By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Seattle Public Schools managers said they were in the West Seattle High School commons Tuesday night to hear ideas from community members about how to continuing transitioning into the in-its-first-year Student Assignment Plan.
What they heard most loudly from the crowd of approximately 100 was that they needed to answer more questions before community members would be ready to offer suggestions.
The district expects the plan to be fully in place by 2015; it began this school year with policies mostly affecting the entering grades – kindergarten, sixth, ninth. But there were many concerns about the plan expressed as it was being debated and adopted, and the district promised early this year to listen to and consider those concerns when it came time to plot the next phase of the transition – which is what they’re doing now.
As Tuesday night’s meeting began, the district’s enrollment and planning manager, Dr. Tracy Libros, moved quickly through West Seattle-relevant parts of this PowerPoint, after declaring, “Nothing is decided at this point – the board and staff is totally open to (other ideas) (at this point)” – though they’ll be voting on a proposal soon after New Year’s, much the same way the controversial school-closure plan unfolded two years ago.
Then, district curriculum manager Cathy Thompson moderated a few audience questions, spoken and written, before declaring it was time for everyone to break into small groups and talk about ideas. One woman stood up and challenged that, saying she didn’t feel she had heard enough from the district officials to be able to thoroughly discuss the possibilities and brainstorm alternatives, so she wanted the Q/A period to go longer – and after she received a show of hands in support, Libros and Thompson agreed.
But we’re a bit ahead of ourselves. If you haven’t gone through the PowerPoint, key points of note included the issue of “many overcrowded elementary schools,” which the district blames in part to the decision to let new kindergarteners go to the same school as older siblings, even if it’s not their newly designated (as of this year) “attendance-area” school. Libros said that was not likely to be possible next year.
Libros also noted that one set of district projections from this year had turned out to be wrong: “We thought we would have declines, but instead we have more high school students this year” – both of West Seattle’s major public high schools have higher enrollment than expected, as do the two middle-only schools. Overall, Libros said, the district has more than 1,000 students above what was projected – though they are still working with last year’s projections that, by 2015, suggest Chief Sealth International High School will have a much-bigger student body than West Seattle High School (and the same for their respective feeder middle schools, Denny International and Madison), which was a source of consternation for many at the meeting.
Speaking of middle school, Libros says a change in transportation policies could be on the table for the second year of the Student Assignment Plan transition – right now they’ve designated everyone within 2 miles of a school as being in its “walk zone,” ineligible for school buses, and some parents have voiced concern about that, saying it’s potentially unsafe for some of the youngest middle schoolers to have to come all that way – especially if the route takes them across mega-busy streets like 35th SW.
Back to the potential enrollment imbalances for the secondary schools, one possibility in the presentation is one that West Seattle school board member Steve Sundquist proposed back before the original plan was approved early this year (see this story from January) – making the three elementaries that are somewhat across West Seattle’s midsection “dual feeders,” so that students from Gatewood, Sanislo, and West Seattle could choose the Madison/WSHS track or the Denny/Sealth track. (Later in the meeting, applause greeted one suggestion that all of West Seattle should be dual feeder.)
Also on the table – figuring out the feeder pattern for international schools (for example, right now in the West Seattle area of the district, which includes South Park, a Concord International student is not necessarily guaranteed the ability to move on to Denny and Chief Sealth International).
“What’s being done to address socioeconomic imbalance in West Seattle regarding the feeder patterns?” one attendee asked; Libros replied, “We are now in the process of redoing analyses based on actual data, as it’s happening now.”
Many questions focused on tiebreakers – how to decide between two students competing for one seat at a school; some of those may change, it was indicated.
And then came small-group discussion time; after about 20 minutes, each table sent a representative forward to make their key points.
First one wanted to address the attendance boundaries for Roxhill Elementary, given the fact – pointed out once the maps emerged early this year – “if you live across the street from Roxhill, you are going to get bused 14 blocks to Arbor heights. Consider the area between 30th and 35th (to add to the attendance area).”
Second was concerned about facility condition matching facility usage: “The feeder patterns adopted last year appear to result in a really poor use of recently remodeled secondary facilities like this beautiful (WSHS) building that would be extremely underused [if low enrollment projections by 2015 play out] … conversely, we have an elementary school like Schmitz Park that is way overused.” He suggested that new boundaries and more facility remodeling might be in order.
Third speaker addressed challenges at Lafayette Elementary, which currently has the highest elementary-student population in West Seattle, more than 500. It also has a boundary problem, she said, with students “two and a half blocks away who do not go to Lafayette, while kids from miles away get bused in.” Among her group’s suggestions – reopen an elementary school, change the boundary lines for north West Seattle, clarify the rules for “out of area” kids.
Others suggested reopening a school, too. And one speaker focused on the future projected discrepancy in enrollment between Denny/Sealth and Madison/WSHS, saying “supply and demand” seemed to be the biggest issue, with a southward migration now because those schools are more in demand. However, she suggested, “West Seattle is one big community and we should make middle schools and high schools open choice for all of West Seattle.” (That won big applause.)
Another speaker was more general – but also more pointed. “We like the idea of the new Student Assignment Plan, but not the poor implementation. We started planning our children’s education long ago, then (came) this new plan with little attention to grandfathering, little attention to what parents had been planning for years. We feel the district should pay more attention to this transition period and could have done a much-better job at maybe slowing down the transition, more grandfathering and flexibility – we feel like it moved too fast for parents to react.” (That too won a lot of applause.)
Once the table reports were presented, the meeting was over. Here’s what happens next, as had been explained toward the meeting’s start:
*Superintendent’s decisions will be made before ‘open enrollment’
*”Drop-in” meetings for more Q/A continue at district headquarters (here’s the list of dates/times)
*The school board will discuss the topic December 1st and 8th; the transition plan for next school year is ongoing, and “drafts will be posted online”
*A proposed final plan will be introduced January 5, then action will be scheduled January 19th
*Open enrollment is March 15-31; “individual assignment letters will be sent before then.”
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