Alki, West Seattle Elementaries still on ‘recommended’ list for final BEX V school-levy work session

That’s the agenda/document packet for tomorrow’s Seattle School Board work session on the BEX (Building Excellence) V levy that’s scheduled to go before voters next year. (See it here – 40 pages, PDF – if the embedded version above doesn’t work for you.) It’s the last work session scheduled before the board/district drafts a levy recommendation for one more round of public comment before it’s finalized and sent to the ballot. And as was the case for the previous board work session two weeks ago, a $53 million rebuild for Alki Elementary and $22 million addition for West Seattle Elementary are the only major local projects on the “recommended” list of capacity/condition-related projects, which could total $795 million citywide.

There are a few other points of West Seattle interest in the agenda documents, such as a note on the second-to-last page that even though Madison Middle School is experiencing double-digit enrollment increases (and has four new portables this year as a result), a Madison addition isn’t being recommended and instead boundary changes might be considered years down the line to send more students to Denny International Middle School and fewer to Madison. The public is welcome to sit in on – no comment period, though – tomorrow’s work session at district HQ (3rd and Lander in SODO), 4:30-5:30 pm.

admiral parent October 10, 2018 (9:10 am)

For those wondering why Lafayette was dropped from the list despite ranking high in all the early scoring, this document lays it out. First of all “equity” comprises 33% of project’s final score, and Lafayette ranks low here, but so does Alki. Second, they project pretty flat enrollment for the next few years. I don’t know how accurate that is. Here is an excerpt from the document:

LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REPLACEMENT. Student population at Lafayette ES declined by over 28% in the past six years. A slight increase of enrollment at the school, approximately 5%, however, was observed in September 2018. This can be largely attributed to the attendance boundary changes for Genesee Hill ES and Lafayette ES implemented in the 2018-19 school year.
The 5-year K-5 school projection shows a steady growth of 29% at Lafayette ES for the next five
years. But this growth is not detected in the 10-year K-5 resident projection for the school. The
10-year resident projection shows a flat trend instead.
Housing unit growth increased 7.13% in the Lafayette ES attendance area between April 2010
and the end of 2017. Furthermore, the school is located near the Admiral Residential Urban
Village. This suggests housing growth will continue to occur in this area in the coming decades as
the City of Seattle plans to address affordability and livability.
Staff recommend we continue to monitor the enrollment trend at Lafayette ES for the next few
years and re-assess its capacity needs as updated school projection data becomes available.
Staff does not recommend Lafayette ES be rebuilt in BEX V from the standpoint of capacity
needs. We have adequate operational capacity available at the school for the next five years.

Stephen October 19, 2018 (1:00 pm)

Can you tell me where you got the information on Equity comprising 33% of the project score? I can not find anywhere online or from board members how they judge equity on the Levy determination.

NWMama October 10, 2018 (2:32 pm)

They should have looked a bit further as to why enrollment decreased at Lafayette. They took away the Spectrum program and consequently lost a bunch of kids to Fairmount Park (many of families chose had qualified for the HCC program but chose to keep their child at their neighborhood school). Fairmount Park is now busting at the seams and didn’t accept any new1st, 2nd or 3rd graders into the HCC program because of capacity issues. So most families chose not to put their kids on a long bus ride to Thurgood Marshall which is where the 1-3rd graders were offered a spot last year. I wish SPS would think a bit broader in this context. We need more capacity within West Seattle, and they really aren’t building much with an Alki renovation. Lafayette renovation could have offered more space for special programs and more kids.

Admiral parent October 11, 2018 (6:59 am)

It looks like Alki is going to be built for 500 students even though projections as far out as they go are under 400 so maybe they can house special programs there.

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