Double Shifting Over in Lake Washington School District

From KIRO tv:

Eastlake is one of two high schools in the Lake Washington district that will soon be over capacity by hundreds of students. In 2012, Redmond High School will have about 500 kids more than they have room for. Eastlake High will have 340 too many.The Lake Washington School District said it may not have a choice but to split Eastlake and Redmond high schools into two school days each, a format called double shifting.One shift would start about 6:30 a.m. and the other at around 12:30 p.m.

I had to do this in junior high while a new building was being built. It was a little weird but I was grateful I had the late shift.

From the story:

Double shifting is the least expensive option, but the district could bring in more money with a new tax levy. Depending on its size, the money could be used for new portables, permanent classrooms or even a new school.

We should have some new numbers for our own district very soon.

Comments

kellie said…
SPS's enrollment numbers are now posted to the website

http://www.seattleschools.org/area/siso/enroll/2010/p223.xml
Anonymous said…
I think that URL got truncated. Try here

-- District Watcher
West Seattle said…
any idea where we could find how many classes these number represent per grade? Also based on the schools I was interested and looked at it seems that they are way over subscribed and will be even worse as the large class sizes move up in grades.

signed West Seattle (google account wouldn't accept my password.)
CCM said…
We double-shifted in high school when I was in school. As a freshman - I didn't start until 11:30am and got out around 4:00pm. It really wasn't too bad - allowed me to sleep in and do homework in the mornings and it still gave me time to get to sports practice after school - so I actually liked it.
Conversely as a senior -- I started at 7:15am and was out around 12:00 noon.
Bird said…
Holy heck!

Bryant has 120 Kindergarteners?
Bird said…
Correction: 122
seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
seattle said…
A couple of things worth noting:

Hale's 9th grade class is larger this year than it has been in years past. They have 334 9th grade students this year. They have 283 10th grade students, and 229 11th grade students. They are growing. Not sure if this was an unintentional consequence of the NSAP, or if it was intentional to grow the school to meet the capacity of their new building which will hold 1400 when complete?

Eckstein has a much larger 6 grade class than they had in years past. They have 458 6th grade students this year! If they continue to enroll 458 kids per grade, per year, for the next two years the building will have 1374 students enrolled.

Nova only has 196 students enrolled, total for all grades. This number is low isn't it? Odd, they only show 3 students enrolled in 11th grade, and none enrolled in 12th grade. Is this a mistake or type? Charlie???

RBHS, sadly has only 379 students enrolled, total for all grades. But at least the 9th grade class has grown a tad. They have 114 9th grade students, 96 10th grade students, and 78 11th grade students.

Cleveland has a larger 9th grade class than it has in the past few years. They have 232 9th grade students enrolled, 206 10th grade students, 155 11th grade students, and 118 12th grade students.
I don't know if the NSAP is also what helped Hale to grow but yes, they are expected to fill their new building. Not great to have a 1400 seat school and then have 1100 students.
seattle said…
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seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
seattle said…
It's never great to have a school that isn't filled to capacity, but it's the norm rather than the exception in Seattle. Only 3 high schools in the entire district are at or over their functional capacity. All of the rest are under enrolled or severely under enrolled. So you have a lot of buildings to worry about in addition to Hale Melissa.

Functional cap VS. current enrollment

1091 enrolled/1229 functional capacity (rebuild is not complete yet) Hale

1274 functional cap/943 enrolled Ingraham

928 functional cap/711 enrolled STEM

1447 functional cap/1279 enrolled Franklin

1016 functional cap/379 enrolled RBHS

1180 functional capacity/1015 enrolled Sealth

1099 functional capacity/996 enrolled W. Seattle

And I'm not at all sure what's going on at NOVA with only 196 kids enrolled. They used to serve about 90 students per grade or 360 total

http://www.seattleschools.org
/area/capacity/functional_an
alysis3.pdf
North Beach Mom said…
Could someone explain what some of these numbers mean? For example, my daughter goes to North Beach and has a huge kindergarten class, but there's a column that says FTE which is half the total students for her school. Some kindergartens have the FTE number equalling the number of students instead of being half. I'm curious. I also wish I would have know some schools only had 22 kids in the kindergarten so I could have had a choice about class size. To me, class size DOES matter. Especially for kindergartners.
dan dempsey said…
So how does Cleveland get a functional cap of 928?

