SCHOOL CLOSURES: Seattle superintendent might cancel the plan, after emotional board meeting

While the wind raged across our region, a gust of surprise stirred things up at last night’s Seattle Public Schools board meeting (video above). Suddenly, the district might be abandoning its plan to close schools to save money. (Four elementaries are proposed for shutdown, including Sanislo Elementary on West Seattle’s Puget Ridge, with one parent last night saying the closures would “destroy communities”). Toward the end of the emotional meeting, including impassioned testimony by supporters of the targeted schools, Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones threw out his planned update on the closure process and instead announced he’s “considering withdrawing the recommendations.” That in turn had followed a tearful speech by board president Liza Rankin – currently the subject of a recall campaign – saying the path on which they were proceeding does not “align with any of the things we asked for.” While legal counsel said she couldn’t simply call for a vote on scrapping the proposed closures then and there, she was told she does have the power to postpone the formal hearings planned for next month at the schools. If the superintendent withdraws his recommendations, that would do the same thing. So now it’s a matter of what happens next.

Meantime, West Seattle’s school board director Gina Topp has set the time and place for her next community-conversation meeting – 6:30 pm Tuesday, (corrected) November 26, at West Seattle (Admiral) Library (2306 42nd SW) – you can talk/ask about the closures or any other SPS topic.

K November 20, 2024 (3:20 pm)

*sigh* This is the same thing the city council is doing. There’s a budget crisis, but rather than tackle it as elected and risk doing something unpopular in doing so, they choose to kick the can down the road for another, future board to make the hard decisions they were unwilling to. But by then it will be a crisis and instead of closing a few schools in an organized way, it will be back to 20+ school again, and the remaining schools will see significant cuts. Nobody has a proposal that resolves the budget issue and leaves every single school intact.

Erik November 20, 2024 (6:39 pm)

Exactly. These are hard choices that need to be made regardless of if people like them or not.
WS Res November 20, 2024 (7:46 pm)

Well, if Seattle residents didn’t turn up only to complain “not my school!” “not in my backyard!” etc. and would lobby affirmatively for things like the capital gains tax, we could both have nice things AND not get caught in this endless game of kick-the-can.
JP November 20, 2024 (8:19 pm)

Sounds like you are describing the folks we’ve elected to run the Federal Government for the past 20 years.
- Mike November 20, 2024 (10:02 pm)
  
  Pathetic. District admin and Board are sad cases of incompetence and lousy judgment. And spineless of course.

Frank November 20, 2024 (3:42 pm)

What a joke…if there was a need to close TWENTY (!!!) schools, then closing these 4 schools should be a no-brainer. Certainly, it’s sad that kids will be moved to new schools, some having to bus instead of walk, but is it really better for them to be at these smalll, under-resourced schools?

RJ November 20, 2024 (3:49 pm)

Completely agree K. I can’t imagine a school being closed and people not being emotional. What were they expecting? And now they’re going to pull back bc of a very small subset of parents? With so much open capacity across the district it makes no sense to not close some schools. I’m genuinely curious what the vocal opposition would be happy with. I understood being concerned when 20ish schools would close, but they lost all credibility with me when they had the same reaction to closing 4 schools. The district has been talking for well over a year about closing schools and anyone could research their schools enrollment and building shape. From there, nothing should have been a shock and if it was, that’s on you personally.

3cents November 20, 2024 (5:09 pm)

RJ- I’m getting the impression your children are not being impacted by closures. Good for you, since that’s all you seem to care about. Must be easy to not care about other families in your community. We’ll be sure to reciprocate when you are the one in need of support.
- West Seattle Mad Sci Guy November 20, 2024 (6:19 pm)
  
  The problem still needs to be solved. As a kid I had to switch schools and I assure you I survived. I don’t know what path my life would have taken had I not switched schools but what happened led me to meet my best friend I still have today. But getting back – they still have a problem to solve. If they have to close later and make someone else’s kid move schools is that okay? Obviously not. So if the people advocating stop the school closures aren’t advocating a viable alternative plan that those who manage schools agree can work, then the end result is what the other commenters have been saying about kicking the can down the road and just making someone else deal with it to your kids incidental benefit.
  - 3cents November 20, 2024 (8:32 pm)
    
