West Seattle schools: Third draft of ‘Growth Boundaries’ out

(Light area is proposed Fairmount Elementary attendance area; click image for full-size view)
Seattle Public Schools has just released the third draft of its “Growth Boundaries” proposal. We’re going through it now but didn’t want to wait to put up the link so you can review it too. One key section starts with the map showing the proposed Fairmount Park Elementary attendance zone, which would take effect next school year. More later.

29 Replies to "West Seattle schools: Third draft of 'Growth Boundaries' out"

  • WSB November 1, 2013 (9:55 pm)

    Sorry if anyone tried to comment here earlier and couldn’t – just noticed comments were inadvertently turned off on this story – happens on very rare occasions when updating via a slow remote connection, which is exactly what we were doing with this before going offline for a couple hours right after publishing it. Fixed now – TR

  • Fairmount APP? November 1, 2013 (11:02 pm)

    So I didn’t see anything in the ‘Major Changes’ section that mentioned anything about APP at Fairmount. Does that mean the current proposal still includes APP at Fairmount?

  • ttt November 2, 2013 (7:36 am)

    these boundaries make more sense than the last draft. I think SPS is listening to neighborhoods. Thanks SPS!!

  • K8 November 2, 2013 (7:42 am)

    I think that my daughter’s assigned school has gone from Gatewood to Fairmount Park to now Schmitz Park.

    What I would like to know is if they have made any changes to the geo-zones for K-5 STEM. Also, I’m concerned about the lack of mention of APP at Fairmount.

  • kayo November 2, 2013 (8:19 am)

    In theory this won’t affect my kindergartner next year because we are an option school family (really glad we went that route now!) but I would like to see a more detailed map. It is hard to tell specific streets looking at this and it comes down to very specific street information to figure out where you actually are. It looks like a large chunk of central North Delridge is now FP which will affect quite a few families with younger children. I also think it is quite interesting that Sanislo is now in the Madison service area rather than Denny. I wonder how those families feel about this change? You can tell who were the squeakiest wheels judging by this map and they weren’t from the eastern part of West Seattle. Not that this is much of a surprise to me.

  • J November 2, 2013 (8:47 am)

    APP at Fairmount Park remains in this version. I found a more detailed map, with street names, on the SPS Growth Boundaries website.

    • WSB November 2, 2013 (8:57 am)

      Thanks, J, that’s what we link to here – the top-level “Growth Boundaries” section of the SPS website – if you have the direct URL for that map, it would help …

  • A November 2, 2013 (8:55 am)

    This map isn’t detailed at all like the last round. There are no streets. Who knows what our neighborhood school is. Although I’m not too concerned as in typical Seattle fashion this will likely change AGAIN.

  • A November 2, 2013 (9:00 am)

    Still don’t see any streets. And a misspelled word on the SPS website?? Seriously?

  • vs November 2, 2013 (9:04 am)

    I am disturbed at the last minute change to the West Seattle feeder patterns. The Sanislo draw area is a million miles away, culturally and geographically, from Madison and West Seattle High. We’ve had a child at Sanislo and have a student at Sealth, both were able to walk a great deal of the time. From our area, it is impossible to walk, and difficult to get public transportation to Madison/WSH.

    This same idea came up with the original NSAP, was protested and reversed–but the Sanislo community may not be as vocal now as it was those few years ago (mostly because of the forced population shifts caused by that plan).

    I understand that the West Seattle schools need more balanced enrollment than they have now. These feeder pattern acrobatics make me think that the system itself needs an overhaul. In West Seattle especially, and perhaps in the rest of the city, we may well be better off going to a more flexible system for the higher grades–in West Seattle, families should be able to pick either option after their assignment elementary school–all middle, option, and high schools should be all-peninsula draws–and enrollment could be decided by sibling, distance, lottery. This would create balance without resorting to counter-intuitive and counterproductive boundaries.

  • soccer November 2, 2013 (10:20 am)

    I agree the street detailed maps are where the real info is located so you have to look at those. Although our address assignment has changed 3 times & we are literally are on the border of 3 schools, SPS listened. We registered early for our 2014-15 kindergartener & was given an assignment based on this years maps. The APP @ Fairmount is now what I am interested to see play out.

  • sam-c November 2, 2013 (10:49 am)

    kayo- thank you for publishing that link. for me, it’s still useless, why doesn’t SPS put street names on the border lines? a while ago, the border for Lafayette was at Brandon (in Puget ridge). then in the last draft it was at Juneau. now its … ?

  • kayo November 2, 2013 (11:51 am)

    Sam-c if you keep scrolling down in that packet there are very precise maps for each school. The southern boundary for Lafayette is Juneau, and there is a weird finger that runs down the east side of west seattle to Juneau that is still Lafayette. Everywhere else in ND south of Genesee is now FP.

  • pagefive November 2, 2013 (12:07 pm)

    Looks like SPS listened to families living near the new Schmitz at Genessee school. I still don’t like the boundaries around Fairmount. Kids living just 1-2 blocks south of FP are assigned to Gatewood – not walkable at all. I hope there’s still time for Sanislo families to speak up about the revised middle school feeder pattern.

  • West Seattle Mom November 2, 2013 (12:35 pm)

    Why would Sanislo be Madison? It is pretty far from Madison and they can walk to Denny.

