After an hour-long Seattle School Board work session this evening, the district’s draft list for next year’s BEX V capital levy still includes two major West Seattle projects: a $53 million rebuild for Alki Elementary and $22 million addition for West Seattle Elementary. Smaller projects are also proposed for seven West Seattle campuses. Here (as first published in our preview last night) is the agenda with slide deck/documents:

(If that embedded version doesn’t work for you, go here.)

They began with the explanation of, and discussion about, weighting the proposed projects by equity. This generated quite a deal of discussion, including some wondering about demographic change in the immediate future, and whether the projections made now would hold true over the course of the six-year levy as affordability challenges continue to send lower-income residents out of the city. Another topic of discussion: The lack of alternate/interim sites elsewhere in the city is starting to affect options for what can be built where/when, district manager Richard Best said. “I’m concerned that we may not be thinking creatively and out of the box,” observed board president Leslie Harris (who represents West Seattle/South Park on the board). Some projects, said Best, would be “built in place” (with students not having to leave) – such as the proposed West Seattle Elementary addition. (Though it wasn’t a topic of discussion at this meeting, it’s been noted that Alki Elementary would move to the old Schmitz Park Elementary site during a rebuild.)

Harris asked for staffers to clearly point out any major changes from the previous meeting; the biggest, said Best, is in the “building systems and repairs” list, where they’ve added more “smaller” projects so they could “touch more schools.” This list had involved projects at 27 schools at the September 26th work session, said best, and now it’s about double that, including these West Seattle projects:

Boren STEM – K-8 HVAC – $4,034,016
Gatewood – Playgrounds – $175,000
Gatewood – Exterior Door – $150,000
Sanislo – Site Improvements – $ 383,297
Sanislo – Ceiling Fan $300,000
West Seattle – Exterior Door $ 142,977
West Seattle HS – Roof $ 8,979,237

Also:
Schmitz Park – Seismic – $472,910

Athletic Field/Lighting
Madison MS – $2,600,000

Board members agreed that the overall levy list – totaling $1.4 billion – looked “solid.” But as the hourlong meeting concluded, they also stressed that “community input is still welcome,” as board member Eden Mack put it. Board contact info is at lower right on this page. And watch for word of a public hearing on the levy in late October; BEX V, and the district’s next three-year Operations Levy, will go to voters next February.

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.

The Seattle Public Schools Board meets Wednesday for a work session meant to get their consensus on what to ask voters to fund via the BEX (Building Excellence) V levy next February. And information prepared for the meeting suggests that staff is recommending major projects for only two schools in this area of the city: An addition for West Seattle Elementary and a rebuild for Alki Elementary.

As we’ve chronicled since last year, possible projects under discussion for BEX V also had included an addition or rebuild of Lafayette, as well as a rebuild of the original Roxhill site. Expansions for Louisa Boren STEM K-8 and Madison Middle School had been considered along the way too.

But now, a priority list is in the agenda for the Wednesday work session, out even before Tuesday night’s last-in-this-round public feedback meeting (at Meany Middle School; we covered this area’s meeting two weeks ago at West Seattle High School). The board has the final say, but this is a map of priorities:

(See the full agenda/info packet here.) Alki’s potential rebuild is envisioned as keeping the existing gym while expanding the student capacity to 500, 131 above current capacity. The WSE addition is envisioned as adding eight classrooms, which would expand capacity by 113 students.

Other West Seattle-area proposals for a slice of BEX V money include seismic improvements at the former Schmitz Park Elementary, which would be an interim site if for example Alki Elementary was indeed chosen for a rebuild. (For those who remember Schmitz Park’s portable-laden past before the program moved to Genesee Hill Elementary, built with money from the expiring BEX IV levy, note that portables are planned when it serves as an interim site.) With other levy components such as technology projects, the agenda proposes a potential six-year cost range from $985 million to $1.3 billion.

