Seattle parents press for more details on school closures

Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones’ announcement last week that he was shelving proposals to close up to 21 schools and would instead consolidate five yet-to-be-named schools brought relief to some parents and students that their schools would be off the hook next year.

But it also sowed uncertainty among parents whose children attend schools with low enrollment or those in dire need of repair. They fear the schools might be among the five that will close as part of the district’s latest plan.

Sara Hinson Bond, the president of the parent-teacher association at Sanislo Elementary School in West Seattle, said the community is resigned to the idea that the school will be shuttered.

As part of its closure deliberations, the district will weigh building conditions, including whether schools can accommodate 400 students. Sanislo’s enrollment capacity is 350 and about 171 students attended the school last year.

Until it was fixed this summer, the playground flooded when it rained. Food is brought in for the students because the kitchen has limited use, she said.

“Personally, I see this as something we can’t fight,” Bond said. “But we love our community, and we don’t want to see it broken up.”

Bond admits that Sanislo Elementary could use more resources, such as advanced courses. But she loves the small, tight-knit community, where the school hosts multicultural potlucks and assists unhoused families.

“I would love to keep the school as it is, with small class sizes, personalized attention, and the fact that literally everyone in the school knows everyone else,” she said.

As parents across the city — including at Sanislo — continue to oppose the closures, some are still urging the district to nix all closure plans for next year. Others are lobbying state officials to boost funding for SPS and other districts in the upcoming legislative session.

North Beach Elementary School’s parent-teacher association created a Fund SPS website that allows parents, community members, and state residents to directly email state legislators to lobby for increased K-12 funding. The website also provides links to forms parents can use to contact city officials and the Seattle School Board to urge them to stop closure plans.

The site has attracted more than 6,000 unique visitors since it was created last month, parents said.

“We love our school,” said Heidi Yocom, special education advocacy chair at North Beach. “But our main focus is all of the children.”

State Sen. Jamie Pedersen, who represents parts of Seattle, said that with a new legislature and governor next year, there’s no chance of a special session on K-12 funding. But given the challenges districts are facing, he expects the legislature to boost K-12 funding in the regular session.

Last month, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal asked for nearly $3 billion more in K-12 funding in the upcoming legislative session starting in January.

Pedersen has received several letters from concerned constituents and in recent months has visited several schools that may face closure.

“It is a high priority for us to figure out how to get additional resources out to districts,” Pedersen said.

The relief that SPS will not close up to 21 schools next year was tempered by uncertainty over which five schools will close instead and whether more schools will be on the chopping block in the following years.

The latest closure plan would save about $7.5 million, as the district estimates it faces a nearly $100 million budget gap.

Although the district said its application-only option schools and K-8 schools are off the table next year, it did not indicate what will happen in future years.

In his announcement, Jones said what the district learns from closing the five schools will guide future closure decisions.

Chirag Amin, whose daughter attends Louisa Boren STEM K-8, said he felt “a huge sense of relief” to have some stability next year when the district announced plans to close only five schools.

His younger child is due to start school next year, and the family was looking forward to both children attending the same school and making one drop-off and pickup. But the family worries that more school closures are on the horizon.

“We are very excited to be able to take advantage of that for at least one year,” he said. “But at the same time, we are mentally taxed and exhausted to think about having to revisit this about a year from now.”

He, too, questioned how the district calculated the savings it says it will realize from the closures and how it plans to fund the rest of the nearly $100 million budget shortfall.

Amin said he was not against all school closures because there may be cases where schools are underperforming or do not have the proper infrastructure, so closing them might make sense.

“If there is a truly well-built financial plan that can show that closing a certain [number] of underperforming schools will actually save money and maintain enrollment and live up to the premise that the remaining schools will be able to provide the same, if not better, educational experiences, then I am OK with school closures,” he said.

But the district has not made its case, he said.

When Anders Hammersborg and his wife moved to Seattle from California this summer, they were drawn to Sacajawea Elementary School, which is within walking distance of their home.

Hammersborg’s son is in second grade at the school, which had 229 students last year, and he hopes that his 4-year-old will also be able attend.

He wasn’t surprised when Sacajawea appeared on one of the district’s initial closure lists, but he was frustrated that his son might have to switch schools again after he’d started to make friends at his new school.

“We’ve been waiting all summer for the list, and then immediately afterward, it’s gone in a totally different direction,” he said. “That does not give us any confidence that there was a solid plan to begin with.”

If the district proceeds with closures, Hammersborg said he hopes it will give parents flexibility and the option to send their children to the nearest school, and will keep classes together if possible.

But without clear communication, parents are left to speculate, he said.

“It does not seem that they have attempted to try to tie these closures to the budget shortfall in a meaningful way,” he said. “If there’s a $100 million shortfall, and Sacajawea saves them, in the best-case scenario, $1 million, then what’s the point?”