By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The start of October – one month into the new school year – is when Seattle Public Schools traditionally has to make adjustments for unexpected circumstances at some of its campuses.

One such circumstance is about to affect two elementary schools in West Seattle, and we’ve been hearing all day from parents who are unhappy about it. At least one of the schools involved called a last-minute after-school meeting today to talk with families about it, and the district says other communications tools are being used.

In short, the newly reopened Fairmount Park Elementary School has more students than planned for – 367 in K-5 – and needs another teacher. Gatewood Elementary (with 405 total students), meantime, has fewer first-graders than expected – they had projected and staffed for four classes, but only need three. So, explains SPS spokesperson Lesley Rogers in response to our request for information, “In order to be fiscally responsible and assure our funding was being used where the greatest student need existed, at this time the district identified the opportunity to reduce Gatewood’s teaching staff by one teacher and increase Fairmount Park’s teaching staff by one teacher. This required no additional funding, and put the teacher where the need was greatest.”

It’s not entirely that simple, according to what parents have been sending us today. One Gatewood parent says the swap would involve sending the no-longer-needed-in-first-grade Gatewood teacher to a fourth-grade team-teaching class, and one teacher from that team, in its third year, would in turn be sent to Fairmount Park. Another letter circulating among parents also points out that 20 Gatewood first-graders will be going to new classrooms after a month.

Some parents are reported to be talking about raising money to keep an extra teacher at Gatewood. They tell us there is urgency to this, because apparently the decisions involving the teacher moves have to be finalized within a few days.

One Gatewood parent’s letter to this region’s Executive Director of Schools Israel Vela and School Board director Marty McLaren was forwarded to us. In part, it lists the concerns as:

This will disrupt teachers and students in harmful ways, including:

* Time and energy that teachers put toward creating a classroom environment and
bonding with students will be totally lost.

* Students will be abandoned by the teacher that they now know and thrown into a
new learning environment, including different classmates more than a month into the
school year.

* The size of 1st grade classes at Gatewood will go up.

* Teacher morale will go down.

* The parent groups that have risen up and come together to support each classroom will be divided.

* The relationship between Gatewood and Fairmount jeopardized.

Students will feel all of this. My child will be hurt by this plan. I ask you to take immediate action to prevent this plan.

This isn’t the only school that’s had to make changes, says district spokesperson Rogers: “The district made a commitment to our school leaders, teachers and families to quickly resolve over-crowding issues as close to our Oct. 1 enrollment count as possible. Earlier in September we were able to respond to overcrowding concerns at Alki and Arbor Heights with additional kindergarten teachers. We had been communicating with principals for the past several weeks regarding changes coming and this was one.”

In case you’re confused by the description of “overcrowding” at Fairmount Park, with fewer than 400 in a school expanded to 500 capacity, we were too; Rogers explains that it has to do with the contractual maximum number of students that can be in a class. Thanks again to everyone who tipped us on this; we’ll be following up.

ADDED 10:30 PM THURSDAY: Two notes – First, JTD looked up contact information for key district personnel; find it here. Second, several parents shared word that the Gatewood PTA has called a meeting related to this for 6:30 pm October 14th (bylaws require 10 days’ notice) in the school library.

ADDED 11:32 AM FRIDAY: A parent has forwarded a message from Gatewood principal Connie Aleman, who says the district has reached this decision and notified her of it:

Unless a teacher volunteers by October 7, the least senior teacher at Gatewood will be transferred to Fairmount Park. She/he is expected to report to duty at Fairmount Park on Friday October 10th. Gatewood’s four first grade classrooms will be consolidated into three and students will begin learning in that configuration on Monday October 13. This decision is based upon the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is a contract agreed upon by both the district and the teachers’ union. It is also based on the Weighted Staffing Standards, which are established by the Seattle School District.

If we want to keep Gatewood’s staffing and class configurations as they are now, the district will allow us to raise the money to pay for a full time certified teaching position. Unfortunately, we must raise the money to fund that 1.0 FTE by October 8th. If it is not possible to raise the money by then, we can continue efforts to raise the money but the reduction in a teacher will occur October 10th and we will have to hire a different teacher when the money is raised.

If a specific fundraising campaign is under way, we hope to receive details so we can publish a new story about it – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!