Look What I Found

Yes, it's the old reports from the Closure and Consolidation Committee back in 2006. The top photo was a binder of all the schools we were to examine; it was about two-thirds of the schools. I have since gotten rid of its contents but I must have kept the binder.

As you can read from the covers of the other two reports, one is the preliminary recommendations and the other is the final recommendations.

I am going to try to scan pertinent pages just to allow you to compare and contrast from then to now. Here's a couple of great statements:

For 17 years the financial resources of this district have supported excess facility capacity. These resources rightfully should have been directed towards the education of the children of this District. 

This tacit approval of the status quo has prioritized the bricks and mortar of buildings over the needs of the children who show up every day to learn. Resources need to be redirected towards the children of our city instead of toward maintaining buildings that no longer align with demographic reality. 

Shades of "well-resourced schools," no? 

While the topic of school consolidation began as a response to a projected $20M budget gap in 2006-2007, it has transformed into a deep examination of how Seattle Public Schools can best serve its students and families so that every student succeeds.

Twenty million and that was enough to raise alarms? 

The discussion began in April 2005 with preliminary recommendations from Superintendent Raj Manhas. These recommendations contained detailed proposals for school closure and consolidation, changes for the student assignment plan and adjustments to the transportation services plan.

When you go to one of the public engagement meetings, do see if staff brings in the issues of boundaries and transportation in any real manner.

Based on School Board and community feedback, the Superintendent withdrew the plan in May and announced that he would form a community advisory committee to assess the district's academic and fiscal sustainability. 

Two months later, in July 2005, the Superintendent chartered the 14-member Community Advisory Committee on Investing in Educational Excellence (CAICEE) to develop recommendations on establishing short- and long-term fiscal stability in support of academic achievement for SPS. The CACIEE delivered its final recommendations to the Superintendent in February 2006. 

CACIEE did agree that there were too many schools for current and future projections. The committee had community meetings, focus groups and a telephone survey. Their polling indicated that two-thirds of Seattle's citizens supported school closures as part of a comprehensive plan to improve academic excellence.

Well kids, as you well know, that is not the case today. The district has NEVER asked parents or staff or the public about how they feel about this plan. And School Board President Liza Rankin doesn't want them to so you are out of luck. 

CACIEE recommended the over-arching goal be a quality program in every building and that the primary consideration should be a program's demonstrated instructional success. They recommended use of a multi-discipline planning committee (including community members); a baseline analysis of capacity and student enrollment by area of the city; and an emphasis on looking beyond building fitness to academic achievement, building leadership, and family satisfaction.

Here's the C&C Committee speaking:

Our works seeks to build upon the efforts of the Superintendent's Advisory Committee (CACIEE) and actions that the the School Board and District are taking to address multiple, complex issues. CACIEE's work demonstrated that there is broad community support for school closures and reinvestment in educational excellence. 

Later:

We encourage the District to seek additional opportunities to capture and channel the good will of our citizens toward public education and Seattle Public Schools. Combined with the CACIEE report, this set of recommendations should be the starting point for the renaissance of equitable, quality public education.

That last sentence? Absolutely what should have happened; that CACIEE report was a thing of beauty. But see, staff get impatient with the thought that anything the public might think or offer is useless and so that report got set aside. (As do most committee reports from advisory committees.)