The Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center for foreign students should move from the Old John Hay School on Upper Queen Anne Hill to Meany Middle School on Capitol Hill, according to a Nov. 25 recommendation made by school superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson.
The SBOC students would join students from the alternate NOVA school, which would provide "enrichment opportunities" for both populations, according to a school district briefing paper. SBOC principal Martin Callaghan declined to comment, referring all questions to the school district.
The SBOC move is one of nine programs that will be relocated for the next school year, and Old John Hay is one of six schools that will be closed under the proposal. But the school at 411 Boston St. may not sit empty very long, according to school district spokesman David Tucker. The district wants to keep the building instead of selling it in case there is a need to start up a new K-5 school in the area, he said.
Indeed, Old John Hay was mentioned as a possible location to handle projected growth in elementary and kindergarten students in North Seattle before the school board recently decided to add four new classrooms for that purpose at Catharine Blaine in Magnolia.
Also on the table in that regard was the renovation and reopening of the old Magnolia School. But getting that building refinished and retrofitted would have set the district back another $20 million, according to district board member Michael DeBell.
There are several factors at work. Seattle schools have operated for many years with "substantially more capacity than needed for the number of students enrolled" in the South End, according to a briefing paper.
In addition, the district says, Seattle Schools faces a looming $24 million budget shortfall for the next school year, which is especially significant because many of the underutilized school buildings are costly to maintain because of their ages and a backlog of deferred maintenance.
"We are considering building closures in order to strengthen academic programs and protect the (school district's) long-term financial health," Goodloe-Johnson said in a press release. "These are very difficult decisions to make, but they are decisions we must face now, and we must face them together as a community."
District spokesman Tucker said there will numerous school board meetings, workshops and public hearings about the proposals this month and in January. The school board is expected to vote on the issue on Jan. 29, he said.[[In-content Ad]]
