West Seattle Blog…

Looking ahead: Major West Seattle issues on the agenda all week

Lots going on this week. This is all on the WSB West Seattle Events calendar too, in case you lose track:

MONDAY
-City Council briefing on snowstorm response, next steps: 9:30 am, City Hall (live online or on TV)
-County Council briefing on snowstorm response, 9:30 am, County Courthouse (live online or on TV)
-Denny Middle School Site Redevelopment Design Team, 7 pm, Denny Library

TUESDAY
-“Scoping meeting” for proposed West Seattle jail site, Brockey Center at SSCC, 6:30 pm
-Community meeting re: Cooper Elementary “program closure,” Cooper Library, 7 pm
-Junction Neighborhood Organization meeting with transit and parking updates, 6:30 pm, Ginomai
-Fauntleroy Community Association meeting, 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy
-Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting, 7 pm, Admiral Church

WEDNESDAY
-2nd Delridge Skatepark meeting, 6 pm, Youngstown Arts Center
-34th District Democrats meeting and reorganization election, 7 pm, The Hall at Fauntleroy

THURSDAY
-Mayor’s “open house” promising one-on-one chats with citizens about snowstorm response, 6:30 pm, Southwest Community Center
-City/county-led public meeting about Seacrest dock changes to facilitate year-round Elliott Bay Water Taxi, 7 pm, Alki Community Center

Again, this is not EVERYTHING that’s happening, but those are the biggest events on the radar, so far. (Know of something major we somehow missed? Please let us know — thanks!)

2 school updates: Seattle makeup days; Cooper closure fight

MAKEUP DAYS: Just in case you haven’t heard this yet: According to the School Beat e-newsletter e-mailed Friday by Seattle Public Schools, three days have been tacked onto the end of the school year to make up for time lost in Snowstorm ’08 – June 17, 18, and 19.

COOPER CLOSURE FIGHT: As we mentioned yesterday, the Cooper Elementary meeting originally set for mid-December, canceled because of the weather, is now happening next Tuesday (7 pm, Cooper Library) — and certainly packs even more urgency now that the Cooper “program closure” is on the official list of “final recommendations.” The Cooper School Works anti-closure website has published more details about the meeting, noting that in addition to School Board rep Steve Sundquist‘s planned participation (along with district official Patrick Johnson), they have invited the rest of the board. A Cooper PTA rep has shared with us a letter detailing key points they’re making to fight the closure recommendation:

Hello, my name is Molly Gras-Usry and I am a Cooper Elementary Parent. I want to bring to your attention a very fiscally, socially and educationally irresponsible recommendation the School Board has made. The Seattle School Board recommends that the Cooper Elementary students be kicked out of their building so that the West Seattle Pathfinder K-8 Program can occupy the building come fall 2009.

This recommendation doesn’t add up. First of all we have been told all along that Pathfinder needs at least 391 seats. Cooper won’t give that many seats. The Autism Programs that have been invited to stay occupy 4 classrooms for 24 kids therefore taking away 75 of the planning capacity seats. Also, they have invited 8 of the Cooper students to stay at Cooper in the Pathfinder Program which brings the number of seats available to the Pathfinder program 378. Thirteen fewer seats than what Pathfinder needs. Also, bringing a K-8 program into a K-5 building requires the District to retrofit the school with lockers and labs costing the District more money rather than saving money.

Furthermore, Cooper doesn’t meet the criteria established by Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson for closing a program. A program must be tanking on the WASL and enrollment needs to be declining. Cooper Elementary has the strongest WASL scores compared to other schools with similar demographics and enrollment has steadily grown the past several years.

Cooper staff and students also don’t appreciate being told by a Seattle School Board member that Cooper students are “making a waste of a nice, new building”. I’m not sure what he means by that but I see the Cooper family making great use of their space. Due to Cooper’s 80% free and reduced lunch population, we don’t have extra funding for off site field trips. Cooper students enjoy on site field trips through the green belt land they occupy and incorporate their environmental exploration with art.

This isn’t excellence for all, this is excellence for SOME.

Thank you for your time.
Molly Gras-Usry, Cooper PTA

About halfway through her live online Q/A session at the Seattle Times website yesterday (see the transcript here), Superintendent Dr. Goodloe-Johnson answered a question asking how the district could expect students to succeed if a thriving program like Cooper is closed and the students dispersed to other schools: “Successful teachers that implemented the successful programs will follow students. We will duplicate successful programs in the new schools, and strengthen all academic programs. The success that students have experienced will continue.” District information on the closure process can be found here; WSB archives, newest to oldest, are here.

School-board meeting followup: Video; signups; online Q/A

Three things this morning, following up on the school-closure-plan discussion at last night’s four-hour Seattle School Board meeting (see our running updates here). First, our video of the one Cooper Elementary advocate who spoke, Shelly Williams:

Members of the Cooper community held a meeting yesterday afternoon to plan next steps in their fight against the proposed closure. The Cooper School Works anti-closure website says the big nighttime meeting for the school community, postponed last month because of the snow, is rescheduled to next Tuesday, Jan. 13, 7 pm.

