For Your Reading Pleasure

I have not yet perused this document on School Allocations for 207-2018 but thought I would put it up for folks to see what the district is thinking.

Despite the happy victory that the levy cliff bill was passed last night by the Senate (and then onto the House for this version to be ratified), the district is still in the hole.

Something to think about.

Also of interest is the Capacity Management Task Force webpage.  Here you can see many useful maps such as where portable currently are AND how many more each site can support.  There are also density maps, inventory maps and attendance area maps.


As I previously reported, Facilities head, Flip Herndon, apparently had a brain freeze at last week's School Board meeting when he could not recall how many portables are at Cedar Park.  This was around the discussion of trying to put not one but two City pre-Ks in a small building.

Turns out there are eight. Want to bet who will be in the building and who will not be?  Hint: pre-K kids won't be in portables.

Some of these numbers are startling.

Catherine Blaine K-8 has six and could fit 8 more. 

Tiny Montlake has seven and can fit no more.

Lafayette has six and could add eight more.

Boren STEM K-8 has 11 but can fit no more.

Kimball Elementary takes the cake with 12 on-site and room for 10 more. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
I knew Whitman would have small numbers next year, but 500 kids? That's crazy, I'm sad for the programs and teachers we're going to lose.
Whitman North
Anonymous said…
@Melissa,

On the portables map, Cedar Park is listed as having 8 portables, and no room to accommodate more.

John Rogers, just south of Cedar Park, is listed as having 5 portables with "room" for 8 more.

-North-end Mom
Did I get that wrong? Sorry.

Whitman North, I have some other documents on enrollment that are pretty astonishing.
Anonymous said…
I, too, am appalled by the substantial drop in Whitman's enrollment. Melissa, can you share more?

-Another Whitman Parent
Anonymous said…
On the Whitman issue, I have been totally perplexed as to why they're taking so many kids out when Hamilton, Eckstein and other middle schools continue to be crowded (even with JAMS and REMS opening). Even the brand new Eaglestaff is projected to open with 220 more students than Whitman's projected #s for the fall. I have not seen any rationale or future plans around this, nor does it seem that board members' questions around this were really addressed by staff. No one has answered the why.

NW parent
Anonymous said…
They clearly reassigned too many of Whitman's feeder schools to Eagle Staff. Why don't they adjust that? Is it because if they do then REMS will have too high a percentage of HCC?

Unclear
I look forward to seeing the new 2017-18 budget, one that is substantially rebalanced to minimize classroom impact. For example, I was told a few days back that the Executive Directors were not going to be laid off under the "worst case scenario" budget. I would expect that they now will be, as the superintendent and school board have a chance to correct that error. If SPS is serious about emphasizing students and closing gaps, they will ensure that central office is cut to the bone before looking to schools or classrooms for savings.
Anonymous said…
Does this document include newest projections to reflect changes after open enrollment? I am thinking it might be early for accurate projections as far as Whitman enrollment etc.
-another NW parent
Civ said…
Seattle Public Schools could be closed 365 days a year and not make a difference!!!
Anonymous said…
Speak for yourself Civ.

SPSParent
kellie said…
This budget is as of Feb 28th.

It is not adjusted for open enrollment as open enrollment continues into May and there will be another adjustment at that time.
Ragweed said…
To add on to what Kellie said, the budget update is Feb 28th. However, according to the budget timeline, Enrollment sent these projections to the budget office on Feb 14th, right at the beginning of open enrollment. Open enrollment data is not reflected in these projections at all.

There are a lot of weird numbers throughout this report. Schools that have had years of stable enrollment and no boundary changes, like Mountlake, are suddenly showing that they will loose 30 students. Viewridge is loosing students. Cedar Park is showing as opening with 74, but Olympic Hills and John Rogers show no lower enrollment. There are other weird results as well.


Anonymous said…
Whitman has a large number of RESMS assigned students choosing to remain at Whitman.

100+ is a possibility.


GFY
Another NW said…
Noticed Ballard has nearly 100 more students than the projection from October - and that's before open enrollment as well. Hearing many Ballard AA families are choosing Ballard over Garfield to avoid possible move...
Anonymous said…
Are the projections headcount or AAFTE, though? I also have heard many more Roosevelt area families choosing Roosevelt over Garfield if they have the choice. Even if they'd be moved to Lincoln.

-sleeper
seattle citizen said…
Ballard, in NW Seattle, will get two portables to accommodate 100 or so additional students, while Whitman, also in NW Seattle just 30 blocks north, will lose hundreds of students.
Very odd.
Anonymous said…
@Ragweed
Both Olympic Hills and John Rogers have been steadily growing for several years now, and enrollment projections for both of those schools would probably be higher than what is projected in the Feb 28th budget if the option school at Cedar Park wasn't opening. Also, Cedar Park's transportation zone is the entire JAMS service area, so, in theory, it draws from Sacajawea and parts of Olympic View's attendance areas (in addition to John Rogers and Olympic Hills).

-North-end Mom
kellie said…
To follow on Ragweed comments,

There are a wide variety of enrollment projections that frankly seem implausible. Said another way, if they are accurate, then there should be some greater support from downtown.

As nearly everyone on this blog knows by now, high school enrollment is expected to increase greatly in both 2017 and 2018 before Lincoln opens in 2019.

But yet, Center School is projected to decrease in enrollment. I would have expected to see a sharp increase in Center's enrollment simply based on Ballard's crowding and the near certainty that all of Queen Anne will be geo-split to Lincoln. For Queen Anne families, Center is both close to home and would not be part of any geo-split.

Anonymous said…
"Noticed Ballard has nearly 100 more students than the projection from October - and that's before open enrollment as well. Hearing many Ballard AA families are choosing Ballard over Garfield to avoid possible move..."

another Northwest- Depending upon where they live in Ballard, they will be moved from Ballard as well if Ballard is not their reference school when Lincoln opens. I also assume you mean Ballard HCC families.
-a third NW
kellie said…
@ sleeper,

The high school numbers are given three ways on the data sheets.

1) total headcount

2) AAFTE - an deplorable practice by the State of Washington designed to fund high school on AVERAGE attendance, not headcount. In theory this is supposed to incentivize districts about drop out rates but in practice it takes about 5% out of the high school budget. The logic is bizarre and goes something like this .... we know some students don't attend or drop out, therefore we will only pay for teachers as if these students never attended at all.

3) Adjusted for contact time - This is a practice where general education teachers are subtracted because in theory students are in Sped or ELL or somewhere else. Honestly, this one is murky to me and if anyone has a better explanation, that would be helpful.

Does anyone know if the Running Start students are subtracted at AAFTE or Contact Time. Frankly there are enough Running Start students that they really need their own line time on the budget.

When you subtract AAFTE and Contact time, the bigger high schools are funded at 200 students less than their headcount. It would be good to have a sense of other services vs drop outs.
Anonymous said…
"Ballard, in NW Seattle, will get two portables to accommodate 100 or so additional students, while Whitman, also in NW Seattle just 30 blocks north, will lose hundreds of students.
Very odd."

Apples and oranges taste different.

Very odd
Anonymous said…
I see that on the wSS budget data sheets. On the 5 year enrollment projections they don't say which ones they are using, though in the intro paragraph they say they account for running start. So I am guessing they use aafte. Which I agree is a little bit of a cheater number. But it's hard to say if the projections are off without knowing for sure which they are using- they are obviously far apart numbers.

-sleeper

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