Enjoying This Tsunami of Information?

I firmly believe that down at the old JSCEE, senior staff said, "They want data and info? We're gonna give it to them."

The documentation released yesterday is just overwhelming. I am diligently reading through it and trying to pull out key items. One thing they could have done is group topics together but no, so if you are looking for a specific topic, you'll have to wade through all of it. 

I hope to get something together later today after I read, digest, and then organize the information in a way that is most helpful to parents. 

But I read the comments at the West Seattle Blog and it's a good snapshot of possible discussions going on around the district.

- This is heartbreaking. The reason I stay where I live and commute so far is so that my kids can apply to Boren K-8 next year and Lafayette as a backup. It’s a shame in a region so rich with STEM opportunities that both options will eliminate the only STEM school.


- Lafayette is the most walkable elementary school in West Seattle. Forcing half that school to go down to Pathfinder is ridiculous, and will significantly increased traffic and road rage.

 

-When we’re talking SPS district numbers, the ’24-’25 annual budget is $1.25 billion:Meaning they are disrupting kids and families, firing teachers and staff at schools across the city for what will amount to less than 2% savings in the budget. That’s a rounding error when talking in amounts this large. I do not believe this is the best way to save 2%.

 

- The per pupil transportation costs for the district are insane. They are double any other district in WA. It’s a $45M line item that should be scrutinized. The problem is Seattle never bought buses and pretty much all the competition dried up. So 1-2 companies just name their price and tack on a 15-20% profit markup every contract negotiation. A smart district would budget for the capital cost of buying buses in one of their levies that always gets passed from property taxes, then take the operations in house to reduce costs from the state.

 

- Not sure how closing 2 Delridge schools on a major bus line, in a diverse neighborhood of working class families is ‘equitable’. 

 

- If the K-8s are closed or changed to K-5s, will there be enough room for them in Madison and Denny? I don’t understand how the school district can reduce alternatives like Boren or Pathfinder, and expect parents not to consider private schools, charters or other districts like Vashon.

 

- Here we go. Divide and conquer.

 
- It makes zero sense to close Lafayette because just in case someone needs a reminder, Alki Elementary is being demolished to be rebuilt… The construction is expected to take 3 years and is delayed significantly because the neighbors had SPS in lawsuits due to traffic and parking concerns in the area. Current Alki kids are going to makeshift portable classrooms in the old Schmitz Park building that can’t even hold the current population of Alki Elementary. Imagine redistributing a good chunk of 520+ kids from Lafayette into a makeshift building at Schmitz Park for the next 5 years while Alki gets rebuilt. 

 

- It’s unfortunate that the metrics they are using to decide what is a good closure are completely divorced from the metrics of what makes a good school.

 

- The SPS philosophy is one (small) size fits all.  If a school “offers a lot of enrichment opportunities,” that puts a big bulls-eye on it.  They are closing it because it’s good, and popular with families.

 

- As a teacher at Lafayette, I found out about this when parents/community did.
What I keep coming back to is, how is it possibly more equitable for the children of Sanislo, who are almost all children of color and majority low income, to have no neighborhood school?

Comments

dj said…
As someone whose elementary kid's school is scheduled for closure on both lists, what I am absolutely not going to do is say "close that other school, not mine," even though it's tempting. The problem is (1) closing physical schools and (2) eliminating options for parents and kids who want or need alternatives to standard elementary-school programming. I want to focus my advocacy on that. I'm not going to take as a given that A and B are the only paths forward.
9/12/24, 10:40 AM
EL said…
The single most shocking thing to me about yesterday's report is the sheer volume of students undergoing school reassignment. When you look at the maps, the reassignment areas seem to cover more than half of the whole city! So even though my kids' elementary school OV is not slated for closure, both plans hugely impact enrollment because many kids currently going to OV would be reassigned to Hazel Wolf or Olympic View, and OV would (in one plan) absorb more kids from Sacajawea. Closing small schools in favor of better resourced schools is one thing, but redistributing half of the SPS elementary school population to save $30 mil is absolutely bonkers.
9/12/24, 1:30 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
El, I did warn this would happen. As well, they seem to be going towards a two-tier bus system and that may impact boundaries as well.
9/12/24, 2:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more