May 19th Seattle Public Schools closure: City-run community centers offering free programs for kids that day

ORIGINAL REPORT, 11:29 AM: As announced a week ago, Seattle Public Schools will close one week from today – Tuesday, May 19th – because of teachers’ one-day protest walkout. The city says today that it’s planning to help out families by offering free programs at its community centers, including all of its West Seattle/South Park centers. IMPORTANT: You need to register ASAP if interested. Here’s the announcement:

Seattle Parks and Recreation has announced it will open and staff drop-in activities at 21 designated community centers for Seattle Public School students from kindergarten to 8th grade in response to the May 19 teacher walk-out. The free program will operate from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19 and will include supervised recreation activities, with an anticipated supervision ratio of 20 children to 1 adult leader.

“We’re willing to open Seattle’s community centers for parents needing daycare on May 19,” said Mayor Ed Murray. “Our programs for school-age kids offer educational and fun options during the summer and school vacations. It just makes sense for Parks for to step up during this exceptional circumstance.”

Due to space limitations, eligible students will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis. All students must have a completed registration form. Registration forms can be obtained at open community centers, at the community centers the day of the drop-in service, or printed from http://www.seattle.gov/parks/. To hold a spot at a center, register in advance; please go online at class.seattle.gov/parks/Start/Start.asp. A registration form still must be brought to the community center on the 19th.

Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Associated Recreation Council will staff these sites. Parents are asked to drop off eligible children by 9:00 a.m. Spaces for parents who have pre-registered will not be held past 9:00 a.m. Once signed in, children will only be released to the authorized contacts listed on the registration form (identification is required).

Parents are asked to send a sack lunch with their child. Snacks will be provided to all students, and lunch will be provided to those students who are unable to bring their own.

The drop-in activities will be available at (editor’s note: we’re just listing the local centers, full citywide list here):

Alki, 5817 SW Stevens St.
Delridge, 4501 Delridge Way SW
Hiawatha, 2700 California Ave. SW
High Point, 6920 34th Ave. SW
South Park, 8319 8th Ave. S.

Parks’ Teen Centers [including Southwest, 2801 SW Thistle] will be open 2:30-8:00 p.m. in order to provide some daytime drop-in activities for teens.

ADDED: As noted in comments (including the comment we procured from Parks), this will mean some originally scheduled programming at the centers is in turn canceled that day.

Andy May 12, 2015 (12:38 pm)

Not “free”, but rather “paid for by others”.

WSB May 12, 2015 (1:07 pm)

“No additional charge,” then.

Carolyn May 12, 2015 (2:04 pm)

They are not “opening” the community centers for this but rather are cancelling all existing programs in order to provide this service. This is unfair to those programs that have already paid for and planned to use the community centers on that day, such as preschools and fitness classes.

WSB May 12, 2015 (2:10 pm)

Carolyn – I will ask Parks about that. If you have any specifics, can you mention them or even e-mail us, in case I am asked for specifics?
- WSB May 12, 2015 (4:38 pm)
  
  From Parks spokesperson David Takami: “I checked with staff and yes, in some cases, previously scheduled programs will be cancelled on the day of the walk-out due to large numbers of school-age children expected to come to the community centers on the 19th. We will be giving refunds to any affected patrons. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but in this highly unusual occurrence, we saw the need to serve the greater good, i.e., students who may not have other places to go during the school day.”

MercyMoi May 12, 2015 (7:13 pm)

I walked into a community center and they had forms ready just for May 19th. I filled out the one-sided one page form and yay! I have childcare lined up for the 19th. Thank you, City of Seattle.

p.s. At the community center I went to a sign was posted that the Tots Gym would be closed on the 19th. It was the only program that seemed to be impacted there.

Working Parent May 12, 2015 (10:04 pm)

I see it is for Kindergarten to 8th grade. What about families with preschoolers that attend SPS that are affected by the closures? It would be great for the community centers to help with those kids too.

hc May 13, 2015 (5:36 pm)

Wow Carolyn

So my opinion is you only care about you and not the teachers and what they do for our children. Ask for a one day refund for your unconvinced life. I’ll reimburse you. Think of the other hundreds of parents put out from this. One day inconvenience. I support my teachers and there staff if it wasn’t for them our children would suffer more due to seattle schools system wanting to waste our tax dollars on test and testing to gain scores to show america. Call the mayor we need bike lanes on delridge, and more micro housing with no parking. Sorry my opinion not yours. Our dollars need to go to our schools….. Sorry for the inconvenience to you. Please take a step back and look into the real issues….

Fred May 14, 2015 (6:20 am)

They are cancelling preschool classes.
They are using the snow closure policy.
They did mention that the center would be open for childcare.
However, that is not available to the preschool students. In addition, there will not be a refund. The Mayor of Seattle ordered this to be done without providing any funding. The families that pay for preschool at Seattle Parks and Rec have now been displaced. It is important to contact Christopher Williams at 206-684-8022 and Kelly Guy at 206-684-7157.