the African American Academy would restrict attendance to students in the Central and South regions. Most of the school's students live in those two regions, and limiting attendance would reduce the high costs of transporting a few students across the city to attend the K-8 school.
The proposed plan would provide access to at least one K-8 program for students in every region.
Queen Anne and Magnolia, for example, do not have an alternative K-8, so the plan proposes changing the attendance area for Salmon Bay to include both neighborhoods.
Likewise, Alternative Elementary No. 2 would expand from a K-5 to a K-8 alternative program, with extra capacity provided by adding portables.
Bond, the PTSA leader, said she was surprised not just at which schools were listed for closure, but which ones weren't.
Hearing the recommendation to close Summit, she said, was "a shock."
But officials emphasized the positive aspects of the proposals, which would include the first school closures since the district shuttered six elementary schools in 1989.
Manhas called the recommendations "complex, challenging and emotional" -- but necessary.
"We ardently believe the recommendations will result in a high quality, more robust school system that will serve the children of our city now and in the future," he said.
Chief Academic Officer Steve Wilson said the proposals were developed with the goal of ensuring quality education across the district and providing predictability for parents trying to plan their children's K-12 education.
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