From the West Seattle Blog

The West Seattle blog reports the installation of a new double portable at Lafayette Elementary. I didn't know that besides Lafayette, both Gatewood and Schmitz Park will also be getting portables.

I think the district believes this overcrowding will ease up in the next 3-4 years but I can see where parents caught in the thick of it are probably not happy.

Also, this from the West Seattle blog in one of their forums about the current crisis:

Gulp!

It's getting harder and harder to defend our School Board and District administrators.

Apparently the "Save Seattle Schools" crew have been right about the District's lax accounting and oversight, though I must say I don't care for the way they've presented some of their arguments.

I wish I could talk to this person. Tell me the better way. Honestly, I think I have tried every way I know how to relay this information or make an argument. When Charlie and I get testy or blunt, please keep in mind this has been years of talking, pleading, explaining.

There is no pleasure in say "hey, we got it right." I just wish someone with power had listened sooner.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Different neighborhood, but North Beach Elem just had a double portable brought in this week. There were already 3 portables at the school. This is in addition to Viewlands re-opening soon, a school not too far away from North Beach.

Ballard mom
2/25/11, 4:12 PM
NE Parent said…
Two portables were also brought to Thornton Creek this week, to help add space for the 3rd K that will start in the fall.
2/25/11, 4:14 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
North Beach, too? Geez, more trouble with Tribbles (I mean portables).

I honestly hope, for each of these schools, that they don't sprout roots and stay forever as they have at Green Lake, Eckstein, etc.
2/25/11, 4:36 PM
Maureen said…
This was a perfectly predictable outcome of the NSAP. I hope those portables are actually portable, we'll be moving them all over the city as school enrollments vary with neighborhood birth rates. We gave up capacity flexibility when we made the commitment to neighborhood schools, and the new transportation standards compound that inflexibility.
2/25/11, 4:43 PM
Dorothy Neville said…
The West Seattle Forum fellow is David Preston, the same fellow who asked the board for levy followup and got huffy when we challenged the board answers.

At the end of that thread he said "In a week or so, when I emerge from the Sweat Lodge with my brand new Spirit Animal* in tow, I will start a thread devoted to the relative merits of the various possible modes of engagement with Officialdom.

Until then, happy kvetching!"

So it is completely appropriate to ask him how he thinks one ought to engage the officials.
2/25/11, 5:04 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
2/25/11, 5:25 PM
steve in west seattle said…
Steve Sundquest said that elementary enrollment in West Seattle is expected to continue to increase for a number of years.

They had previously considered it a "bubble" the last couple of years.

This was at his January community meeting at Delridge Library.
2/25/11, 8:31 PM
Anonymous said…
Thornton Creek's "new" portables are in addition to two classrooms already out there. There is already no room in the cafeteria for us all to eat or meet. Sad. Thornton Creek is doing well because of it's intentional structure. The new classes are going to negatively impact the program. Too bad the board and the superintendent don't know how to work with communities instead of imposing changes without their input.
2/25/11, 9:32 PM
anonymous said…
Nathan Hale's portables were taken away this week. All students will finally be back in the main building.
2/26/11, 9:05 AM
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