Photo by Laura Marie Rivera
There will be a rally before today's School Board meeting.
Last week, Seattle Public Schools announced their school closure plan, calling it the Well-Resourced Schools Planning and Recommendations. In an effort to balance the budget and close a $100 million gap, they are offering two proposals.
The first concept closes 21 schools, eliminates all option school choices, and has an alleged savings of $31.5 million. The second closes 17 schools, potentially saves $21.5 million, and keeps one K-8 option school in each region of the city. Neither plan closes the budget gap or retains the highly sought after programs of dual language immersion, highly capable and advanced learning, or some of the special education communities and medically fragile students. Both plans are highly disruptive for their students and the wider communities.
Brendan Levy is a parent of two SPS students and volunteers with the All Together for Seattle Schools advocacy group. He said, “The SPS proposed plans are bad plans. These SPS closures won’t solve the deficit - they just plunge the district further into chaos.” He cited the harmful outcomes for displaced students, as seen in other cities that have experienced school closures. And cautioned that the district that has already lost 10% of their students in recent years will lose even more, as families seek placement in nearby school districts and independent schools.
Online forums have been buzzing with activity as parents and educators try to envision ways to trim the budget that do not include shuttering their local schools. And community members are left with even fewer opportunities to voice their opinions after the school board voted to hold one less meeting each month.
Parents and community members will rally to save their schools at 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence, 2445 3rd Ave S.
More information at www.alltogetherforseattleschools.org