Peter Maier, MGJ and CAO were talking 1000 at 250 per grade level in 2015 as the goal?

The original plan was to limit the numbers for this year to 250 in 9th and 250 in 10th.

They each said this at Cleveland Saturday Open house before the first NTN vote happened on 2/3/10.
owlhouse said…
Anonymom-
I'm not sure what's up with this version of the district's info, but Nova is at +/- 340, including plenty of juniors and seniors.
mom of 3 said…
Don't know numbers, but the NOVA report has to be an error. I personally know more than 3 juniors. :-)
seattle said…
Thanks Owlhouse, I figured the NOVA numbers were a mistake.
dan dempsey said…
OK when is it time to redraw the NSAP boundaries?

Consider South to North.

Totals
RBHS 379
Franklin 1279
Garfield 1744

Frosh
RBHS 114
Franklin 438
Garfield 545

-----------
Pretty Clear that lines need to move north.

Or will that just have everyone find new residences further north?
dan dempsey said…
Can the Board and the Superintendent explain how this happened?

No political courage to draw appropriately sized boundary areas is my guess.

If one votes for a plan, then please display the courage to properly execute what you voted to approve.

The seemingly never ending disaster produced by those elected in 2007 rolls on.

Look at the profusion of 4-3 and 4-2 votes accumulating where Maier, Sundquist, Martin-Morris, and Carr are the four. Just goes to show what kind of results accrue from $480,000 in campaign spending .... all hail the victors.
vitamincee said…
Rainier Beach has co-principals because?...wow, only 242 students!

Does anyone know when they'll start moving/displacing staff from schools who've not met projected enrollment to the schools that under projected their enrollment?
owlhouse said…
You're welcome Anony. And, fwiw, I don't think Nova has ever been at 360. We grew from about 280 to 340ish with the move from Mann to Meany. By percentage, that was huge growth. Props to students and staff who continue to work through the growing pains.
owlhouse said…
On another note, sophomore year, my HS had to double shift w/ a JrHS for a semester while the bldg was renovated. It was great- we had the second shift, starting around noon. Plenty of time for breakfast, homework and even social time. That said, double shifting because of construction is entirely different than resorting to it because of enrollment crunches. I feel for those schools.
Chris S. said…
Amen, Dan. Will somebody explain to me how the assignment plan managed to exacerbate the capacity imbalances that were the problem with school choice? Oh yeah, the choice is just pushed back to the real-estate market. They couldn't see that one coming???
wsnorth said…
"Anonymom said....It's never great to have a school that isn't filled to capacity, but it's the norm rather than the exception in Seattle."

Can you explain this more? Why is this never "great"?

I think it would be fantastic if schools weren't filled to "capacity". Chief Sealth, for instance, has enough students enrolled to offer a good course mixture without being overcrowded and unmanageable.

If "capacity" is 35 kids per classroom, but we only had 20 kids per classroom, that would be great in my opinion. Of course, SPS would probably cram them in 30-35 at a time and leave the rest of the rooms empty.
wsnorth said…
West Seattle... I have one word for you: movetotheNorthEast. They seem to be the only winners of the NSAP. Who is their director?

Once upon a time life was good and the schools were fine out here in West Seattle, but that was long ago in an administration far away.
Patrick said…
Move to the northeast... sure, if you like having 32 kids in kindergarten.
seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
dan dempsey said…
Chris,

Talk about mismanagement and making over subscribed schools even more imbalanced..... go visit Meg's crappy charts on NSAP.

Judge Inveen where is your NSAP appeal ruling?
wsnorth said…
Sorry, Patrick, maybe "West Seattle" can bring some of our rusty, moldy, third world style portables along.

And I thought 31 students per class was bad! This is so pathetic, and so avoidable.
seattle said…
wsnorth, I was merely pointing out to Melissa that Hale is but one of many high schools that is not full to capacity. I think (but could be wrong) that she feels particularly strong about wanting Hale to fill to capacity as she thinks it will relieve some of the over crowding at Roosevelt. In years past with the choice plan Roosevelt's boundaries were fluid and they could cap their enrollment. When the school was full they stopped taking kids and those kids that didn't get in were pushed into Hale or other schools. But now with the NSAP all of the families living within the Roosevelt boundaries (and those who lie about their address) are guaranteed in to the school. No more cap. So whether Hale fills it's building to capacity or not it won't have any effect at all on the over crowding at Roosevelt. At this point the only thing that will relieve Roosevelt's over crowding would be to redraw it's boundaries.

