By Tifany Williams

Summer Intern As a life long resident of the Central District she knows her community inside and out. Seattle School board member Mary Bass has an alternative plan that will do more than keep Central Area schools from closing but will also help to bring academic focus back to the Seattle School District on the eve of Superintendent Raj Manhas’ final closure recommendations. “I have to protect my own first,” said Bass, who has held her position for five years on the school board. “But my larger goal is to create a plan that will help to rework the entire district.” While there is not single way to solve all of the issues in the district, many feel that a good place to start is to get back to basics. “One of the ways we need to go about fixing and strengthening this district is start first in our own communities,” said school board member Sally Soriano. Bass’ plan proposes two strategic transitions of students from Lowell Elementary, which is located on Mercer Street in Capital Hill, to two Central Area grade schools — Leschi and T.T Minor. First, she planes to take the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders from Lowell and move them to T. T Minor and secondly move the 4th and 5th graders to Leschi. (I wanted to add some type of figure right here that would give readers an estimate of how much Basses plan would save the district in comparison to their numbers). Both Central Area schools will provide students with nurturing environments that they can grow in. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders at T.T Minor are more impressionable and require a greater degree of attention. They will get that attention at T.T Minor, explained Bass. With the 4th and 5th graders they are more independent with a head on their shoulders. They need an environment like Leschi where than can expand and. These moves will help to stabilize and diversify both schools in the area by fixing a lot of historical problems like the lack of diversity in academic programs like APP, explained Bass. “Historically APP is a program that hasn’t had a very diverse population,” said Bass. The plan that Bass is proposing could help to deflate future closure decisions for other Central Area elementary schools which the district has decided must close to achieve their budget deficit. “I like Mary’s plan, it has potential to succeed and fix problems Central Area schools have been dealing with for years,” said Jo Lute-Ervin, principle of Leschi Elementary School. “If it is to work; her plan is going to need the support of the district.” The merging of Lowell students with Leschi would help to strengthen the Spectrum Program – a program for students that are academically gifted that is already present at the school – because Lowell currently houses an APP program, a program for highly academically gifted students. Under Bass’ program both programs would be housed at Leschi. But, what happens to Martin Luther King Elementary School which is still on the list of schools to be voted on and scheduled to close in fall of 2007. The students enrolled in Wilson Specific ESL program would move to Martin Luther King, “said Bass. “That would help to fill up the school.” “But it would not solve the problem at hand that the school needs a sustained effort from it administrative staff and the community over time to help bring academic programs back into the school to make it work,” explained Bass. Another possible plan that has been suggested to help preserve MLK is to turn it into a preschool. The preschool program at Wilson Specific would move to MLK helping to keep the building in it entirety. “This is so much more than just holding on to a building,” said Elma Horton, who is a board member for the Central Area Motivational Program. “This is about equality for our children and fighting for what we have.”