Seattle Schools' Facilities Planning
Charlie and I have always enjoyed a good laugh over the district's "Facilities Master Plan" because we both could never understand how a list of buildings with descriptions and policies around them is a "plan." It will be interesting to see if the newest one is any better.
I attended both Work Sessions yesterday on facilities and it pretty much turned out how I thought. Staff's presentation for the first work session was overly long - a lot of flowery talk about the mission and values of facilities which is fine but you don't need five minutes about it - and sure enough, they had to rush at the end of the first Session. Directors seemed to have more questions to ask but they had to plow on.
I'll have a write-up of my notes soon. There were several handouts including this one that I thought parents might want to see. It's the newest Facilities Master Plan Replacement or Major Modernization Priority list. It has many categories of facilities conditions for each school in the district.
Dirge, please, for buildings scoring for the worst condition:
Elementary
1) Alki
Magnolia (but it has been closed and is already getting a renovation)
John Rogers
North Beach/Montlake (tied) -
I will note that Alki, Montlake and McGilvra are problematic for the district because they are on very small bits of land. The district has poured a lot of money over the years to shore them up and it will be a tough decision to renovate when they cannot build much bigger. By contrast, Northgate, also in the top ten, has a much large site to work with.
Middle School
1) Whitman
Washington
Mercer International
Aki Kurose
K-8
1) Salmon Bay
Boren STEM K-8
Blaine K-8
High School
1) Ingraham - this is a surprise to me, given that while Ingraham has never had a full renovation, they have been on every single BTA and BEX since those programs started. Very discouraging to see given the millions poured into what is, apparently - not a great building to start with.
Columbia (Interagency)
Rainier Beach - this one also surprised me as I think it surprised the Directors. It was stated that the building had "good bones."
I will also note that most of the schools in the top twenty are in the north end. One thing that was done - from the start of BEX - was to be scrupulously fair in where projects where done and, if you do a count, there have been more buildings done (at least since BEX III) in the south end than the north end.
I attended both Work Sessions yesterday on facilities and it pretty much turned out how I thought. Staff's presentation for the first work session was overly long - a lot of flowery talk about the mission and values of facilities which is fine but you don't need five minutes about it - and sure enough, they had to rush at the end of the first Session. Directors seemed to have more questions to ask but they had to plow on.
I'll have a write-up of my notes soon. There were several handouts including this one that I thought parents might want to see. It's the newest Facilities Master Plan Replacement or Major Modernization Priority list. It has many categories of facilities conditions for each school in the district.
Dirge, please, for buildings scoring for the worst condition:
Elementary
1) Alki
Magnolia (but it has been closed and is already getting a renovation)
John Rogers
North Beach/Montlake (tied) -
I will note that Alki, Montlake and McGilvra are problematic for the district because they are on very small bits of land. The district has poured a lot of money over the years to shore them up and it will be a tough decision to renovate when they cannot build much bigger. By contrast, Northgate, also in the top ten, has a much large site to work with.
Middle School
1) Whitman
Washington
Mercer International
Aki Kurose
K-8
1) Salmon Bay
Boren STEM K-8
Blaine K-8
High School
1) Ingraham - this is a surprise to me, given that while Ingraham has never had a full renovation, they have been on every single BTA and BEX since those programs started. Very discouraging to see given the millions poured into what is, apparently - not a great building to start with.
Columbia (Interagency)
Rainier Beach - this one also surprised me as I think it surprised the Directors. It was stated that the building had "good bones."
I will also note that most of the schools in the top twenty are in the north end. One thing that was done - from the start of BEX - was to be scrupulously fair in where projects where done and, if you do a count, there have been more buildings done (at least since BEX III) in the south end than the north end.
Comments
-North-end Mom
NB Parent
SSCF Reader
Cedar Park's landmark status was the reason given for why it was not a suitable site for Hazel Wolf K-8 (during BEXIV planning), because they would have had to tear down the building and re-build something larger to house the K-8. The entire site at Cedar Park has landmark status, not just the building, so that might be why the building could not be replaced?
-North-end Mom
I'm not trying to diminish your frustration by one-upping you, I'm mostly just pointing out that many of us go through a lot of school challenges by living in Seattle where there's such population growth and so little capacity, compounded by the continued mystery about the culture of the District.
ZZ
-Pollyanna