Seattle Schools Releases Closure Proposals
I have not reviewed all this data and analysis but here are the cold, hard proposals. I can't believe how many schools appear to be stripped of their personality. We're looking at cookie-cutter schools here.
I also have not reviewed the boundary maps.
Proposed Option A (summary)
Savings: $31.5 million
52 schools (21 closing)
Transition to a system of attendance area elementary schools with no K-8 or option elementary schools.
Draft interactive boundary change tool for Proposed Option A.
Learn more about this proposal.
Under Option A -
NW
- Closing: Licton Springs K-8, Salmon Bay K-8, North Beach, Broadview-Thomson K-8
- School Type Changes: John Stanford, McDonald, and Cascadia become attendance area schools
NE
- Closing: Green Lake, Decatur, Sacajawea, Cedar Park, Laurelhurst
- School Type Changes: Thornton Creek Elementary becomes an attendance area school, Hazel Wolf K-8 becomes an attendance area K-5 school; while Laurelhurst building serves as interim site for Sand Point
Central
- Closing: Catharine Blaine K-8, John Hay, McGilvra, Stevens, TOPS K-8
- School Type Changes: Queen Anne Elementary becomes an attendance area school
SE
- Closing: Orca K-8, Graham Hill, Dunlap, Rainier View
- School Type Changes: South Shore PreK-8 becomes an attendance area K-5 school
SW/West Seattle
- Closing: Lafayette, Boren STEM K-8, Sanislo
- School Type Changes: Pathfinder K-8 becomes an attendance area K-5 school
Proposed Option B
Proposal B includes 56 schools (17 closing) and creates a system of attendance area elementary schools and one option K-8 school in each region.
- Savings: $25.5 million
- 56 schools elementary and K-8 schools (17 closing)
- Keeps an option K-8 school in each region
- Reduce the budget using other strategies including staffing reductions
See Option B schools below:
NW
- Closing: Licton Springs K-8, North Beach, Broadview-Thomson K-8
- School Type Changes: John Stanford, McDonald, and Cascadia become attendance area schools
NE
- Closing: Green Lake, Decatur, Cedar Park, Laurelhurst
- School Type Changes: Thornton Creek becomes an attendance area school. Laurelhurst building serves as interim site for Sand Point
Central
- Closing: Catharine Blaine K-8, John Hay, McGilvra, Stevens, Thurgood Marshall
- School Type Changes: Queen Anne Elementary becomes attendance area school
SE
- Closing: Orca K-8, Graham Hill, Rainier View
SW and West Seattle
- Closing: Louisa Boren K-8, Sanislo
Comments
I predict many more families will leave the district. Students will start leaving the schools on that common list as soon as parents can find another option.
Public2Private
1. I am shocked that Thurgood Marshall appears slated to close in the second plan. It has 500+ students, a good building and just was named a national blue ribbon school last year. How did that happen?
2. I found a note about the Highly Capable Cohort in the district’s FAQs. It says that students currently in cohort classrooms will “have the option to remain in a cohort model, even if their school closes.” Where will these HCC classrooms be? Decauter is slated to close in both plans, Cascadia is slated to become a neighborhood school in both plans and Thurgood Marshall is slated to close in Plan B. There will still be HCC classrooms needed in 3rd — 5th grades in 2025-26.
—Exhausted
Lo and behold, under the rubric of cost savings they are killing option and bilingual schools, just like I said. Soon we can all aspire to the equity of mediocrity.
It seems the district should divest themselves of those properties before they displace so many students.
I know there have got to be a few that have never been used as classrooms.
Also, what is the rent that we pay for the Center school?
It is never a good idea to cut sports. Sports are the only reason some kids go to school.
-Seattlelifer
-Beyond furious
When I fought the closures of alternatives in 2008 I used policy to argue with SPS admins. Those arguments at least daylighted the lack of research and study of pedagogy the district was guilty of. I'm sure that in this...slaughter of Alt schools they haven't weighed the damage to students. They need to be made accountable for their lack of consideration of pedagogy.
What is the current policy on closures of programs? What is required? Did they do it?
This is heartbreaking.
Licton Springs? Really? Our Native kids' school is going to be rubbed out, after SPS promised them a new school when they rubbed out Indian Heritate in 2008? Really? Chasing Natives out of the city in 1854, making them illegal in the city in 1867, now here's SPS, chasing them out again, here in 2024.
So sad.
NW Mom
NE mom
Which FAQ was that? Can you link it? I remember hearing some offhand mention from Podesta during a presentation that the drop in enrollment wasn't the problem and conversely that fixing enrollment would be at best a 0 and probably a net negative in terms of effect on budget. There was no data to support that remark and I suspect it hides a lot of assumptions and ideology but it was still a very intriguing statement in a public forum. (Maybe I heard it in a clip in Seattle Hall Pass podcast?)
- Seeing Red
I tried to warn people in 2018 that this is what was coming if Hampson and Rankin won, but no one listened!
Ex-NE Seattle mom
There is a part that is even crazier.
Sandpoint is a candidate to be re-built for the BEX VI levy, due mostly to the higher FRL enrollment as part of the low-income housing at Magnuson.
All of the Magnuson students are scheduled to move to View Ridge, which will now be much more economically diverse. Leaving the brand new Sandpoint school for the Windermere and Laurelhurst neighborhoods, creating a very high SES community in that new building.
Laurelhurst has a better campus for a rebuild, but the school is not eligible for a rebuild due to the equity matrix being used for planning.
Ex-NE Seattle mom