Though Wednesday’s 4:30 pm work session at district HQ (3rd and Lander) has the stated intention of “Consensus on BEX V Capital Levy projects” and “Consensus on Operations and BEX V Capital Levy amounts” (the Operations Levy, which covers three years, also is expiring and goes to voters in February), it’s not the final decision. That process will play out next month, including a public hearing likely to be set for the week of October 22nd. Wednesday’s work session, meantime, is open to the public but does not include a public-comment period. Here’s how to contact the board.

Just a week into the new school year, Seattle Public Schools will be making the rounds one last time to gather thoughts on what should be in BEX V, one of two renewal levies it’ll take to voters in February. Five meetings are planned around the city, including one at West Seattle High School, 6:30-8 pm next Thursday, September 13th.

Not long after that, the School Board will have to settle on the project list for the levy, which it’s been discussing at work sessions since the last round of community meetings back in April (WSB coverage here).

According to the info packet from the board’s most recent BEX V work session on August 22nd – 161 pages – the schools with the biggest potential projects under consideration (see the list starting at page 90) still include Alki Elementary (modernization/expansion, estimated at $55 million), Lafayette Elementary (replacement estimated at $71 million or a modernization/expansion that would only be $3 million less), Madison Middle School ($6 million addition), Roxhill Elementary (replace the original school at the original location for $73 million), West Seattle Elementary ($9 million addition).

A multitude of smaller West Seattle projects are under consideration too, such as a $512,000 “parent drop-off area” for Sanislo Elementary and $225,000 in “classroom sound systems” for Louisa Boren STEM K-8. And the list continues on through other specific types of repairs/rehabit – from roofs to playgrounds (the latter is a new category – it’s long been up to community groups to pursue funding, as happened most recently at local schools including Roxhill, Highland Park, and Gatewood).

After all that, the draft list of potential projects moves on to technology. Much of this list includes central/districtwide items but there’s also, for example, a $1 million line item for “Equitable Access and Distribution of Technology to High Need Elementary Schools,” with the list including four elementaries in our area: Highland Park, Sanislo, West Seattle, and Concord International. A similar item for “high-need secondary schools” would include Denny International Middle School.

Also to be discussed at next Thursday’s community meeting, the next three-year Operations Levy, which is explained here, but the BEX V project list is the big decision ahead for the School Board. Its next work session is September 26th, at which time members are expected to reach “consensus on project list for levy” and on the levy rate. So next Thursday is your last big chance to pitch for (or against) something. These levies will go to voters next February.

P.S. Community advocacy has made a difference in the past – for example, Arbor Heights – one of the major projects on the BEX IV levy (along with Genesee Hill and Fairmount Park) – wouldn’t have been rebuilt yet if not for a push to get it onto the levy and then get the construction timetable moved up.

We sat in last night on the School Board‘s three-hour-plus work session looking ahead to next year’s BEX V levy, to listen for more hints on which West Seattle schools might make the list for rebuilds, expansions, and/or renovations. Decisions are still months away, but with a community meeting coming up next week, here are the toplines of what we heard:

SPECIFIC SCHOOLS: No additions/deletions from West Seattle since our preview the other day. Schools under consideration for major projects remain broken out into two lists – capacity (more space needed) and condition (how dilapidated are they?). Alki, Lafayette, and Roxhill are on both lists. The capacity list also includes Madison Middle School, where portables are planned, and the condition list also includes Boren STEM K-8 and Schmitz Park.

The condition list got very little discussion because the information has been the same since a districtwide report in 2014. As for the capacity list – first, district official Ashley Davies went over the enrollment-projection numbers.

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Which West Seattle public schools will be included in the district’s BEX V levy, which goes to voters next February as the six-year BEX IV expires? As mentioned here last night, the School Board has a work session coming up Wednesday, in advance of April public meetings – and there’s information of interest in the Wednesday agenda information that has just gone public. The 92-page document full of stats and maps includes two key pages with updates on which schools are under consideration and why:

Priority schools with regards to capacity (needing more room) are on page 48. The list includes four elementaries in our area – Alki, Lafayette, Roxhill, and West Seattle – as well as Madison Middle School:

Priority schools with regards to facilities condition (in bad shape) are on page 54. That list also includes Alki, Lafayette, and Roxhill, as well as the old Schmitz Park, plus Boren STEM K-8.