Second – If you want a chance to speak at the final public hearing on the citywide closure recommendations, you need to start calling/e-mailing at 8 am TODAY. The hearing is 6:30 pm January 22 at district HQ in Sodo; the number to call today starting at 6 am is 206-252-0042; or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org

Third – Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is participating in an online Q/A session today via the Times website, 11 am-noon; you can send in a question now by going here.

School-closure fight: Board meeting updates, as they happen

6:06 PM: The meeting has just begun. Looks like not much “conventional media” here – no TV in evidence so far, anyway – likely because crews are out covering the flooding emergencies around other areas of Western Washington. Board president Michael DeBell opened the meeting by mentioning that Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and her husband will be attending the inauguration in Washington, D.C., week after next. We’ll add more notes here as the closure-plan-related news (or anything else major) happens. 6:24 PM UPDATE: So far the public comments have focused on opposition to the proposed African American Academy closure and the proposed split of the APP top-level-gifted program (currently at one elementary for the whole city, one middle for the whole city, but the new proposal calls for two each). Several opponents of the proposed Summit K-12 closure are speaking too. No one has spoken yet regarding the West Seattle section of the closure proposal, but Cooper teacher Cori Jaeger is on the list of speakers coming up. While we are just updating West Seattle-related highlights, you can read in-progress updates on the entire meeting at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com (or watch the meeting live on cable TV). 6:58 PM UPDATE: Jaeger yielded her time to Shelly Williams, who asked, among other things, why the district was willing to change the assignment plan so that the Cooper program could be discontinued, but not “to support us” (by expanding the “reference area” so there are more potential students from which Cooper could draw).

7:19 PM UPDATE: The public-comment period has ended, and chief academic officer Carla Santorno (a West Seattleite) is going to update effects/components of the closure plan regarding special education, bilingual, and advanced learning.

8:04 PM UPDATE: No new WS information in that presentation; district budget boss Don Kennedy is presenting an update now, and says the money picture is still bad – $25 million shortfall projected, up one million from the projection as of last fall – but not as bad as it could have been (at one point before the governor’s budget was unveiled recently, there was concern the district deficit could have wound up as high as $37 million).

8:45 PM UPDATE: Meeting has resumed after a 15-minute break. The three motions that comprise the “final recommendations” for closures/changes are being officially introduced now (again, the final vote is not scheduled till a special meeting on 1/29).

9:07 PM UPDATE: Board members are asking questions and voicing comments. West Seattle’s rep Steve Sundquist said that while he has heard a lot of concerns about the process and how the recommendations have changed along the way, he feels the “open” process that’s ensued over the past month is “transparent” and better than “the alternative.” He also asked for data about the West Seattle elementary schools to which Cooper students would be reassigned if their program closure does happen — that would relate to concerns voiced about members of the Cooper community, that the students will be reassigned to schools with worse educational performance (such as West Seattle and Roxhill elementaries).

9:30 PM UPDATE: Board president DeBell also voiced concern about the fact that ending the Cooper “program” would break up a school that is making enrollment and academic progress, as the Cooper community has been pointing out. By the way, the second and third of the three items being “introduced,” together comprising the “final recommendations,” also include components of the Cooper-discontinuance proposal – one would change the Student Assignment Plan so that current Cooper students can get transportation to their “newly assigned” schools even if they’re “out of cluster”; the other would merge the Cooper and Sanislo “reference areas.”

West Seattle school-closure fight: Protest tonight; future plans

That’s part of a citywide group of about a dozen protesters is keeping vigil outside district HQ right now, half an hour before the start of the first School Board meeting since Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson announced yesterday her final recommendations for which schools/programs to close. As we reported yesterday, those recommendations include ending the Cooper Elementary “program” and reassigning its students to other West Seattle schools, in order to move Pathfinder K-8 into Cooper’s building, before closing the Genesee Hill building that Pathfinder’s been at for more than a decade. The citywide closure-opposition group (Educators, Students, Parents, Alumni, Community Members Unite for a better Vision of Seattle Public Schools) has announced an anti-closure rally and march for 2 pm January 25 (starting at TT Minor at 1700 E. Union), four days before board members are scheduled to take a final vote. A different group calling itself Students Against School Closure is also distributing flyers here this evening, calling for a student walkout on the day of the final vote, January 29th, with its supporters asked to gather at Westlake Center at 3 pm for a march to district HQ followed by a 5 pm rally before the 6 pm board meeting. Back to tonight’s board meeting: The “final recommendations” are to be officially introduced, and as always the meeting will begin with a public-comment period; the list of speakers includes at least one person we know is affiliated with Cooper.

School-closure plan: Why Cooper; what’s next; other effects

Tonight (Wednesday), the Seattle School Board will formally receive Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s “final recommendations” for the next round of school closures.

As we first reported when she unveiled the plan Tuesday afternoon, the West Seattle components of the proposal haven’t changed from her previous update a month ago – the Cooper Elementary School “program” is slated for closure, so that Pathfinder K-8 can be moved into the Cooper building (left) once the Genesee Hill campus – which had been closed for years before Pathfinder was placed there 15 years ago — is shut down.

