Meeting last night for the first time in the new year, the Seattle School Board took on some of the remaining details of the transition to the new Student Assignment Plan; here are the highlights. The issue many parents have been watching closely involves “sibling grandfathering” – if a child currently attends a school different from the “neighborhood” one to which they’d be assigned otherwise, they are grandfathered to stay through its highest grade, but what about a younger sibling entering school this fall (or maybe beyond) – will they be able to attend their sibling’s school? A group of concerned parents rallied before the meeting last night; among them, West Seattle’s Fiona Preedy, who has been active on the issue. She sent around a summary last night of what happened from her viewpoint; we asked for permission to share it:
About a dozen West Seattle parents joined me at a rally tonight, at the John Stanford Center, regarding grandfathering younger siblings. There were a few reporters at the rally, notably, KPLU and King 5, with their cameras’ filming the children with signs, and there was a spot on King 5 at 11 p.m. The broadcast of the meeting will be repeated on the Education channel and you can watch online.
After a few speakers about the sibling issue, (superintendent) Dr. (Maria) Goodloe-Johnson did speak to the sibling families and stated that they are concerned and they do want to help. She gave the guarantee that if younger siblings can not get in the older sib’s school, the older sib is guaranteed a spot in the reference area school, which is in the transition plan. This is rationalized by the ability to spread those students over 5 grades, rather than the concentration in kindergarten. They are calling this a safety net.
For siblings of students with special needs, they are definitely grandfathering in. Steve Sundquist asked that the placement of Spectrum at Madison and Arbor Heights, specifically to ease the load on Lafayette, be sped up to the upcoming year. He also made reference to investigating grandfathering Spectrum siblings.
Several directors strongly urged Dr. (Tracy) Libros to speed up the modeling for school capacity, as surveys and enrollments come in, so they can identify schools where there will be no problem or, on the other hand, where there will be problems. They seemed noticeably concerned over the families’ stress. Regardless of their concern, it still seems the chances of getting the plan past one year are nil. However, if this year’s enrollment goes well, they will begin in the fall to make the next year’s plan early and might even be able to do a two year plan.
Dr. Libros did have a power point about the timeline for enrollment. They’ve extended early enrollment until Jan. 15, then open enrollment will be in March. With the “safety net”, you have through Sept. 30 to decide to move your older sibling to your reference area school with your kindergartener, so if nothing happens to get you in, you don’t have to make an early decision to hold your place.
A lot of the power will be directed to the principals and staff at the schools, so be nice to your principal!
Steve Sundquist will have another meeting at Delridge Library on Saturday, January 16, 1 to 2:30, so come with your questions and comments.
Other reports from last night: Here’s the KING5 coverage and the KPLU report that Fiona mentioned; A partial update from the community site saveseattleschools.blogspot.com is here. That site also points to this helpful link if you want to tour a school before assignments are finalized – here’s the list of open houses citywide.
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