Central Region Elementary Schools
I had a question today about the probable fate of the southern end of the Stevens attendance area when the District re-draws the attendance areas in a couple years. It made me realize that there are going to be some changes coming for elementary schools in the Washington Middle School service area when the District re-zones. Let's look into our crystal ball and consider what they might be.
First, the District is re-opening Meany as a middle school. That means that students from Montlake, McGilvra, Lowell, and Stevens will get a default assignment to Meany rather than Washington. Madrona may be in the Meany Attendance Area as well, but 5th graders from Madrona will get default assignment to the sixth grade at Madrona.
One of those schools will have to be the designated Spectrum school for the service area. I would guess Lowell. Why? Because despite any policies or claims to the contrary, the primary determinant in program placement is space available and Lowell has a lot of space available.
Lowell has a capacity of 508 and an enrollment of 182. There are 326 available seats there. Lowell could take a hundred students from Gatzert, a hundred students from Stevens, and still have room for one hundred Spectrum students. I think you can see how silly it is to talk about building a school in South Lake Union when there are over 300 empty elementary seats just six minutes away.
So I think we can expect the Gatzert attendance area to shrink a bit in the north and for the entire southern part of the Stevens attendance area, probably everything south of Madison, to be shifted to Lowell. Lowell's attendance area could grow in the north as well to include more of Eastlake.
Thurgood Marshall is getting over-crowded and it is going to get worse. Thurgood Marshall is following the same path as Lowell, just a couple years behind. All of the schools around it - Gatzert, Leschi, and John Muir - are already overcrowded, too. Knowing the District, their solution is likely to be another split in elementary APP by creating a site in West Seattle. I'm not saying that's the best solution or even a good solution, but that's the one I think they will go with. Look for one of the newly opened schools in West Seattle - Fairmount Park, Schmitz Park, or Genessee Hill - to be designated as an APP site.
Conjecture is easy. Facts are hard. Seriously. It's hard to get any facts. Here is what I could find to use as building capacity numbers and enrollment numbers. Here's a table:
We need to remember, of course, that these capacity numbers are pretty fluid. So, as hard facts go, these are pretty soft.
First, the District is re-opening Meany as a middle school. That means that students from Montlake, McGilvra, Lowell, and Stevens will get a default assignment to Meany rather than Washington. Madrona may be in the Meany Attendance Area as well, but 5th graders from Madrona will get default assignment to the sixth grade at Madrona.
One of those schools will have to be the designated Spectrum school for the service area. I would guess Lowell. Why? Because despite any policies or claims to the contrary, the primary determinant in program placement is space available and Lowell has a lot of space available.
Lowell has a capacity of 508 and an enrollment of 182. There are 326 available seats there. Lowell could take a hundred students from Gatzert, a hundred students from Stevens, and still have room for one hundred Spectrum students. I think you can see how silly it is to talk about building a school in South Lake Union when there are over 300 empty elementary seats just six minutes away.
So I think we can expect the Gatzert attendance area to shrink a bit in the north and for the entire southern part of the Stevens attendance area, probably everything south of Madison, to be shifted to Lowell. Lowell's attendance area could grow in the north as well to include more of Eastlake.
Thurgood Marshall is getting over-crowded and it is going to get worse. Thurgood Marshall is following the same path as Lowell, just a couple years behind. All of the schools around it - Gatzert, Leschi, and John Muir - are already overcrowded, too. Knowing the District, their solution is likely to be another split in elementary APP by creating a site in West Seattle. I'm not saying that's the best solution or even a good solution, but that's the one I think they will go with. Look for one of the newly opened schools in West Seattle - Fairmount Park, Schmitz Park, or Genessee Hill - to be designated as an APP site.
Conjecture is easy. Facts are hard. Seriously. It's hard to get any facts. Here is what I could find to use as building capacity numbers and enrollment numbers. Here's a table:
SCHOOL | CAPACITY | CAPACITY W/PORT | ENROLLMENT | SURPLUS |
Montlake | 154 | 253 | 232 | 21 |
McGilvra | 230 | 279 | 297 | -18 |
Lowell | 508 | 508 | 182 | 326 |
Madrona K-5 | 304 | 304 | 186 | 118 |
Stevens | 380 | 380 | 379 | 1 |
Gatzert | 376 | 376 | 383 | -7 |
Leschi | 379 | 379 | 361 | 18 |
Thurgood Marshall | 383 | 383 | 450 | -67 |
John Muir | 429 | 429 | 461 | -32 |
We need to remember, of course, that these capacity numbers are pretty fluid. So, as hard facts go, these are pretty soft.
Comments
NW family
The map also included the number of SPS students at the grade band that lived within those boundaries. That very visual representation made it very very clear which schools had a huge mismatch between number of residents that lived close and the number of students the school could serve.
The school closures done four years ago were not evidence-based. They were done entirely to look good on paper.
My kids were at Lowell at the time, so we were greatly affected and I went to a lot of meetings. Parent after parent showed the district maps of apartments being built, census data and stories of crowded daycare/pre-school centers all over Capitol Hill. Did any of it matter? No.
I believe that those in power at the time knew that they were doing something terrible. I also believe they knew they would be a long way away when it all hit the fan.
-tired
"I believe that those in power at the time knew that they were doing something terrible. I also believe they knew they would be a long way away when it all hit the fan."
Not all of those in power at the time are gone ... and some school board members that voted for this are still on the board.
I know very well the three school board members who are still serving. I, unfortunately, had to vote to re-elect one of them last time because no one was running against them.
I was really referring to the SPS employees (MGJ, etc) who did these closures to improve their stats for their resume and not for the good of the children left in the mess.
That the school board members who voted for this mess are still serving is one of many reasons I don't think the district is being run as well as it could be. I will vote for the levy, but I wish those school board members were gone. I don't trust them to make the best decisions because their past votes have helped to make our current mess far worse.
-tired
-South of Madison
-- central elementary parent