More SPS Community Meetings on Boundary Changes

In November 2013, the Seattle School Board approved various changes to elementary and middle school attendance area boundaries (Growth Boundaries). These changes are being made over time. Planning is now underway for the boundary changes proposed for implemented for the 2015-16 school year. Students will be grandfathered at their current school.

In September, letters, including translated versions, were mailed to the families living in the affected areas who currently have students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools. The letters invited families to come to community meetings in early October to learn more. Enrollment projections show that these changes affect up to 1,172 current students.

A second round of community meetings are being held in upcoming weeks to answer questions and receive additional community feedback. The schedule is below.

At Dearborn Park International, staff will present information and answer questions about potentially changing the school to be an option school. There were several approved amendments to the Growth Boundaries implementation plan during the Board vote in November 2013. Amendment 7 tabled, for one year, any discussion of changing Dearborn Park International school to an option school. The Board will again look at this potential change as part of the 2015-16 implementation discussions in November.

Community Meeting Schedule
When
Where
Interpreters
Oct. 28,
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Dunlap Elementary
4525 S Cloverdale St
Spanish, Somali and Vietnamese
Oct. 29,
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Dearborn Park International
2820 S Orcas St
Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese
Oct. 30,
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Northgate Community Center,
10510 5th Ave NE,
Spanish and Somali
Nov 3,
6:30-7:30 p.m.
Alki Elementary
3010 59th Ave SW
Spanish and Somali
Nov 4,
6:30-7:30pm
Beacon Hill International
2025 14th Ave S
Cantonese

More information, including maps of the change areas, are posted at http://bit.ly/GrowthBoundaries
Email comments or questions to growthboundaries@seattleschools.org

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more