Issues Raised by Speakers at Board Meeting
Listening to speaker after speaker talk about the Indian Heritage Middle College program, I thought, "Well, add them to the list that includes Special Ed, Nova, and World School." What do these programs have in common? They get moved around as though they were furniture. Each and every one of them deserves a permanent home.
I spoke to Sarah Kelly, one of the speakers, and asked her about someone in their community doing a guest post about the history of their program. (I was surprised to learn that Pathfinder K-8 used to be a feeder school for the program.) One thing I told her was that once we had a history - one that is written by those who know it - it would be here for a long time. The district may purge some history from its website but at least here it would have a home.
I'm hoping I will get that guest post within a couple of weeks.
Also, there is an issue over the feeder patterns in West Seattle from middle to high school. Apparently, some students would like (and appear to have been promised) that they could choose would high school would better work for them for music. The appearance seems to be that Sealth has the stronger music program than West Seattle High School.
Someone from that region should let us know the full story and, if students could choose, would it skew too much in one direction. (And why would the district have made this promise.)
Lastly, an oddity that, lined up in a row, makes me suspicious.
I have had some communications with parents at Sacajawea and Green Lake on the issue of dropping enrollment. Sacajawea lost a Special Ed program and Green Lake has had kids moved away to McDonald and now B.F. Day.
Guess who had this complaint at the meeting last night? Laurelhurst. The boundaries have severely impacted their school to the point where they have just 44 kindergarteners (and this includes out of boundary sibs). That's barely enough for two classrooms where they used to have three full classrooms.
So, we are overcrowded in places like Bryant and View Ridge and JSIS and McDonald and yet, we have school losing enrollment (and funding)? How is that and why doesn't the district course-correct now so that they have a better idea of the room they need under BEX IV? Why have some schools uber-crowded while others in the area are losing students?
I am now mighty suspicious about this "need" for another elementary at both Thorton Creek and Wilson Pacific.
And why those three schools? Well, one thought is that they are all three in lousy buildings. They are buildings that are likely high-cost maintenance AND don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting any BEX attention for a couple of cycles.
It's hard to know what to think but something is not right. Is this the case at any schools in the SE or West Seattle?
I spoke to Sarah Kelly, one of the speakers, and asked her about someone in their community doing a guest post about the history of their program. (I was surprised to learn that Pathfinder K-8 used to be a feeder school for the program.) One thing I told her was that once we had a history - one that is written by those who know it - it would be here for a long time. The district may purge some history from its website but at least here it would have a home.
I'm hoping I will get that guest post within a couple of weeks.
Also, there is an issue over the feeder patterns in West Seattle from middle to high school. Apparently, some students would like (and appear to have been promised) that they could choose would high school would better work for them for music. The appearance seems to be that Sealth has the stronger music program than West Seattle High School.
Someone from that region should let us know the full story and, if students could choose, would it skew too much in one direction. (And why would the district have made this promise.)
Lastly, an oddity that, lined up in a row, makes me suspicious.
I have had some communications with parents at Sacajawea and Green Lake on the issue of dropping enrollment. Sacajawea lost a Special Ed program and Green Lake has had kids moved away to McDonald and now B.F. Day.
Guess who had this complaint at the meeting last night? Laurelhurst. The boundaries have severely impacted their school to the point where they have just 44 kindergarteners (and this includes out of boundary sibs). That's barely enough for two classrooms where they used to have three full classrooms.
So, we are overcrowded in places like Bryant and View Ridge and JSIS and McDonald and yet, we have school losing enrollment (and funding)? How is that and why doesn't the district course-correct now so that they have a better idea of the room they need under BEX IV? Why have some schools uber-crowded while others in the area are losing students?
I am now mighty suspicious about this "need" for another elementary at both Thorton Creek and Wilson Pacific.
And why those three schools? Well, one thought is that they are all three in lousy buildings. They are buildings that are likely high-cost maintenance AND don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting any BEX attention for a couple of cycles.
It's hard to know what to think but something is not right. Is this the case at any schools in the SE or West Seattle?
Comments
If people are committed to a neighborhood plan (and I think many in NE were; don't know if they still are. I still am), then we have to accept more flexibility on school size.
(zb)
Seattle Teacher
Seattle Teacher
This explains a lot.
