West Seattle, Washington
17 Wednesday
Thanks to David Hutchinson for that sunset view from Don Armeni. Next, thanks to Eric Baer for gathering and sending photos from the Pathfinder K-8 “Rethinking Thanksgiving” event last night, a potluck attended by more than 200 members of the school community, and their invited guests, members of the Duwamish Tribe, welcomed with the kindergarten classes’ “famous tree dance and song”:
(Pathfinder photos by Alexander Cooley)
Teachers of the 2nd and 3rd grades gifted a button blanket to the Duwamish — whose longtime elected chair, the Honorable Cecile Hansen, is at right — for their new longhouse in West Seattle (which is to be dedicated soon). Each classroom has a clan animal represented on the blanket – Spider, Frog, and Owl:
It’s a long series of meetings between the first announcement last week of proposed Seattle Public Schools closures and changes and the final vote scheduled for January 29th. But you never know when one of those meetings will yield some news — so we’ll be covering as many as we can. Tonight — a public “workshop” at district headquarters, first of two in this particular format. It began with Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson presenting the closure criteria and the latest on the district budget shortfall (last night, finance boss Don Kennedy presented grim new numbers to the board). She said she was presenting that information to create context for the budget problems the district faces, noting that closing buildings is just one way to make up for the financial shortfall and deal with the district’s excess capacity.Read More
That’s Kelsey, who’s selling her glass ornaments at the holiday bazaar that’s under way till 8 pm tonight at Arbor Heights Elementary – and modeling the new fashion statement that you’ve seen in our photos from meetings in the past few weeks, with AH fighting a district proposal to close its “program” and relocate Pathfinder K-8 to the AH building. But this bazaar has been in the works a long time, long before the closure proposal started drawing on the community’s time and energy, and it’s a biggie – this is just one of two jampacked rooms full of merchandise, activities, and treats:
Some of the merchandise is kid-made, like Kelsey’s very professional painted-glass ornaments, but there are adult vendors here too – we were especially enchanted by these “presents” that are really crystal-clear sculpted plastic with lights inside:
Some whimsy, too – at this table, the “fish soap” looks from a distance like those little plastic bags of goldfish in water that we all brought home from carnivals a hundred years ago:
Again, the bazaar’s on till 8 o’clock tonight; if you live in north West Seattle, you may not even have been to Arbor Heights before (we lived on Beach Drive our first 2 years in WS and hadn’t ventured south of California/Fauntleroy till we were house-shopping!), but it’s worth the trip (here’s a map) – check the view we got after parking our car before walking to the bazaar pre-sunset:
Other schools’ holiday events are on our Holiday Happenings calendar (tomorrow night, for example, Lafayette Elementary has a craft fair, and everyone’s invited!).
West Seattle High School‘s got a lot more rhythm today, thanks to a surprise gift from the WSHS Foundation – here’s the announcement just out of the WSB inbox (and it includes a calendar date to mark for next year!):
On Tuesday, West Seattle High School music director Cathy “Coach” Rutherford stumbled across a surprise on the school’s auditorium stage — a stack of boxes containing brand new musical instruments. An hour later, she had opened and inventoried four Yamaha snare drums, with cases; two Yamaha Field Corps marching bass drums, with hardware and cases; and two sets of Zildjian marching cymbals.
“The drums and cymbals are the most recent gift from the West Seattle High School Foundation, which has dedicated many tens of thousands of dollars in musical instruments and visual arts equipment to our school,” said WSHS principal Bruce Bivins. “We are fortunate to have a caring community.”
The drums and cymbals will augment the school’s popular new Drum Line class, taught by Rutherford. Valued at $6,600, the Foundation’s gift resulted from donations at the Spring Dinner & Play last May, an annual event featuring a catered dinner and reserved seating at the school’s spring musical. In 2008, the school produced A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Mark your calendar for the Sixth Annual Dinner and Play to be held May 14, 2009.
“The Foundation also committed to adding a trombone and a Sousaphone this year,” said Bivins. “At $700 and $4,000, respectively, there’s no way we could accomplish that without their help.”
“Our board comprises a dozen members of the West Seattle community who are really committed to the arts,” said Foundation president and WSHS alum Christy Rowe. “We know what a difference visual and performing arts make to the overall quality of education. All of us remember the difference it made in our own high school experiences, our dedication to the school and to lifelong learning.”
The West Seattle High School Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, raises money to purchase necessary items left unfunded by the school and district. Larger gifts in recent years have included musical instruments, choir robes, audio/visual equipment, and electronic ‘smart’ boards. Donations are accepted throughout the year. For more information, call 206-252-0476, e-mail wshsfoundation@gmail.com or go to www.wshsfoundation.com on the Web.
