Seattle Schools Has Reversed its Plan to Change Middle School Assignments for Kimball-Area Kids

From Beacon Hill parents:

On Monday, June 8th, Lester "Flip" Herndon from Seattle Public Schools came to Kimball to let us know that SPS staff will now recommend to the School Board that Kimball-area kids stay assigned to Mercer Middle School for the foreseeable future, instead of Washington Middle School.

SPS’s 2013 plan to assign Kimball-area kids (currently in 3rd grade or younger) to Washington for middle school was based on Mercer being too full and not able to expand. One of the biggest hurdles was a lack of water for emergencies. The district dug deep to cut through the red tape and find the funds to install a fire hydrant and build 4 new portables at Mercer this summer. 

Many thanks to everyone who worked hard on this issue including Kimball's informal Growth Boundaries committee, Kimball's PTSA, Mercer's PTSA, Flip Herndon and Betty Patu, and to everyone else who wrote letters, made phone calls, and made your voices heard at school board/community meetings!

Comments

Lynn said…
So Washington will have only 90 or so general education students and 150 HCC students per grade. Or are they going to redirect a school from Meany?
6/11/15, 3:23 PM
Helen said…
Or maybe take APP out of Hamilton and send them all to Washington?
6/13/15, 1:57 PM
Charlie Mas said…
When my family lived in the Kimball attendance area, our middle school was Washington, even though Mercer was only a few blocks away.
6/15/15, 2:46 PM
Charlie Mas said…
When my family lived in the Kimball attendance area, our middle school was Washington, even though Mercer was only a few blocks away.
6/15/15, 2:47 PM
Charlie Mas said…
When my family lived in the Kimball attendance area, our middle school was Washington, even though Mercer was only a few blocks away.
6/15/15, 2:47 PM
Joe Wolf said…
The other part of this proposal is to keep Muir in the WMS feeder pattern, rather than moving it to Meany.
6/15/15, 4:44 PM
Lynn said…
Thanks Joe!
6/15/15, 6:07 PM
Unknown said…
Charlie: Are you trying to indicate that you believe the neighborhood school goal is rubbish?

Here is the growth boundary map showing Kimball and John Muir.
http://sps.ss8.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Enrollment%20Planning/Maps/growthboundarymaps/pdfs/SD_ESMS.pdf

It looks like the map with Kimball/John Muir change is less gerrymandered and fairer to both schools.
We're very pleased with the change.

The north end is still not so great, with the Wilson-Pacific geozone apparently ignoring all natural and built boundaries, but it sounds as though the school district is trying to follow its walkzone principles.
6/15/15, 10:05 PM
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