School closures to be voted on Thursday night

The Seattle School District has a closure and relocation plan in response to budget woes. There have been marches and protest web sites. Thursday afternoon there will be another rally. And now there are also amendments to the plan that need to be voted on. Enrollment planning for the next school year looms in the coming months. Come Thursday night, a meandering public process will reach an uncertain milestone.

Underlying this whole situation is a student assignment plan that is still in the works -- hard for a community to fight for a school if it doesn't know if its children will ever go there. While its student's are scattered across the city -- this infographic shows high school student dispersal, for example -- Capitol Hill's geographical concerns in the matter center around changes to these area schools:

• TT Minor's recommended closure (Radio Point and CD)
  
• Move of portion of Lowell's accelerated program (Broadway)
  
• Move of the NOVA alternative high school to Meany and dissolution of Meany's junior high program (Miller Park)

Additionally, there are amendments to the plan to be voted on including these two that would change the plan's impact to Capitol Hill-area schools:

• One amendment would allow APP-qualified students who live in the Lowell walk zone to attend APP at Lowell. (anybody know specifics of 'walk zone' definition?)
• Another from board member Mary Bass would retain status quo around Capitol Hill with NOVA staying in place, TT Minor remaining open and Lowell continuing unchanged with its current all-accelerated student population.

Check out coverage from West Seattle Blog and The Seattle Courant for more information.