Tuesday Open Thread
Another week and no budget from the Legislature. Disgraceful. (I'm marching in the Pride Parade on Sunday in support of Leslie Harris and Jill Geary for School Board and if I see any legislators there, I'm going to give them a cheerful earful.)
If the state shuts down - even partially - it will have real effects on the population. For one, the state parks will close and that will be terrible for those planning their 4th of July. Naturally, the bigger issue, especially for school districts, is the inability to clearly plan spending without knowing how many dollars are coming in.
At the last Board meeting, the Board voted to name the two new buildings at the Wilson-Pacific site. The middle school will be the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and the elementary school will be named Cascadia Elementary. (It was explained at the Board meeting that the spelling of Eagle Staff's name was corrected by the family and this is the correct spelling.)
There is a scoping meeting for an EIS on the three options on the Bell Time issue on Thursday, June 25th from 6-7:30 pm at JSCEE.
Additionally, comments on the alternatives, mitigation measures, probable adverse impacts and licenses or permits that may be required may be submitted not later than July 6, 2015 by mail or by email. For more information on how to provide comments and the scoping meeting, please visit this site.
There will also be a series of meetings before the Bell Times scoping meeting on Thursday at a Board Special Meeting.
The presentation on the Legal department gleans some interesting information like they have budgeted $770K for "legal settlements." As well, it includes 504 staffing for nurses, interpreters and audiologists. Page 10 has the amounts of money spent on "outside service contracts" and it adds up to about $1.5M. Also the S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat/Risks) cites as a "threat/risk" the turnover of staff lawyers (5 in 3 years) and "increased public records act requests."
The Executive Committee of the Whole has one topic - the SBAC resolution.
What's on your mind?
If the state shuts down - even partially - it will have real effects on the population. For one, the state parks will close and that will be terrible for those planning their 4th of July. Naturally, the bigger issue, especially for school districts, is the inability to clearly plan spending without knowing how many dollars are coming in.
At the last Board meeting, the Board voted to name the two new buildings at the Wilson-Pacific site. The middle school will be the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and the elementary school will be named Cascadia Elementary. (It was explained at the Board meeting that the spelling of Eagle Staff's name was corrected by the family and this is the correct spelling.)
There is a scoping meeting for an EIS on the three options on the Bell Time issue on Thursday, June 25th from 6-7:30 pm at JSCEE.
Additionally, comments on the alternatives, mitigation measures, probable adverse impacts and licenses or permits that may be required may be submitted not later than July 6, 2015 by mail or by email. For more information on how to provide comments and the scoping meeting, please visit this site.
There will also be a series of meetings before the Bell Times scoping meeting on Thursday at a Board Special Meeting.
- Public Hearing: Budget (4:30-4:45 PM)
- Oversight Work Session: Legal (4:45-5:30 PM)
- Executive Committee of the Whole (5:30-7:00 PM)
The presentation on the Legal department gleans some interesting information like they have budgeted $770K for "legal settlements." As well, it includes 504 staffing for nurses, interpreters and audiologists. Page 10 has the amounts of money spent on "outside service contracts" and it adds up to about $1.5M. Also the S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat/Risks) cites as a "threat/risk" the turnover of staff lawyers (5 in 3 years) and "increased public records act requests."
The Executive Committee of the Whole has one topic - the SBAC resolution.
What's on your mind?
Comments
--New2Area
SPS stupid
You have got to be kidding me, when will the special interest foolishness end. I suppose the students or I mean Highly Capable Cohort will be bused in from all over the city. I will never vote YES for a School Levy again.
Done andDone
The play fields at Wilson will be relocated on site.
On Cascadia, I'm not clear - is it the square footage or the placement on North 90th and Wallingford that is so distasteful?
Re. Lincoln: There was discussion in the past around Lincoln using the fields at Wilson-Pacific. Current plan is to work with Parks to use the fields at Woodland Park ... which is what was done in Lincoln's first high school incarnation.
Reply to DoneAndDone:
- The use of the new Cascadia Elementary building has been common knowledge for several years at this point.
- The north end HCC cohort is currently housed at Lincoln. We needed to (a) provide them a permanent home, and (b) empty out Lincoln, to make it available to re-open as a high school. Put yourself in my/the District's shoes. What would you have done?
I find it hard to believe - with two schools at that site, that the playfields will be the same size but maybe.
Joe, please don't include synthetic turf in BTA IV. If the money isn't there in BEX, then it needs to wait.