You’ll probably recall that Cooper wasn’t on the “preliminary” list, first announced back in November – Arbor Heights Elementary was instead recommended for program closure and Pathfinder relocation. The superintendent was asked at the Tuesday afternoon media briefing to elaborate on why Arbor Heights is now “off the list”:

That’s not the only recommendation that has changed along the way. Click to read the rest of School-closure plan: Why Cooper; what’s next; other effects…

Update: Cooper on list of school-closure “final recommendations”

(photo added 3:12 pm)
ORIGINAL 2:04 PM POST: Just a small note – we’re off to Seattle Public Schools HQ, where the “final recommendations” in the latest school-closure process are to be released within the hour. You’ll see them here as soon as we have them.

2:52 PM UPDATE: Just handed out. Cooper is still recommended for discontinuance. Genesee Hill building still recommended for closure, with Pathfinder K-8 moving to the Cooper building on Pigeon Point.

2:56 PM UPDATE: Full list: Building closures, Genesee Hill, Mann, TT Minor, Van Asselt, Old Hay (with subtext “may be temporary depending on enrollment.” Relocated programs: Half of Lowell APP to Thurgood Marshall. Half of Washington APP to Hamilton. NOVA to Meany. Pathfinder K-8 to Cooper (as mentioned). SBOC to Meany. TT Minor Montessori to Leschi. Thurgood Marshall EBOC to Dunlap and Hawthorne. Van Asselt to AAA. Also: New programs, New K-8 at Jane Addams. Discontinued programs: African American Academy, Cooper, Meany, TT Minor, Summit K-12. Again, the Cooper program closure/Genesee Hill building closure/Pathfinder move is the only West Seattle component of the list. This will now be introduced at the School Board meeting tomorrow night; final vote scheduled for January 29, and certainly the plan could change before then.

3:03 PM NOTE: Just FYI, we are in the board room at district HQ, where Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno, and other district officials will brief the media shortly and answer questions. We will add anything West Seattle-specific, and a full report later. A few more details about Cooper programs: The two autism self-contained and one inclusion program, as the district describes them, would “REMAIN at Cooper to become part of Pathfinder K-8,” according to the documents we’ve been given. The plan for other Cooper students is described in the summary as “reassign … to other schools in West Seattle.” District PR says this will be on the district’s website shortly – we’ll add the link when we see it.

3:13 PM UPDATE: Thanks to the commenter who found the link first: Here it is. One detail we omitted: West Seattle APP elementary students would go to the Thurgood Marshall half of the split program.

3:19 PM UPDATE: In case this part is not on the website yet, we are reading the detailed briefing book about the final recommendations. Here’s what it says about Cooper students:

Students who attend Cooper Elementary and live in the Cooper reference area are assigned to Pathfinder, Gatewood, Sanislo, or West Seattle Elementary depending on where in the reference area they live. Students who live within the walk zone for Cooper as well as some additional students who live near the Cooper building would be reassigned to Pathfinder where they could continue in the same building and become part of Pathfinder. The other reassignments (listed in the book) contemplate that the Cooper reference area would be merged with the Sanislo reference area, putting it in the West Seattle South Cluster.. Transportation would therefore be provided to students in the Cooper reference area who attend a school in the WS South Cluster. Transportation is also provided to WS Eleentary from both the West Seattle North and West Seattle South Clusters. Cooper studnets whose reference area is in the West Seattle North Cluster and who live close enough to walk would be reassigned to their reference area school. If not, they would be reassigned to West Seattle Elementary.

3:31 PM UPDATE: We just asked the superintendent about the fact that this would mean two buildings closed in the past few years in the West Seattle North cluster, which has had far less excess capacity than the south. She says a process is under development that will keep the district from getting to this kind of capacity imbalance in the future – no specifics yet, but it’s in the works.

3:38 PM UPDATE: The superintendent says there WILL be a “design team” process for Cooper if the final recommendation for program closure does get final approval – in which a group will be assembled to work through the transition of its students to other schools. As for what happens to its teachers – she says “the teachers go with the students” in general since enrollment isn’t declining, students are just moving; as for how it will be determined where teachers, like those at Cooper, go, she says that will be determined “by existing labor contract” terms.

3:44 PM UPDATE: The briefing has just ended. More links with long and short versions of the recommendations, as well as an updated FAQ and the official news release, are all now linked to the “Capacity Management” page that the district has used as a central repository for information on the ongoing process. Here’s that link. We’ll be writing a more detailed update a bit later; the superintendent had some comments about why the final list, citywide, was so dramatically different from the original “preliminary recommendations,” and also the role advocacy played or did not play in the final determination of what’s on this list.

