12 Replies to "School-closure fight: Cooper Elementary community's new website"

• brittany December 15, 2008 (9:54 am)

  cooper website is looking great- thanks to everyone involved!!

  is there any speculation on what will happen with all the hearings this week, due to this horrid weather? this is the last week of classes before winter break, seems like “discussion” time is really running out….

• WSB December 15, 2008 (10:06 am)

  Brittany, I have that question out to district communications staff and will post when we hear something back. Genesee Hill tomorrow night will be particularly challenging to access.

• Weekday team December 15, 2008 (11:36 am)

  KUOW’s Weekday is featuring the school closure debate during its morning talk show tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 16 from 9-10 a.m. Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson and Board member Michael DeBell will be among our panelists. We encourage all listeners to call in at (800) 289-KUOW or e-mail weekday@kuow.org to help get a healthy, balanced discussion going.

• WSB December 15, 2008 (11:37 am)

  update from Patti Spencer at SPS communications (I also included this in the latest weather roundup)
  “At this time, we plan to proceed with all scheduled public hearings. If there is a change, we will announce that immediately via our Web site and other means. We understand that some locations in the city are experiencing more challenging road conditions than others. We want our families and community to be safe, and we also want to hear from them. In addition to public hearings, we also continue to receive feedback via e-mail at capacity@seattleschools.org and schoolboard@seattleschools.org “

• SPS parent December 15, 2008 (11:40 am)

  parents- it’s up to you. if you need to fight for your school, then you leave early and find a route there. if you need to stay up late- then you do. you are the only ones that this whole battle is up to. if there are non english speaking people at your school- be proactive send home mailings in all lang. get a volunteer translator for meetings. it’s not accurate to assume that pulling the race card and doing nothing else will ever save your school.

  disclaimer- i am not a parent in the west seattle cluster- i am just tired of hearing people complain with out doing something about it
  what i have read is that teachers are fighting the cooper fight-

• WSB December 15, 2008 (11:43 am)

  JJ Ball, who led the two meetings at Cooper that we have covered, is the parent of a kindergartener; Brittany Abbott, who was the first to e-mail us and also was leafletting at Delridge CC over the weekend, is the parent of twin boys in 2nd grade. And many of those at both meetings were clearly parents, along with a few who were speaking out that obviously were staff members. There was a dad at the last meeting that volunteered to create a website quickly – I don’t know for sure if he’s involved with this one that’s the subject of our post. FWIW, Arbor Heights had staffers involved in their campaign too. Just a data point, since we’ve been to every publicly accessible meeting along the way in these past few weeks … TR

• brittany December 15, 2008 (3:59 pm)

  i’m curious to hear how the weekday show turned out. too bad most of the parents in seattle were dealing with getting their kids on 2-hour delay snow route buses from 9-10am today! i know i was.

• WSB December 15, 2008 (4:18 pm)

  it appears to be tomorrow so you still have time :)

• brittany December 15, 2008 (4:27 pm)

  ah! i should read more. LOL thanks! hopefully we won’t be out chasing buses again tomorrow.

• Jenny December 16, 2008 (5:26 am)

  Does anyone know which school was featured on the local NPR show week about school closures? I was very sad to hear a person from one school explain that they had to “offer up a sacrificial lamb” and it was the school that had few resources / parents who knew how to navigate the system to fight the closure.

  I teach in a high poverty school here in Seattle, but I know little about the West Seattle politics. Did anyone else hear it? Please fill me in.

  I don’t want any school to be closed, but I cannot believe that individuals at a school would “offer up” another school as a way to save their own.

  Very sad.

  I’ll try to read more about it and see if I can figure out which schools were involved. I am just wondering if the school with fewer resources and less parent activism is still on the school closure list.

  Good luck.

• brittany December 16, 2008 (7:53 am)

  hi jenny-

  it’s the unfortunate fact that schools facing closure are told point blank that they MUST name names- if you don’t want your school closed, then tell the school board which school is a better choice. it’s horrible, and it pits neighbor against neighbor. i agree- closing schools should never be a solution, especially successful schools!

  cooper is indeed the school “with fewer resources and less parent activism” and we are definitely still on the list. check out the website at cooperschoolworks.com to see how you can speak out.

  tracy- can you post a new item about this issue being on the radio this morning? also, cooper has arranged bus transportation from several spots in delridge to get parents to the meeting tonight in genessee hill. i can get you that info, or maybe just have people call the school if they need details?

• WSB December 16, 2008 (9:34 am)

  Just starting to move on to other news now – just tuned in to radio show, have missed it if they have talked about West Seattle in the first half hour. Have included the hearing info in a separate item, though, and am pointing people to the school as you suggest.

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