I agree with you though wsnorth about not needing to cram kids into our high schools (or elementary and Middle school for that matter). I wish we could have classes of 20 students, but that will never happen in this district.

Hale tried to keep their enrollment to about 1050 for years, but now with the remodel the building will hold 1400 and I'd expect that Hale's enrollment will grow. To me Hale seems perfectly efficient with plenty of offerings as it is. But a bit of growth might be good too. Maybe with the addition of more students there will be a stronger band and orchestra, more AP classes, the addition of self contained honors classes, maybe another foreign language class, all things Hale could use.
wsnorth said…
Thanks for the explanation, Anonymom. Roosevelt doesn't look any more or less crowded under NSAP than it was before. Am I missing something?

I see Hale's 9th grade enrollment numbers seem to be up, though. You also also got our great principal from Madison in West Seattle, Dr. Hudson. I think she's great.
West Seattle said…
WSNorth, I love West Seattle and can't imagine living in another part of the city. that being said i'm very concerned about class sizes. I have one in college and another two years away from Kindegarten and the class sizes seeem to have steadily gotten worse.

anyone know how many K classes at Schmitz, Alki and Lafayette or where that would be published?
seattle said…
Roosevelt is no more or less over crowded this year than it was before the NSAP. But prior to the NSAP Roosevelt could have decreased (or capped) the number of students they accepted, while Hale could have increased the number of students they accepted - thus balancing enrollment better between the two schools. That can't happen now with the NSAP. Roosevelt can not cap their enrollment anymore. They have to take everyone in their boundaries thus it does not matter what Hale's enrollment numbers are as they won't affect the pressure on Roosevelt.

And yes we love Dr. Hudson. Hale really lucked out to get her. It must have been a great loss to Madison to lose her.

We also got two new assistant principals this year, one from RBHS. Haven't met them yet, so no opinions to share at this point.

Sorry to hear of the dire situation in West Seattle. Believe me the NE is not all roses and rainbows. We have, and continue to suffer with severe over crowding in almost every one of elementary schools, and Eckstein is the largest middle school in the entire state. Over 1200 kids and many many old dilapidated portables.
Anonymous said…
West Seattle – Alki has 3 kindergarten classes and they have 21-22 kids in each class (I have a kinder there). Schmitz Park appears to have 4 classes and Lafayette has 3 Kindergarten classes (based on their web sites).

signed,
yumpears
dan dempsey said…
Lots "More Here" on the 711 enrollment at Cleveland.

I figure the 2015 over-under line at 634 students.

Thoughts on enrollment and likely recall action also included.
WSNorth, we had been talking about Hale in specific. I don't want schools packed to bursting (as apparently several are this year). I was just saying that we can't spend $90M on a new building and have just 1050 students if it's built for 1400. I didn't mention Roosevelt at all.
Jennifer said…
pathfinder has 2 k classes with 26 each, first grade is at 28 & 27. Crazy!
North Beach Mom said…
I suppose this isn't the right page for this, but it will be hard to compare Schmitz's success with Singapore to North Beach's success with Saxon if there is such a discrepancy in class size. I imagine 21-22 kids in K at Schmitz have an advantage over 27 at NB regardless of the math program chosen.

Don't get me wrong, I'm for anything that isn't EDM, but if these schools are "experiments" for waivers, it's a shame there wasn't a better control with equality in class sizes.
seattle said…
There are at least 4 schools that have been, or are in the process of being remodeled, that are under enrolled. But Melissa you regularly single Hale out. That's why I wonder if you have a more personal agenda with Hale's growth.

Ingram is being rebuilt and they are severely under enrolled. In fact they have almost 340 seats vacant this year, before their rebuild which will add even more capacity. And wasn't Sealth just renovated? They are currently under enrolled to the tune of about 150 students. And Cleveland is in it's new, large, building, and has more than 200 vacant seats.

Personally I don't mind having some vacant seats in our high schools. Schools only get funded for enough teachers to accommodate the # of students enrolled, so it's really not that big of a deal if schools have some wiggle room.

