Community Mtg on Capacity/Assignment

Update:

From the District:

The District invites the public to learn about the latest recommendations at a community meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 11. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions. District leadership continues to meet with school communities in each region.

In addition, the Seattle School Board will hold a Work Session Wednesday, Dec. 5 to study both the Short Term Capacity Management Plan and the New Student Assignment Plan (NSAP) Transition Plan for the 2013-14 school year.

Both issues are scheduled to be introduced at the Jan. 9, 2013 School Board meeting, with board action on both short-term capacity management and NSAP Transition Plan scheduled for the Jan. 23, 2013 board meeting.


What:             Seattle Public Schools Short Term Capacity Management Community Meeting

When:             Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012

Time:              7-8:30 p.m.
Who:               Public welcome to attend  
                       
Location:        Auditorium, John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Ave. S., Seattle

For more information on BEX IV, please visit http://bit.ly/SPSBEX
For more information on capacity management, please visit http://bit.ly/SPSCapacityManagement

I think it will be interesting to learn how the district and Schools First plan to sell to this to the general public.  The regular line of "it's for the kids" would come at a difficult time to many so I would hope there would be a fresh approach to BEX IV.

End of update
Still need to confirm this from the district but I got it from a reliable source.

There is to be a community meeting on December 11th from 7-8:30 p.m. at the JSCEE auditorium.

I will confirm and get details but a heads up if you are looking to advocate for your community or want more answers.


Comments

Po3 said…
What are the recommendations?
Po3 said…
I see the links now. Lots of portables, no surprises there.

There also seems to also be a number of boundry changes, does that mean that for example if you are in QA Elem boundry now but not for 2013 your kid gets reassigned? I don't understand that aspect.

No mention of APP at any level - so I am assuming one more year at Hamilton for APP students - or will that end up to be late breaking news after open enrollment?
Anonymous said…
Are there updated capacity planning documents, or are these links to the 2012-13 plans the relevant ones? Not sure if I'm looking at this wrong and seeing old info or if this is still the current info for the upcoming discussion...

-planning

Planning, the announcement doesn't say does it? I would have to assumed that the links provided ARE the most up-to-date but I'll ask.
Anonymous said…
Looks like the info on the capacity management webpage is old...from last year.

-North End Mom
Eric B said…
Yeah, those capacity planning documents are for last year. FWIW, short term capacity planning is getting us through next year's enrollment. Somewhere along the line, there will probably be an intermediate term process that will take us through the beginning of the BEX construction. The intermediate plans will need to be updated/checked every year to manage changes in actual enrollment from planned enrollment.
Anonymous said…
So what schools are on the table for boundary adjustments for next year? How can one find out?
NEP
Anonymous said…
Good question NEP! Some schools are full to bursting and others would like greater enrollment. We're at the point it's about to fundamentally impact programs if the Board doesn't step up and change a few baounaries. It has to happen-- better to do it incrementally and keep the programs schools rely on than to ditch say certain SPED or PCP and then have to rebuild it all next year when boundaries do change and (hopefully ) school populations right-size. Change the boundaries not at the hardest-hit schools!

Squeezed In
kgroth said…
We've been told around Nov. 14th that there would be a Capacity community meeting within 1-2 weeks in the Eckstein service area. We didn't hear anything until the Dec. 11th public meeting scheduled downtown. I assume it's the same meeting unless you hear of a different one to address Eckstein area schools specific items?

Pinehurst K-8 parent
KGroth, you should ask Pegi McEvoy that question.
Anonymous said…
@kgroth

I agree, a meeting to discuss the middle school situation in the north end should be scheduled ASAP.

I keep hearing that they will be roll-up a middle school for Wilson-Pacific in the John Marshall building, beginning 2014. Which schools will feed into Wilson-Pacific MS (Green Lake? Olympic View? Bagley?). The only Eckstein Schools in that mix are Olympic View and Green Lake. Is that enough to bring Eckstein down to a reasonable enrollment until Jane Addams Middle School opens in 2017???

My kid is at John Rogers, and none of us know where our kids will be assigned for middle school between now and 2017, or even if they will be assigned to an actual comprehensive middle school. Right now, our "options" seem to be a very over-crowded Eckstein (I heard there is room for 6 more portables there), or some sort of interim concoction at John Marshall (oh, wait, that's where Wilson-Pacific MS is supposed to roll-up...). I have heard some crazy talk about rolling up the comprehensive middle school at Jane Addams with the K-8 in place. If the building was twice the size that it actually is, that might work, but seriously, who would place their kindergarten in that mess?

The K-8 program currently in the Jane Addams building won't be a middle school option for most of us, because even if they take in more middle schoolers for the next couple of years, they are going to have to shut that down by 2015, in order to fit into their new building at Pinehurst (assuming that is still the plan). That doesn't help those of us with kids entering middle school in 2015.

There are actual kids in elementary school RIGHT NOW that need a safe, educationally sound middle school for next year, and the following years. If SPS doesn't get something right soon, the only winner in this will be Shoreline Schools. Out-migration is looking like the only viable option up here.

I hope the administrators at Shoreline Schools read this blog, and are planning for increased enrollment accordingly. Maybe they will even provide a bus?

-JR Mom
Anonymous said…
I thought the plan was to return the JA site to a comprehensive middle school and relocate JA as a K-5, on the assumption that JA 6-8 students would remain in the current building since many of the students are already in the neighborhood. This would relieve overcrowding at Eckstein, but would not solve overcrowding at Hamilton (which can't use added portables as a solution).

It would be nice to know what options are being considered PRIOR to open enrollment. If you make the decision in part on the location of the school and that changes after enrollment, then what?

-NE parent
Anonymous said…
@NE parent

Nope. That is not the current plan. That would make entirely too much sense in terms of solving capacity issues as well as middle school implementation issues. This district does not use common sense, or they would have re-purposed the JA building as a middle school instead of a K-8 in the first place.

Instead, they are planning (at least last I heard) to demo the Pinehurst building and build an enormous, 3-story "Green" building for the E-STEM program, which aspires to grow to over 700 kids.

I think there will be almost that many kids in the just the 6th grade class at Eckstein in a few years.

Seriously, SPS is off its rocker. Shoreline, I hope you are ready for us!

-JR Mom

Anonymous said…
Sorry for venting. It is just so frustrating. They knew there would be middle school capacity issues when these kids were in kindergarten.

The bottom line is that the Jane Addams building is not slated to be available for a comprehensive middle school until 2017, when a new building is ready to open for the K-8. That is a long time to go without a solid solution. I hope they present something feasible soon.

-JR Mom
kgroth said…
@Melissa Westbrook -
I have reached out to Pegi McEvoy and so has our Principal and we haven't heard from her in weeks. That doesn't give me a good feeling about the future of Pinehurst K-8. I followed up with our Director Sharon Peaslee who forwarded my email to Pegi to ask about when the meeting will be scheduled. I appreciate that Sharon did that. I imagine that Pegi is quite busy with a whole District asking questions, though since we are one of the schools being displaced I expect frequent conversations so we know our plan prior to Open Enrollment.
kgroth said…
I never heard back from Pegi McEvoy though I did get an email from Director Sharon Peaslee about a meeting on Monday, Dec. 17th for the NE Region schools.

See below a link to the document for tonight's All District Community meeting. It looks like there will be a community vote taken at the end. I hope there is time for comments and the meeting is not taken up with going through the slides like what happened at last week's Board Work Session.

http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/facilities/stcm12112011.pdf?sessionid=8803bbdea775b06575ec9f060c460076

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