5:16 PM NOTE: Before we get to that update – leafing through the full report, we see the “why the preliminary recommendation changed from Arbor Heights to Cooper” explanation is in it – if you want to read that, follow this link and click ahead to page 20. In part, it says:

In general, the Cooper building is a more logical choice for the relocation of the Pathfinder program. The building is nearly 30,000 square feet larger than Arbor Heights, and the building layout is more suitable for a K-8. Typically, K-8 programs prefer to physically separate the elementary and middle school students and the Cooper building allows for this. Cooper also has a full size field suitable for middle school PE. Cooper is also located on a large site that has a natural area that can be used by the Pathfinder program in support of their environmental education focus.

6:43 PM NOTE: One more link’s been added to the SPS website – the final report with appendices added – click ahead to page G-9, which is actually about 50 pages in, in order to get the specifics on where current Cooper students would be reassigned, depending on what “reference area” they’re in now.

Eve of school-closure “final recommendations”: Cooper, still?

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

By mid-afternoon tomorrow, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson will announce her “final recommendations” for which school buildings and “programs” to close, in hopes of saving the district millions of dollars. Her announcement won’t be the last word — the proposal will be formally introduced at the following night’s School Board meeting, and then a final round of hearings/meetings (and no doubt protests) will follow, till board members’ scheduled vote on January 29th.

When the process began, the timing was considered difficult at best. Click to read the rest of Eve of school-closure “final recommendations”: Cooper, still?…

West Seattle school-closure fight: Online petition drive

Next Tuesday, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is scheduled to announce her “final recommendations” for which school programs and buildings should be closed in the current closure process; a final round of meetings and hearings will ensue, with a final School Board vote projected on Jan. 29. As previously reported, the current form of the proposal calls for closing the Genesee Hill Elementary building (shown at left) that’s housed Pathfinder K-8 for more than a decade, and closing the Cooper Elementary School “program” — dispersing its students to other West Seattle elementaries — so Pathfinder can move into that building (shown at right). This morning, we’ve received word of a new online petition drive opposing all proposed closures citywide (latest full list here). To see the petition (with a “signature” option for anyone interested), go here. To send your thoughts on the proposed closures/changes (or any other SPS-related topic) directly to the School Board, which has the final say, e-mail schoolboard@seattleschools.org (individual members’ info is here). The district’s official info page for the closure process is here; archived WSB coverage (newest to oldest) is here. ADDED 11:29 AM: Thanks to Forest for reminding us of something we should have added: The school district computer system is going down for major maintenance/power-supply upgrade starting at 5 pm tonight. The full notice is published at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com; it says the closure-info pages will be available elsewhere via a redirect, but e-mail to district addresses will not be delivered between Friday night and Monday morning.

West Seattle school-closure fight: Citywide meeting tonight

In the middle of Snowstorm ’08, we published an update on the school-closure process, which is proceeding AS SCHEDULED, the district reiterates, despite some changes and cancellations because of the weather. If you missed that update – read it here; it includes links to the official transcript from the 12/16 Genesee Hill school-closure hearing, and the rescheduled Lowell hearing date. And if you are opposed to school closures – specific or in general – you may want to know about a meeting tonight that just appeared on our radar (thanks to Nora!) – a citywide organizing meeting to oppose closures, by a group we hadn’t heard of before. Here are full details; it’s at 6 pm tonight, Garfield Community Center (map). Meantime, Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is still scheduled to present her “final recommendations” for closures a week from tomorrow; the most recent recommendations still call for closing the old Genesee Hill Elementary building and making Cooper Elementary in Pigeon Point (left) the new home of Pathfinder K-8, dispersing the current Cooper students elsewhere. The “Cooper School Works” closure-fight site continues to add info, by the way; we just discovered this page with some of their main points.

West Seattle school-closure fight: District updates

The winter storm slammed Seattle right in the middle of what already was a hectic, stressful process: Seattle Public Schools trying to get through a blizzard of hearings related to the plan to close half a dozen or so schools. Some got canceled because of the weather. We checked earlier today with Patti Spencer on the SPS communications team to see if updates were forthcoming – new dates for hearings/meetings, and transcript publication from the Genesee Hill public hearing that DID happen (a week ago tonight) before the storm moved in. She just sent word of:

-The Genesee Hill transcript being added to the district website (read it here)

-The official public hearing for Lowell Elementary (which is of interest to dozens of West Seattle families whose kids go there because it’s the only citywide site for the Accelerated Progress Program), canceled last Thursday, is now set for January 20th.

-Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s presentation from last Wednesday’s School Board meeting also is now online

The district says the cancellations and changes will NOT change the timetable for the closure decisionmaking process — the superintendent’s proposed “final recommendations” are still scheduled to be announced Jan. 6th, the second day of district operations post-winter break. All WSB coverage on the current school-closure/change process is archived here, newest to oldest.

West Seattle snow: School-closure meetings canceled tonight

In addition to the Design Review Board meeting cancellation we mentioned earlier, we have just received word that the Cooper Elementary school-closure meeting tonight IS ALSO CANCELED – no new date set yet. Seattle Public Schools also sent word that the Lowell Elementary hearing is canceled too; APP (top-level gifted program) families citywide would have been going to that one. We’ll be launching a new afternoon coverage post shortly and will recap closures and changes there too.