I think the bigger problem is that while some schools are under enrolled, other schools are way over capacity. It's blazingly obvious that the schools that are over enrolled (Ballard, Roosevelt, and Garfield) are all similar in that they all offer a wide array of AP classes, they all offer honors classes, two have very have strong music programs, they all have high test scores, low drop out rates, and a high percent of college bound students. That is obviously what many people want. If I were in charge of this district I'd be listening.
dan dempsey said…
Dear Anonymom,

If you were listening, my guess is you would not be in charge. Given recent trends. :)

The key to SPS leadership this year will likely be communication.

The Seattle school district seems to have a new philosophy pushing "communication" --they are, in a timely manner, putting out a lot of non-information.
I singled out Hale because they have made a deliberate choice to want to be smaller. They've said it at meetings and in school literature. (My son graduated from Hale - it was a good school for him.) None of the other high schools have made such a conscious effort to stay smaller.

Ingraham is being "rebuilt" in a piecemeal fashion and sadly, like Sealth and RBHS, will likely never see a full remodel. So I wouldn't say Ingraham has or will be "rebuilt". It has had a lot of work.

That Cleveland is in a brand new building and has been severely underenrolled has been a big issue for the district. STEM was placed there for precisely that reason. If RBHS had the newer building, it would have been put there.
Rose M said…
No sure what is happening at Roosevelt. School administrators complained about too many freshman, kids couldn't get classes, counselors frantic. Yet, I have heard of 4 friends on the waitlist for Roosevelt that received calls this week saying they could start classes there.

Puzzling.
I heard of two people who cleared the waitlist. Maybe they drew Garfield too big and Roosevelt too small?
Jan said…
Rose M: are the kids who can't get classes and those getting in off the waitlist the same grade? At Garfield, the real nutso stuff happened at the 9th grade level. While the chaos affected everyone, there were not nearly the problems finding classes for seniors (and maybe juniors?).

Otherwise, the only possibility I can think of it that (like Garfield) they may have just been really really late in hiring teachers for classes. Not sure why that happened.
Rose M said…
I am not sure of the numbers per class at RHS, but administrators did say they had pressure on freshman classes and it is freshman moving off the waitlist.

I know that Eckstein was forced to lay off teachers in the spring based on projected numbers and are anticipating hiring in the same subjects in October.
seattle said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
seattle said…
Yes, Eckstein is going to hire teachers in October, and then split classes, mid semester. How very disruptive to the students.
wsnorth said…
"...it's a shame there wasn't a better control with equality in class sizes."

Does anyone know if there is a district "standard" on this? Does it vary from Elementary to Middle to High?

Some schools in West Seattle are packed to 30 per classroom, while others that had wait lists only ended up with mid twenties in some classrooms.
Anonymous said…
People seem to forget that the point of NSAP was to fill classes to absolute capacity. That was never going to be comfortable, nor was comfort a goal. We'd all love to be in schools with plenty of room to grow and small classes. There's no budget for that.

Schools that are filled to the 30 and beyond levels are over-full because they must accept students in the assignment area by policy. Waitlists are always composed of students NOT in the assignment area. Therefore, schools at "capacity" will not move their waitlists. An elementary school with all classrooms in the mid-twentites is going to be at "capacity", even if that school is a lot less crowded than some other school filled beyond the brim with assignment area kids.

Seattle Parent
North Beach Mom said…
Anonymous Seattle Parent: My daughter's class at North Beach has 27 kids. I know at least one child who is in Loyal Heights' boundary is in her class as well as a child who didn't turn 5 until after the school year started. I would have liked to apply to, say, Loyal Heights if I knew the class sizes were smaller (I don't know that. It's an example). I don't think kids should have been accepted early or from another school when the numbers were this big. Unless, of course, Loyal Heights has even bigger classes than NB. I definitely don't think early entrance should have been allowed this year. It's nothing against these children. They are all wonderful. I am just asking for equality - not some schools with 21 kids and others with 30. It really does feel like a class size experiment that might have a long-term negative impact on my child.
Maureen said…
Do we know what the average size of K classes is? (One of my kids had 28 in K and 31 in 1st 11 years ago, so this isn't new.)
Jet City mom said…
The West Seattle blog says Arbor heights has 3 classes of K of 30 students.

Schmitz park has 25 each in K reportedly. ( 4 classes)


( the West Seattle blog, seems to post about education more than the other community blogs)


I cannot imagine that many kids in a K class.
( or actually I can imagine it!!!!!)

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