(photo by Arbor Heights parent Craig Harrold)
We reported toplines from Wednesday night’s Seattle School Board meeting as they happened – now, we have video of all six Arbor Heights parents who spoke (after a concerted campaign to get onto the list when bookings opened Monday) about district staff’s recommendation to close their school “program” so the school “building” can become home to Pathfinder K-8, whose deteriorating Genesee Hill building would then be shut down. First, Arbor Heights PTSA co-president Suzette Riley laid out the four alternatives they are proposing:
“This proposal would close a popular, successful neighborhood school, and would also cost the district money,” Riley said (among other points). We also have video of each of the five other Arbor Heights speakers from the meeting, each uploaded in its entirety – click ahead to see any or all of them, and also to see what happens next:Read More
We’re at school district HQ in Sodo, with a standing-room-only crowd here to speak out about the school-closure/changes plan at tonight’s School Board meeting – and half the room (photo above, taken moments ago) is dominated by Arbor Heights Elementary School families, fighting to keep their school “program” from being eliminated, because district management is proposing to move Pathfinder K-8 there. No decision will be made tonight, but this is the first official board meeting since the closure/change plan was announced eight nights ago. We’ll add updates as things develop – in addition to scheduled public comment (six AH reps are on the list, which is compiled from people who called and e-mailed starting first thing Monday morning), Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is scheduled to present an update on the closure/change plan; you can watch the meeting live on cable channel 26. Side note: District HQ is formally named the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence; a few days ago, Nov. 28, marked 10 years since the passing of the legendary superintendent (taken by leukemia at age 60) after whom this facility is named.
6:36 PM UPDATE: The first four Arbor Heights parents to speak have just taken their turns. They are focusing on four alternative proposals: Wait for Denny Middle School to be vacated when it moves to a new building on the Chief Sealth campus; close Roxhill and move its students to Arbor Heights, Highland Park, and Gatewood; move Pathfinder to Cooper Elementary or West Seattle Elementary. Two more Arbor Heights parents are still on the speaking list, along with people speaking on behalf of other controversial closure/change proposals elsewhere in the city.
6:50 PM UPDATE: Eric Iwamoto, co-president of the Arbor Heights PTSA, spoke, focusing on “why isn’t a high school being closed?” – he says Franklin, Cleveland, or Rainier Beach (which has 1300 seats but barely a third of them filled) all have aspects that could qualify them for potential closure, and he says closing a high school would save the cost equivalent of closing two elementaries.
7:20 PM UPDATE: The public comment period of the meeting is over; the board is taking a brief break so the superintendent’s “update” on the school closure/change proposal can be technically set up for display on the big screen.
7:54 PM UPDATE: Before the school-closure briefing, a budget briefing from district financial boss Don Kennedy – district may be $37 million short next year, not just the $24 million already anticipated. Thanks to the SPS Community Blog at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com for noting that the superintendent’s presentation, including the closure update, is already posted online here. From that presentation, in a section that addresses some of the questions board members asked when the recommendations were presented last week:
Questions about locating Pathfinder at Arbor Heights or at Cooper
○ Response: 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.
The superintendent also is proposing another workshop (next Tuesday, apparently, will update when time/day/place is finalized) about the closure/change proposal, with these goals (from the presentation linked above):
□ Review of functional capacity numbers
□ Review of comments heard at December 4th and 6th
community meetings
□ Review of questions/concerns raised after November 25
work session
□ Review of potential final recommendations
“Functional capacity” is being evaluated now with walkthroughs at schools (it was mentioned last night that Arbor Heights had just gotten such a visit).
8:30 PM UPDATE: Board members have been asking more questions about the superintendent’s presentation. They’re saying they’re glad it’s obviously an “iterative” process.” Next events, a reminder – tomorrow night, a public “workshop” here at Stanford Center 6:30-8:30 pm; another one Saturday morning, Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Way, 9:30-11:30 am (map); that day, Saturday afternoon, Steve Sundquist will have another informal community gathering to discuss this (and other school issues) – 3-5 pm, Delridge Library.
8:50 PM UPDATE: The aforementioned work session, with lots of data etc., will be 4 pm next Tuesday here at district HQ “and we’ll go till we’re done,” says Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. She says feedback at any time can and should be sent to:
capacity@seattleschools.org
but mail also welcome at
schoolboard@seattleschools.org She just also mentioned an Arbor Heights-specific meeting for next Tuesday as well – checking on that.
9:24 PM NOTE: We have all of tonight’s Arbor Heights speakers on video and will upload those clips later tonight when we’re back at HQ – more pix too, like this:
ADDED 11:40 PM: Still working on the next report but in the meantime, here’s the info on the Tuesday meeting at Arbor Heights: 6 pm, per this district webpage. Concurrent with part of the aforementioned board workshop.