Roxhill, as we’ve been reporting, is being moved this fall to E.C. Hughes Elementary, which is being remodeled. Alki and Lafayette have long been mentioned as strong candidates for rebuilds. BEX (Building Excellence) levy projects aren’t always rebuilds, though – they also have included, over the years, additions and extensive remodels. You’re welcome to sit in on the board work session Wednesday, 4:30-7:30 pm at district HQ in SODO (3rd/Lander). Then, as also mentioned last night, the West Seattle feedback meeting is set for 6:30 pm Tuesday, April 3rd, at Madison (3429 45th SW). Here’s the full levy timetable, also from the newly released Wednesday board agenda:

• April 2018: Community Meetings Discuss Capacity & Assessment Criteria/Board Guiding Principles
• May 2018: Community Input/Feedback Summary to Board/Planning Team
• June 2018: Home Language Focus Groups Meetings
• June 2018: Community Input/Feedback Summary to Board/Planning Team
• Sept. 2018: Community Meetings to Present Recommended Levies Scope
• Oct. 2018: Community Input/Feedback Summary to Board/Planning Team
• Oct./Nov. 2018: Levies 2019 Public Hearing between Board Intro and Action
• Oct./Nov. 2018: News release on School Board Action
• Dec. 2018: “A Report to the Community” Brochure Distributed to Community
• Jan. 2019: “Levies Information 2019” Brochure Distributed/Posted
• Feb. 2019: News Release on Election Outcome

Election Day will be February 12, 2019.

You’re invited to provide feedback on, and ask questions about, next February’s levies, as announced here.

When voters passed Seattle Public Schools‘ BEX (Building Excellence) IV levy in 2013, it included money for the new Genesee Hill and Arbor Heights Elementaries. In 2007, BEX III funded the Madison Middle School (3429 45th SW). Before that, the school board gets a briefing this Wednesday (March 28th) on where the levy-planning process stands. Last public discussion of what might be in BEX V was back in December, at which time, we reported, six West Seattle school sites were being considered for “major projects” – Alki, Boren STEM K-8, Lafayette, Madison, Roxhill, and Schmitz Park. Here’s the district announcement of the April 3rd community meeting (6:30-8:15 pm), with info on how to comment if you can’t be there.

(WSB video of meeting, unedited)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Louisa Boren STEM K-8 will not be moved.

Seattle Public Schools associate superintendent Dr. Flip Herndon said it at the start of tonight’s meeting at the school – a followup to a boisterous June meeting in which the possibility was not ruled out.

And then he said it again. It’s not an interim site – it’s “your building,” he told the families and staffers gathered in the cafeteria.

To be crystal clear, he said, the only scenario in which STEM K-8 might move from Boren would be if that had to be done temporarily because the building was to be remodeled or rebuilt.

That is NOT currently planned – not even proposed. Besides the reassurance, most of the meeting turned into a discussion of planning for the district’s BEX V levy – which, as of a September School Board work session, has ~20 schools citywide on a “menu” for possible remodels/rebuilds, and STEM K-8 isn’t even on that list, which (from the September packet) is as follows:

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Even while dealing with an immediate budget shortfall that might lead to school closures, Seattle Public Schools is moving ahead with renewal/expansion plans for two levies, the operations levy and the capital levy (BEX). The recommendations for both are currently scheduled to go before the School Board next week, at its October 9 meeting, and some information already is available via the early version of the meeting agenda. They are both proposed to go to voters next February.