Video: Defending West Seattle schools at board meeting

That’s Molly Gras-Usry, one of two Cooper Elementary parents who spoke to the Seattle School Board Wednesday night during the public-comment period that started the board’s regular meeting. Tonight, Cooper has its own meeting with a district official (7 pm @ Cooper) – but Wednesday, it was a chance to address the board. The other parent to speak was Brittany Abbott, who hadn’t been on the speaker list but got the chance when an Arbor Heights Elementary parent yielded his spot. She too spoke about how, as the theme of the school’s anti-closure campaign goes, Cooper works:

One Arbor Heights parent did speak, April Bolding from the AH PTSA. Though AH is not currently on the list that’s being actively considered for closure, the two-plus-week scare jolted that school’s community into brainstorming ways they could help with the West Seattle South cluster’s capacity imbalance, and that’s what Bolding focused on:

In comments following our as-it-happened report on the board meeting, Paul Dieter pointed out other West Seattleites were there on behalf of another school that was under consideration as a candidate for closure or consolidation, The Center School, a nontraditional high school that leases space in the Center House at Seattle Center. One speaker said 17 percent of TCS students are from West Seattle. (That would be about 50; the school’s website says it has about 300 students.) That school, as it turned out, is involved in the only change that was revealed tonight regarding the proposed closure list — Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson said that changes involving high schools were off the table for now, for at least a year. (The Center School and Rainier Beach High School had been the only high schools mentioned in the process.) That was the only change she announced; other than that, what she announced last week (summary here) stands, including the proposal to close the Cooper “program,” disperse its students, and move Pathfinder K-8 into the Cooper building, closing the old Genesee Hill Elementary building where the alternative school’s long been housed.

Also at the meeting: District watchdog Chris Jackins of West Seattle – who speaks at almost every meeting – again implored the district not to close any schools; district financial boss Don Kennedy recapped his recent budget report, again saying the district may wind up $37 million in the red, depending on what’s in the governor’s budget for education (she announces her budget this afternoon); chief academic officer Carla Santorno explained the “design team” concept that has come up more and more often (including in the superintendent’s radio appearance Tuesday) as the plan for helping students and staffers transition to new schools once the closure plan is finalized – the jargonistic bullet points are in this PDF of her presentation

The last section of the “superintendent’s report” was a long and fine-print-laden presentation by researcher Brad Bernatek. He is crunching numbers on “functional capacity” — which means how many students a school can REALLY hold, not just how many it should THEORETICALLY be able to hold — in a study that started just last month. Some asked at the time, shouldn’t that study have been done before district leadership started declaring some schools underenrolled and some overenrolled? Meantime, Bernatek said the data will all be ready by January 13th, leading board member Harium Martin-Morris to point out – that’s a week AFTER the final recommendations are to come out, how are we supposed to make the decision without the data? Dr. Goodloe-Johnson said there would be lots of time (16 days, to be precise, before the final vote; 9 days before the final public hearing). Again, the entire presentation can be read here.

WHAT’S NEXT: The district-organized meeting at Cooper at 7 pm tonight (listed on this page along with all other remaining community hearings); the announcement of “final recommendations” on January 6; School Board meetings Jan. 7 and 21; final public hearing (for the entire plan as it stands then) January 22; special board meeting to vote on the plan, January 29. Public comment is still being accepted by e-mail at capacity@seattleschools.org and schoolboard@seattleschools.org.

West Seattle school-closure fight: School board updates

We’re at district HQ for tonight’s school board meeting, where speakers during the public-comment period are scheduled to include people on behalf of Cooper Elementary, Pathfinder K-8, and Arbor Heights Elementary, the three West Seattle schools that have been involved in the closure proposals so far. Also, Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is scheduled to present an update on the process; that “update” at the meeting two weeks ago yielded the first official word that the possibility of closing the Cooper “program” was being studied. We’re not going to post minute-by-minute updates of this meeting, since you can watch live on TV (cable channel 23 26 per district staff), but we will post periodic notes about what happens, particularly once the superintendent presents her report.

6:02 PM UPDATE: Meeting has begun; Cheryl Chow is the only board member not here. Standing-room-only group like two weeks ago. (Added post-meeting: We took two photos of the room quickly between the Pledge of Allegiance and the public-comment period – directionally, as the board faces, we were sitting in the front row on the right, to get the seat next to the speakers’ podium for better video, and so had a straight-ahead view of that side, with an angled view of the left side of the room – first photo is right, second photo left.)

CLICK AHEAD TO READ THE REST OF OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE: Click to read the rest of West Seattle school-closure fight: School board updates…

School-closure fight: Tonight’s School Board meeting IS on

Just mentioned this in our ongoing weather-related-coverage post, but wanted to note it separately too, since hundreds of families around West Seattle are affected by the ongoing school-closure process (WSB coverage archived here): We have just reconfirmed with Seattle Public Schools that, even though schools are closed districtwide today, tonight’s School Board meeting, 6 pm at district HQ in Sodo with a closure-process update on the agenda, IS STILL HAPPENING AS SCHEDULED. But district spokesperson Patti Spencer does advise checking the district website (here’s the School Board page) IF weather conditions change significantly later (and we will of course bring you word of any changes here).