    I hear you, I do. But as others have already commented, closures with a skeleton of a plan is not the solution. If a well thought out proposal was put in place, I think more people would be open to the idea. But telling families, your school is closing and that’s it…. that’s not a plan. How are kids getting to their new school- not addressed, how is the new school accommodating all the changes- not addressed, the list goes on. For context, my children’s school is not closing. I just empathize and understand how families that are undergoing these changes feel. And as we all know, Sanislo is a school with a diverse student body and socioeconomic standing. If you had time to listen to the Seattle School Board meeting this week, Sanislo was well represented by heartfelt testimonials that explained why these changes would be a hardship for the students and families who attend the school. I would not call being against the closures right now, ‘kicking the can’, I classify it as ‘don’t put the cart before the horse’. There needs to be order before a change like this can be successfully accomplished.

Anne November 20, 2024 (3:59 pm)

Closing just 4 schools will do nothing to solve the budget crisis. But that crisis still exists-so what’s the plan moving forward -another HUGE levy -raising property taxes even higher?

The King November 20, 2024 (8:30 pm)

The McCleary decision put a cap on how much they can raise through property taxes. Projected expenditures per student according to the SPS website puts them at over $26,000 a year. Between 2012 and 2021 their budget increased 660%. Roughly half of that budget was going to administration over the years. It’s probably past time to have a third party audit with sit downs that start questioning with “what exactly do you do around here?”

Teacher November 20, 2024 (4:09 pm)

Dr. Jones may want to do what is best for the community, but I suspect he also is very invested in keeping his job. The Toxic parent community will bring the axe down on him. They have all the power.Meanwhile, as a teacher, I have seen my West Seattle Public school do nothing but decline over the last 10 years. Perhaps it is better at other schools.

Darren November 20, 2024 (4:26 pm)

There are difficult decisions to be made and some group/school are going to be impactedI am appalled by the lack of leadership to make tough decisions, I’m sorry there are communities that will be impacted, life can be tough, grieve and get over it, show your kids that life has difficult moments but you move forward tax payers have the right for government to be efficient and pivot when neededi want to support the school’s financial but only if operated in a effective manner and make decisions that need to be made. Slim down if the metrics indicate the need and improve the outcomes of the students which are less than stellar this is a NIMBY situation, “as long it doesn’t impact my school “

SLJ November 20, 2024 (4:43 pm)

This shows lack of leadership. The job involves making tough choices. I’m happy for the families that get to stay in their schools, but at what cost? How much will it cost to renovate Sanislo and the other schools? The district simply doesn’t have the money for that. If everyone tried to be objective, closing schools with low enrollment and poor buildings makes sense. And yes, my kids have had to move schools when the boundaries changed in the past, so I understand the concern. But it all worked out fine, and most of the neighborhood kids moved with them.

G November 20, 2024 (5:26 pm)

Totally agree with you. Incredible lack of leadership. Pathetic, really.

Not so NIMBY after all November 20, 2024 (5:18 pm)

Wow. Just wow. Many of the comments here sound like they’re coming from armchair experts who rely on each other for their news. Yes this was a lack of leadership in dragging families and teachers and administrators through an absolutely hellish year and then pretending to throw the whole thing out over anticipated “emotional testimony” and not the fact that their proposal was ludicrously plotted, lazily planned and based on a massively erroneous and outdated report. And to the person who said this is a NiMby issue: while I’m not one of the most active members of the MASSIVE cross-region grassroots campaign opposing these closures, they have made me very proud that they made SURE this wasn’t a nimby thing by continuing to fight on behalf of the four slated closing schools even when ours was no longer on the list. I think it is a strength of this town that people were standing up for each other. Many of the comments are thoughtless and inconsiderate of the communities impacted: not just the families here now and incoming, but the school staff, the business communities surrounding many of the schools etc. SPS has tried closing schools before and the project has failed every time. It is NOT a sound method to close budget gaps, and this has been proven all over the country. It definitely shouldn’t be the first step in a situation that needs a multifaceted solution. It is the most disruptive to the largest, and most sensitive population. Don’t even get me started on how this cohort is still reeling from COVID-related learning loss! These kids need stability. This was another attempt to push all the hardship on parents and families to “figure out” new commutes, school times, and school communities instead of managing UP to the state level to reclaim the tax money they have taken away from us in previous years (down to 42% from 50%), let alone demand more funding at the state level to alleviate some of the funding shortfalls.

