We’re at district HQ for tonight’s school board meeting, where speakers during the public-comment period are scheduled to include people on behalf of Cooper Elementary, Pathfinder K-8, and Arbor Heights Elementary, the three West Seattle schools that have been involved in the closure proposals so far. Also, Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is scheduled to present an update on the process; that “update” at the meeting two weeks ago yielded the first official word that the possibility of closing the Cooper “program” was being studied. We’re not going to post minute-by-minute updates of this meeting, since you can watch live on TV (cable channel 23 26 per district staff), but we will post periodic notes about what happens, particularly once the superintendent presents her report.

6:02 PM UPDATE: Meeting has begun; Cheryl Chow is the only board member not here. Standing-room-only group like two weeks ago. (Added post-meeting: We took two photos of the room quickly between the Pledge of Allegiance and the public-comment period – directionally, as the board faces, we were sitting in the front row on the right, to get the seat next to the speakers’ podium for better video, and so had a straight-ahead view of that side, with an angled view of the left side of the room – first photo is right, second photo left.)

CLICK AHEAD TO READ THE REST OF OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE:Read More

(photo added 12:15 pm; Cooper parent Brittany Abbott at the info display)
Just got word that Cooper Elementary is getting the “Save Cooper” word out today with a table at the Delridge Community Center bazaar that’s continuing till 3 pm. Otherwise, next official meetings in the process are Tuesday’s 6:30 pm hearing at Genesee Hill, with speaker signups already under way, and Wednesday’s 6 pm School Board meeting at district HQ in Sodo (speaker signups start Monday morning).

(meeting ended 8:40 pm – below, our updates as it happened, newest to oldest)

8:49 PM UPDATE: The superintendent is giving TV interviews inches from where we’re sitting. She acknowledged “the list could change again.” (As it has in previous closure processes; the last proposal involving Pathfinder and Cooper evolved in fall 2006 to what was to be a “merger” of the two programs in the Cooper building, a “merger” that both school communities opposed, as you can see in this transcript from the October 2006 public hearing at the Genesee Hill building; not long after that, the proposal was indefinitely tabled.)

8:27 PM UPDATE: Still discussing the dilemma over how to save some money in the high-school category. So let’s take this moment to look at some of what’s unique about Cooper, which is now proposed for program “discontinuance”; school-community members held a hastily called meeting last Friday night (WSB coverage here), shortly after finding out the district was seriously considering this possibility, and in addition to voicing anger and concern, they also pointed out many of their school’s unique aspects: The Earth Project at Cooper, for one, on which we have reported here previously – it’s a unique environmental-education program (here’s its website). That’s not all; more later – this meeting is wrapping up (8:37 pm) – final recommendations still due out January 6th, final public hearing here at district HQ on January 22, vote on final recommendations January 29. Cheryl Chow says she wants to thank “the staff” for their work and responding to clear direction from the superintendent regarding listening, taking notes, coming back with information, answering questions. She’s also thanking “the audience and the participants” for coming to these meetings, acknowledging there are so many meeting. Looks like others are joining in the chorus of thanks, starting with new board president DeBell, and he says any ideas can still be sent in. (Reminder, the e-mail address for that is capacity@seattleschools.org)

8:10 PM UPDATE: Just too complicated to close any “comprehensive high school,” says another district manager. Meeting in fifth hour now. Back to the reaction to the latest West Seattle proposals — checking the Cooper Elementary website, the home page is a big red link, “SAVE COOPER FROM CLOSING INFORMATION,” which points to this page that simply lists three dates: There is a meeting listed at Cooper at 6:30 Thursday night, and the page also lists the Genesee Hill district public hearing next Tuesday, as well as the School Board’s regular meeting a week from tomorrow (12/17). Back to the high-school discussion: board president DeBell says the district has a “structural challenge” re: “full and rich” academic offerings – and has also been grappling with the need for high schools to grow to get more money – he says the underfunding of education in this state is a big problem with all this.