Also, I can hardly wait to hear the screams when some people realize that their kids don't get Roosevelt and instead get Lincoln, a very tired building. Last I heard, Joe, that $17M to upgrade it isn't really enough. True? Also, using Woodland Parks fields will displace a lot of other people. It may be the only solution but not a great one.
I also see the new fields look to be 1/2 the size of the old fields. You know its really hard to tell whats going since you cant find the master plan online. Based on what limited information I could find, the new play area looks to be mostly asphalt, really Joe, asphalt and other oil based products, really?
SPS stupid
SPS stupid
Dr. Jackson
A lot of people argued for the new schools being a middle and high school and keeping the HCC elementary at Lincoln but that was not what was decided. The HCC kids come from that Lichton Springs neighborhood and the rest of the north end. The local kids will be able to go to middle school there.
HP
Payola
The SPS site makes it sound like there are only two schools, one for the chosen and then a middle school. We already know the local parents will protest if their kids are not able to attend. We are not going to let our kids be bused when there's a school 100 yards or less away.
SPS stupid
You're too late to the party to protest. Those HCC kids have to be moved out of Lincoln to make room for the high school seats the north end desperately needs.
Protesting stupid
Confused
I'm not so sure about that, HP. I think the architect first proposed the two schools in the original location of WP buildings - on the west side of the property, with the fields to remain where they are. It was parents that pushed for two schools on opposite ends of the property - parents, not the district. Flooding of Lichton Springs runs through the property north to south, right where they are now planning the new fields.
-was there
It was noted that the several of the mothers of elementary school children were aggressively asking the School District if there wasn’t a fourth layout of the schools not being shown that had the schools at opposite ends (west – east) of the property, with one of them taking the location of the present sports field, which they discounted as being subpar and no loss. The School District stated that if the sports field was displaced, it would be rebuilt in another location with no loss of the present size.
SPS should have avoided building expensive retaining walls and left the fields alone until the final phase of the project or in my opinion done nothing to the fields. We don't want your lights, we don't want your asphalt and we don't want your bacteria filled turf. But I forget that nothing SPS does is about the community or students, it's all about the special interest, employees and the business of making money off of children and tax payers.
I'm going to speak with the city about this HCC non-sense and try and put a stop to it.
SPS stupid
SPS BS
They are building 2 buildings there. The 2 buildings will contain: HCC elementary, Lichton Springs K-8 (option school), Indian Heritage HS and a local middle school. Local kids can go to any of these. Do you think that there are no HCC kids locally?
It does make more sense to put the fields where it floods instead of buildings. I hope they keep the fields natural and not that artificial turf.
You can complain to the city all you want. They don't control SPS.
HP
I don't know who you think you are fooling, but the 600 HCC students are not from a 3 mile radius to the site. According to SPS they are from anywhere north of the ship canal all the way to north 145th street. So either you are misinformed or SPS is misinforming me. Which is it?
SPS stupid
HP
with pictures of flooding
http://bex.seattleschools.org/assets/bexiv/WP-625-Presentation.pdf
waterfront property
SPS stupid
SPS stupid
HP
I agree with you about the fields. It's a shame. The entire WilPac plan is a shame. $120M to spend and we are getting two schools that will be too small on day 1 for the populations slated to go there. There will be no auditorium and the field will be unusable if it rains. With $120M they could easily have built an auditorium and lighted-turf field. Yes, I meant field. It will be one "multi-use" field so the city of seattle just lost more field space.
Melissa, I completely disagree with you. That field needs turf. Many kids and various members of adult rec leagues will be using that field. Fire a couple downtown administrators and it's paid for.
I wish it would have turned out different! I guess that's how people roll when it's other people's money and kids.
We're made of money
SPS stupid
Gah. If they had massed the buildings on the west (or better yet, had planned for a high school, instead of a middle and elementary school) the fields could have stayed in the same location and neither the buildings nor field would be in the path of the creek flooding. Some WP buildings did have water intrusion during the last overflow pictured in the links above.
@SPS stupid, the time for public input was long ago. A high school would have been the best use of the space, as it's accessible by metro, and is not a very walkable neighborhood for younger students with its proximity to Aurora and I-5.
-was there
And fyi, Olympic View elementary is 1.1 mile away, and Daniel Bagley elementary is .6 miles. Those are neighborhood schools. I live in the south NE (much more school age child dense than your neighborhood), and I do not live as close as .6 miles away from ANY school. It sounds like you live within a half to 3/4 mile of TWO options.
I actually hope the fields stay grass because there are concerns about cancer from artificial turf- http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166
which are at least serious enough to delay placing MORE of them. And if it's expensive to do so, seems like a no brainer. Wait. If you really want to spend some more money on the project, put in an auditorium.
