Tuesday, January 6, 2009
City School Closures Announced
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:41 PM
Seattle School District Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson has released her final school closure recommendations:
Goodloe-Johnson has recommended closing the African American Academy, Cooper Elementary, Meany Middle School, TT Minor and Summit K-12. As I posted earlier, Montlake Elementary and AS#1 were removed from the closure list.
The school board will vote on the recommendations on January 29th.
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1
What happens to those buildings and land once the schools are closed? Does the school district/city auction them off to the highest bidder? Rent them? I'm curious about who determines their next incarnations.
2
Montlake really should be closed, too, it's so small (and drafty--expensive to operate the building per se) it would be easy to move kids to other nearby schools.
3
@1—that's something the board also has to decide. What to do with the surplus buildings. Some of them might end up being used for office space, some of them might get sold off.
5
Once again, the combined action of the parents North of the Ship Canal, and their equally wealthy and powerful cousins in Montlake win.
Bwahahaha!
Lease the buildings for theatre start-ups and artists lofts.
Bwahahaha!
Lease the buildings for theatre start-ups and artists lofts.
7
Simac @2: There is a progressive (Rawlsian) logic under which Montlake should be kept open even if it is disproportionately expensive to operate. Suppose that a large fraction of those rich parents would take their not-at-risk (read: relatively cheap-to-educate) kids out of public schools if Montlake were closed, thus taking state per student dollars and donor dollars out of the Seattle Public Schools. Under this scenario, the public schools could well end up with more dollars-per-non-Montlake student by keepng Montlake open than would save by closing Montlake.
I don't know for sure if the numbers pencil out that way, but in a city with more students in private schools than almost any other (about 30% of the student population), it's not a scenario to dismmiss out of hand.
I don't know for sure if the numbers pencil out that way, but in a city with more students in private schools than almost any other (about 30% of the student population), it's not a scenario to dismmiss out of hand.
8
it's a sick shame--the african american academy is an incredible place full of awesome people--it is very much needed. (i did a freelance job for them recently...since i met obama and worked at kube, i was a STAR there.) i am very, very sad to see it go.
9
@1 cheap solution - place a UN flag on the school and notify the Israeli military of its location and it will be blown up posthaste.
11
Seattle schools continue their downward spiral. This is not only unacceptable, it's unconstitutional in Washington State.
12
greg- what are the constitutional implications, exactly? (i'm not being snarky- i've got kids in these schools and i'd love to understand more about the actual legal ramifications of these closures. thanks.)
13
Greg ftw.
Specific schools being closed is not unconstitutional, but not making education a primary budget allocation is.
Specific schools being closed is not unconstitutional, but not making education a primary budget allocation is.
14
@8: you're a star anywhere.
So what happens to my neighborhood when Meany closes and sits vacant? Does that mean it becomes even more of a magnet for wannabes who tag anything that stands still (including my window, wtf?) until the district finally gets around to doing something with it? Does it magically get incorporated into Miller Park community center, or does it end up being torn down and turned into the drab multiuse condos people are fighting on 19th?
So what happens to my neighborhood when Meany closes and sits vacant? Does that mean it becomes even more of a magnet for wannabes who tag anything that stands still (including my window, wtf?) until the district finally gets around to doing something with it? Does it magically get incorporated into Miller Park community center, or does it end up being torn down and turned into the drab multiuse condos people are fighting on 19th?
16
@12: The state constitution says in the preamble to Article IX, "It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex."
A coalition of groups sued the state of Washington over school funding in 2007; as of December the lawsuit was still ongoing.
A coalition of groups sued the state of Washington over school funding in 2007; as of December the lawsuit was still ongoing.
Seattle's experience with such lawsuits began in 1976, when city voters rejected two levies, and the district was forced to slash expenses and lay off teachers. To resolve its money troubles, the district filed a lawsuit citing the same "paramount duty" clause in the state constitution.
A judge agreed, saying districts were too dependent on local levies. The state was forced to pick up a greater share of school-district budgets, but there was a downside: The Legislature capped district levies, so Seattle could no longer tap its big tax base as needed. Sales-tax dollars from local skyscrapers and shopping centers were siphoned away to fund poorer parts of the state.
"We won that lawsuit, but Seattle lost," said David Moberly, who was Seattle's superintendent at the time and now lives part-time in Palm Desert, Calif. "For the Seattle School District, it was a bummer."
17
I went to Meany and HATED IT.
I don't hate the building and I'm glad it's going to be used for something else, but I am glad that hell-hole of a school will no longer be damaging young people.
I don't hate the building and I'm glad it's going to be used for something else, but I am glad that hell-hole of a school will no longer be damaging young people.
18
This is reality peeps. If people would send their kids to SPS they wouldn't have to close schools. My question is why aren't we seeing big cuts in other areas? Are they going to RIF teachers? SPS is a black hole when it comes to spending. They have no clue where the money is and it's kinda scary. They've spent 10-15,000 on prof dev for the first year principal at T.T. Minor who they recruited from Atlanta. I have a hard time believing there were no qualified people in the area that could have been hired.
20
"Meany Middle School"? Seriously? Whose dumb idea was it to name a school that? That's got to be a candidate for worst school name ever.
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