SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Community budget-gap briefing Tuesday; local items on board agenda Wednesday

January 2, 2017 4:34 pm
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 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

As public meetings start picking up after the holiday season wraps up, here are two of interest this week related to Seattle Public Schools:

TUESDAY: The last of three district-budget-gap meetings is set for Tuesday night, 6:30 pm, Franklin High School (not in West Seattle – none of the meetings are/were – but not far). The Seattle Council PTSA is hosting the meetings to talk about, and look for community input on, budget priorities, in the face of what could be a $74 million shortfall for the district. FHS is at 3013 S Mt Baker Boulevard [map].

WEDNESDAY: The Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors meets for the first time this year, 4:15 pm at district HQ in SODO (3rd Ave. S./S. Lander). Action items are at 4:55 pm, with a break for public comment at 5:30 pm before action items resume at 6 pm – see the full agenda here.

One item of West Seattle interest – details of the upcoming EC Hughes Elementary renovation project are in this “value engineering report” that the board will consider accepting, with recommendations that could save about a quarter-million dollars. The work is currently scheduled to start next summer, and while final action hasn’t been taken, Roxhill Elementary is tentatively set to move into the Hughes building in fall 2018. (Our most recent coverage of the Hughes renovations and Roxhill move are these two stories from October – here and here.)

Roxhill, by the way, is mentioned in another Wednesday board-agenda item of West Seattle interest – the board will consider finalizing a motion to award Bassetti Architects a $931,000 contract for BEX V ballot-measure planning. From the agenda-item details, this paragraph mentions which schools they’re looking at:

Schools to study were selected based upon their existing facility conditions and forecasted enrollment growth to meet capacity needs. Selected schools for master plan study include: John Rogers, North Beach, Northgate, Sacajawea, Montlake, Kimball, Alki, Lafayette, Roxhill, and Schmitz Park Elementary Schools, Salmon Bay K-8, Whitman, Washington and Mercer International Middle Schools, and Rainier Beach High School and a Downtown High School. In addition, Bassetti Architects master plan proposal allows Seattle Public Schools to identify three additional schools to be selected in June 2017.

Whatever winds up included in BEX V, the measure is planned to go to voters in 2019; its predecessor BEX IV, which funded the new elementaries at Arbor Heights and Genesee Hill, won voter approval in 2013.

Another districtwide item of note on Wednesday’s agenda – introduction of the plan to continue a three-tier transportation (and therefore schedule) program in 2017-2018, with the possibility of going to two tiers if “external funding” – an estimated $2.7 million – becomes available by next May.

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