West Seattle school-closure hearing: Cooper makes its case

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

40 speakers, 3 schools, 2 school board members. Those are the numbers from last night’s school-closure public hearing at the Genesee Hill Elementary building that Pathfinder K-8 has called home for almost 15 years. And numbers were the reason the hearing had to happen at all – a $24 million-$37 million budget shortfall faced by Seattle Public Schools, with $3.6 million a year potentially to be saved by shuttering school buildings including the long-deteriorating Genesee Hill. The district’s been proposing closing it for years — without also closing the Pathfinder “program” — so the issue has been, and remains, where does Pathfinder go?

Click to read the rest of West Seattle school-closure hearing: Cooper makes its case…

School-closure fight: District message about tonight’s hearing

From Bridgett Chandler, communications boss at Seattle Public Schools, about tonight’s big school-closure hearing at Genesee Hill Elementary/Pathfinder:

Dear community members,

We want to thank those of you who have signed up to testify at tonight’s
public hearing and those who wish to attend. The weather has created
concerns about safety, and we send this information to update you about
conditions around the Genesee Hill building where the hearing will be
held from 6:30-8:30 tonight.

Road conditions this morning lead us to recommend that those who choose
to attend the hearing carpool and look for parking along the north
shoulder (school side) of Genesee. That road was recently sanded.
While there is some remaining ice on the shoulder area, it is much
clearer than the south side of Genesee.

The sidewalks and steps into the school building were sanded this
morning by SDOT, and staff requested that Dakota and 51st be sanded as
well by SDOT since there was ice on both of these side streets. The
school playground is CLOSED for your safety because of ice, so please
look for parking along Genesee. Metro bus information is available at

http://tripplanner.metrokc.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U

We ask that people enter the building from the corner of 51st and
Genesee and follow the signs to the cafeteria where the hearing will be
conducted starting at 6:30.

We want our families and staff to be safe, and we also want to hear your
input. If you make the decision not to attend tonight, we want you to
know that we are reading the emails that come in to
capacity@seattleschools.org as we will also read the transcripts of each
public hearing held this week. Transcripts will also be posted to our
capacity management web site which you can visit from our home page at
http://www.seattleschools.org

Thank you for your participation in this engagement process as we
prepare final recommendations for further public review.

School-closure fight: Genesee Hill hearing tonight; radio talk

ORIGINAL 9:37 AM POST: If you see this before 10 am – Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson and School Board President Michael DeBell are on KUOW radio right now, talking about the closure/change process that’s under way. Tonight at 6:30, at the Genesee Hill Elementary building that’s long been home to Pathfinder K-8, it’s the only official district hearing scheduled in West Seattle during the process, and it’s likely to be a full house, with people speaking from not just Pathfinder but also from Cooper Elementary, which is currently proposed for “program discontinuance” so Pathfinder can move into that building, and from Arbor Heights Elementary, which was in that role on the “preliminary recommendation” list. There’s also word that bus transportation will be available to get Cooper parents from several spots on Delridge to tonight’s hearing; call the school for information: 206-252-8170. Meanwhile, more information has been added to the “Cooper School Works” website we first told you about early yesterday; follow the links from its main page at cooperschoolworks.com. 10 AM UPDATE: We caught the second half of the radio show – took notes and will add them here shortly, hoping to catch the first half when it’s posted online later. 10:30 AM UPDATE: Click ahead for those notes, including what the superintendent says public hearings like the one tonight are REALLY for: Click to read the rest of School-closure fight: Genesee Hill hearing tonight; radio talk…

School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary community’s new website

Just got word of this and wanted to share the link: Cooper Elementary‘s community has put up a website to get the information out about their fight to keep the school “program” from being closed, as is now listed as a “potential final recommendation” as Seattle Public Schools tries to find a new home for Pathfinder K-8. The site is at cooperschoolworks.com, and among other info, it lists the next round of meetings this week – district public hearing at Genesee Hill tomorrow night, School Board meeting Wednesday, and a meeting at Cooper on Thursday, with more content promised. It also links to the Cooper “fact sheet” we told you about last Wednesday. (On the “closure info” page at the official Cooper Elementary website, by the way, you can now read a handwritten letter by a student in Cooper’s autism program.)

School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary table @ Delridge bazaar

(photo added 12:15 pm; Cooper parent Brittany Abbott at the info display)
Just got word that Cooper Elementary is getting the “Save Cooper” word out today with a table at the Delridge Community Center bazaar that’s continuing till 3 pm. Otherwise, next official meetings in the process are Tuesday’s 6:30 pm hearing at Genesee Hill, with speaker signups already under way, and Wednesday’s 6 pm School Board meeting at district HQ in Sodo (speaker signups start Monday morning).