-sleeper
You weren't at any of the many meetings that happened 2 years ago. I was. You don't have complete information. If you had gone, you would have heard the local families complain that they didn't want their children pushed OUT of Bagley, with its unique Montessori programming, which is the 'local' (and excellent) school.
The other local complaints were about building 2 schools, not just one, on the 18 acres and about parking, they didn't want cars parked all over, understandably.
The district has a severe capacity crisis, that's why 2 buildings are being built. They were approved in the local levy by more than 70% 3 years ago, and at the time the elementary school was designated with the APP program. None of this is new or has changed. Right now there are 700 elementary children who've been temporarily housed at Lincoln, awaiting this permanent home, for 4 years, and they will still have to wait 2 more. No elementary school has been located so long as temporary ever before. That's how bad the crisis is. It's not like they could simply be disbanded. There is no where else to go. Look at the schools your children attend: they are full and loaded with portables. And, high schools are full, and the situation is getting worse! That's why Lincoln MUST become a high school and why the elementary kids there, who have had no playground, no blade of grass, for six years, MUST leave.
I get you do NOT care about "them"(probably you don't care about West Seattle's middle college either). I get "these" are the kids you seem to think get "special interest". But if that is the case, why are they the ones who've been dispossessed for the most amount of time, with 4 shifts of lunch, with the lowest per building student funding (out of 95 buildings)? The truth is, there are no special interests.
"Local" kids are not going to be "pushed out" of any school. There won't be mandatory assignment into the K-5 portion of the K8. No local elementary child has been schooled at Wilson Pacific for decades (unless they were parent homeschooled).
And 'local' kids will get a brand new comprehensive middle school to go to. Some may be happy about this, but some may be as unhappy as they do not want to forgo Whitman.
Did you sign the WP petition and rally fellow local neighbors to sign to get an auditorium for local kids? I did. Perhaps we've met at the numerous directors' meetings I've been to on Saturday mornings, trying to get them to do the right by these future Wilson Pacific kids. I've tried to reach out to as many as possible to get 'local' kids, and the community, an auditorium. In fact, for the planning of BTA, I've tried to get folks to write in for an auditorium for WP. I was thrilled to see 93 did, which is extraordinary because so many parents don't even realize that their kids will be on that campus, let alone how important for community building and for supporting arts education an auditorium is. Hope you feel good that people do care and continue to try to support the children who will be there Sept 2017.
Bottom line: local elementary and middle schoolers will be able to attend the campus.
As for the fields, they're being located in the center to allow the 1,700+ students on campus easy access to them without sacrificing too much instructional time. This property is owned by SPS, the fields are for the students first and foremost, to meet their educational needs. It becomes a community amenity after hours. SPS has solved the flooding problems. Still hope artificial turf is used, so that the fields may be used by everyone all year long.
Glad you're getting engaged; to be productive, help the effort to get these kids, and the kids that will follow them for the next 100 years, an auditorium. Programming comes and goes. But an auditorium, and that will make a real difference.
WP
Clover Codd gets $148K salary, plus benefits (probably bringing her total cost to at least $200K per year).
Wow. That is insane. Really, really insane. You really think we can't get a glorified grant coordinator for $100K all in?
I notice the 'new guy' Echeverria who is suppose to 'fix all of this' (change management!) is sucking at the teet for $138K (with benefits, probably more like $180K). Great. And, when he leaves, we will have what to show for it? I'd rather fire him and keep West Seattle Middle College. Isn't the Super suppose to do the change management? Isn't that what a CEO is for? So far, all Echeverria has done is a power point, highlighting that 'we are in crisis'. Who knew?
I honestly think only failing a levy can stop this massive suckling. I have no problem supporting kids. I have a massive problem supporting this largess.
feeling the burn
Need toMove
At $120 million the site wont have an auditorium what did Shorecrest high school cost to build?
SPS stupid
There are many parents, throughout the city, that wish for this but the district was unable to create boundaries that allowed that (within a truly walkable distance). The schools at the Wilson-Pacific site are certainly not going to be the only ones.
"Melissa, I completely disagree with you. That field needs turf. Many kids and various members of adult rec leagues will be using that field. Fire a couple downtown administrators and it's paid for."
Well, YOU get those people laid-off and find the money and then that's great. But there are many other needs far greater than a turf field at a site with brand-new buildings.
"I honestly think only failing a levy can stop this massive suckling. I have no problem supporting kids. I have a massive problem supporting this largess."