The biggest of the two is the six-year BEX VI capital levy, proposed for $1.8 billion, up from the $1.4 billion voters approved in 2018 in its predecessor BEX V. This one includes many projects around the district; the biggest in our area would be a $50 million addition for Chief Sealth International High School, described only as “CTE addition” (Career and Technical Education). The board resolution also mentions smaller local projects including $1 million for fire-alarm work at Highland Park Elementary and athletic-field work at district-owned Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex and Denny International Middle School. (The spending breakout starts on page 7 of the resolution.)

We haven’t yet found documents with full details on these projects; the process leading up to this list has included a lot less public involvement than the previous capital levies. BEX V, in comparison – the levy that funded the Alki Elementary rebuild and West Seattle Elementary expansion, among other things – had myriad public planning meetings, WSB archives show.

As for the Educational Programs and Operations levy, it’s proposed for $673 million over three years; the one that’s expiring raised $646 million. The text of this resolution has not yet been added to the board agenda. The page for the current EPO levy says it provides funding for some staff, support programs, athletics, and the arts. That page also noted, “Local levies, which must be approved by Seattle voters, provide 15% of the SPS operating budget.” We’ll be following up with the district for more information before the board meeting.

P.S. The board has a special online meeting tomorrow to consider extending superintendent Dr. Brent Jones‘s contract.

(Alki Elementary project rendering showing ‘atrium’ that appellant called into question)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“There’s been a lot of testimony, but a lot of it’s pretty repetitive.”

That’s how deputy hearing examiner Susan Drummond assessed the three-day hearing on the Alki Elementary rebuild zoning-exception appeal, as she explained to the lawyers for both sides post-testimony why she expected she would need only a few days to make a decision, once they filed their closing statements.

Indeed, the third and final day of testimony – one day longer than originally expected – went back over many of the points already made, such as transportation consultants’ disagreement over parking conditions in the school’s neighborhood and how they would be affected if and when the new school operated at its full capacity, with 500+ students, 40+ preschoolers, and up to 75 staff members, compared to the current 271 students and 30+ staffers.

What’s at issue is whether Seattle Public Schools will be granted one more zoning exception – in addition to those it’s already been granted – to allow fewer offstreet parking spaces than the 48 required by zoning. The district now proposes 15, after its original plan for 0 was challenged successfully by other appellants. Drummond also heard, and ruled in, that appeal, which had a one-day hearing last July to consider the challenges to seven zoning exceptions.

Our coverage of the first day (Tuesday, May 28) is here; the second day (Thursday, May 30) is here. Day 3 (Monday, June 3) began with the main appellant:

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(WSB photos)

Five years after voters passed the levy that funded it, Madison Middle School‘s upgraded playfield was dedicated this morning in a short ceremony featuring an all-school photo.

Madison principal Dr. Robert Gary, speaking to his assembled students via megaphone, recalled, “This used to be a mud field with mud problems. It wasn’t healthy and-or safe.”

Now the field has turf and lighting; as first reported here in 2019, the ~$3 million project included widening the field by more than six feet.

It’s getting rave reviews – among the people we talked to was 8th grader Oliver Miller, who played soccer on the upgraded field earlier this week, and declared it “really nice,” recalling its previous near-unusability because of the damage done by neighborhood use as a dog park. Sheree Porter, who retired as Madison’s longtime PE teacher two years ago but was back today as a substitute, declared it “amazing.”

She laughed, “I retired too soon. This is the real thing.” Another PE teacher, Courtney Schiro, marveled, “This is going to be a game-changer.” Then in the bright-but-breezy sunshine, members of Madison’s student government cut a ceremonial ribbon.

Dr. Gary says the field will be reserved for school use during the day but then there’s an agreement in place with Seattle Parks for community use, such as sports teams, during other hours. Other major West Seattle projects in 2019’s BEX V levy included the West Seattle Elementary addition that opened last fall and the on-hold-for-another-appeal Alki Elementary rebuild.)

(Birds, including a Bald Eagle, on cleared Alki Elementary site – photo by Don Brubeck)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The Alki Elementary rebuild is being appealed again.