(video no longer available because of blip.tv shutdown)
They’re not showing all their cards yet, but Arbor Heights Elementary families and other supporters are certainly assembling their hands. That much was clear at last night’s meeting in the school cafeteria, called primarily to discuss the school community’s coalesced campaign to fight Seattle Public Schools‘ proposal to close the program and turn the building into the long-overdue new home of Genesee Hill’s Pathfinder K-8. Above, PTSA secretary Dana Varon exhorts the crowd to make a strong show of support at tonight’s School Board meeting, the first since the closure/change proposals were announced at a special board “work session” one week ago. Read on for what else they’re planning:Read More
“It only took a year,” apologized one district official, ruefully, before tonight’s Denny Middle School Site Redevelopment Design Team four-hour “charrette” (which is just getting under way now that non-district and non-consultant participants have arrived) — but, elapsed time aside, they are happy to announce tonight that there’s finally an official website for the Denny-Sealth project and other district BEX (Building Excellence) projects. The start page is at bex.seattleschools.org – the Denny-Sealth-specific information starts here, and includes everything from a photo gallery to permit information to the meeting calendar (including non-district meetings at which the project will be discussed).
(added Monday night: one of the “Save Arbor Heights” campaign signs that are being printed)
The Arbor Heights Elementary PTSA has just finished a “fact sheet” about its school, which (to recap) is proposed for closure by Seattle Public Schools staff — not the building itself, but the school that’s currently housed in it. AHPTSA describes it as “being evicted”; SPS staff proposes dispersing AH students to other “West Seattle South cluster” schools, and moving the Pathfinder K-8 alternative program into the AH building (after closing the deteriorating Genesee Hill building where it’s long been housed). One of the points that AH reiterates on the fact sheet: In a time when SPS leaders have said they want to move back toward “neighborhood schools” (after years of “school choice” tending to scatter people) — buildings where a high percentage of the students are from nearby neighborhoods — AH already is succeeding on that front, with 50% of its students from the immediate area (described by SPS as the “reference area”). If that doesn’t sound like much to you, consider the stats for other West Seattle elementary schools (according to the “demographic summaries” available on the SPS website – you can choose any school from the “school reports” pulldown on this page):
21% for Alki Elementary
29% for Cooper Elementary
32% for Gatewood Elementary
47% for Highland Park Elementary
42% for Lafayette Elementary
26% for Roxhill Elementary
31% for Sanislo Elementary
51% for Schmitz Park Elementary (the only one higher than AH)
36% for West Seattle Elementary
(Thanks to Michelle for pointing out this info also is available in map form)
Here again is the new Arbor Heights fact sheet; next steps for the “Save Arbor Heights” campaign, a community meeting in the school cafeteria at 7 tomorrow night (as reported here last night). Side note: Tomorrow is also a big night for dozens of West Seattle parents affected by the proposal to move the citywide APP (top-level gifted) program out of Lowell Elementary in the north end and split it between two schools (West Seattle APP students would move to Hawthorne) – their advisory committee is having a meeting at Lowell with a briefing from district staff.
Thanks to Roxhill Elementary School principal Carmela Dellino for e-mailing WSB to point out that one of her 1st-grade teachers, Jenny Dew, has just received quite an honor:
(Jenny) has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2008 Teacher Recognition Awards Program sponsored by the SynapticMash Innovation Foundation. She is an absolutely outstanding teacher and has more than earned this recognition! Through compassion, high standards and model instruction, she helps her students excel.
Full details on the award, from the Seattle Public Schools School Beat newsletter, can be read here. We love to report what’s happening at West Seattle schools, so please e-mail us your school news any time. (Photos and video welcome too!)
After a long weekend of strategy planning, PTSA leaders at Arbor Heights Elementary have announced a special meeting for 7 pm Tuesday at the school. That’ll be exactly a week after Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson proposed ending the AH Elementary “program” so that its building can become the new home of Pathfinder K-8, long headquartered in the badly deteriorated Genesee Hill Elementary building. PTSA leaders are hoping for a big turnout Tuesday night from the entire community, not just those with direct ties to the school — one of the major arguments of the “Save Arbor Heights” campaign is that it is truly a community school, with more than half its students coming from the immediate neighborhood, a much-higher percentage than many other area schools. (Another note for everyone in West Seattle affected by the new school closure/change proposal – tomorrow morning is when the district starts taking signups for speaking slots at the Wednesday night School Board meeting – the closure/change proposal isn’t officially on the agenda outside of the “superintendent’s report,” but the public comment period is open for any subject. Starting at 8 am tomorrow, people interested in speaking that night need to either e-mail boardagenda@seattleschools.org, or call (206) 252-0040.)
