Two Items of Note about Seattle Public Schools

As I previously reported, there has been a spate of muggings around Ballard. It appears to be a group of boys/men in a couple of different cars who swoop down on one or two teenaged kids to take cell phones, money, computers, etc. One incident appears to have included a pistol whipping. My understanding is that the muggings took place against boys.

My sources tell me there is to be a meeting on Wednesday with city officials and some members of the Board on this issue. 

Sources say:

- 10-12 incidents

- one boy kidnapped and held in a van for an hour being asked for phone passwords

- besides the pistol whipping, other violence (hitting, slapping, etc)

- four incidents gun-related

If you have an incident you want to add to the list, I have an email of a parent who is collecting information. Please email me at sss.westbrook@gmail.com.

The other item is about the rebuilding of Alki Elementary School and challenges to the district's desire for multiple zoning departures. The one issue still on the table is the parking (or lack thereof). 

From the West Seattle Blog (bold mine):

First, the backstory: Seattle Public Schools needed nine zoning exceptions – “departures” – to get approval for its plan to build a bigger, taller school on the site. The city Department of Construction and Inspections granted the nine departures. Four Alki residents appealed the decision. After a subsequent daylong hearing, a city hearing examiner upheld the city decision on all but one departure – the one that would allow the school to be built without off-street parking; current zoning would otherwise require 48 spaces.

 The examiner’s ruling sent the parking issue back to the city for “further consideration.” The district could have opted to work on that issue with the city but instead decided to file a court challenge to the decision. 

That challenge is set for a full hearing in January, but the city filed a motion to dismiss it, and that’s what was heard today in an online hearing before King County Superior Court Judge Wyman Yip. We monitored the hearing, which lasted less than 15 minutes.

As the West Seattle Blog says, that case is not a lawsuit but "a land-use petition." The district contends that the hearing examiner's ruling was the last decision but the City said that all the hearing examine did was to send the parking kerfuffle back to the city planners.

The judge, Wyman Yip, asked no questions and he said there would be a final decision on Monday, the 23rd. But, just hours after the hearing, the judge DID make a ruling.

"...he has dismissed the district’s case, agreeing with the city that the hearing examiner’s ruling granting the appeal of the no-parking decision was not a final land-use decision, so this manner of challenge was not appropriate.

As the West Seattle Blog correctly notes, it doesn't mean the district is going to provide parking but it does mean both sides need to work on the issue.

It also means a slowdown of the project.