6:03 PM: We’re at Seattle Public Schools headquarters right now, where the School Board is meeting for a “work session” on short-term capacity management (crowding relief) – proposals that could affect thousands of West Seattle students and their families (as well as their counterparts throughout the city). This is the formal presentation of the proposals we wrote about last night. These meetings aren’t broadcast, so we’re going to write about it live – when the West Seattle points come up, or citywide points relevant to WS – over the next hour and a half. The slide deck that’ll be shown to the board can be seen here.
Assistant superintendent Pegi McEvoy, leading off the meeting, says that the district has received more than 600 written comments; one of the slides from the presentation summarizes the most-frequent comments, including that Fairmount Park is preferred as a permanent home for K-5 STEM at Boren (the only specific West Seattle school mentioned in the summary of comments).
6:10 PM: The president of the FAC-MAC advisory committee has arrived just in time to explain its recommendations – including, regarding West Seattle issues, more portables for Schmitz Park (before the new BEX-IV-funded school can be built at Genesee Hill), opening Fairmount Park Elementary as a neighborhood school in fall 2014, considering housing K-5 STEM at EC Hughes “when available” (Westside School tells WSB late today that it’s expecting to stay through 2015-16 and has a commitment from the district that it can do so).
She says the Schmitz Park community indicated it would rather have more portables than split off kindergarten to another site (a possibility mentioned at the last work session, for SP and other crowded schools such as West Seattle Elementary).
(Note – extensive discussion is ensuing on the North Seattle recommendations from the committee; there are citywide writers here including Melissa Westbrook from the Seattle Schools Community Forum website who will summarize those points later – we’ll update as West Seattle-relevant discussion ensues.)
6:41 PM: Board members are now hearing about the potential financial impacts of various proposals. If a new “kindergarten center” is opened at Boren, for example, to house kindergartens from other schools, the “operational overhead” would be $322,000. Another issue is whether, as originally planned, interim school-bus transportation to “option schools” (such as West Seattle’s Pathfinder K-8) is ended for some students affected by the Student Assignment Plan implemented two years ago – district staff says ending it would be more expensive than continuing it, because it would increase enrollment at many students’ neighborhood schools, potentially leading to a need for more portables.
TO SEE THE REST OF OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE, CLICK AHEAD:
6:50 PM: District manager Lucy Morello is going through the specific school-by-school recommendations, and, in mentioning the possibility of locating K-5 STEM at Hughes, noted that its current tenant (Westside School) has a lease through 2015. It would be considered to be part of the Denny International Middle School feeder zone, by the way. There was no elaboration on the other recommendations in the Denny area – using existing space to create 2 new home rooms at Arbor Heights and 1 new home room at Highland Park, and adding 1 or 2 double portables at West Seattle.
7:01 PM: As discussion ensues of North Seattle schools where space-repurposing is proposed, district staff is asked why that is recommended instead of portables – especially considering some of the repurposable space is used for programs such as music to which the district has a commitment (and is pursuing grant money). It’s less expensive, Morello explains, and more manageable in terms of district operations staff. Questioned further by board member Sharon Peaslee, Morello says she thinks six music rooms in all are proposed for repurposing as homerooms district-wide.
Observation: Board member Michael DeBell warns about certain changes at a North Seattle school in light of its likelihood of “serving all those new condo towers in Ballard.” We haven’t heard anyone mention West Seattle’s building boom, which also includes more than 1,000 new units, and how it will affect schools (Fairmount Park, interestingly, is the closest elementary to the east Junction/Triangle boom zone, we’re thinking).
7:11 PM: McEvoy now goes through middle-school crowding-relief recommendations, including two double portables for Denny (in its second year in a brand-new building). No questions or discussion, though we’ll see if any come up after the presentation is over, in whatever Q/A time is left (this session is scheduled to continue till 7:30 pm, and they’re still going through the slide deck).
7:27 PM: The meeting has again veered into extensive North Seattle discussion – but for those following this closely, there is now the first change from the online slide deck, involving Eckstein, Jane Addams K-8, and Hamilton International – including moving the feeder pattern for three elementaries on that side of the city to the “new comprehensive Jane Addams MS for 6th grade and new students.” (Again, watch the citywide reports for more on this later.)
7:43 PM: The meeting is running overtime but the discussion is all centering on the North Seattle issue, even as some of the board members make their wrap-up remarks. Next up for this: A final version will be drawn up for introduction at the January 9th board meeting, with a final vote expected two weeks after that. You can comment in the meantime by e-mailing capacity@seattleschools.org.
7:48 PM: Wait – they still have to review the slide about high schools, which includes a suggestion that Chief Sealth “reduce the number of open choice seats in alignment with new program capacity.” District enrollment manager Tracy Libros says that is the overall approach for crowded high schools (also including Cleveland, Franklin, Garfield, Roosevelt) will phase out the number of students attending from outside the neighborhood zone. The “revised capacity” numbers haven’t been mentioned; we’ll be following up. (At the start of this year, Sealth principal Chris Kinsey announced its enrollment at almost 1,300 students.)
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