Thanks to Eric Baer for sending word — and photos — from Saturday’s Seattle Kids Marathon, held the day before today’s Seattle Marathon (which by the way will affect traffic in parts of the city – here’s the alert again). He photographed Pathfinder K-8 and Westside School reps flying their flags, so to speak, and also reports a Highland Park Elementary sighting. For the Pathfinder group, Eric says, “17 students plus David Dockendorf (Principal) and Lou Cutler (PE teacher) completed the marathon at the Seattle Center along with several parents. The Kids Marathon has the participants run 25 miles in November and then finish off with a 1.2 mile race to complete the 26.2 miles. This is the 9th year for Pathfinder’s participation.” Here’s Elizabeth Baer finishing the run:
Read more about the Seattle Kids Marathon here.
We just checked with Seattle Public Schools to see if the official dates were set for the public hearings at the school buildings proposed for closure – and this list is hot off the pixels. (We’d reported earlier that West Seattle School Board rep Steve Sundquist said this morning that he thought the West Seattle hearing would be December 16th, and he was right.) From the official announcement:
In order to strengthen academic programs across Seattle Public Schools and protect its long-term financial health, the School District is now considering building closures. Public hearings will be held at buildings proposed for closure from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the days and locations below.
Monday, Dec. 15, 2008
▪ T.T. Minor – 1700 E. Union St.
▪ Pinehurst – 11530 12th Ave. N.E.
▪ Van Asselt – 7201 Beacon Ave. S.Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008
▪ Genesee Hill – 5012 S.W. Genesee St.
▪ Mann – 2410 E. Cherry St.
▪ Old Hay – 411 Boston St.Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
▪ Lowell – 1058 E. Mercer St.Public testimony will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker, and should focus on the school building about which the hearing is being held. To sign up to give testimony, please call (206) 252-0042 or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org.
For more information, visit www.seattleschools.org, and select “Capacity Management.” Comments may be e-mailed to capacity@seattleschools.org, schoolboard@seattleschools.org, or mailed to School Board,
P.O. Box 34165, MS 11-010, Seattle, WA, 98124-1165.
Direct link to the “Capacity Management” page is here. We also have just created a coverage category for all reports we publish related to this round of school changes – you can click “West Seattle school closure” in the WSB CATEGORIES list on the right sidebar, or just bookmark this (you can subscribe to this category or any other one in RSS, if you read WSB that way – choose the RSS link next to the category name in that sidebar list).
We are at Coffee to a Tea with dozens of parents who have come to talk with School Board rep Steve Sundquist, many here to hear why Arbor Heights Elementary is being basically dismantled so Pathfinder K-8 can move there (coverage of the announcement and followup here and here). More later. 10 AM UPDATE: Sundquist offers this advice to concerned parents: Bring the board ideas and research, not emotion. First chance – sign up Monday to speak at next Wednesday’s board meeting. Sundquist says he has not made up his mind on the first recommendations and added that he doesn’t feel “bound” by them either – he is open to hearing alternative proposals. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON P.S. We will write more about the meeting later (including the key points Arbor Heights parents made about why their school is a success and shouldn’t be dismantled – West Seattle parents of Lowell APP students had a significant presence too), but one other important piece of info to share now – Sundquist says he thinks the one public hearing that will be held in West Seattle, as required by state law when a building is proposed for closure, will probably be Tuesday 12/16 at Genesee Hill (Pathfinder), and he expects it will follow the format of up to 40 speakers, up to 3 minutes each. “Why no hearing at Arbor Heights?” asked an AH parent; “this is what’s required by law,” Sundquist explained, to which the parent wondered aloud if the district couldn’t go above and beyond what’s “required.” Meantime, we are checking with the district to see if they have a timetable for when the official announcement of the hearing will come (and we of course will publish the dates for all the hearings as they’re set, knowing local APP parents will want to attend the Lowell hearing).
Following up on our live updates from last night’s 4-hour-plus School Board session where school closures and changes were officially proposed, here are the toplines/bottom lines on West Seattle effects, and what happens next:
-Ex-Genesee Hill Elementary building (map; photo right) proposed for closure
–Pathfinder K-8 proposed to move out of Genesee Hill, into Arbor Heights Elementary building (map; photo above)
-Arbor Heights Elementary would cease to exist as a “program”
-Arbor Heights’ current “regular” students would be dispersed among other West Seattle South cluster elementary schools (list)
-Arbor Heights’ current “special-ed” students would stay and become part of the Pathfinder K-8 “program”
-West Seattle students in the Advanced Placement Program (APP) would be assigned to Hawthorne Elementary (map), tabbed as one of two new homes for APP elementary students, who till now have all been housed together at Lowell (that building is to close) – this affects more than 50 West Seattle students (thanks to Molly for forwarding district documents that show how many West Seattle students from each “reference area” attend schools outside their “area,” including Lowell – here’s the WS north version, here’s the WS south version)
DETAILED INFO
All the presentations from the Tuesday night meeting are linked from this page (look under the Nov. 25 meeting header); for supplementary info, here’s Genesee Hill building history and Arbor Heights building history; Arbor Heights has set up a Save Arbor Heights site; before last night’s meeting, we published some background on the last round of school closure proposals, meetings, protests., etc.
