The Alternative to Closing Schools (According to SPS)
I did previously report this out.
Senior leadership did a Budget Work Session on August 28th. In it. they had the two choices. Closing schools (with specifics on savings) or what I am calling "Plan B" below.
Plan B
Alternative Budget Reductions for 2025-2026
Potential Reductions. Positions Savings
Eliminate all Elem. & K -8 School Asst. Principals 22 $ 5.0 million
Increase middle & high school class sizes to 34:1 72.2 $11.2 million
Increase 4th & 5th grades class sizes to 30:1 32.5 $ 5.0 million
Increase K -3 class sizes (varies) 15 $ 2.3 million
Reduce all Librarian positions to .5 max 15.5 $ 2.7 million
Eliminate all School Equity Funds $ 5.4 million
Total 157.2 positions $31.6 million
They have 3 statements about class size but know what? That class size is going up anyway. There is no way that they are putting more kids in fewer buildings and coming out with lower or the same class sizes.
What I would ask is - can they do a combo of closing and some of Plan B to save more schools?
Comments
(Does this mean the class sizes would go DOWN? haha)
Please, do not do that to the 6-12 schools. Your students will not have quality electives and their core classes will not have enough chairs or desks to fit the 36-40 or more students assigned to a teacher.
-TeacherWithPets
The city has a massive families and education level and a payroll tax that youth just got increased $20 million in a few days of advocacy last year. We need to be able to tap into other resources.
I also can’t help but think that the state is partly the one pushing for bigger schools, but Seattle is a dense urban environment with strong community schools. We have a lot of young kids, and if sps let people have more options, we would have increased enrollment. We have so many different types of learners, it is absurd to go back to a neighborhood model (but not really, since they are tearing apart some neighborhoods in the process). Increase access and options for great schools, like dual language, k-8 and highly capable services. High demand for programs and that’s what you cut?
Sps alum and parent of 3 sps students with varied educational needs
Here are the places I would ask SPS to look first before even suggesting closing a school to close a budget gap.
1. Decrease spending at the central office to bring it more in line with other districts.
2. Be transparent about every current contract with every consultant to SPS. Then determine if any of them are more important than a kid's educational experience.
3. Disclose how much is spent annually on online curriculum costs. Think about whether an elementary school online science curriculum (for example) is really worth the annual expense.
4. Disclose the costs of all standardized tests that are not state or federally mandated.
I could go on....
NW Mom
If Jones is incapable of making his staff produce a decent plan to get us out of the deficit, then he needs to fire the incompetent people making around a quarter million dollars a year. I am talking Marni Campbell (WRS), Mike Starosky (chief of schools), Pat Sander (student services), Sarah Pritchett (HR), all the executive directors of schools that do nothing, Caleb Perkins and Cashel toner (academics not happening) and that young guy form out of town they hired as second chief of staff to do engagement after Bev Redmond failed so miserably.
And if Dr Jones can’t fire those people then he needs to be fired. And if the board does not fire him then the board needs to be removed.
Let’s do it