UPDATE: Citywide school-closures-opposition group rallies effort to save option schools too

11:25 AM: After the recent round of community meetings – including the one we covered last Saturday – the next step in Seattle Public Schools‘ plan to close some elementary schools is for superintendent Dr. Brent Jones to propose which ones. That’s supposed to happen sometime this month; the exact date for an announcement hasn’t been set yet, though a “Well-Resourced Schools Update” is on the agenda for the board meeting next Monday (June 10). In the meantime, a citywide opposition group is leading a letterwriting campaign, and rallying option schools too, as district leaders have said – as reported in our Saturday story – that those are also “on the table.” Option schools include K-8s; West Seattle has two, Pathfinder on Pigeon Point and Louisa Boren STEM in Delridge. The Pathfinder PTSA sent us this, from the citywide group All Together for Seattle Schools:

At last week’s SPS school closure and consolidation plan meetings, parents asked high-ranking district officials what the plan is for option schools and alternative programs. The responses received has given us a high degree of confidence that SPS plans to eliminate most or all option K-5 and K-8 programs in schools. While SPS has not addressed this publicly, we are proactively making it known to SPS leadership that this would be a mistake. Option schools and alternative programs (all of them! including dual language and highly capable cohort) promote positive academic outcomes for their students, help create an environment that sparks innovation in learning, and given their waitlists, could actually increase SPS enrollment. Canceling such esteemed school and program options is short-sighted, non-inclusive, and costly, and will impact all families/students.

Now is the time for all of our schools to consider aligning together in coalition to stop this action. … What parents/caregivers can do now:

–Sign on to our letter!

-Write to the superintendent and school board. Tell them why we need to support diverse learning options in our school district. Use this sample email and include a story about your own experience showing why you think alternatives help students learn and thrive in school.

-Reach out to all the parents and community members that you know who care about this issue and ask them to do the same. Consider organizing your own school community to educate them about what is happening.

Contact All Together for Seattle Schools to get involved in this citywide effort to avoid a massive mistake around school consolidation.

As reiterated in the recent community meetings, SPS leaders say closures starting in 2025-2026 – which they believe could save up to $2 million per closed school – are unavoidable to help address a $105 million budget deficit. If you want to talk about this with our area’s school-board rep – or anything else SPS-related – West Seattle/South Park board director Gina Topp‘s next community-conversation meeting is this Saturday (June 8), 1 pm at High Point Library (3411 SW Raymond).

5:55 PM: Just checked the SPS website again, and since we last looked this morning, next Monday’s board meeting has been canceled, aside from a closed-doors special session dealing with a personnel issue.

Person June 6, 2024 (11:44 am)

The option schools have always seemed incredibly inequitable and I’m always surprised they still exist.They should be the first to go.

Curtis June 6, 2024 (12:09 pm)

Yes we can’t have lower income having options outside their underperforming neighborhood schools. Good schools should be restricted to those who can afford to live in good neighborhoods, right?
Bubba June 6, 2024 (2:36 pm)

You’re basing this on assumptions and could not be more wrong. Maybe instead of going off of hunches, do some research before talking about our children’s futures. K thanks byeeee
Another One June 6, 2024 (8:15 pm)

About half of the students at STEM are not white. And free and reduced lunch numbers are fairly high.

Thonas June 6, 2024 (12:45 pm)

Find all billionaires in Seattle. There are probably close to 100 of them. Tax each 0.1% and give it to the schools. That amount of money to them is like you or me finding some change in the couch cushions, it’s not even noticeable to them and probably more than their net worth fluctuates day to day.

Not a billionaire June 6, 2024 (3:04 pm)

I would vote for a massive school levy to keep all of the schools open.
- Eva June 6, 2024 (4:14 pm)
  
  The WA legislature has capped the levy unfortunately. And my understanding is that SPS has maxed it out.However, you can let our State Legislature know that education should be fully funded. All together for Seattle Schools has more info:https://www.alltogetherforseattleschools.org/home/take-action-washington 
Bradley June 6, 2024 (5:28 pm)

Tax billionaires. Never heard that before. They’re smarter than to invest in a lousy product. Why do people always think it’s that easy?
- some lurker June 10, 2024 (7:58 am)
  
  Tell me you don’t care about public education or society without telling me you don’t care about public education or society. Schools are not a product: they are an investment in the future.

David June 6, 2024 (12:56 pm)

The district could replace a large amount of their budget shortfall by selling the land that Alki Elementary is on and rebuilding Alki Elementary on the Schmitz Park property

Alki resident June 6, 2024 (2:16 pm)

Yes exactly. Much more space there and parking and this makes much more sense. I’ve been saying this all along
Alki Parent June 6, 2024 (3:31 pm)

And where do you propose sending 300 children in the interim?

Did you voice opposition during the levy vote, or the public comment period, or the first appeal?

Don’t you know that the district doesn’t like selling off their assets/property as you suggest?

How do we know that we won’t be fighting the same silly arguments on a rebuild at Schmitz?

Stop making parking a priority over the children of the neighborhood and quit using every opportunity for progress as a forum to cry about traffic.

