Green Lake reacts to the proposed new Seattle Public School boundary maps
 | By MyGreenLake October 7, 2009 at 11:59 pm | Tags: mcdonald school, schools
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Yesterday afternoon, Seattle Public Schools unveiled the proposed new school-by-school attendance boundaries.
For those of you without kids, not a big deal.
Got kids? Big deal.
Once the news hit that that the boundary maps were live, local parents began to log on to the new Address Lookup Tool to determine their proposed school assignments. It didn’t take long for parent and school email lists to light up with discussion, confusion, and questions.
Many parents directed others to this excellent article by The Seattle PI, excerpted below:
The new student-assignment plan, approved by the Board in mid-June, uses a community-based approach towards school assignments, sending students to schools closest to home.
[ ... ]
Under the plan, students entering kindergarten, sixth grade and ninth grade in the public school system will be assigned an attendance-area school beginning the 2010-2011 school year.
Students in other grades will be “grandfathered in” until it’s time to move to a higher grade at a new school or graduate. Option schools, also known as alternative schools, still require applications to get in.
[ ... ]
Five [schools] will be opening [including] McDonald Elementary School [which] will open during the interim at Lincoln High School in 2010. McDonald will open in its current Wallingford location in 2012 after much needed renovations.
[ ... ]
Parent Elena Waite, who has a son in kindergarten at Sacajawea Elementary School, is worried about what will happen when her 3-year-old gets to be school age, and how the school will implement the sibling plan. Her proposed attendance-area school is Green Lake Elementary.
“Eli loves Sacajawea,” she said.
[seattlepi.com]
Looking for a play-by-play reporting of yesterday’s announcement? The Seattle Public Schools Community Blog is great source. See for example, their reporting on a question raised by School Board Director (and Green Lake resident) Sherry Carr:
She asked about this finger of Green Lake at the top of the attendance area that goes into Maple Leaf. She also asked about McDonald straddling I-5 which she said could be a dangerous area because of drug activity. [ ... ] She pointed out that part of GL that would go to Eckstein would then go to Ballard and was in Roosevelt’s walk zone. (There are several of these anomolies around.) [ ... ] [Peter Maier] also wondered about the Green Lake finger that will go to Eckstein and then to Ballard. Harium explained that the #48 goes from GL to Ballard easily. (It still seems weird.)
[Seattle Public Schools Community Blog]
In wake of the news, a brand new blog has hit the scene. McDonald School will “focus on the new ‘attendance area’ that will be served by the now closed McDonald school.” The blog’s first post reads, in part:
According to the new plan, McDonald Elementary is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012, and will be housed in the interim at the former Lincoln High School building in the fall of 2010.
I hope that this blog can serve as a place to disseminate information and to gather questions. To the best of my knowledge Seattle Public Schools now has little information on the reopening of McDonald. The proposed opening does, however, raise a number of questions, such as, when the principal and teachers will be hired for the school, when there will be tours to meet the staff, when there will be information on curriculum, what options will be available for before and after school care, just to list a few.
The phone number for Enrollment Services is 206.252.0760 (press option O to get a live person) for those who wish to be more proactive in gathering information, or simply to let the school board know that there is a segment of the population that would like more information.
There will be several public meetings to solicit community feedback, and you can also submit comments via email. The school board will vote on the proposed boundaries Nov 18.
[McDonald School]
In addition, a yahoo group has formed “for those of us affected by the McDonald School change who are interested in staying abreast of those specific issues as Seattle Schools works out its plans.”
McDonald School View Larger Map
Parents have expressed many concerns on other neighborhood and school email lists:
Bagley kids have always gone to Hamilton and Eckstein so I know nothing [about Whitman Middle School], yet that’s where I’m currently assigned.
Has anyone else been shifted to the McDonald School?? We were in the Green Lake reference area, but now are in the McDonald School reference area, which [ ... ] will not be ready until 2012, so school will be temporarily (for two years!) at the Lincoln High building in Wallingford. This feels like a disaster to me. We can’t even tour our reference area school, and we had been gearing up for Green Lake.
The lines for Ballard High are not-yet-final, it is speculated they will move the line south of 85th. This definitely concerns me (living [below 85th and] a 10 minute walk from Ballard High). Now is the time to e-mail the school district, or attend the meetings if you have concerns about the boundaries.
We live [near] West Woodland, but I see we are now in BF Day’s area… I thought the intent was to send kids to their closest school??? Boy, the more I learn about SPS, the more I’m considering private school!
