By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

As you might have heard by now, the State Supreme Court has ruled that the publicly funded charter schools stemming from Initiative 1240, approved by voters in 2012, are unconstitutional. The Friday afternoon ruling (see it here) said they’re not eligible for public funding because they’re not under local voters’ control.

This comes less than a month after the state Charter School Commission approved what would be West Seattle’s first charter school, a plan by California-based Summit Public Schools to open a middle-/high-school campus next year at what’s currently the Freedom Church/Jesus Center at 35th/Roxbury (newly named Summit Atlas, according to its website). Even before the state commission’s approval, the site was purchased by Washington Charter School Development for $4,750,000, with the intention of remodeling the supermarket-turned-church building into the school’s first wing (its seven grades are to be phased in, starting with 6th and 9th in the first year). Summit announced that the West Seattle school’s director, Greg Ponikvar, was starting work right after the approval, and had started taking applications.

Summit’s first two schools in Washington had just opened – one in the International District, one in Tacoma. We e-mailed Summit’s regional director Jen Davis Wickens (who we interviewed in July to talk about the West Seattle plan) to ask for reaction on the court ruling. Regarding the West Seattle plan, Wickens said, too soon to say: “Our lawyers are still analyzing the ruling and we’re working on our next steps.” Their Washington operation has been focused on reassuring the families enrolled in the two newly opened schools – here’s the letter Wickens said was sent to those enrolled at Summit Sierra last night in the ID by its director (principal), Malia Burns:

Dear Founding Spartan Families,

It is with sadness that I write this message to you this Friday evening before the holiday weekend.

Today, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that public charter schools are “unconstitutional.” The ruling is not a criticism of charter schools or charter school organizations like our, nor does not immediately shut down charter schools. The case will be sent back to King County Superior Court to determine next steps.

We want to assure you that school will be open on Tuesday, September 8th, as usual. We will be hosting a special community meeting Tuesday morning at 7:45 AM to provide updates.

Rumors and misconceptions can quickly take hold, but please remember that Summit remains deeply committed to each and every family.

Also, please know there are many folks fighting for our public charter schools. We will be working with our colleagues in other schools and with WA Charters to chart our collective path forward (updates will be available on the WA Charters website).

For those families that have asked how they can show their support for their school, please come to the community meeting Tuesday. We will share any and all information that we have with you then.

Our community is new, but it is powerful, courageous, and committed.

Here’s the statement that the Washington Charter School Association, mentioned in the letter, has published. Meantime, back to Summit Atlas, the 400-plus-page application it had filed with the state envisioned supplementary funding from charter-school-support organizations as well as the public funding set up by the voter-approved initiative; the organizations mentioned include the Hollyhock Foundation, CSGF Walton, and the Gates Foundation. You can see the budget documents starting with Attachment 25 in the application. Work has not yet started at the building, which its new owner had leased back to Freedom Church TFN.

(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
34 years after Westside School (WSB sponsor) was founded, it finally has a permanent home. “Heading Home” was the theme for Saturday’s celebration of the newly completed campus in Arbor Heights, as it has been for the process of making that dream come true, even before work began at the former Hillcrest Presbyterian Church 16 months ago. So no mere windstorm was going to stop the party, and the ribboncutting happened indoors.

Hundreds of the Pre-K-through-8th-grade school’s students, family members, staff, and other Westside community members present and past were there to see the new campus a week and a half before its first classes.

They heard from Head of School Kate Mulligan:

Westside’s founder, Alice Howell, was also onstage (second from left, below) along with, in our next photo, former head of school Jo Ann Yockey, teacher Claudia Ross-Weston, former head of school George Edwards, and assistant head of school Don Cunningham:

As “owner’s rep,” Cunningham supervised the renovations and construction with which Sundberg Kennedy Ly-Au Young Architects and general contractor Kirtley-Cole Associates LLC created Westside’s permanent home. To officially open it, Howell wielded the giant scissors for the ceremonial ribboncutting!

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(June 2015 WSB photo of future charter-school site at 35th & Roxbury)

Summit Public Schools has just cleared a major hurdle in its plan to open West Seattle’s first charter school at the site of what’s currently the Freedom Church/Jesus Center at 35th and Roxbury – the state Charter School Commission, chaired by West Seattle resident Steve Sundquist, approved the plan today at a meeting in Georgetown.

Summit, a California-based organization, is opening its first two Washington schools this fall, in the International District and in Tacoma, and plans to open this one in fall of next year, phasing in middle- and high-school grades over four years, starting with 6th and 9th grades in year 1. As we’ve reported during coverage going back to January, Washington Charter School Development already has purchased the site for $4.75 million and plans first to remodel its supermarket-turned-church building, later adding onto it.

We’re seeking comment from Summit managers, who told us last month that as soon as this approval came through, they would proceed full speed ahead with setting up the school and recruiting students. By authorization of state voters, charter schools get public funding, and are open to all; Summit told us last month that if more students apply than they have room for, they’ll use a lottery to assign the spots.

(Photo by Scott Thomas)
11 months after crews began the process of building the new Arbor Heights Elementary by demolishing the old one, construction has reached a milestone, with structural steel going up. Both Scott Thomas and Darren Pilon sent photos today.

(This photo and next by Darren Pilon)
We also have an update on the construction plan – Seattle Public Schools is building to the maximum possible capacity, about 660, rather than to the smaller option, 500 students. This is according to district spokesperson Tom Redman; the decision had not been made when the last pre-construction community meeting was held, nor had it been made when we asked a few times in the ensuing months.