NEXT STEPS
HOW TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSALS: Various options all detailed here (including an e-mail announcement list you can sign up for)
TODAY: West Seattle’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist invites one and all to his monthly coffee chat at Coffee to a Tea with Sugar this morning, 9 am, in The Junction (map).
NEXT WEEK: First School Board meeting post-announcements, 6 pm Wednesday @ district HQ
AFTER THAT: The timeline remains the same as the one the district outlined previously:
□ December 4 – Community Meeting, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Avenue South
□ December 6 – Community Meeting, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Way
□ December 15, 16, 18 –Public hearings at buildings proposed for closure
□ Tuesday, January 6 –Final recommendation announced by Superintendent
□ Wednesday, January 7 –Board meeting: Capacity management motion introduced
□ Wednesday, January 21 –Board meeting
□ Thursday, January 22 –Final public hearing
□ Thursday, January 29 –Special board meeting (final vote)
Note that the 12/15-12/18 hearings will be at the BUILDINGS proposed for closure – so Genesee Hill will get one, though Arbor Heights, as a PROGRAM proposed for closure, apparently will not. The dates for those hearings are not yet set – we will publish that information as soon as it’s available.
(keep refreshing to see latest updates, as we report “live” from school district HQ – toplines are now available on this district document … also, as of 10:15 pm, an overview is now posted on the district website – see it here)
10:30 PM NOTE: If you want to read the full rationale for the “close Arbor Heights program, close Genesee Hill building, move Pathfinder K-8 to Arbor Heights building” proposal, it starts on page 40 of this document. Interesting side note on that document – Alki Elementary is the only building in the West Seattle area in worse condition than Genesee Hill, but the district says it would be tough to consider closing that program/building for a variety of reasons including the fact its boiler supplies heat to the adjacent Alki Community Center, so even if the program was closed, the building couldn’t be taken out of commission.
10:19 PM: After 4 1/3 hours, the meeting is over. Checking for additional links to share before we pack up and head back to HQ and assemble for later a more concise “where things stand, what next” post. *There are a ton of additional links now – go to this page and scroll down to the list under the November 25th, Preliminary Recommendation Presented, heading. This one in particular, Preliminary Recommendation Report and Appendices, likely has the full details on the decisionmaking behind suggesting moving Pathfinder to Arbor Heights – we’ll read it to check. Reminder that Steve Sundquist has his monthly “coffee hour” tomorrow morning, 9 am, Coffee to a Tea in The Junction – we’ll be there and we’re sure a lot of Arbor Heights, Pathfinder, and West Seattle APP elementary students’ parents will be there as well.
10:05 PM: Summarizing the recommendations now (see the link above for the list). Next step, School Board meeting Wednesday 12/3 (public testimony that night no doubt will be dominated by the closure proposals). Crowd starting to clear out. Some more board remarks even though Q/A was taken throughout the presentation. Hard copy of the recommendations (same doc as linked above) being handed out – though it’s clear that the board members have a BIG sheaf of additional info. Will advise as soon as the date for West Seattle-specific hearing is set. DeBell is saying, it’s tough to have an all-city-draw program that’s not centrally located, and adds, nobody’s being done any favors by keeping half-full buildings. “This is not fun,” Dr. Goodloe-Johnson summarizes, “(but) the hard choices will only get harder. We know people don’t want schools to close, we don’t either, but the fact is, we don’t have a choice.” She says some of the notes and the questions asked tonight will lead to data shared at the next board meeting. Board president Cheryl Chow points out that several board members went through the last school-closure round: “Our job now is to look at the data, ask more questions, listen to our constituents and their ideas, and share those with the staff, look at the data again … I would like to encourage all of us to remember, it’s human nature to want to solve everything ‘right now’ but I caution us, too, the most important job we have as elected officials now is to listen openmindedly but not promise things because we need to have this process be vetted fully … The final decision isn’t until January 29th, and as hard as it is for the seven of us to sit here and just listen and take notes, I think it’s very important, because there’s lots of people that want us to hear their viewpoint, and we need to honor that.” (10:17 pm, in addition to the list on the FAQ document posted earlier, here is an “overview” document that appears to have some more details)