11 comments
I understand this can be a distressing process for parents, but this is how life is in every other school district. I grew up in quickly expanding east Pierce County (near Graham) during the 1990s where the schools on one side of the district were bursting from the seams with playgrounds covered with portable classrooms and the other side was nearly empty. We went through boundary changes every 2-3 years and I'm no worse for the wear. Frankly I think the changes made me a more aware citizen as an adult. In the 8th grade I wrote an email to the school district asking if I could be “grandfathered” into my junior high where I had established myself, knowing full well I'd have to go to the new high school designated for my neighborhood. My letter circulated around the district and made it back to my principal which invited me to his office to address my concerns. It showed me at an early that being active and vocal in my community really can make a difference.
So while change is obviously a scary thing, think about how you can now mold this new school for your child. And for children that may have to change schools soon, remind them that (hopefully!) they'll be with all their neighborhood friends when they walk to and from school every day.
TrickyCoolJ,
Thank you for your perspective. If kids are given the skills of resiliency, I agree they will survive.
Our family in a different situation, however, as we live in the area on the east side of I-5 that is now in McDonald's attendance area. No neighborhood friends walking to and from school for us. A highway and rather seedy University District lie between our home (formerly in Bryant's reference area) and McDonald. Our neighborhood, University Park, has also been bisected by the new boundary line. Furthermore, I do not trust that the district will approve sibling grandfathering, so my children, one of whom is a first grader thriving at Bryant, and the other an incoming (2010) kindergartner may be split up and sent to school in opposite directions.
I must say I have nothing against McDonald and believe it has a lot of potential. In some ways, it would be very exciting to be on the ground floor of building a new school community. The north end needs the classroom space, and it has to come from somewhere.
My beef comes with disrupting families already engaged in a school community, and the district not drawing the boundaries using logical and historical neighborhood borders. I think it is a stretch for SPS to include our neighborhood in a Latona school's attendance zone.
We are a busy household that is happily established at Green Lake Elementary. Under the new boundary area, our youngest child will now attend John Stanford. I cannot fathom sending my kids to different schools. It's unproductive, disruptive and I can't figure out how I will be at 2 schools at once. (for drop off, pick up, conferences, fundraising, etc.) This is asking too much of the many supportive families of the Seattle Public Schools.
I'm guessing TrickyCoolJ either doesn't have children or is set in a boundary area that isn't affected by the new SAP. It's easy to tell us that change is good when your household is not disrupted.
I live a block from McDonald and have a 4month old, and I'm so excited to learn that she will be able to attend elementary school so close to home. Guaranteed. As a new parent learning about the crazy Seattle Schools system where you might not go to school near your house I was really worried. But now I'm thrilled! I remember touring the building years ago and meeting an older gentleman who talked about the days when both Greenlake and McDonald were full of kids. I kept saying it seemed like there was a baby boom in the neighborhood. I moved here in 1995 and it was all rentals and senior citizens. Now it's 30 somethings and baby strollers.
Sibling issues aside, I think this is a great opportunity for the upper wallingford/tangletown/lower greenlake neighborhood to create a fantastic school. Yes, the first few years will be at Lincoln which is less than ideal, but ultimately McDonald school is in a great location which is walking distance for a great number of families.
Do you know if parental input about programs at the new McDonald will be accepted from the district? Does anyone know what the Yahoo group is all about. I had my heart set on Bagely for my daughter because of it's Montessori program or Thorton Creek for it's experiential learning…I would love it if we could have something similar at our new school.
To the parents who are afraid of their kids going to different school, I totally support your efforts to get kids grandfathered in! Sometimes I think the district wants to make parenthood more difficult.
Hi alexschiff,
I highly recommend joining the yahoo group <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McDonaldSchoolSea...>. Lots of information is being passed around, including the following, which addresses your question about whether the district will be be accepting parental input about programs:
“The current meetings are for questions/feedback on the new assignment plan. There will be no school specific meetings until after the 11/18 board meeting to approve the plan.” [from the McDonaldSchoolSeattele yahoo group]
Good luck!
Thanks, I did sign up so hopefully I'll be able to figure out what's going on!
Do you know if parental input about programs at the new McDonald will be accepted from the district? Does anyone know what the Yahoo group is all about. I had my heart set on Bagely for my daughter because of it's Montessori program or Thorton Creek for it's experiential learning…I would love it if we could have something similar at our new school.
To the parents who are afraid of their kids going to different school, I totally support your efforts to get kids grandfathered in! Sometimes I think the district wants to make parenthood more difficult.
Hi alexschiff,
I highly recommend joining the yahoo group <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McDonaldSchoolSea...>. Lots of information is being passed around, including the following, which addresses your question about whether the district will be be accepting parental input about programs:
“The current meetings are for questions/feedback on the new assignment plan. There will be no school specific meetings until after the 11/18 board meeting to approve the plan.” [from the McDonaldSchoolSeattele yahoo group]
Good luck!
Thanks, I did sign up so hopefully I'll be able to figure out what's going on!