Arbor Heights students and staff will spend their second year in interim quarters at the Boren Building starting in September, with enrollment projected at about 400. As of right now, the plan to occupy the new building for the 2016-2017 school year is still on. That’s three years earlier than what the district was planning until the Arbor Heights community convinced SPS leadership that they couldn’t serve students appropriately for that much longer in the old, crumbling buildings.

SUMMARY: Twenty people spoke tonight at the only local hearing the Washington Charter School Commission will have for Summit Public Schools‘ proposal to open West Seattle’s first charter school in a supermarket-turned-church building in Arbor Heights. Only one was a charter-school critic. Another voiced some skepticism. The other 17, including Summit employees and even a recent graduate from a Bay Area Summit school, voiced strong support. The speakers were chosen in a drawing; when they were done, time remained, and many more numbers were called, but almost all those ticketholders seemed to have vanished. Meantime, the commission will make its decision in mid-August and is still taking written comments.

Below, our as-it-happened coverage of tonight’s meeting:

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6:12 PM: We’re at what will become, if the state Charter School Commission approves, the home of the first charter school in West Seattle, where three commission members are in attendance for an official public hearing/forum on the proposal. Summit Schools, a California-based charter operator, wants to open a middle-/high-school campus at 9601 35th SW, just purchased by a charter-development firm from Freedom Church (which is leasing back the space until the project gets under way). We’ll be reporting live as the hearing goes.

Joshua Halsey, executive director of the commission (whose members include West Seattleite Steve Sundquist, former member of the Seattle Public Schools board), has just welcomed attendees and explained the process, that the commission will vote to approve or reject Summit’s application in mid-August. Two other commissioners are here, including Trish Millines Dziko, who leads the Technology Access Foundation, which has its headquarters in White Center.

Halsey says speakers will have up to 2 minutes each (longer if they need translation services). A stenographer is here to record the comments. A rough estimate of the crowd? Maybe 100 people, seated in the Freedom pews. Written comments are being accepted, by e-mail and postal mail, between now and July 31st, Halsey says.

And with that, Jen Davis Wickens, Summit’s chief regional officer for Washington, begins her presentation. (We spoke with her for our most-recent story on the proposal, which we’ve been covering since the first of the year, after finding out about it via an application in city Department of Planning and Development files.)

She first shows, on the big screens here in the cavernous former supermarket, a shot from “signing day,” a celebration of college acceptance among Summit schools.

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(WSB photo, June 2015: 35th/Roxbury site purchased for charter-school development)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Before California-based charter-school operator Summit Public Schools even opens its first two campuses in our state, it’s in the thick of awareness-raising for its pending-state-approval third one, a middle/high school at a supermarket-turned-church in Arbor Heights.

That awareness-raising includes a public forum at the planned West Seattle site on July 21st – a key test Summit must pass before the state Charter School Commission decides whether to let it go ahead with its plan (which is spelled out in this 472-page application).

We’ve been reporting on the Arbor Heights plan since we dug early word out of a city file at the start of the year. But much of our coverage in the ensuing six months has focused on the physical plan for the school, planned for the southwest corner of 35th/Roxbury, the property recently sold by Freedom Church/Jesus Center to Washington Charter School Development for $4.75 million. Meanwhile, our reports have sparked comment discussions on what might or might not happen at the school. While voters in our state approved charter schools – which are public schools, run with public dollars (explained here) – three years ago, so far only one is open.

More are about to launch – the prospective operator of West Seattle’s first charter school, Summit, is getting ready to open two charter high schools in the International District and in Tacoma next month. The school year starts in mid-August; they’re moving into the locations on August 3rd. While overseeing all that, the woman in charge of Summit’s operations in this state – including the West Seattle middle/high school – sat down with us for a conversation this week.

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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Four updates today on the planned charter middle/high school at what’s now the Freedom Church/Jesus Center on the southwest corner of 35th/Roxbury, almost six months after we discovered the proposal:

DEAL CLOSED: The nonprofit that’s developing the school for California-based charter operator Summit Public Schools, Washington Charter School Development, has closed the deal to buy the property. King County records show the purchase price was $4,750,000, almost $2 million more than the site’s 2008 sale price.

TWO-PHASE SITE DEVELOPMENT: Once we found the records of the purchase, we started checking on the status of the plan to remodel and add onto the former supermarket building at the site, and discovered a change in the plan: It’s now going to be developed in two phases, confirms a spokesperson for WCSD, which is affiliated with Los Angeles-based Pacific Charter School Development. First, they’ll remodel the existing building, and they’ve applied for a building permit to do that. The proposed additions (shown here a month ago) would be in a second phase. The school itself would be phased in anyway – Summit says it would start with 6th and 9th grades and add middle/high grades each year until fully enrolled as 6th through 12th.

CHURCH STAYING TFN: Summit Public Schools is still more than a year away from its proposed opening (and awaiting state approval, required because charter schools operate with public funding). So in the meantime, WCSD says, Freedom Church/Jesus Center is “renting back the building for the near future to allow the Church to continue providing its outstanding and award-winning community service in West Seattle while plans for the school are being finalized.” In addition to the church, the center also works with a variety of community programs and partners, including the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative.

PUBLIC FORUM NEXT MONTH: According to the calendar for the Washington Charter School Commission – which will have to approve Summit’s application (linked here) before it can open the school – a public forum is planned at the site as part of the process (as mentioned in our previous update), 6 pm July 21st.