I don't know the geography and history of the other schools, but Laurelhurst was officially predicted to shrink, even become under-enrolled. This should not be a surprise for anyone. It's related to both the size and shape of the attendance boundary and the fact that it feeds to Hamilton instead of the closer Eckstein.
Add APP to that list.
turtle
I'll put you in touch with the Denny band geeks who love music and want to continue in HS.
-NE mom with lots of ties to LH
-WS Parent
-W'Sider
-W'Sider
This has changed BEX IV for me. I need some explanation from the district about this issue.
Laurelhurst is underenrolled because the original boundaries were vehemently opposed by the Bryant families. So now Bryant is busting at the seams, and Laurelhurst has plenty of room. Also, a large % of the Laurelhurst kids go to private school, thereby allowing for more room at the school than demographically indicated.
Pathways are ignored because no one looks at that when making boundary decisions.
That being said, there still needs to be new buildings in the NE...lest anyone forget about the 530 APP kids at Lincoln this coming year.
-WS Parent
To share the most recent numbers I have for K… I do put a question mark where I am uncertain of how many classrooms. (Enrollment info. Is updated each Friday, but you need to call to find out.)
Sand Point has an enrollment of 66 kids, to be divided between only 2 K classes?
Bryant has an enrollment of 111, to be divided into 4 classrooms. (27.75 per)
Wedgwood has an enrollment of 84 (2 classrooms 42 each, or 3 classrooms of 28 each.)
Thornton Creek has an enrollment of 52 (2 classes of 26 each.)
All three under-enrolled schools in the area have geographical challenges. Sacajawea is across Lake City Way from Wedgwood, Bryant, and the others. It is not a walkable distance.
Laurelhurst is across Sand Point Way and is not walkable from the majority of homes in the Sand Point attendance area, or any of Bryant, View Ridge, or Wedgwood.
Green Lake (to me) is oddly slotted into the Eckstein area but surrounded by highly desirable LI schools that all track to Hamilton. There are some great facets to Green Lake such as great parent involvement, good Principal, good school community -- but it is not a walkable distance from the highly overenrolled schools in the Eckstein area. It is also a small school and doesn’t even have a cafeteria so kids eat lunch in their classroom.
There is no large benefit to parents that might want to self-select into a currently under-enrolled school as you are likely doing so with no transportation and no guarantee that any younger age child will be able to attend the same school when they reach the K age.
Only observational data…each home in my neighborhood that has sold in the past few years has had a family move in. These are homes that were previously without kids. Now each sale brings in school age children, and/or multiple preschool age children.
This is the same sort of observational info. that was ignored when there was a large neighborhood cry to reopen Sand Point. And now Sand Point is already stuffed full.
-StepJ
To share the most recent numbers I have for K… I do put a question mark where I am uncertain of how many classrooms. (Enrollment info. Is updated each Friday, but you need to call to find out.)
Sand Point has an enrollment of 66 kids, to be divided between only 2 K classes?
Bryant has an enrollment of 111, to be divided into 4 classrooms. (27.75 per)
Wedgwood has an enrollment of 84 (2 classrooms 42 each, or 3 classrooms of 28 each.)
Thornton Creek has an enrollment of 52 (2 classes of 26 each.)
All three under-enrolled schools in the area have geographical challenges. Sacajawea is across Lake City Way from Wedgwood, Bryant, and the others. It is not a walkable distance.
Laurelhurst is across Sand Point Way and is not walkable from the majority of homes in the Sand Point attendance area, or any of Bryant, View Ridge, or Wedgwood.
Green Lake (to me) is oddly slotted into the Eckstein area but surrounded by highly desirable LI schools that all track to Hamilton. There are some great facets to Green Lake such as great parent involvement, good Principal, good school community -- but it is not a walkable distance from the highly overenrolled schools in the Eckstein area. It is also a small school and doesn’t even have a cafeteria so kids eat lunch in their classroom.
There is no large benefit to parents that might want to self-select into a currently under-enrolled school as you are likely doing so with no transportation and no guarantee that any younger age child will be able to attend the same school when they reach the K age.
Only observational data…each home in my neighborhood that has sold in the past few years has had a family move in. These are homes that were previously without kids. Now each sale brings in school age children, and/or multiple preschool age children.
