By Jior Cameron

The Seattle Medium The Seattle Public School District has put forth a preliminary recommendation to consolidate area schools in response to a projected $20 million budget deficit for the 2006-07 school year. The proposed closings and “repurposing” will affect elementary, middle, and high schools and is drawing opposition from many grassroots organizations in the African American community including the Seattle/ King County Branch of the NAACP. But more alarming than the potential school closures is the fact that African American community is not mobilized in the same manner as other communities to save their schools. “It is quite concerning to see the lack of involvement from the African American community. At the last meeting I could only see 15 African Americans present in a crowd of approximately 250 people (standing-room-only),” said Sakara Remmu, Educational Chair of the Seattle King/County Branch of NAACP. “We need to come out and voice our issues to the school board in order to start to eliminate disproportionality in the Seattle School District. Community members need to come out in full force for the next meeting to let the District know that closing schools is not the answer and that it is not acceptable. If we don’t we will have no recourse when they start locking down schools.” Two of the nine central area neighborhood schools are recommended to be closed, Montlake Elementary and Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary. T.T. Minor Elementary and Lowell APP (Accelerated Progress Program) are the Central Area schools that are recommended for building repurposing. T.T. Minor is recommended to be repurposed from a K-5 elementary school to housing the 6-12th grade Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (BOC). The BOC is currently located on Queen Anne. As with many other community members, Seattle School Board director Mary Bass questions the District’s recommendation to displace the students at T.T. Minor and disrupt its current configuration as an elementary school. “There are great things happening at T.T. Minor, as there are at Meany, Madrona, etc. Why on earth would the District want to disrupt that?” said Bass. Lowell currently houses the APP and Special Education programs. The Special Education programs will remain, while the excess APP students will be moved to Broadview-Thomson, a school north of the Ship Canal Bridge. This is causing concern among many in the African American community, particularly because it is beginning to seem as if the few advanced programs are moving north to schools where minority enrollment is lacking. This is becoming particularly important because of the proposed transportation cut backs that are in conjunction with the closures. With the cutbacks students will only be able to go to neighborhood schools, or schools within their region (i.e. South, Central, North,etc.). According to Seattle School District website, “Lowell is in the center of the city (in north Capitol Hill), while Broadview-Thomson is in the far north of the city. As the elementary APP program grows, it may become desirable to find a third location for elementary APP students in the southern part of the city. At this time, however, the majority of APP students reside north of the Ship Canal Bridge. Its far north location means that transportation costs will be reduced for those students who reside north of the Ship Canal, and students north of the Bridge will have the opportunity to attend school closer to their homes. Freeing up space at Lowell, meanwhile, which is easily accessible by students in the southern part of the city, means that increasing numbers of qualified students who live in the south will be able to access this program.” Of the 2,401 students enrolled in the nine Central Area neighborhood elementary schools, the recommendation proposes to displace approximately 576 (24 percent) students with the closings. Additionally, the Seattle Public School District has recommended to “eliminate assignment preference for APP students from Washington [Middle School] to Garfield.” Washington (generally APP program students) students will no longer have a direct pathway into Garfield. AP classes will continue to be provided at Garfield as well as all other high schools. The Seattle District also has recommendations for schools in South Seattle as well. Rainier View and Columbia (currently houses Orca K-5) are recommended to be closed. Rainier View has strong community partnerships including those with Team Read and Friends of Boeing. In fact Rainier View received a Comprehensive School Reform grant that focuses on culturally relevant teaching. Unfortunately, the third year funding of this grant may be lost if the school is indeed closed as recommended. The district cites under-enrollment and the geographic location as reasons for closure. However, Rainier View is only under-enrolled by an average of approximately 23 students (capacity enrollment is 316 and the average enrollment for 2000-2004 is 292.4 students). In addition, the Whitworth Elementary program is recommended to be eliminated. The Whitworth building will be used to house the expanded Orca alternative (K-8) program. Of the 5,558 students enrolled in the 14 South end neighborhood elementary schools, the recommendation proposes to displace approximately 769 (14 percent) students. In total, eight schools in the Seattle School District are recommended to be closed. Five are recommended to be repurposed. Three schools of major concern to the African American community that will be affected by the district’s consolidation efforts — Martin Luther King, Jr., T.T. Minor, and Rainier View — have a total minority population over 94 percent, which includes 439 African American students and only 32 Whites. Many in the African American are angered at these proposed moves and feel that they are targeting the African American and low-income populations. “The list of schools currently on the table disproportionately affects children and families of color and or of low income status,” said Remmu. “The Seattle King County NAACP is against the proposal to close schools for many reasons, but most importantly because we feel that the District has not exhausted all other options.” Figures tabulated from the Seattle Public Schools website indicate that the initial savings from school closures and repurposing in Central and South Seattle will total approximately $1,263,672. The total initial savings district-wide will be approximately $2.6 million in the first year. Total savings from school closures and repurposing district-wide are said to be approximately $4 million towards a $20 million deficit in the 2006-2007 school year. Peter Daniels, a spokesperson for the District, stated that due to the increasing costs of operating the schools, the District has a deficit every year. Next year the deficit will be $12 million. The year after, the deficit will be $20 million. The recommended school closures have drawn criticism throughout the city, but the District appears to be proceeding as if the proposal is the best action to take right now. According the Seattle Public School website, “School consolidation, beginning in the fall of 2006, is being considered as one strategy to reduce overhead costs and redirect resources to the classroom.” For other options besides consolidation the website is unclear and states, “The district has been exploring both new revenues that might be available as well as expenses that might be reduced or eliminated to balance the district’s budget.” Currently, the only other move made besides the proposal to consolidate the website lists is “significant administrative cuts to central administrative services over the past three years.” It continues, “Items that are still possible to eliminate or reduce have been placed on a list called ‘Options for Building a Balanced Budget.'” With the recent financial problems within the District, many in the community find it hard to believe that the District has a solid plan that will effectively solve the District’s financial problems. “Until the District is able to articulate a long-term vision of how it will adjust operations to meet it’s new budget realities, it will not be able to gain the trust or public support for incomplete incremental steps and partial solutions,” said Bass. “The District leadership needs to understand that its failure to present a coherent vision undermines their credibility and even further reduces the community’s faith in their ability to address the current challenges. The financial missteps of the recent past have left public trust at desperately low levels.” The slogan for Seattle Public Schools is “Delivering On The Dream: Academic Achievement For Every Student In Every School.” In spite of this, many in the community are concerned that the District’s moves will leave minority students behind, and only deliver on the dream for some students in some schools. The Seattle King/County Chapter of the NAACP urges all parents, teachers, students, and people affiliated with Seattle Public Schools to attend the next school board meeting, May 18 at 6:00 p.m. at the John Stanford Center, located at 2445 3rd Ave. S. in Seattle. The NAACP requests that all participants dress in black and gather at 5:45 p.m. In addition, Seattle Public Schools will host a public hearing on potential school sites to close and/or consolidate at T.T. Minor on May 24th, Rainier View on May 25, and Martin Luther King on May 26th. All hearings are scheduled to take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.