To recap: This all traces back to Seattle Public Schools proposing a new, larger school that, as announced in 2022, would require nine zoning exceptions, officially known as departures. City reviewers approved the departures last May. Nearby residents filed appeals shortly thereafter. All but one of the challenges were either dismissed or settled. The one that was not involved parking – under zoning rules, 48 offstreet spaces would be required, but the district wanted to build the school with none. A city hearing examiner told the district in August to go back to the drawing board on that. Instead of coming up with a counterproposal immediately, the district went to court. Its challenge was dismissed in October, not on its merits, but on the premise that the court only had jurisdiction on a final decision, and that’s not what the district was challenging. In December, the district came up with a new plan that would include 15 parking spaces. Last month, the city said OK. And now, that’s what’s being appealed.

The appellant is different this time – it’s a group calling itself Friends for a Safe Alki Community, led by local “semi-retired lawyer” Steve Cuddy, who says the group has more than 50 members. The appeal contends in part:

The Revised Decision has not ensured that the proposed facility is compatible with the character and use of its surrounding area and the Decision fails to consider and balance the impacts on traffic, noise, circulation, and parking in the area. For example, the Revised Decision erroneously concludes that the proposed departure request will result in no significant loss of vehicular parking on site and will establish an increase in parking for the record. That is simply false. The school of approximately 300 students and 30-40 staff had approximately 29 parking spaces and the adjacent Community Center had approximately 27 spaces and still experienced persistent parking, traffic, and safety issues. The Revised Decision grants the departure to almost double the number of students and staff while reducing the number of parking spaces down to 15. The Revised Decision also fails to consider impacts to emergency/first responder access in the area.

Among other contentions, the appeal says the information used for the city’s approval of the revised plan was still faulty – with another parking study done after the old Alki Elementary was demolished last year, with its student and staff now housed at the former Schmitz Park Elementary.

In addition to the parking issue, the new appeal includes safety concerns, as did the previous ones. The appeal documentation uploaded to the city Hearing Examiner‘s website includes Cuddy’s personal 22-page letter of opposition written one year ago, including background that he worked more than 15 years ago to get the traffic-calming speed humps installed on 59th Avenue SW alongside the school and adjacent playfield, and a decade ago to get stop signs at 59th/Stevens, near the campus’s north edge. It also includes a letter to the city from his wife Linda Cuddy, written this past January, and noting she worked years ago to get a sidewalk installed along the north side of Alki Playfield. She wrote, in part, summarizing some of the safety concerns that also were aired in the first round of appeals:

The Alki School, SPS’s smallest parcel of 1.4 acres, is located in an incredibly busy environment, in the midst of regional parks and Alki Beach attractions, all within a “Parking Overlay.” As the Hearing Examiner said, “The school site has limited street access, with just one right-of-way, on the east side of 59th Avenue SW, from SW Admiral Way looking south. 59th Ave SW is signed for on-street bus loading and unloading on the east parallel to the school and for parent drop-off north of SW Stevens Street also on the east side. Due to its limited and cramped street access, difficult vehicle circulation patterns and the narrow width of 59th Ave SW, during peak drop off and pick up times, passage on 59th Ave SW effectively becomes a one lane street creating unsafe and unmanageable traffic and parking issues.” Parents are forced to park in an unsafe and illegal manner in the parent drop off zone. Otherwise, traffic issues would be much worse and restrictive on 59th.

So what happens now? The city Hearing Examiner’s Office will schedule a hearing on the new appeal, which will be followed by a ruling, which may be appealable in court. The school construction remains on hold pending a building permit, which can’t be granted until all this is decided. The new school originally was projected to open in fall 2025 but even prior to this new appeal, the district had moved that to fall 2026. (Planning for the rebuild dates back to 2018, when the district was deciding what to send to voters in its 2019 BEX V levy, and it was described even then as a potential expansion of capacity to 500. Our archives show parking questions arose before the 2019 vote, too.)