9:51 PM: Finally getting to West Seattle. Enrollment projected steady for next five years, says superintendent. Close Genesee Hill, one of the worst buildings in the district. Arbor Heights building much better, 70.74. Arbor Heights smaller than Genesee Hill but no portables, unlike GH, still big enough to house 391 Pathfinder students. Enough room in nearby schools to house all AH students. They would be reassigned to other elementaries in WS South cluster. Board questions now. West Seattle school board rep Sundquist: Please explain how did you get to the point of putting Pathfinder in either AH or Cooper. They’re reading from documentation. Really intricate reasoning for why they could not consider any building but Cooper or Arbor Heights for Pathfinder relocation (we were videotaping that part). Apparently had a lot to do with the fact there are a lot of West Seattle North cluster kids at Cooper but no place for them to go in the north cluster schools. Pathfinder to Arbor Heights – AH has planning capacity of 428, it’s big enough, plus there is excess capacity at other WS South (368 open seats) schools, plus 68 open seats at WS elementary, more than enough for AH students to be reassigned. 277 AH students live in WS South cluster, more than 400 open seats in other schools of that cluster, so there’s room for them, the superintendent says. Sundquist: Despite great temptation in the face of all this to not want to take the pain of closures, I still believe our financial condition is sufficiently dire that taking closures is better than the alternative of guaranteeing pain through more staff cuts and budget cuts so I am for the fact we need to do some more closures and I do believe WS has some excess capacity. I’m A-OK. But I debate in my mind whether AH or Cooper is the better of the two alternatives for us to think about as the receiving school for Pathfinder program. He continues, looking ahead to more of a neighborhood orientation in forthcoming Student Assignment Plan, I am more concerned about the ability of Cooper to be a successful neighborhood school. The enrollment in that reference area has declined and looks to decline further, so I worry about its viability under a plan we are going to be writing a couple months hence. Arbor Heights is very clearly a neighborhood school (BIG CROWD IN CORNER APPLAUDS). Sundquist says he’s concerned about putting so much weight on concern that the north WS cluster kids would be assigned out of cluster, in deciding that Cooper should not be PF home. Now, board member Maier echoes that Cooper reference area does not have so many students, in comparison with Arbor Heights reference area, so he is worried about it being a successful neighborhood school. He wonders if this can be held off a year to see what happens. (10:04 pm) Maier also notes Pathfinder students tend to be from WS north. Nobody else has questions about the West Seattle proposals.
9:42 PM: Southeast discussion continues. Meantime, as we get closer to the West Seattle discussion and why Arbor Heights Elementary’s “program” was chosen to close, with Pathfinder K-8 proposed to move there (from the ex-Genesee Hill Elementary building the district’s been trying to get it out of for years), here’s the district history of Arbor Heights, which first opened almost 60 years ago. Ironically, the Genesee Hill building opened right about the same time – 1949 (here’s its history doc) – but was closed in 1989, and has served as a temporary site (or, for Pathfinder, sort of temporary) ever since.
9:15 PM: Southeast cluster: Excess seats in elementary and K-8. Close Van Asselt building (poor condition), relocate its K-5 program to African American Academy building (good condition but the school itself was not doing well), repurpose that building as K-5, reassign AAA students to schools in the clusters where they live, co-locate Summit to Rainier Beach HS. (9:29 pm, board questioning continues – one focus includes, won’t there be issues with two high-school programs sharing a building, the 9-12 section of Summit K-12 in its proposed new home co-located with RBHS; further questioning on high-school capacity issues draws a district staffer who says the HS population has generally migrated north and the “Southeast Initiative” is meant to try to encourage students to attend schools closer to home, and maybe move some people out of overcrowded North End schools. DeBell says he’d like to see a school-by-school analysis because he wonders why no high schools are proposed for closure, but that’s where the biggest potential savings are, and the district is in a “desperate” financial situation. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson notes that “demographics tell us, in 2012 the high-school population will go up” and they don’t want to be without wiggle room for placement of future students. Superintendent says they may yet have to look again at the high-school capacity issue but they “think they have another year.”)
9:10 PM: Board president Cheryl Chow says she’s starting to feel uncomfortable and troubled (as the APP-splitting discussion continues) because there are gifted kids “throughout the Seattle School District” – “equity has not been around the district – we are beginning to address it.” So, Bass asks, are we trying to get geographic equity now with these APP moves, or are we trying to reduce costs? (If you don’t know much about APP, read the district explanation here.) Dr. Goodloe-Johnson reiterates, the Lowell building needs to be closed.
