Updates on Growth Boundaries

Over at the Soup for Teachers Facebook page there was some unhappiness over what info is available at the SPS website around the Growth Boundaries.   Apparently some parents received an email about them but it had no link to the webpage (which means you would have had to search for it yourself.)  And here is the link.

And why are isn't the notice of translated materials in this email? It's easy to do an email with four other sentences at the bottom in other languages as a minimum - starting with: Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Amharic or Somali.
 Eden Mack of the Seattle Council PTSA said complete information was sent out to all legislative PTA chairs and PTA presidents.

The district then sent this message out (apparently in response to complaints):
"My apologies. When I copied the message into the automated system, the link got lost, and I didn't notice. We will be sending an updated message with the link.

In general, only two elementary schools will see boundary changes next year, and those stu
dents will be grandfathered. Therefore, no elementary students will be changing schools because of boundary changes.

The two new middle schools, Eagle Staff and Meany, will open with only slight changes to the boundaries approved in 2013.

Here is the link: http://seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627...

Translated messages were sent to families who use use other languages.

The timing is not ideal as the board voted on Wednesday night, and we had told families that attended community meetings that we would share information with all impacted school communities quickly. Maps are in progress. With multiple amendments, we did not know what outcome to anticipate.

We will work to do better.

Tina Christiansen
Growth Boundaries Communications"
Two items of note. 

The Growth Boundaries page says nothing about possible changes to the Student Assignment Plan and upcoming SAP meetings.  I appreciate the volume of work involved but the boundaries and the enrollment plan are intertwined.  There should be a link at the Growth Boundaries page to the SAP.

Also, I was unable to attend the Work Session on the 2017-2018 Budget yesterday.  It was reported back to me that the $3M extra that staff had cited as the costs (transportation and otherwise) to the looming levy cliff of $71M is NOT all due to the Board-approved boundary changes.  Only about $1M is projected for those costs.  What's the other $2M? Various items like school supplies, staffing costs, etc.

As to why the staff put the blame on the extra $3M at the feet of the Board's vote on boundary changes (when it wasn't even the majority of the amount to boot) is anybody's guess.

Comments

Anonymous said…
All the Student Assignment Plan web pages still say that the SAP is being updated with Cedar Park opening as an attendance area school. It's been a week. You would think they could have updated their website by now.

I certainly hope they are sending direct correspondence to Olympic Hills and John Rogers families who may still think their kids are being re-assigned to Cedar Park next fall.

-North-end Mom
OV Parent said…
I see that for Olympic View in 2017-2018, they split the students so that some go to Eagle Staff and some go to Jane Adams for middle school. Currently Olympic View feeds into Eckstein.

Are there other elementaries that feed into multiple middle schools (besides Cascadia)?

To make matter worse, the Olympic View students that feed into Eagle Staff are then split between Roosevelt and Nathan Hale for High School. And the Olympic View students that attend Jane Adams are then split between Nathan Hale and Ingram for High School.

Is this right or is that an oversight? The planned boundaries for Olympic view have been changed so many times over the last three years its hard to keep up.

Anonymous said…
I think Green Lake also splits.

2boysclub
Anonymous said…
In addition to Olympic View being split between JAMS and Eagle Staff, Green Lake is split between Eckstein and Hamilton, but that was done intentionally (Amendment 2). Wedgwood and View Ridge are split between Eckstein and JAMS (and have been since JAMS opened). Viewlands and the Broadview-Thomson attendance areas are split between Whitman and Eagle Staff.

See this map: http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Enrollment%20Planning/Growth%20Boundaries/2017-18%20change%20maps/2017_18_AA_ES_MS_w_Board_Decisions_district.pdf

-North-end Mom
Anonymous said…
I forgot to mention in my post above that Olympic View's attendance area has been split between Eckstein and JAMS since JAMS opened (just like Wedgwood and View Ridge). For 2017-18, the northern portion of Olympic View still goes to JAMS, the southern portion will be changed from Eckstein to Eagle Staff.

-North-end Mom
Unknown said…
Does anyone know if they are opening that new high school? Is it Lincoln? I have an 8th grader who is in the Ballard boundary as we are in Magnolia but I've heard rumblings that they might take students from different high schools to put into the new one. I didn't really find much about this on SPS web site other than 2019 is the projected date to open.

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