School Closure/Consolidations Rumors & News
What are now just school closure and consolidation rumors will become news by 6 pm.
Affected school principals are talking to their staff now. The "workshop" for the public with the Board and District is at 6 pm tonight at the Stanford Center. (I hope to attend and "live blog" the event.) And then a statement will be released to the media and all district employees at 7 pm.
I have mixed feelings about spreading rumors that are already out there, but I decided to go ahead and post here what is already posted on the The Stranger's blog (The Slog) to generate discussion and hopefully collect more information from anyone out there who knows.
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From The Slog:
City School Closure Rumor of the Day
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Tue, Nov 25 at 12:08 PM
The Seattle School District will announce its preliminary closure plan at a school board meeting tonight (6 pm at district headquarters) and there appear to be a few big surprises on the agenda:
According to sources in the district—who asked not to be named—the district will recommend closing TT Minor Elementary, Alternative School # 1, the African American Academy and Lowell Elementary, which currently houses the district's Advanced Placement Program.
The district will also apparently move Thornton Creek Elementary to the Jane Adams building—which currently houses the Summit K-12 program—and move Summit's program to Rainier Beach.
Seattle Public Schools spokesman David Tucker would not confirm any of these changes before tonight's board meeting, but staff at several schools have already been told about the district's plan.
Affected school principals are talking to their staff now. The "workshop" for the public with the Board and District is at 6 pm tonight at the Stanford Center. (I hope to attend and "live blog" the event.) And then a statement will be released to the media and all district employees at 7 pm.
I have mixed feelings about spreading rumors that are already out there, but I decided to go ahead and post here what is already posted on the The Stranger's blog (The Slog) to generate discussion and hopefully collect more information from anyone out there who knows.
********
From The Slog:
City School Closure Rumor of the Day
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Tue, Nov 25 at 12:08 PM
The Seattle School District will announce its preliminary closure plan at a school board meeting tonight (6 pm at district headquarters) and there appear to be a few big surprises on the agenda:
According to sources in the district—who asked not to be named—the district will recommend closing TT Minor Elementary, Alternative School # 1, the African American Academy and Lowell Elementary, which currently houses the district's Advanced Placement Program.
The district will also apparently move Thornton Creek Elementary to the Jane Adams building—which currently houses the Summit K-12 program—and move Summit's program to Rainier Beach.
Seattle Public Schools spokesman David Tucker would not confirm any of these changes before tonight's board meeting, but staff at several schools have already been told about the district's plan.
Comments
http://savearborheights.blogspot.com/
--- Beth
I am also wondering- has the community at Rainier Beach been able to participate in the process at all? Or are they even aware that this is a consideration?
With South Lake high school, which celebrated their grand opening just a few months ago on Rainier Ave S, is there a compelling need for another alternative high school in the same neighborhood?
I was aware that Thorton Creek had, in the past, thought about being a K-8 (and ironically, they actually have the space to expand). Maybe they will have Thorton Creek expand to K-8 at Jane Addams (and established program to be sure but is it enough to draw in the numbers they need to fill it as opposed to say, an international school). I wonder what their reaction will be. And will the old Thorton Creek building become a traditional K-5?
I had thought it would be Rainier Beach, Roxhill and Arbor Heights for sure.
Arbor Heights Elementary reportedly on school closure list
The District has a successful program to help gifted kids and it's future should be dealt with separately from other school closings. It's not just a building and budget issue but how to keep a critical mass of students and teachers together that works.
Unless the APP program is moving to a larger facility to serve more students and families in a central location it makes no sense to close Lowell Elementary.
There are probably some other missing links that will be made public shortly that will put it all into context.
Or at least I hope it will.
AS1 is currently in step 4 of NCLB, and will certainly move on to step 5 next year. In step 5 the district is mandated to either restructure or close the school. It looks like the district is getting the job out of the way now instead of next year.
Now, a great little school, that served it's community well, will be closed because they refused to conform and take a test. In the end it's very sad, and I think, it was avoidable.
have you attended AS#1, do you have kids that go there?
Have you talked to any of the parents about their choices to have their kids either take or not take the WASL?
If your answer is no to these questions, then on what information do you base your opinion that the school has been failing and that the stubbornness of parents has resulted in the closure of the school?
Its not correct to say the school is failing - we measure achievement using yardsticks other than the 'holy grail' of standardised testing. No one knows how our kids would 'perform' and what the test scores would be if they all took the WASL - they might top the state, especially as a high percentage of the kids go on to high school as honours students.
The Alternative in AS#1 stands for something - its not just there as an empty descriptor... its a pity some people in the Seattle education community cannot respect the choices the AS#1 community has made, for perfectly valid educational, philosophical and societal reasons.
-Trish
Just the other week the local government was speaking about how they would like to see more families living downtown as they feel this would create a strong community atmosphere in the heart of the Emerald city. The local government cannot encourage families to live downtown if they are going to shut down the only public school in the downtown area. Mayor Nickels’ needs to give families an incentive to live downtown. A great start would be to keep (The Center School) the only public school that is downtown OPEN!