8:47 PM: They’re still discussing the concerns related to splitting up APP elementary (which has been self-contained, with all APP elementary students from around the city, at Lowell for a long time). Board member Mary Bass points out that the clusters with overcapacity problems are just southeast and southwest (West Seattle), and it would be important to figure out why, in addition to just shuffling kids around the city to those empty seats. The APP-splitting recommendation so far is getting as many questions as the “move Summit K-12 to Rainier Beach” recommendation from earlier. Board member Peter Maier wonders how this all plays into the new student assignment plan; district staff says they’re “liking what they’re seeing” because all this seems to play into what they’ve been working on. (8:59 pm) District staff says Thurgood Marshall and Hawthorne will have a “schoolhouse model” because they both have special-ed students as well as general-ed students, and now the added APP students will mean a more diverse student population. Board member DeBell says Hawthorne will be overfilled by 60 students with the move, so how will APP grow there, “without displacing the neighborhood students?” and notes that T-Marshall also will be slightly “overfilled” by moving half the APP kids there. Vaughan says 200 kids identified for APP are not using the program – they’re being “accommodated” at Spectrum and ALOs, “it’s not essential that every highly gifted student has to go into a radically accelerated program.” He says it’s more important to attract kids to Spectrum (the second-level gifted program), which is located in more schools around the city. DeBell points out there’s a waitlist for many of the Spectrum schools (crowd applauds). DeBell asks, was a north end site considered for APP? District staff says “we looked at that” but couldn’t find a building where they could move half the APP kids into, because there wasn’t one with that much room on that side of town.
*Editor’s note: Liveblogging up to this point is now on a separate page – if you are just coming into this and aren’t refreshing the post itself, click ahead to catch up on what we chronicled earlier – just trying to clear room on the home page*Read More
Looking ahead to the official announcement of the school-closure (and probably, consolidation, moving, etc.) plan at 6 pm tonight (district HQ in Sodo), some background: It’s been two years since the previous closure process hit its low point, an ugly ruckus during a board meeting in October 2006. Before that, the most controversial West Seattle aspect of the fall 2006 proposal was a plan for Pathfinder K-8 to move out of the ex-Genesee Hill Elementary and “merge” into the Cooper Elementary building in Pigeon Point; Roxhill Elementary was also proposed for closure; earlier in the process, there had been an even-more controversial proposal to move Pathfinder to Boren (where Chief Sealth is temporarily headquartered now). When all was said and done some weeks later, Pathfinder and Cooper kept their status quos — even though all agree the Genesee Hill building is in sorry shape — and ultimately, the Fairmount Park Elementary building was closed, with that school’s “program” merging into the underenrolled then-High Point Elementary, since renamed West Seattle Elementary. We’re heading out shortly to district HQ and will start up the “live” post once we’re settled in there. Another place to watch in addition to WSB is the always-excellent Seattle Public Schools Community blog (which started up during the 2006 closures process, at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com).
According to various online discussions we are monitoring, Arbor Heights Elementary is on the closure list that the school district will unveil at 6 pm tonight. There is already a Save Arbor Heights blog. More to come. WSB will report live from the meeting tonight (public is welcome; it’s at district HQ in Sodo) – both with frequent updates here on the home page, and also via Twitter (twitter.com/westseattleblog). Arbor Heights, by the way, was one of the first schools NATIONWIDE to have a website – dating back to 1994. As per the comments below this note (including one that says it will be proposed that Pathfinder’s program move to Arbor Heights’ building) – the presentation the district will make tonight will be a complicated list of “program” closures as well as “building” closures and moves, so the full picture of who’s supposed to go where won’t emerge till the announcements are done. Also, in advance of this, the district announced this afternoon that the “open enrollment” period for next year is being pushed back to March 2-31, 2009 (more than a month later than the original plan; here’s the full news release).
LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY: No heat today, according to a note sent to parents, after an apparent boiler breakdown. They were planning to bring in 30 space heaters “for the coldest areas.” School’s out early today for parent/teacher conferences (1:05 pm). We’ll check later on how repairs are going.
CHIEF SEALTH HIGH SCHOOL: The music program is raising money with a poinsettia sale. $15 for a 12-inch plant, to be delivered Dec. 8th; call 206-243-4081 to order one (or more!).
WEST SEATTLE MONTESSORI SCHOOL: It’s still looking for donations for its December 5th fundraising auction, which is particularly crucial this year because WSMS is renovating its new White Center space (its landlord sold the site to Harbor Properties, which is building Link on that parcel and the ex-Huling site to the east) in hopes of making the move during winter break – read on to see what Sandra Kutz-Russell tells us they are looking for (including help with some of the move – they even need to move a special tree!):Read More
TONIGHT: Highland Park Action Committee meets for the first time since the new list of potential misdemeanor-jail sites was announced last Thursday (WSB coverage here), with the Highland Park Way/West Marginal Way site still on the list (though now it’s one of six possible locations). But that’s far from all that HPAC is up to; read this WSB Forums post for reasons why you should join in. 7 pm, Highland Park Improvement Club building (11th/Holden; here’s a map).
