Are you aware that you have no neighborhood high school?
Are you aware that every high school in Seattle, both public and private, has a unique curriculum, and you needed to find the "right" one for your child?
Are you aware that there are waiting lists at every school, both public and private, in the north end of Seattle and you are not guaranteed a spot at any school? Where are they going to put the additional students who will live in the new housing being built on the old Briarcliff property, as well as any housing they might build in Discovery Park?
Are you aware that some students from our communities are currently being assigned to Cleveland High School, way over on Beacon Hill?
If you are not aware of this high school education crisis, you better wake up now and start planning ahead.
The "neighborhood" high schools closest to our homes - Ballard and The Center School - are over subscribed and assignments currently are based on whether you have a sibling in the school and how far away you live from the school. Fortunately, the district will not be able to use a racial tiebreaker, thanks to the recent ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A group of parents - Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS) - have fought the Seattle School District for four years to get them permanently to stop using the racial tiebreaker, because they believe that its use, tantamount to discrimination, is wrong.
The school district still could appeal this recent ruling. If this tiebreaker had been used, many more of our students would have been assigned to Cleveland High School. The lawsuit aside, who will start working on establishing a new high school for Magnolia as well as Queen Anne?
It's time to start thinking outside the box. Anyone interested in starting a charter school? There are more than enough high school students in our two communities to fill up a high school. Remember Queen Anne High School? If you build it, they will come! The old Magnolia School is sitting empty next to park department land. Could this property be turned into a high school with a joint operating agreement with the Seattle Park Department? Could property in the Interbay area be developed into a new high school?
We have enough financial, legal and educational professionals who live in these communities to make this happen. If someone doesn't start working on this now, the high school situation is going to get worse. Year after year, parents and students will continue to go through this assignment bedlam. Our mortgages and property taxes are getting outrageously high and many of us are paying private high school tuition on top of supporting school levies for a district that won't let our kids into "neighborhood" high schools.
Regardless of some people's perception of wealth in our communities, there are plenty of people struggling to pay their bills, and private schools are not an option. Having access to a good, public, neighborhood high school should not be an unreasonable expectation in as fine a city as Seattle.
If you are interested, contact our school board member by email at dick.lilly@seattleschools.org. or restart the Magnolia/Queen Anne High School Task force and get the ball rolling.
Kathleen Brose, a Magnolia resident, is president of Parents Involved In Community Schools.[[In-content Ad]]