Interagency Academy has a network of small, alternative high schools throughout Seattle for students who have been through rehab and want to focus on their education and sobriety. But many local parents are concerned about the safety, space and transparency behind the decision.
As a result, SPS will hold a community meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 6:30 p.m. in John Hay’s cafeteria (201 Garfield St.). The December meeting will be a Q&A session with Interagency principal Kaaren Andrews, said SPS spokesperson Stacy Howard.
Parents are also attending the Seattle School Board meeting at the John Stanford Center (2445 Third Ave S.) on Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 4:45 p.m. to express their concerns.
The December meeting will inform the public about concerns about the lack of transparency and the decision-making process, but Howard said it will not be a chance to persuade SPS to move the location elsewhere.
The decision to place the program in that location didn’t need to go before the school board because it’s already part of an existing program, Howard said, noting she wasn’t sure who actually made the decision to put the program in that location.
The program was initially expected to open this month, but because of permitting, it won’t open until late January or early February, Howard said. Howard wasn’t sure when construction began, but it’s all internal construction on the gym site.
The school will have 10 students. Although the school will be able accommodate more, and there are rumors of up to 80 students, the official number is 10 right now, Howard said. The students are teens from the Queen Anne neighborhood who are sober and have made the decision to return to school, Howard said, noting that the program is very competitive.
Howard wasn’t sure how many staff members would work at the school — which will include specially trained teachers, a chemical dependency professional and a mental health counselor — but she said the teaching style is more one-on-one than a traditional high school. Often, Interagency students partner with nearby elementary schools to tutor, and SPS hopes to do the same thing here, she said.
Community concerns
Christina Economou, a parent of a John Hay first-grader, was walking by the gym when she noticed the construction. She went inside to ask what was happening and learned it would be a school for sober students. “I was shocked. I was really shocked,” she said.
Last week, Economou started a Change.org petition against the program’s location with two other parents. As of press time, the petition had already received 338 signatures. The petition was a way to create a cohesive voice and say the majority of the community doesn’t want the school there, she said; they hope the petition gets SPS to reconsider the location.
Economou supports the Interagency program, just not in this location. “Parents and families are already on high alert because of violence in schools,” she said. “I think it’s highly insensitive of the district to do this under the radar.”
Economou doesn’t believe SPS did its due diligence with this decision. Howard said she understands concerns and knows that people feel like they were not notified about the decision.
Economou is passionate about school safety. “I think any negative element we bring into our community is irresponsible,” she said.
Economou will attend the December meeting and is encouraging all other parents to attend, too. “We want discussion; there was no discussion,” she said.
John Hay parents Theresa and Quentin Holley said they were shocked and horrified by the news. There is empathy for the students in the recovery program, Quentin said: “The community really does want to put their arms around [the students] and move forward, but it seems risky.”
The risk he’s talking about is the proximity between John Hay and the new program. SPS’ silence shows a “real lack of competency,” Quentin said.
Howard is a John Hay parent herself, and she is not concerned about the students moving nearby. “These are good kids that are self-selected into this program,” she said.
But both Quentin and Theresa feel differently. They plan to move somewhere safer if this plan goes through. They have seen a lot of unsolved thefts and burglaries during their time on Queen Anne.
“Small crimes are kind of a growth industry here,” Quentin said. That coupled with the new Interagency program may push them to move somewhere like Bellevue, the Holleys said. Had they known at the start of the school year, they wouldn’t have enrolled their children at John Hay: “It’s way too much of a risk,” he said.
The Holleys hope SPS postpones the program indefinitely following the meeting in December.
John Hay parent Nicki Callahan said she was in disbelief when she first found about the new program and has had sleepless nights since.
Callahan feels there isn’t much supervision at John Hay before and after school and at recess, so she’s concerned the new Interagency students could harm John Hay students in some way.
Callahan isn’t against the Interagency program itself, though. “I think it’s a great program,” she said. “But not across the street from my 6-year-old.”
Callahan is also upset with how SPS handled the decision. “I think it was very underhanded,” she said.
Some parents, like Sheila Stickel, have suggested other locations for the school, like The Center School (305 Harrison St.) or one of Interagency Recovery’s 10 other program locations.
Other uses?
Unlike other John Hay parents, Linda Perlstein isn’t concerned about the program or the students. She understands parents’ fears but doesn’t think the students in an addiction-recovery program will be any more dangerous. She’s also skeptical of how any other school in the area would successfully use that space better than this program.
Queen Anne Elementary School parent Tina Podlodowski said even though her child’s school is a little farther away, she’s still concerned.
Podlodowski is concerned about space, saying Queen Anne, John Hay and the other schools on Queen Anne are crowded. She feels the space could have been used for a school or community gym.
“Why isn’t this facility being used for Queen Anne?” she asked. “Why wasn’t the community consulted?”
To Podlodowski, the neighborhood is still raw over SPS taking back Northwest Center’s facility on upper Queen Anne (2919 First Ave W.).
Howard understands the need for a high school on Queen Anne but said there is no way this building could be a high school in the future.
Podlodowski said she’s now concerned about safety, but she doesn’t think she would have been had SPS gone through a public process to inform the neighborhood.
Podlodowski hopes to learn more about the programs uses and functions at the community meeting. “I just feel like the whole situation is unfortunate,” she said. Informing the community “could have been carried out in matter that was win-win for everybody,” she said, but now she believes SPS is going to have a much more difficult time winning parents over.
To sign the petition against the school’s location, visit ow.ly/El9Qs.
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