The Stories Behind the Story

Why was Rainier View Elementary, a school with low enrollment and low WASL scores, in a building in poor condition, on the closure list last year but not on the closure list this year?

The answer is one of the stories behind the story that are uncovered when you start asking questions about apparently nonsensical recommendations.

Emerson Elementary, which is on the closure list this year, is in a building that has been recently renovated. So why doesn't the district close Rainier View Elementary and move those students into Emerson? Because the district desperately needs to cut money from the Capital budget.

The New School has been promised a new building. By closing Emerson and moving those students into Rainier View and other southeast cluster schools, the district can then offer the Emerson building to the New School, thereby saving 55 million dollars from the Capital budget.

Of course, this also keeps the New School from being a K-8 school as promised. The New School has been extremely popular with south Seattle parents, and so has the idea of K-8 schools.

So why does Raj support this recommendation to move the New School to the Emerson building which keeps the New School from becoming a K-8? It’s all about the money, specifically the Capital dollars that will be saved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more