TOMORROW: Seattle Public Schools‘ preliminary list of proposed school closures will go public. We know for sure that they will be presented and discussed in detail at a School Board workshop tomorrow night (6 pm, district HQ: here’s a map) – but we’re still awaiting final word on whether any sort of media briefing will be held to make the list public earlier in the day. The chances at least one West Seattle school will be on the list are considered to be fairly high for a variety of reasons including “excess capacity” and building age/condition (here’s our most recent coverage, including dates for “workshops” to talk about the closures). The last round of building closures less than 2 years ago led to the shutdown of Fairmount Park Elementary.
WEDNESDAY: The closures – whichever schools are on the list – are likely to be a major topic as West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist has his monthly “coffee hour,” open for anyone to drop in and discuss district/education issues, 9 am at Coffee to a Tea with Sugar in The Junction. (Added later Monday: We have word he also plans an extra community availability at the Delridge Library from 3-5 pm Saturday 12/6.)
As for the holiday – you’ll find lots of new information and events added to our Holiday Happenings page — including info we’ve compiled so far about what happens on Thanksgiving, from free morning workouts to grocery store/coffee shop hours – that info will be complete by tomorrow but we’re adding it to the list as we get it.
When WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand talked recently with students at Tilden School (WSB sponsor), he invited them to keep us posted on any other news they wanted to share. Tilden’s Julie Enevoldsen has just forwarded a writeup from Ahna, and a comment from Vivian, regarding a current project to help students in Uganda (map) through a program called Sister Schools:
From Ahna —
“We need to help Uganda. I’m a fourth grade student from Tilden School and we are trying to help the Sister Schools. We want to raise enough money to buy a roof for the girls’ shower and maybe even some lights.
The Sister Schools takes place in Uganda in Africa. It used to be the best place in Africa but a bad war came and ruined the place. Now they have to walk about three miles to get water and on bare feet! Some of the people in Uganda don’t have clothes, they have to wear rags or tie their left-over clothes. So we are sending donations like shirts, pants, toys, and things like that, but not stuffed animals because of lice.
Terry is the one who brings the donations to them and he is a very great person to do that because he has to go all the way to Africa and back. We are also doing a penny drive but we don’t have to bring just pennies; we can bring nickels, quarters, dollars, and dimes, along with pennies. We want to raise $500.00 and we are almost there. We have $447.58. We want to raise money so we can help them renew everything like the girls’ bedroom because the girls’ bedroom has a problem with the girls on the top bunk. The top bunk of the girls’ room has the most heat–and a lot of heat–because the metal on the roof makes it really hot. We have to save Uganda and they need more help.”
From Vivian —
“Last year we gave items to Sister Schools, and when they saw the items their faces lit up with joy, so we are trying to make that happen again.”
Julie adds —
The enormous heap of school materials, clothes, and sports equipment the Tilden students collected was sent off today, on its way to Uganda. We look forward to Terry’s return next spring; he’ll bring photos of those faces “lit up with joy” to share with our students. Seeing their own donations in the hands of the Ugandan children reinforces the Tilden students’ understanding that they can make a difference in the world. Tilden School would like to extend our thanks to Viking Bank for their very gracious support helping count all those pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters! (Our updated total, so far, is $710.86.)
We encourage anyone who’s inspired by Ahna’s and Vivian’s stories to visit
the Sister Schools website, sisterschools.org; there are many ways to help.
Seattle Lutheran High School‘s girls soccer team beat Ocosta today, 6-0, for 3rd place in the Washington State B Soccer Tournament. Bil Hood from SLHS adds: “Congratulations to players Ashley Shaw, Maddy Williams and Kendra Rancich, who were named to the First Team, Sea-Tac League All-Star Team; Kelsey Shaw was named Second Team; and Coach Jeff Norton was named Coach Of The Year.”
Next Tuesday, Seattle Public Schools leaders are scheduled to present their proposal for the next round of school closures. We’re watching this closely because South and West Seattle have the most likelihood of finding schools on this list, since the north end has been dealing with overcrowding, but these areas have not. We don’t know yet if a media briefing is planned earlier that day, but we do know the recommendations will be formally presented to the School Board at a 6 pm workshop at District HQ, and whichever buildings are scheduled for closure will get on-site public hearings during the week of 12/15. Before that, the district has just announced two “workshops” 12/4 and 12/6 to discuss the recommendations before those hearings – read on for full details:Read More
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