7:31 PM UPDATE: The new list of “potential final recommendations” is still being presented here at district HQ. Once the list has been presented, “next steps” are promised. We know one of them is the Genesee Hill public hearing at 6:30 pm next Tuesday (12/16), since that building is still proposed for closure. Background on previous Pathfinder-to-Cooper proposals (dating back to spring 2005), by the way, can be read in the online Pathfinder history recently posted here. A recap is coming up in a bit; from the superintendent’s presentation PPT, Cooper is not described as a “program” closure or discontinuance, but rather:

*Cooper (students) reassigned based on home address & transportation standards

Currently (7:55) they are discussing high-school proposals to deal with too many empty seats, particularly in south/center – either move the Center School (which is located upstairs at the Center House at Seattle Center) and repurpose its building, or move Aki Kurose in with Rainier Beach to create a performing-arts-focused 6-12 (board member Cheryl Chow just asked, “Wouldn’t that work like Denny-Sealth … as a combined campus, 6-12?” The superintendent said, “No, they’re going to be co-located … this (Aki/Rainier) would be a combined 6 through 12.” Sundquist asks about suggestions to close Rainier Beach; superintendent says it’s very “complicated” to close a “comprehensive high school” and combining two (as was suggested for RB and Franklin) would not be an easy issue and there is “not time to do it right” — she says there would be an issue of “safety and security,” gang activity, violence in the community, which might create problems if that happened.

7:15 PM UPDATE: WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand is at the Arbor Heights building meeting and sends this report: District manager Patrick Johnson, who is there to meet with the school community, asked WSB not to videotape the meeting. We refused – it’s a public meeting on public property, publicized by the district. Arbor Heights leadership “and crowd” supported the meeting being recorded. Johnson is declining to answer parents’ questions about the new “potential recommendations” which have been unveiled here at Stanford Center (where we will be asking district communications staff to clear up this issue of not videotaping), apparently taking Arbor Heights “program” closure OUT of the mix of possibilities (that was a “preliminary recommendation”; Cooper program “discontinuance” is now listed, in its place, as a “potential final recommendation” and nobody challenged it in board discussion so far tonight).

COVERAGE CONTINUES WITH EARLIER UPDATES AFTER THE JUMP:Read More

We’re now hours away from the next significant release of school closure/change-related information from Seattle Public Schools, during a School Board work session this afternoon/evening (we will be there to post live updates; it’s not expected to be televised and it starts too early — 4 pm — for everyone who’s interested to be there from the beginning). Here’s a quick recap on where things stand:

*The official proposal on the table remains the one announced by Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson on November 25th (original coverage here): Close the Arbor Heights Elementary “program,” move Pathfinder K-8 into the Arbor Heights building, close the Genesee Hill Elementary building where Pathfinder’s been located since 1994 (five years after GH Elementary was closed as a school of its own), in addition to recommendations involving other schools around the city (full proposal here).

*That same night, after hearing the proposals, School Board members made various requests to district staff for additional research. One such request: Look into whether Cooper could become Pathfinder’s new home instead of Arbor Heights. As a result of those requests, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson presented an “update” at last Wednesday’s board meeting (see the full presentation here), and that update included this:

At the work session on November 25 the School Board indicated that the option of altering the Student Assignment Plan to permit the location of Pathfinder at Cooper should be evaluated. Staff are evaluating this option.

*As part of that 12/3 presentation, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson proposed tonight’s work session to discuss new data (for example, district staffers have been touring schools to determine “functional capacity” – how many students can really be served under current conditions, as opposed to the “planning capacity” – optimal theoretical conditions – that’s been discussed in district documents) and “potential final recommendations.” This, although the superintendent’s “final recommendation” is still not supposed to be announced until January 6th.

*Many schools caught up in this have already had meetings of their own to discuss strategy and status; the district has had two official “public workshops” in the past week (here’s our coverage of the first one Thursday night); and many more meetings are coming up, including an official meeting tonight at Arbor Heights (6 pm) with a district rep and an official public hearing 12/16 at the Genesee Hill building (6:30 pm – the full School Board won’t be there as there are other hearings that same night elsewhere in the city; West Seattle rep Steve Sundquist said at his 11/26 coffee gathering that he and fellow board members were working to decide who would go to which hearing).

Needless to say – more later! Meanwhile, WSB coverage of this round of school closure/change talk is all archived here; all the official district info related to what SPS calls “capacity management” is linked here.