  • vs November 2, 2013 (12:47 pm)

    Anybody who disagrees with the Sanislo-Madison-West Seattle High change, please write the district. Few people downtown are familiar with this area, so every advocate is important.

  • dcn November 2, 2013 (2:26 pm)

    The “wedge,” which is the area east of 35th, north of Holden, and South of Myrtle has changed three times. It was originally WS Elementary, then got shifted to Gatewood, and has now been placed at Roxhill, even though both WS Elementary and Gatewood are closer elementary schools. I wonder why that area keeps getting shifted?

  • sam-c November 2, 2013 (3:04 pm)

    thanks kayo for the help. I only looked at the map within the first dozen pages of the document.

  • Wedge November 2, 2013 (9:52 pm)

    I’m in the “wedge” that has shifted from WS to Gatewood and now divided even more with some families headed to Arbor Heights and some to Roxhill. Is this area of Sunrise Heights simply pieces in the district’s puzzle? We’ll move these 20 kids here…these 40 kids there…without any regard for the “neighborhood” component of neighborhood school? I know there was a survey site after the last draft. Can anyone tell me where I should direct my comments now?

  • Goodguy November 3, 2013 (10:17 am)

    This looks much better to respond to overcrowding problems in West Seattle and even out capacity/ attendance. That’s why I voted for the last levy and am pleased to see SPS is on the right track.

  • Amazing! November 3, 2013 (10:19 am)

    SPS listened! I am amazed. The boundaries for Fairmount Park actually make sense! Thank you SPS. The severely overcrowded West Seattle north schools may now actually feel some relief. Gatewood, Alki, Schmitz/Genesse, and even Lafayette have reasonable boundaries that are closer to their schools….finally!
    .
    At the middle/high school level — Madison/WSHS simply need more students coming to them….there is no easy fix for that problem. I can imagine that Saislo parents aren’t going to be happy about the switch, but we cannot keep overcrowding Denny and Sealth while cutting teachers/programs due to under-enrollment at Madison/WSHS. Some “flexibility” for the Saislo parents might be in order for the secondary grades, but I am not sure that is really feasible.
    .
    In any case, I fully support this map as a vast improvement overall from the earlier versions. SPS needs to physically SEND this map out to all parents NOW to ensure proper communication to those impacted before the Board vote. Not everyone is able to follow this closely online, and everyone deserves to be informed….

  • vs November 3, 2013 (12:17 pm)

    Amazing!–I’m glad you’re grateful for your end of things, but please don’t decide that sacrificing another school community is worth the price, especially when you can’t spell the school’s name and almost certainly have no idea about the cultural or geographic context. The Sanislo community would probably be more vocal if the strength of its PTA hadn’t already been decimated by the original NSAP. But I do agree that the plan needs to be sent out–to whole communities not just SPS parents (families with little ones are effected too).

  • Amber November 4, 2013 (11:50 am)

    VS – I agree wholeheartedly, and I am letting the district know at growthboundaries@seattleschools.org . Stupid decision.

  • Anonymous November 4, 2013 (3:19 pm)

    I hate to be that person…. But if it’s true that they are making Sanislo commute up to Madison and WSHS because the schools need more students I’m sure it’s because housing is a lot more expensive towards Madison and WSHS. All of my friends from high school (I went to both WSHS and CSIHS) all seemed to live west of Delridge, close to Westwood, or in south Seattle (Southpark, Rainier, etc.) because the housing is so much more affordable. Maybe I’m wrong but I feel like that would be a main cause for there not being enough students at Madison and WSHS to where they would have to bus students… Plus I don’t know if there even are any apartments in that area that are bigger than 2 bedrooms. But maybe that’s just me :)

  • lisa November 5, 2013 (7:02 am)

    Anonymous, your point is probably well weighted. A lot of the “upper crust” live in north WS and a lot of them send their kids to private school. However, that does not account for the populations at the elementary schools.

  • BMC November 5, 2013 (9:39 am)

    Why is the area just SOUTH of Fairmount not included within THAT schools’ boundary. Someone probably already brought that up, but it just jumped out at me looking at the map. Wouldn’t you want to walk to a school located so close?

  • wsparent November 7, 2013 (10:05 pm)

    BMC: My understanding is that the WS Elementary families did not want to be broken up by sending some of them north to FP.

    My family and my neighbors are very happy with this latest draft as we can actually walk to a school in our neighborhood instead of drive or bus our kids 2 miles to a school that we are assigned to now (or the other school we were assigned to in the 2nd draft).

  • juju November 9, 2013 (2:35 pm)

    As a Denny parent in the “wedge” south of highpoint and also a parent of a student in Sanislo….the most current change is bittersweet at best. What I have been told is that SPS is trying hard to “diversify” the student body in both North and South schools. Denny and Sealth are in the part of West Seattle that have the higher density of students since it includes the High Point and Highland Park communities. The first draft of the new boundaries cut the High Point Community in half, which caused an outrage among their community since of those student require the wrap-around services available at Denny/Sealth. The boundaries were changed. So my question: why can’t the SPS find a way for both Denny/Sealth AND Madison/WSH to have those services available? It seems that might create a draw to Madison/WSH for more students in Central and Southwest West Seattle and maybe help to balance out the enrollment….Sanislo is currently a school who has a large number of kids that will depend on those wrap-around services…what will happen to those kids when they are sent to a middle school that doesn’t have them? Ugh.

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