Andrew November 20, 2024 (5:40 pm)

This just proves how weak our leadership really is.

We either have to close the budget issues or close the schools. Or some other radical idea like cut admin staff downtown.

This just prolongs the pain. Someone has to rip the bandaid off at some point.

Parent November 20, 2024 (5:50 pm)

If you think Seattle is done growing as a city it would make sense to close schools. Does anybody really think that is happening?

Ts November 20, 2024 (8:07 pm)

If there is still such a huge enrollment decline why are we building another school at the cost of what?

Mary November 21, 2024 (10:52 am)

There is no enrollment decline, enrollment went UP this year. Closing schools does not save money because the children still need to be taught wherever they go. The actual money saved through school closures is PEANUTS compared to the budget, and comes at great cost to communities and families. Who wants a boarded up school in their neighborhood?? No one! Closing schools is short sighted and will cost the district MORE money when they have to re-open them in a few years time. It’s not NIMBY to say don’t close ANY schools when there is not a compelling reason to do so (it doesn’t save money, it negatively impacts student outcomes). Commenters here should do some basic research. Google Chicago schools to see what happened when they closed 50 schools 10 years ago (spoiler: nothing good, and they just passed a moratorium saying no one can attempt to do that again for 5 years because it was so disruptive). https://www.the74million.org/article/chicago-school-closures-offer-a-cautionary-tale-as-the-fiscal-cliff-looms

NotATechBro November 20, 2024 (8:57 pm)

For those of you that keep mentioning the budget issue- let’s not rebuild Alki Elementary. We don’t need it. Those families can go to Schmitz Park Elementary because it’s a lovely property and the school is already there. You’re welcome. I’d be happy to provide my plan to the Superintendent and his team without a consultant fee. Have a great night.

WS teacher November 21, 2024 (6:48 am)

This is brought up often. However, building and renovating comes from a separate levy budget. That money can’t be spent on anything else. They could have scrapped the rebuild and renovated or expanded elsewhere.

Little One November 20, 2024 (11:02 pm)

I thought one of the reasons the district is building new schools is to meet updated building guidelines. As an engineer, that makes sense in our region and for the age of some of these properties.

Further to a decision on what schools to close, the district included building age and suitability to meet learning environment guidelines in their decision-making criteria. It was explained in their reports that were linked in a couple Seattle Times articles. I don’t understand why this aspect of the planned school closures doesn’t make it into the discussion more. I would want my child in a seismically and environmentally safe, updated learning environment, even if that meant having to adjust my own routine.

NotATechBro November 21, 2024 (8:50 am)

When your house is actively on fire, you do not start building a new one on the property. When you’re a school district with a $100m budget crisis, you do not build a $66m school.

SPSParent November 21, 2024 (6:01 am)

Brent Jones should resign. The board, especially Rankin, has all but passed a vote of no-confidence in his leadership. The public certainly has no confidence in him or the board as a whole. The board will put an operating levy before voters in February. This levy is now in serious danger of failure, unless there are major changes at the executive level. For all those who look to Olympia, the Legislature will do nothing. Inslee has projected a 10-12 billion dollar revenue shortfall over the next four years. I work for a state agency, and we’ve been told to freeze some spending and to not ask for anything that might increase our budget. Olympia will not bail SPS out. There is no money. Schools will have to close.

Sorry, comment time is over.