Frankly, I agree. The District is taking about $39M from the Capital budget to put in the Operations budget. They say $8M is to service the bonds for JSCEE, $14M is for some kind of capacity management and the other $14M? Just plowed into the General Fund.
When you have that kind of vague flow of money, then you can't ask me for my vote for more.
Need to Move, Ballard is nowhere near the Wilson-Pacific site. And what "1700 moms with SUVs?" The blight on Aurora will likely be helped by the anchor of two schools. That said, yes, the District should ask the City about more police presence (at least at the beginning).
As for the cost, SPS always spends more than surrounding districts on buildings. It's very sad.
There are secondary schools (grades 6-12), which require specific space, expensive science labs, work out facilities, CTE space (think shop), instrumental music rooms, and an auditorium, and there are primary schools (grades K-5), that are basically classrooms plus some core space, like a cafetorium and gym and library. A classroom for art or music in elementary school does not have to be specific. The district is now adding childcare space and preschool space to the elementary buildings, which does have to be specific (bathrooms, etc) in order to comply with licensing requirements of outside entities. But still, it is possible to use those spaces as regular K5 classrooms (unless they are detached from the building, like the architects did to WP).
On the WP project, it was the architect who was fixated on his grandiose idea of courtyards and big hall non-classroom "flex spaces" that are anything but flexible. Courtyards will be difficult to secure (no direct site lines) both during school and during off hours. The WP advocates tried to stop that. Courtyards also chew up open space that could otherwise be enjoyed by the children and neighbors. They make for noise in the classroom during instruction time. Many tried really hard to fix the wastefulness of the plans (FACMAC, the WP bound families, the Design Committee, the community at the meetings), but the District under dialing-it-in-and-now-gone Banda and looking-for-his-next-job Flip Herndon, would not do a thing. The district did add $6 million to the project, not for more classrooms, or an auditorium, or for lighted, turf fields, but, for an extra layer of management. Seriously.
Policing after-hours by SPD will have to be the long term solution for this building's poor configuration, because those multiple, dark, obscured spaces will attract some to exploit them to shelter their nefarious and illegal activities. However, with lots, and I do mean LOTS of students around (the middle school, the K8, the elementary school, the Lincoln high school students, the community rec leagues), perhaps the campus will be so busy that criminal types will avoid the place.
So, to answer your question, the WP site will not have an auditorium unless YOU get out and demand one. The district does NOT want to give WP one, they are stubborn (and some are even somewhat vindictive in addition to being arrogant), but it is possible if the community demands it. Here is the petition, please sign it if you haven't already.
https://www.change.org/p/jose-banda-wilson-pacific-needs-an-auditorium
There is money to build an auditorium, in the BEX IV contingency. Or, from the BTA. The district just has to prioritize it. They won't unless there is a revolt. Be productive, be focused. Don't fight about who is in the buildings, fight about the buildings themselves. Make them good. They will be part of our neighborhood for 100 years.
WP Bound
HP
HP
sell JSCEE
HF
SPS stupid
2boysclub
AllgirlsTeam
Hey, @AllgirlsTeam
Maybe you should change your moniker to "AllMEANgirlsTeam", it may suit your attitude better.
Oh and, before you say, "can't you take a joke?", it is not a joke. You are snarking at children. Young children. Ain't nothing funny 'bout that.
@Melissa,
AllgirlsTeam just insulted children; implying that these kids are so snotty they thing the school bus is beneath them, so they get their parent to drive them into school. It is insulting, untrue, and does not contribute to the discourse. It is also uncalled for.
Your blog; your call.
WP Bound.
The Licton Springs neighborhood (north of the Wilson-Pacific campus) is currently assigned to Viewlands, which is way, way, west and across Aurora from Licton Springs.
When the bulk of the North Seattle boundary changes take place in 2017, the Licton Springs neighborhood will be assigned to Olympic View (not Bagley as inferred in another post on this thread). Olympic View is across I-5, to the east of Licton Springs.
The Licton Springs neighborhood isn't within an elementary school walk zone now, and they won't be in one when the boundaries change in 2017, so it is understandable (at least to me) why families living within blocks of the Wilson-Pacific campus might be a little perturbed that they won't have access to the new elementary school (unless their child happens to be HCC, or a very small option K-8 housed within a comprehensive middle school building is something they feel comfortable trying).
- reality check
It is about 10 blocks from Aurora to 5 at that point- incredibly narrow, making them basically unavoidable. Frankly it is impressive that the district manages to avoid having almost half the students in that neighborhood cross either.
-sleeper
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