Seattle Schools Community Forum

I was contacted some months back by some Laurelhurst Elementary parents who were, at turns, flummoxed, frustrated and frantic.  It felt to them as if their school was unraveling and, like Stevens, their principal and the district did not seem to be giving their concerns much credibility or credence. Like the Stevens parents, they had asked for a meeting to have a whole picture meeting of the minds, with everything put out on the table.  (This after an earlier parent meeting that apparently was quite tense and non-productive, leaving both sides feeling unhappy.) The issue with Laurelhurst is multi-faceted.   One, their school is packed to the gills even with portables.  They even have some schooling happening in the halls.  Two, the Sped EBD services there seem to be serving a larger number of students than the school can help.  When there are behavior issues, many times the aide will take a child out to the hallway but there's some kind of teaching ther...

The Laurelhurst Blog has done a notable job in covering the issue of portables at Laurelhurst Elementary.  This is an issue that many schools have struggled with, both recently and long-term.  Here's one school's story. 

A reader had asked about a zoning variance that the district was asking for at Laurelhurst Elementary.  I was a bit surprised at the answer  - the lot size is smaller than the district thought it was. Here's what I wrote to the district: