Turns out Seattle Schools was listening when parents at Capitol Hill public school Stevens Elementary “strongly opposed” proposed attendance boundaries — the latest draft of the new attendance boundaries looks a lot like the old boundaries. You can see the updated map, below.
The new boundary plan will be presented to the School Board Wednesday afternoon in a session expected to be jam packed with public comment as neighborhood issues with the latest boundary proposal from across the city get worked out.
The same session will also include the board’s consideration of a proposal to provide district facilities to the Central District community groups that have taken over the Horace Mann school at 23rd and Cherry.
While the school district seems ready to meet the demands that Stevens attendance zone south of Madison be maintained, we haven’t yet heard back from officials about how maintaining the same borders will address overcrowding at the school.
In a letter sent to school families, members of the Stevens attendance committee said they “strongly oppose the proposed expansion of our boundaries to the north and east.” “These expansions would displace the south-of-Madison group of families and siblings that are already integral to our community and who bring Stevens much of its diversity, only to replace them with other families,” the letter read. “Our community does not welcome this solution, which does not appear to solve our capacity issue while negatively affecting diversity at Stevens.”
Meanwhile, Capitol Hill’s other public elementary school’s attendance zone expands even more as Lowell’s empire spreads from western Capitol Hill to Belltown to the ID.
More on Wednesday’s board meeting and agenda here (PDF).
Which parents have the ear of the Board here? Those in Capitol Hill perhaps. If you think that narrow band north of E. Union is where the CD is and that those south of E. Union don’t count your article may have some truth. If you think that even the original plan was sustainable and do not remember that there have been numerous attempts to redraw them every few years. Only if you believe that this will be sustainable and that the TT Minor neighborhood of 500 students should continue to be bused at District expense to infill other schools and remain on the unstable fringe forever would you think the Board is really listening.
http://www.centraldistrictnews.com/2013/10/neighborhood-group-still-wants-tt-minor-reopened-for-elementary-students/
Megan and J Seattle, It is very frustrating to spend on this time on correcting the misunderstandings that are resulting from your post. First what is confusing and misleading here is that, yes, there are no changes proposed for the 2014 school year, but going forward the last maps had all south of Union to Cherry assigned to Madrona. Another splice and dice of our neighborhood as back fill for any school in some part of Capitol Hill or Madorna or Madison Park that happens to need students. This would allow the District to precede with the construction planning for WS at TT Minor, leaving us in the lurch again. Just checking and getting all the facts straight in a way that doesn’t portray a false sense of what is going on would be much appreciated. The community groups here to some extent have appreciated the opportunity that the blogs give to share information. But, when the spin seems to becoming from a whole different direction with no outreach to the volunteers who have been working day in and day out on the issue, it just feels wrong. I still see no out reach to perhaps correct or add to the article. I am doing all the out reach. Joanna
The Washington/Meany border seems needlessly complicated. The Leschi and John Muir elementary schools should really feed into Washington, not Meany. Those kids have to go basically straight past Washington Middle School to get to the new Meany School.