School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary strategy session

You’ve certainly seen that bumper sticker before. But there was something plaintive about seeing it on the side of a car door parked outside a school where parents are about to plot strategy to try to save their kids from getting moved out of their school because of district budget troubles. Two nights after Cooper Elementary officially materialized on Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s list of “potential final recommendations” – with the “potential” proposal being, close the Cooper program and move Pathfinder K-8 into the Cooper building – dozens of members of the school community gathered in the library, as heralded by the whiteboard near the school’s front doors:

Key points of what they said and what they’re strategizing, ahead: Click to read the rest of School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary strategy session…

School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary’s “fact sheet” out

Days after Arbor Heights Elementary was proposed for “program closure” in the “preliminary recommendations” from Seattle Public Schools leadership two weeks ago, its community prepared and released a “fact sheet” (WSB report here). Now, the morning after its official appearance on the potential closure list – its program, not its building – Cooper Elementary has created a “fact sheet” as well, so we wanted to share that with you. Read it here (7-page PDF) in its entirety. Among many other points, the document showcases some of Cooper’s programs, like these two:

*Cooper’s Bilingual Program serves a culturally diverse group of English language learners. Two bilingual teachers and three instructional assistants provide instruction and support to students and parents who speak Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Somali.

*Cooper’s Autism Program continuum serves 24 students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Eight students are served in Cooper’s general education classrooms with additional support and instruction provided by one special education teacher and 2 instructional assistants. Sixteen students are served in rooms 209 and 107, Cooper’s self-contained Autism K-2 and 3-5 classrooms. They are supported by two special education teachers and six instructional assistants. Additionally, Cooper’s resource room supports students with learning disabilities and developmental delays through both pull-put and push-in support.

The document also says closing Cooper’s program would eliminate the Earth Project (here’s its link on the Cooper site), which we’ve mentioned previously. Again, here’s where you can read the Cooper document in its entirety; the school is having a meeting tomorrow night – we covered the first Cooper meeting last Friday. Also, if you missed it last night, the latest “potential final recommendations” for school closures and changes citywide are summarized on the district website here.

School-closure fight: Pathfinder K-8 meeting

As we have mentioned in previous coverage, we learned from the district last night that schools have the option to have “closed” (school community only) meetings if they are not widely advertised – one such meeting was held last night at Pathfinder K-8. We asked Pathfinder parent Eric Baer if he could provide us with some notes about what happened at that meeting, to share with you, since their school too is involved in the closure/change process that has rocked hundreds of West Seattle families (we also have new information this morning from Cooper Elementary – now facing the possibility of “program” closure — which we will publish shortly) – read on for a summary: Click to read the rest of School-closure fight: Pathfinder K-8 meeting…

School-closure fight: Arbor Heights meeting tonight

That’s Arbor Heights Elementary PTSA president Suzette Riley, telling WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand that they’re not taking anything for granted, even though AH is off the closure list – for now.

We first posted that news here just after 5 pm tonight, when Seattle Public Schools released the revised list online, even before Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson formally announced it during a 4 1/2-hour School Board “work session” at district HQ. This new list, described as “potential final recommendations” — as opposed to “preliminary recommendations” in the preceding list — proposes “discontinuing” the Cooper Elementary program, rather than the Arbor Heights Elementary program, to create a new home for Pathfinder K-8, which has been in the subpar Genesee Hill Elementary building for 15 years — starting five years after the district “closed” that building the first time.

The new list came out less than an hour before Arbor Heights’ scheduled meeting tonight with a district official. School parents and staffers went ahead during that meeting to make their cases for why AH shouldn’t be a closure target:

As Suzette Riley mentioned in our first video clip, those on hand for tonight’s meeting didn’t get all the information they were hoping for; the district official who was there, Patrick Johnson, wouldn’t answer questions about the newly unveiled list, even though it had gone public almost an hour before the meeting started. As we mentioned in our earlier coverage, Johnson also asked WSB not to take video of the meeting, a request which we declined, a stance supported by AH’s acting principal.

We spoke with SPS communications staff at district HQ after the meeting there; they apologized and explained that some of these meetings are intended to be school-community-only sessions, if the principal so chooses, but shouldn’t be treated that way if they’ve been publicly advertised, as this one was, so we shouldn’t have had to deal with that “request.” (As it was, we rolled video on Johnson’s presentation, but it contained nothing newsworthy, just a district overview powerpoint that’s been used at the last several meetings, recapping the budget woes, etc.)

Next scheduled meetings: Cooper has one Thursday night; next Tuesday, you can expect to hear from Cooper, Pathfinder, and likely Arbor Heights parents at the public hearing at Genesee Hill; the night after that, it’ll be the next official School Board meeting, which also will start with public comment. Here’s the official district chart, screencapped from tonight’s news release:

From right below that part of the news release:

To sign up to testify at a public hearing on Dec. 15, 16, or 18, call the public hearing phone line at (206) 252-0042 or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org. Testimony will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker, and should focus on the school building about which the hearing is being held. Note: To sign-up to testify at School Board meetings on Dec. 17, Jan. 7, 21 or 29; call (206) 252-0040 or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org. beginning at 8 a.m. on the Monday prior to the meeting.

