Tuesday, January 6, 2009
City School Closurepalooza Rumors!
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 2:31 PM
Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson is expected to announce the final school closure list later today.
So far, it appears Montlake Elementary and Alternative School #1 are off the closure list.
The district's initial list of proposed closures, released in November, recommended closing the African American Academy, Arbor Heights, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and AS#1.
The proposal also recommended relocating Lowell, NOVA, Pathfinder, Van Asselt, Summit K-12, and Thornton Creek elementary.
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1
close schools, save 1 million dollars
close schools, lose students
lose students, lose lotsa more money
lose lotsa more money, go into further debt
go into further debt, close more schools
are these people as stupid as they appear?
close schools, lose students
lose students, lose lotsa more money
lose lotsa more money, go into further debt
go into further debt, close more schools
are these people as stupid as they appear?
2
they are even stupider. it's truly shocking.
i'm still three for three! kids in three schools, all three are still on the closure/program split list!
do i get a prize?
i'm still three for three! kids in three schools, all three are still on the closure/program split list!
do i get a prize?
4
Let's all move to the suburbs. The rich can send their kids to private schools. The poor can't feed themselves and have no political clout so f them. The middle class, welcome to the POOOyallup school system.
5
one look at the closure list and you can see which side the school board's bread is buttered on. they have no right to claim these closures are not race/poverty based. fucking ridiculous.
yeah, screw those poor kids in the southend. if they are doing ok in the school they are in, i'm sure they will continue to thrive when we toss them out into a different school with a much crappier program. i mean, why encourage successful schools? the students can fend for themselves any-old-where.
now, where's my campaign donation??
yeah, screw those poor kids in the southend. if they are doing ok in the school they are in, i'm sure they will continue to thrive when we toss them out into a different school with a much crappier program. i mean, why encourage successful schools? the students can fend for themselves any-old-where.
now, where's my campaign donation??
6
If you were willing to play hardball like the parents and business leaders North of the ship canal and in Montlake, they might actually care about your mewling about your school being shut down.
But instead you kited them, and left them hanging.
But instead you kited them, and left them hanging.
7
@5: "they have no right to claim these closures are not race/poverty based"
The traditionally African-American and Asian parts of Seattle are getting jerked around. I used to think it wasn't true, and perhaps it's just the exigencies of a financial emergency. Some schools are underused and should be shut; some should have new programs added to them to stay open. But the whole situation about T.T. Minor and a few others is just unacceptable. You can't go consolidated and shutting down year after year!
@6: "If you were willing to play hardball like the parents and business leaders North of the ship canal and in Montlake, they might actually care about your mewling about your school being shut down."
I'm a parent of future Montlake kids who lives a half-block from the school. I would have supported the school being closed if it were in the best interests of the school district and all students. Instead, Montlake is overfull and has a huge waiting list. All the schools nearest to us north of the ship canal (in another cluster) and south of us in the cluster have waiting lists.
You have to go miles before you start getting to schools that have room, which means long bus rides for small children, which isn't something we're willing to do in their earliest years (later, sure), and adds expense to the district.
The preliminary closure recommendation was obscure on what might happen to the kids (move to space in Lowell vacated by a move of half the APP program?), and on what schools they might get priority for. The superintendent's office couldn't tell us how the new reference area and preference system would work.
The neighborhood organized. I don't know that we did anything special. We have good email lists; maybe that's an "upper middle class" thing. The PSTA pulled parents together to write letters and scheduled meetings with school board members. The Montlake Coop, a loose organization open to everyone, gathered names and information, and sent a letter to the school board with the virtual signatures of 70 parents (representing well over 50 kids) who want to send their kids to Montlake.
In the end, it's possible the superintendent is very savvy: by getting Montlake up in arms, we now have an organized group that can go out and spearhead efforts in Olympia to increase school funding, and to figure out how to get equity across the entire cluster.
More...
The traditionally African-American and Asian parts of Seattle are getting jerked around. I used to think it wasn't true, and perhaps it's just the exigencies of a financial emergency. Some schools are underused and should be shut; some should have new programs added to them to stay open. But the whole situation about T.T. Minor and a few others is just unacceptable. You can't go consolidated and shutting down year after year!
@6: "If you were willing to play hardball like the parents and business leaders North of the ship canal and in Montlake, they might actually care about your mewling about your school being shut down."
I'm a parent of future Montlake kids who lives a half-block from the school. I would have supported the school being closed if it were in the best interests of the school district and all students. Instead, Montlake is overfull and has a huge waiting list. All the schools nearest to us north of the ship canal (in another cluster) and south of us in the cluster have waiting lists.
You have to go miles before you start getting to schools that have room, which means long bus rides for small children, which isn't something we're willing to do in their earliest years (later, sure), and adds expense to the district.
The preliminary closure recommendation was obscure on what might happen to the kids (move to space in Lowell vacated by a move of half the APP program?), and on what schools they might get priority for. The superintendent's office couldn't tell us how the new reference area and preference system would work.
The neighborhood organized. I don't know that we did anything special. We have good email lists; maybe that's an "upper middle class" thing. The PSTA pulled parents together to write letters and scheduled meetings with school board members. The Montlake Coop, a loose organization open to everyone, gathered names and information, and sent a letter to the school board with the virtual signatures of 70 parents (representing well over 50 kids) who want to send their kids to Montlake.
In the end, it's possible the superintendent is very savvy: by getting Montlake up in arms, we now have an organized group that can go out and spearhead efforts in Olympia to increase school funding, and to figure out how to get equity across the entire cluster.
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