I am posting this story that appeared in the Squire Park Community Council Newsletter for Sept./Oct. as it will provide some links to information and means of contacting the the levy planners. This was produced prior to making the plans for TT Minor public:
Planning for the Seattle School Levy in February 2013 is Important for our Schools
Another important round of community meetings occurred on Thursday, September 20, 6:30-8 p.m. at Whitman Middle School, Monday, Sept. 24, 6:30- 8 p.m. at Madison Middle School Thursday, and Sept. 27, 6:30-8 p.m. at McClure Middle School If you were not able to attend these meeting, additional information and many documents can be found online at http://bit.ly/SPSBEX. The Seattle School District will continue to collect, record and review all comments. Send comments to [email protected].
The proposed list of potential BEX IV (Building Excellence Capital Levy) projects presented in September was revised and totaled around $650 million about 100,000 million less than the proposal circulated last spring. The final recommendation will be sent to the Board for approval this fall for the February ballot. It is important to note the project list shown below is not final.
The immediate projects in or near the Central Area are Mann and Meany:
Mann building: Modernize and construct a new addition for NOVA by 2014.
Meany Middle School: Reconfigure for a comprehensive central region middle school by 2017. Mercer Middle School: Build an addition to meet enrollment projections by 2019.
Other projects around the city include an addition to Mercer Middle School, a new and expanded Arbor Heights Elementary, reopening Fairmount Park, add classrooms and a lunchroom to the Lincoln building and open as a new high school by 2019, replace and add capacity at North Beach Elementary, add a K-5 school on Thornton Creek, replace and expand Olympic Hills K-5, add classroom and gym space to Queen Anne Elementary, a new and expanded facility on the Genesee Hill site for Schmitz Park, build a new elementary and a new middle school on the Wilson-Pacific site, a new and expanded Wing Luke Elementary, a permanent location for the World School in the Central area, and some funding included for interim Downtown School.
Reopening Meany will definitely impact the current student assignment plan for all the Central Area residents, since all middle school students here are currently guaranteed a seat at Washington Middle School. It will also affect the boundaries and programs for Washington Middle School. The current boundaries for our schools are not well-matched to the available capacity in terms of the populations residing within each assignment area and the capacity at the relevant building. Currently BEX IV planning has not addressed how those assignment area boundaries will be redrawn.
Beyond educating our children, public schools play an important role in neighborhood identity and cohesiveness. All of Seattle property owners pay for Capital Levies, BEX IV through property taxes. During the past decade, the Seattle Schools have moved to a neighborhood assignment plan. Ensuring that our neighborhoods have great schools is important to all who live here. Commenting and asking questions are important to the process.
$20,000 per student is what we have to work with today. We don’t know how SPS manages to throw away 50% of it up front on non-education related expenses. And then to do such a poor job with the remaining amount.
Solution one – Charter Schools. Let Parents begin making better choices than SPS. Give them the whole $20,000 and see what they can get. OK, I get it. SPS has to get a cut. So let’s give the parent $10K to apply to a private education or charter school – there’s a good compromise. You see – people allowed to make personal choices. Not told by the goverment how to manage their bodies, raise their children, and what education they may and may not have. How shameful that SPS has a monopoly on teaching kids – and just fills their minds with pablum.
I suggest we just shut down SPS completely. With that kind of cash we could have really nice schools for all.
That is rediculous. No way that SPS is spending $20,000 per student. Where do you get those figures? Stop being so hateful towards teachers and children.
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