Support finishing the rebuild and a safer Alki neighborhood!
- Bradley June 6, 2024 (5:30 pm)
  
  There’s more than just parking that’s the issues at Alki site. But I would also selling Lafayette instead. Much more value.
- Lola June 7, 2024 (7:52 am)
  
  Alki Parent,My kids had to go to the Old Boren school for 2 years while WS High School was re-done. Since Boren is one of the Schools to close send them there while they re-do Schmitz Park. Schmitz Park is property that was given to the School District and can only be used for School Stuff. It is much bigger than Alki and would be better used than to re-build Alki School.
some lurker June 10, 2024 (8:00 am)

SPS rarely, if ever, sells land. And it should not. Land is too expensive for a public agency to buy. It generally rents the land to developers who pay far too little, in my view, but SPS retains ownership. The Oak Tree plaza on Aurora Ave N is one site and there is another in W Seattle that SPS also holds as a rental. This is the way.

Options? June 6, 2024 (12:56 pm)

I’m a former option school parent. It was a great experience for my kids, and agree that they are beneficial for families in neighborhoods with underperforming schools. The staff was always great, alternative learning environments might attract teachers who want to be creative. It also had its drawbacks.They def don’t seem as well resourced as neighborhood schools. In hindsight, it seems to me that the district strategy with option schools is to use them to manage overcrowding in neighborhood schools. They offer attractive curricula that siphons a percentage of the population to a new school. As enrollment falls, there is less need to manage overcrowding, which could explain why they are on the chopping block. Which is a shame, given how much is invested to build community around any school.

lucy June 6, 2024 (1:48 pm)

There should be equity in the funding for all public schools. Separate fundraisers for the “rich” schools should not be allowed, or the funds should be shared equally among ALL schools in the district. Teachers should rotate schools, so the “good” teachers are not only assigned to the “rich” schools.

WSB June 6, 2024 (6:23 pm)

There is in fact a fundsharing group in West Seattle that has just issued their latest report, and we’ll be writing about that soon.
AD June 7, 2024 (2:57 pm)

Teachers aren’t assigned to schools. They apply for positions at specific schools. Generally teachers care more about whether or not the principal is a sociopath than the socioeconomic class of the majority of the students when they apply to or decide to stay at a school. But having resources to help them manage classroom time does help with retention. Also, getting a classroom set up takes a LOT of time. Rotating would be awful.

SPS alumni June 6, 2024 (3:00 pm)

I’m interested, what option schools actually have the lowest enrollment in their areas? Seems like this contradicts their prior statement of closing the schools with lowest enrollment.

Atheist June 6, 2024 (3:22 pm)

Is an option school the same as a charter school?

WSB June 6, 2024 (3:38 pm)

No, charters are operated by entirely different organizations. (There is only one in West Seattle, Summit Atlas middle/high school, operated by the local branch of a California-based organization.)

Jay June 6, 2024 (4:41 pm)

I live within walking distance of three schools. The closest two are option schools, and the third closest is Sanslo which seems to be first on the chopping block. If they close Sanslo and the option schools I’ll have to drive my daughter to and from Lafayette in Admiral every day. That means I would go from being a bike commuter to a car commuter. Is it equitable to make less affluent residents drive to school while the more affluent residents can walk?

Delridge Neighbor June 6, 2024 (6:04 pm)

It’s not equitable. What you said is absolutely correct. The problem is SPS uses words like ‘equitable’ divisively. While Dr. Jones has his talking points, it does not appear lower income or diverse neighborhoods are really a priority for him. If they were, SPS wouldn’t potentially be closing 3 schools on the H Line.

Lafayette Neighbor June 6, 2024 (5:04 pm)

And Lafayette would have been the best choice of all for a huge build, no sensitive forests or beaches.

Jon Wright June 6, 2024 (8:32 pm)

Aside from giving priority to people who live nearby, option school admission is based on a random lottery so I have no idea where the notion of being “inequitable” comes from. These schools have historically had big waiting lists. You might think that the Seattle Schools leadership would notice this and think “Hey, here is something we are doing that people seem to like, let’s do more of this!” Instead they want to kill the option schools dead because it isn’t what THEY want deliver.

STEM K-8 Parent June 7, 2024 (8:29 pm)

When my family moved back to Seattle from time in Boston, we were surprised to see how segregated my home town schools had become. As public educators ourselves we were looking for strong program design, caring teachers and an intentionally diverse community. We know that it’s not just what our kids learn but who they learn to be that matters for their success and happiness in life. That’s why we choose public schools. We found all that at Louisa Boren STEM K-8. As our 2nd daughter graduates we feel so grateful to the teachers and community we found there. Our daughters have friends of many different faiths, income levels, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and immigration backgrounds whose stories and experiences they have learned immensely from. This part of my daughters’ education is priceless and can’t be found in the private schools around Seattle. In closing option schools, SPS would be closing off one more mechanism for building the diverse schools many parents want and our country clearly needs. Let’s make sure the definition of “well resourced schools” includes the incredible resource of learning from and with a diverse community.