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Thursday, December 18, 2008

City Seattle Closures Round 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:20 AM

Seattle School District superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson has revised her list of recommended school closures and mergers.

Goodloe-Johnson has nixed plans to combine programs at Aki Kurose Middle School or the Center School with Rainier Beach High School. A proposal to combine Cleveland High School and Rainier Beach also appears to be off the table.

Under the current plan, the district would still relocate NOVA high school to Meany's building; TT Minor would move to Leschi; Pathfinder K-8 would displace Cooper Elementary; Van Asselt would replace the African American Academy; Thornton Creek would move into Summit's building and students from Lowell and Washington Middle School's accelerated programs would move to Thurgood Marshall Elementary and Hamilton Middle School.

African American Academy, AS#1, Summit, TT Minor and Cooper Elementary, Meany Middle School and Summit are still on the proposed closure list. Read my ramblings on why the district should preserve alternative schools here.

The school board will make a final decision on the closures on January 29th.

Comments (9) RSS

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I think you mean Seattle Closures Round 2: Back in the Habit

Posted by Asperger's Syndrome on December 18, 2008 at 11:30 AM

Dude, that plan was amended nine days ago. I guess the Pony Express runs slower in these here parts.

Posted by mint chocolate chip on December 18, 2008 at 11:31 AM

How long have have you lived here? And you can't spell Rainier?

Posted by Niro DeRobert on December 18, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Is this the nine-day-old plan? If so, you just freaked me out. We live a block from Montlake, and would love our two kids to go there. I was thinking this was new information.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman on December 18, 2008 at 12:07 PM

The part about not closing or merging high schools (unless they're NOVA) is, in fact, new as of last night.

Guess the Pony Express hasn't quite gotten to @2's house yet. Please pay attention.

Posted by Read it in the Times on December 18, 2008 at 12:15 PM

Quincy is behind this one ... I can feel it... tis the season to be mollied...

fight!

Posted by daniel on December 18, 2008 at 12:34 PM

I note that under this plan Capitol Hill still loses 2 schools (TT Minor and Lowell). Lowell might not be a site worth saving other than the historic building, TT Minor has a large and well located site.

Considering Summit and AS#1 are both all-district draws and I know parents who have moved their kids from private schools to attend both I fail to see the wisdom of closing either.

I understand the district wants to decrease crowding in the Northwest cluster but shouldn't do so at the expense of Summit. If Summit needs to move perhaps they can be given the Wilson-Pacific building which is rather underutilized at the moment. Another possibility would be the John Marshall site near Green Lake.

I can also sort of see the wisdom of closing the Pinehurst building given the small and awkward site. However the building is in fairly good shape. Perhaps move AS#1 to the Thorton Creek building if Thorton Creek moves to the Addams buliding?

Posted by Chris Stefan on December 18, 2008 at 1:53 PM

Add all of this to the list of reasons I don't live in Seattle.

Posted by Mike in Renton on December 18, 2008 at 2:26 PM

Nova (which is technically called The Nova Project, not NOVA High School) would be co-housing with a program called SBOC (Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center ) at the Meany site.

Posted by Just Another Effected Student on January 14, 2009 at 7:35 AM