For thousands of West Seattle families, today’s biggest news is the start of the new school year. The traditional red-carpet welcome for students at West Seattle Elementary in High Point was paired today with a ribbon-cutting for the school’s newly complete expansion/renovation. Last month, we took you on a photo tour of the school. Now, principal Pamela McCowan-Conyers (above right), her staff, and their students are all back, after two years in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary (a “long ride” from High Point, the principal acknowledged). McCowan-Conyers hailed the project as “sorely needed” while offering a profuse round of gratitude for everyone involved, before leading the ribboncutting:

Among the dignitaries was district superintendent Dr. Brent Jones, who also enthused about the project, funded by the BEX V levy, passed by voters in 2019.

Once the ribbon was down, students headed for the entrance, under the new canopy, and were greeted by school staffers with high-fives and big smiles.

Shoutout to WSE staffer Akim Finch, who DJ’d the event, including a brisk early round of Earth Wind & Fire classics (“September” was especially appropriate):

The expansion added 12 classrooms, giving the school a capacity of more than 500 students; currently it’s around 400, assistant principal Ritchie Garcia told us when we toured for last month’s report. The school – which serves a community with a large immigrant population – is designed to support families as well as students, with areas where parents can access resources such as a job board.

P.S. With the reopening, West Seattle Elementary’s address has returned to 6760 34th SW – readers have noted that Google is still listing it with the Schmitz Park address, which is now the temporary home of Alki Elementary.

(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Two weeks from tomorrow, West Seattle Elementary School students and staff will have classes at their 6760 34th SW home campus for the first time in more than two years.

While WSES spent those two years in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary, their school underwent big changes – an addition and renovations. We requested a tour so we could show you those changes before the school year. Shown below are our tour guides last Friday afternoon:

From left are assistant principal Ritchie Garcia, Miller Hayashi Architects principal Laura Maman and project manager Pearlene Cheah, and Seattle Public Schools‘ project manager David L. Jackson. We photographed them beneath what might be the most distinctive feature of the expansion-and-renovation project – shown atop this story – a new entrance canopy that is visible from the streets west and east of the school and from the neighborhood to its north.

We started our tour at the front entrance, which is now a secure space with separate doors for the office and the hallway.
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(Renderings by Mahlum Architects)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Double the students, double the staff, no on-site parking.

That component of the Alki Elementary School rebuild is at the heart of an appeal fight that was argued Tuesday before a city hearing examiner.

The appellants, city and district reps, and other witnesses all completed their testimony in one day, though up to three were set aside for the hearing. As we reported Monday, one appeal was withdrawn after a settlement with Seattle Public Schools, and Tuesday it was revealed that took the new school’s height off the list of issues being challenged. The project’s architect said they had managed to lower the height of a rooftop equipment “penthouse” by three feet.

After Tuesday’s seven-hour hearing, assistant hearing examiner Kathleen Drummond said she would issue a written ruling within 20 days. Before we get into what was presented to her Tuesday, here’s the backstory:

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

By Monday afternoon’s deadline for appealing the city decision to grant nine zoning exceptions for the Alki Elementary School rebuild, six appeals had been filed with the city Hearing Examiner, which today ordered them consolidated into one case.

Two hours after the appeal deadline, Seattle Public Schools discussed the project at an in-person community meeting, which turned contentious as frustrated neighbors at times shouted their concerns about some of those zoning exceptions, particularly those related to transportation, including the removal of all on-site parking.

We reported last month on the city’s recommendation that the zoning exceptions – formally called “departures” – be approved. The district first mentioned in an online public meeting last June that it would seek departures, and a request for public comment went out last fall. However, the usual public process was truncated because of pandemic-related policies, and that’s part of what neighbors are upset about, saying they didn’t have a chance to participate in the design process or, later, to have their concerns heard.

So last night, after listening for an hour to district director of capital projects Richard Best, architect Becky Hutchinson of Mahlum, and transportation consultant Marni Heffron, they did what they could to be heard, at times shouting their disagreement with the project team’s contentions.