This is the same sort of observational info. that was ignored when there was a large neighborhood cry to reopen Sand Point. And now Sand Point is already stuffed full.
-StepJ
The enrollment shrinkage at Laurelhurst is not a surprise AT ALL. When the district came out with the NSAP boundaries in November, 2009, the projected 2015 enrollment for Laurelhurst was 305.
Except, the district's numbers were wrong.
When I plugged every single address from the 2009 Laurelhurst student directory into the district's boundary tool, LH's 2015 enrollment projected to only 251. I communicated this to both the LH PTA board and to each individual school board member.
That is almost equal to the current enrollment as it rolls forward: 44 * 6 = 264
At the time, I thought SURELY there must be another shoe yet to drop. Given the severe overcrowding in Northeast elementary schools, the district couldn't possibly reopen Sand Point Elementary, only to see more than 200 seats at Laurelhurst sit empty. SPS staff MUST have some unannounced plan for the Laurelhurst building -- perhaps a new program of some sort?
Well, actually, no. The district spent $7 million to reopen Sand Point Elementary, gaining perhaps 100 seats in the process.
Elimination of half-day kindergarten was a significant loss for Laurelhurst Elementary. Parents howled about the decision, but the principal ignored them. She didn't recognize that the rock star half-day K teacher was (and is, and could be again) a valuable asset to attract out-of-area families into the LH building.
One last thing: The smaller enrollment at Laurelhurst has nothing to do with the loss of a feeder pattern into Eckstein Middle School. Today Hamilton is an equal (superior, IMO) choice to Eckstein. Hamilton has a beautiful new building -- not a farm of portables. Hamilton has APP and Spectrum, and its band and orchestra are defeating Eckstein's when they compete head-to-head. It's easier to make a varsity sports team at Hamilton. The building is packed, yes, but not like Eckstein, where students are not allowed to visit their lockers between classes because the hallways are dangerously overcrowded.
-StepJ
As for walkability, I would disagree slightly with StephJ (although she is mostly spot on). Sandpoint's boundaries are gerrymandered to pick up all three low income family housing developments (one of which is doubling or more in size) and just about every apartment in the area (so just about every transient resident). The main area of single family owner occupied homes that are assigned to Sandpoint are across Sandpoint Way, so the argument that they can't be assigned to Laurelhurst doesn't hold. It is actually much easier, safer and nicer walk to Laurelhurst Elementary from Hawthorne Hills than it is to walk to Sandpoint.
Alas, the gerrymandering of Sandpoint along with it being the school to take all the regional ELL students means that that school faces particular challenges that are making it unattractive to middle class home-owning families. My neighbor's child was in the inaugural kindergarten class. She wanted very much for it to work. But the relatively small class in September grew to 31 students by January with no support (eventually an IA was hired). With the transient nature of the demographic, that's going to happen over and over. There were immediately dozens of languages spoken and the district finally provided a part time Spanish IA. Regardless, my neighbor and others doorbelled the entire area to talk up the school, because without the middle class families to add diversity and support... Well, they didn't convince any family to join. My neighbor sold her home and moved 10 blocks north (but that was not the main reason).
Libros's predictions were that Sandpoint would stabilize at 30% FRL. It will be twice that next year. Look it up on Zillow.com and see if that's not a civil rights lawsuit in the making.
When the District has construction projects that get state matching funds they often have to affirm that the project will not significantly increase segregation. I wonder if any of the work to re-open Sand Point Elementary fell under that rule.
Sand Point: 23%
Laurelhurst: 11%
Bryant: 6%
View Ridge: 5%
I urged the board members to roll out SPE as a language immersion option school.
That got zero traction, perhaps because it makes too much sense.
Designating SPE as language immersion option school for the Northeast could accomplish many objectives. The ELL population would be perceived as an asset. Students would be drawn away from the most crowded NE schools (Bryant, View Ridge, Thornton Creek). Redrawing Windermere and/or Belvedere Terrace and/or Hawthorne Hills into the Laurelhurst attendance area would help fill the 200 empty seats at Laurelhurst. And sending SPE students to Hamilton Middle School would ease overcrowding at Eckstein.
By the way, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings in California, who helped bankroll the 1240 charter school ballot initiative here in Washington, is a member of Rocketship's "National Strategy Board."