UPDATE 1/19/2011 9:15 AM: Schools director withdraws proposal to change Stevens Elementary boundary

In a move that has many parents in the area crying foul, Seattle Schools director Kay Smith-Blum has proposed that the boundaries for Stevens Elementary’s attendance zones be re-drawn so that children living south of Madison will be shifted to instead attend Madrona Elementary.

The proposal first came to light thanks to a post from an upset ‘Area 4’ parent who posted about the initiative on our sister site, Central District News:

This is the 3rd time in 3 years that the boundaries for this area have been motioned to be reassigned. 1st with the closing of TT Minor.  2nd to Stevens. And now to Madrona.

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Changing the school boundaries so frequently breaks up our community by dividing the families that live together by sending us to different schools.  Kids that are just a year apart in age living next door to each other will be attending different schools.  It doesn’t allow us to lend a hand to each other as neighbors to raise our families.  In this economy, we all count on each other for childcare assistance, babysitting exchanges, and carpools to school.

Please join me and speak up now in order to ensure that our families and our communities can have a real voice in deciding what is best when it comes to our vital public schools. The School Board is considering changing this boundary one year after saying that their demographic projections ensured some stability at least until 2015, and the extent of the ‘community engagement process’ identified in Smith-Blum’s document is that the proposal was reviewed by the Executive Board.

See area_stevens_charts.pdf for full map and analysis from Seattle Schools

In fall 2009, Seattle Schools released a revised plan for assigning students designed to make it easier for children to attend schools closer to where they live.

We have questions out to Smith-Blum and Seattle Schools about the proposed revision to the Stevens attendance zone and the timing of the proposal. The proposed amendment will be presented to the school board Wednesday night for a vote. Information about signing up for the limited speaking slots at the meeting can be found on the school board site. You can also send e-mail with your comments.

Schools spokesperson Teresa Wipple tells CHS the amendment is one of four changes being considered for the New Student Assignment Plan that will be considered by the board Wednesday night.

Here is the text of the proposal which focuses on capacity, transportation and safety issues for making the change. You can review the full amendment and additional analysis in the attached PDFs:

The proposed boundary changes would replace the boundaries in effect during the 2010-11 school year and go into effect for 2011-12. New students and entering-kindergarten students who live in the revised boundary area would be assigned based on the revised boundaries. Students who lived in the area changing from the Stevens attendance area to the Madrona attendance area who are already attending Stevens would continue to be assigned to Stevens, as long as they remain at their same address. If they move to another address within the revised Stevens attendance area, they may remain at Stevens. If they are not grandfathered and move out of the revised Stevens attendance area, they would be reassigned to their new attendance area school. 

Capacity:  Stevens and Madrona boundaries are adjacent. Repurposing the southern section of the Stevens ES attendance area to Madrona would alleviate overcrowding and future capacity problems with roll-up. Madrona has been significantly under capacity for a number of years, and can easily accommodate additional students. Additionally, this revision would help the current and future overcapacity problems at Washington MS.  Further, the district does not have access to TT Minor to manage capacity because of lease restrictions until at least school year 2014.

Transportation: As noted by the analysis below, the current boundaries require an extra bus to serve the proposed revision area. By amending the boundaries, the district would save approximately $18,000 by eliminating the need for that bus (unless students who choose to remain at Stevens receive transportation – see below). Further, a bus is already assigned to service the revision area for Madrona, which has capacity for additional students. 

Safety: A student walking from the proposed revision area to Stevens would need to cross both Union and Madison – two busy streets on a dangerous downward slope. This creates safety concerns for students needing to cross to get to school. At a minimum, crossing guards need to be immediately added to address these safety concerns, further burdening the district financially.

The comments on the CDNews post bring up many of the issues the change would also raise. For one, families impacted by the change are looking at the prospect of shifting from one of Seattle’s highest scoring elementary schools to one of its worst as measured by the city’s scorecard system. But the change also has important implications for elements like the economic and racial diversity of the student populations at both schools.