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The drop-in community meeting held this past Saturday by our area’s elected Seattle Public Schools Board director spanned a variety of topics, since as always, the agenda depended mostly on who showed up and what they wanted to talk about.

Two-term board director Leslie Harris began with a gasp-evoking announcement – that she would not seek a third term (as reported here that day).

With 20+ community members seated around a table in the basement meeting room at West Seattle (Admiral) Library, the meeting moved on to topics from sports to construction.

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(Rendering by Mahlum, from last year’s info packet for proposed zoning ‘departures’)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Seattle Public Schools says a decision is expected within days on a challenge to the plan to rebuild and expand Alki Elementary School.

The challenge focuses on the district’s determination that the project doesn’t need a full environmental impact statement (this “checklist” document was prepared instead). Three people appealed that, and a little-publicized two-day hearing was held on the challenge last month, before a hearing examiner working for SPS.

Several of the nearby residents who are opposed to aspects of the rebuild plan also brought their concerns to last Saturday’s community meeting held by local School Board director Leslie Harris at Delridge Library.

First, some backstory:

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(WSB photos)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Whenever Seattle Public Schools classes start, the eight-classroom addition at Madison Middle School is ready to go.

We had long been requesting a chance to look inside before it goes into use at the start of the new school year, and got that chance last week:

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Early design concepts for “the new Alki” (Elementary) made their public debut at an online community meeting last night.

The school is being rebuilt with $67 million from the 2019 BEX V levy; the existing gymnasium and adjacent community center will remain. Construction is expected to start in about a year and will last two years.

The meeting began with greetings from Seattle Public Schools‘ project manager Brian Fabella, a West Seattle resident, and Mason Skeffington, Alki Elementary’s principal, who acknowledged the School Design Advisory Team‘s work in the planning process over recent months. Architects from Mahlum also were there, as was a rep from Cornerstone General Contractors, the Bothell-based firm that will build the school.

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Lots of questions this morning about all the activity at the former Roxhill Elementary campus (29th/Roxbury) – it’s certainly eye-catching if you pass by, as we just did on our way to and from an unrelated event. We stopped for a few photos.

(WSB photos)

Back when Seattle Public Schools was drawing up the plan for the BEX V levy, there was talk of rebuilding on this site, since the old Roxhill building is so rundown – but it didn’t make the cut. However, the BEX IV levy passed by voters in 2013 did provide money for seismic (earthquake-safety) improvements here.

According to SPS, the work being done this summer will: “Lower the chimney [height], improve shear wall capacity in classrooms, (and) improve roof-to-wall connections in gymnasium, auditorium, and covered play area.” The chimney was the focus of work when we stopped by.

The contractor is MJ Takisaki, which has a contract for just under half a million dollars; the work is scheduled to be complete before the new school year begins in September. Previous seismic work on the 63-year-old building dates back to 2002, according to SPS. Though the Roxhill Elementary program moved to the former EC Hughes campus three years ago, the old Roxhill is not idle – it is home to programs including special education and part of the alternative high school Interagency.

SIDE NOTE: This is just one of several projects happening at local SPS campuses this summer.

Next school year, West Seattle Elementary will be closed regardless of the pandemic status; construction will be under way on the project that will expand and modernize the school, including a 2-story, 20,000-sf addition east of the current building, with 12 new classrooms and two learning commons, plus a new entrance, upgraded mechanical systems, new play areas/fields, and technology upgrades. The project is in the permit phase, and Seattle Public Schools has scheduled a community-update meeting. It’ll be online at 6 pm Thursday, November 12th; information on how to watch/participate is on the project webpage, where you can also preview more of the design. The BEX V-levy-funded project, designed by Miller Hayashi Architects, is now budgeted at $28 million; when last we wrote about it in July, the cost was listed as $22 million. Assuming in-person learning has resumed by the 2021-2022 school year, WSES students and staff are expected to spend that year at the former Schmitz Park Elementary, returning to their newly expanded school in fall 2022.