Seattle School District Updates

July 19, 2013

Both Green Lake Elementary and Genesee Hill Elementary buildings are being considered for city landmark status.

From the Landmarks Preservation Board:

The Landmarks Preservation Board will consider landmark nomination for Green Lake Elementary School at 2400 N 65th Street. The meeting will be on Wednesday, August 21 at 3:30 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5^th Avenue, 40^th Floor in Room 4060.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and make comments. Written comments should be received by the Landmarks Preservation Board by 5:00 p.m. on August 20 at the following address: Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 94649, Seattle WA, 98124-4649.

A copy of the nomination is available for public review at the Green Lake Branch Library, 7364 East Green Lake Drive North (206-684-7547); and at Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Office in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Ave, Suite 1700 (206-684-0228). The nomination is posted on Seattle Department of Neighborhoods website atwww.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/landmarks.htm under the heading of “Current Nominations.”

The Landmarks Preservation Board will consider landmark nomination for Genesee Hill Elementary School at 5012 SW Genesee Street. The meeting will be on Wednesday, August 7 at 3:30 p.m. in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Avenue, 16th Floor in Room 1600.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and make comments. Written comments should be received by the Landmarks Preservation Board by 5:00 p.m. on August 6 at the following address: Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, Seattle Dept. of Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 94649, Seattle WA, 98124-4649.

A copy of the nomination is available for public review at the West Seattle Branch Library, 2306 42nd Avenue SW (206-684-7444); and at Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Office in the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 5th Ave, Suite 1700 (206-684-0228). The nomination is posted on Seattle Department of Neighborhoods website (in three files on this page).

From SPS:

Now that the Washington State Board of Education has denied Seattle Public Schools’ request to waive the 180-school-day requirement to accommodate three professional development days, SPS has adopted the Option B calendar for the 2013-14 school year.

Two calendars were approved by the Seattle School Board at its July 3 meeting to accommodate pending state board action – Option A, with the professional development days included, and Option B, without. Since the state board on July 11 voted not to approve the waiver to include professional development days, SPS will now follow the Option B calendar, which shows three student instructional days instead of three professional development days. The already-scheduled early release days will remain in place.

Here is the link to the Option B calendar.

Seattle Public Schools is now working with its labor partners, as part of ongoing contract negotiations, to determine when professional development will take place during the upcoming school year. More information will be communicated to families as soon as it is available.

Key dates for next year’s school calendar include:

First day of school: Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013

Winter break: two weeks, from Dec. 23, 2013, to Jan. 3, 2014
Mid-winter break: Feb. 17-21, 2014, including the Presidents Day holiday
Spring break: April 14-18, 2014
Last day of school: yet to be determined (June 18 or 19, 2014)

The calendar also builds in four snow make-up days, including Jan. 31, 2014, May 23, 2014, and the two days after the last day of school. It’s important that staff and families plan for students to potentially be in school during these days, and to note that the last day of school could be Monday, June 23, 2014, if snow days are not used.

Comments

StringCheese said…

I apologize in advance if I am clearly missing something obvious but, why would SPS seek landmark status for Genesee HIll - a building that they are counting on tearing down in order to build a new, larger school?

I went to the document curious to see what neighborhood group or irate family was trying to jeopardize the new Genesee Hill project to find that the Landmark proposal was submitted by SPS, the land-owner.

What am I missing here?

7/19/13, 9:30 PM

WS Parent said…

The nomination of landmark status is somewhat of a misnomer for the process. In simplified terms, when a 25+ year old building is to be torn down or subject to major changes, the owner is required by city law to ask for review (originally to prevent destruction of true landmarks, now an extra cost in replacing old school buildings). There are also applications in on all of the other schools subject to renovations, including Fairmount Park

7/19/13, 9:47 PM

NE parent said…

They did the same thing for the Cedar Park school - which did get landmarked and can't be significantly modified. One reason mentioned at a SPS meeting was because they wanted to know upfront if it could be done to prevent a surprise after money had been spent on planning.

7/19/13, 10:32 PM

Anonymous said…

Why would anyone try and get landmark status for Green Lake Elementary -- it is a horrible building not well suited to educating children. It has been poorly taken care of and does not even have a lunch room. The children eat in their classrooms or outside under a partially covered porch. The best thing they could do would be to knock the building down and start again.

GreenLake Neighbor

7/21/13, 9:53 PM

Anonymous said…

GreenLake Neighbor, Green Lake Elementary is probably on there because the plan is to build a lunchroom/auditorium on open space to the west of the main building. It would substantially alter the overall use of the land. And the kids will not only get a useful lunchroom, but it will provide assembly and other space as well. And by the way, my kids have received an excellent education in that 'horrible' building, even in the absence of a separate lunchroom.

GLES Parent

7/22/13, 9:53 AM