New School Assignment Plan: Get engaged, speak out!
The school district released the proposed plan today and I haven’t had sufficient time to digest it all. While my initial reaction is positive in terms of seeking clarity and certainty for families–and a real effort to make neighborhood schools work–I am troubled by the boundary lines themselves in some key areas.
Still, after 39 years, parents are closer than ever to having a clear picture of where their children will go to school.
From a logistical perspective, obviously 85th Street in Ballard is much, much further south than we expected for the Ballard High School boundary. The Hamilton Middle School inclusion of the entire North slope of Queen Anne rather than McClure seems unwise in terms of splitting neighbors up dramatically (Boston on the top of QA–3 blocks from McClure– as the divider??). McClure only incorporating 50% of QA makes it hard to advocate it as a “neighborhood school.” Yet Belltown needs somewhere to go….There’s a lot of media coverage so study up! Take a look here, here and here. And here at myballard.com. Dick Lilly at Crosscut has one of the best assessments here.
So there are a lot of serious, legitimate and important demographic questions to ask. I look to Michael DeBell to do his best to represent the interests of parents throughout our community, but this is a time for parental engagement.
Parents need to show up at the school district community meetings! Don’t let this opportunity go! Come on parents!
Here’s the schedule:
Community feedback meetings
THE PUBLIC MAY COMMENT on the new attendance-area boundary maps and the student assignment plan at the following meetings:
Saturday: 10 a.m.-noon, Eckstein Middle School, 3003 N.E. 75th St.; and 2-4 p.m., Washington Middle School, 2101 S. Jackson St.
Monday: 6:30-8:30 p.m., McClure Middle School, 1915 First Ave. W.
Tuesday: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Aki Kurose Middle School, 3928 S. Graham St.
Wednesday, Oct. 14: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Ballard High School, 1418 N.W. 65th St.
Thursday Oct. 15: 6:30-8:30 p.m., West Seattle High School, 3000 California Ave. S.W.
Friday, Oct. 16: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Denny Middle School, 8402 30th Ave. S.W.
Saturday, Oct. 17: 10 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m., Mercer Middle School, 1600 S. Columbian Way
Comments also may be submitted by e-mail at newassign@seattleschools.org.
For help looking up your attendance area, call 206-252-0760.
This is the real deal and we’ll live with the implications for years. I hope people will also reach out to me directly and let me know your thoughts, concerns and issues.
“From a logistical perspective, obviously 85th Street in Ballard is much, much further south than we expected for the Ballard High School boundary.”
Really? It’s further NORTH than I expected. I fully expect it to have to come further south once the district realizes how many Queen Anne and Magnolia students they’re really talking about.
I think it would make way more sense to make Lincoln a comprehensive high school again (and more sense still, though it’s probably too expensive, to build a new high school where it’s actually needed).