Additional information is available at www.seattleschools.org/area/capacity. Comments or questions on the recommendation can be emailed to capacity@seattleschools.org or to schoolboard@seattleschools.org, or mailed to School Board, PO Box 34165, MS 11-010, Seattle, WA, 98124-1165. School Board office: (206) 252-0040.

Live updates: School Board workshop on school closures/changes

(meeting ended 8:40 pm – below, our updates as it happened, newest to oldest)

8:49 PM UPDATE: The superintendent is giving TV interviews inches from where we’re sitting. She acknowledged “the list could change again.” (As it has in previous closure processes; the last proposal involving Pathfinder and Cooper evolved in fall 2006 to what was to be a “merger” of the two programs in the Cooper building, a “merger” that both school communities opposed, as you can see in this transcript from the October 2006 public hearing at the Genesee Hill building; not long after that, the proposal was indefinitely tabled.)

8:27 PM UPDATE: Still discussing the dilemma over how to save some money in the high-school category. So let’s take this moment to look at some of what’s unique about Cooper, which is now proposed for program “discontinuance”; school-community members held a hastily called meeting last Friday night (WSB coverage here), shortly after finding out the district was seriously considering this possibility, and in addition to voicing anger and concern, they also pointed out many of their school’s unique aspects: The Earth Project at Cooper, for one, on which we have reported here previously – it’s a unique environmental-education program (here’s its website). That’s not all; more later – this meeting is wrapping up (8:37 pm) – final recommendations still due out January 6th, final public hearing here at district HQ on January 22, vote on final recommendations January 29. Cheryl Chow says she wants to thank “the staff” for their work and responding to clear direction from the superintendent regarding listening, taking notes, coming back with information, answering questions. She’s also thanking “the audience and the participants” for coming to these meetings, acknowledging there are so many meeting. Looks like others are joining in the chorus of thanks, starting with new board president DeBell, and he says any ideas can still be sent in. (Reminder, the e-mail address for that is capacity@seattleschools.org)

8:10 PM UPDATE: Just too complicated to close any “comprehensive high school,” says another district manager. Meeting in fifth hour now. Back to the reaction to the latest West Seattle proposals — checking the Cooper Elementary website, the home page is a big red link, “SAVE COOPER FROM CLOSING INFORMATION,” which points to this page that simply lists three dates: There is a meeting listed at Cooper at 6:30 Thursday night, and the page also lists the Genesee Hill district public hearing next Tuesday, as well as the School Board’s regular meeting a week from tomorrow (12/17). Back to the high-school discussion: board president DeBell says the district has a “structural challenge” re: “full and rich” academic offerings – and has also been grappling with the need for high schools to grow to get more money – he says the underfunding of education in this state is a big problem with all this.

7:31 PM UPDATE: The new list of “potential final recommendations” is still being presented here at district HQ. Once the list has been presented, “next steps” are promised. We know one of them is the Genesee Hill public hearing at 6:30 pm next Tuesday (12/16), since that building is still proposed for closure. Background on previous Pathfinder-to-Cooper proposals (dating back to spring 2005), by the way, can be read in the online Pathfinder history recently posted here. A recap is coming up in a bit; from the superintendent’s presentation PPT, Cooper is not described as a “program” closure or discontinuance, but rather:

*Cooper (students) reassigned based on home address & transportation standards

Currently (7:55) they are discussing high-school proposals to deal with too many empty seats, particularly in south/center – either move the Center School (which is located upstairs at the Center House at Seattle Center) and repurpose its building, or move Aki Kurose in with Rainier Beach to create a performing-arts-focused 6-12 (board member Cheryl Chow just asked, “Wouldn’t that work like Denny-Sealth … as a combined campus, 6-12?” The superintendent said, “No, they’re going to be co-located … this (Aki/Rainier) would be a combined 6 through 12.” Sundquist asks about suggestions to close Rainier Beach; superintendent says it’s very “complicated” to close a “comprehensive high school” and combining two (as was suggested for RB and Franklin) would not be an easy issue and there is “not time to do it right” — she says there would be an issue of “safety and security,” gang activity, violence in the community, which might create problems if that happened.

7:15 PM UPDATE: WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand is at the Arbor Heights building meeting and sends this report: District manager Patrick Johnson, who is there to meet with the school community, asked WSB not to videotape the meeting. We refused – it’s a public meeting on public property, publicized by the district. Arbor Heights leadership “and crowd” supported the meeting being recorded. Johnson is declining to answer parents’ questions about the new “potential recommendations” which have been unveiled here at Stanford Center (where we will be asking district communications staff to clear up this issue of not videotaping), apparently taking Arbor Heights “program” closure OUT of the mix of possibilities (that was a “preliminary recommendation”; Cooper program “discontinuance” is now listed, in its place, as a “potential final recommendation” and nobody challenged it in board discussion so far tonight).

COVERAGE CONTINUES WITH EARLIER UPDATES AFTER THE JUMP: Click to read the rest of Live updates: School Board workshop on school closures/changes…