Madison Valley's Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School is noted for its intimate atmosphere, comfortable rapport between faculty and students and an increased focus on academic improvement.
Throw in the possible addition of a Montessori program, and the future looks bright.
So why, then, all this talk lately about possibly closing down this cozy, little neighborhood school, along with a number of other elementary, middle and high schools districtwide?
The single-word answer is "money."
Facing multimillion-dollar budget deficits the next two school years and the potential for more red ink beyond that if nothing changes, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas is considering closing and consolidating as many as 20 schools that don't meet certain economic, demographic and educational criteria.
The district staff estimates that the annual savings per closed school would be $376,315 per elementary school, $892,974 per middle school and more than $1.2 million per high school in the initial year, with slightly higher savings in recurring years.
Though this plan would not be initiated until the 2006-07 school year and will not even be implemented at all if not approved by the School Board (which is uncertain at this point), the mere talk of such a plan has principals, teachers and school supporters alike feeling anxious. And it has some community members feeling frustrated and even angry.
"This is a very difficult issue, a difficult process," Manhas said. "I understand the passion. People are very attached to their schools."
None more so than the supporters of Martin Luther King and three other neighborhood schools potentially affected by this plan: McGilvra and Leschi elementary schools and Madrona K-8 School.
Martin Luther King Jr. school
While it's mostly guesswork right now as to what the final criteria for closure might be, it appears that Martin Luther King's two most glaring weaknesses are its old, outdated school building and critically low enrollment of 134 students, less than half of building capacity. This combination could lead district officials to determine that the school is financially inviable, making it vulnerable to closure.
Unable to do much about the building's structural and design needs, short of an unlikely capital outlay by the district, school supporters now rest their hopes on a plan conceived last summer to boost enrollment.
Throughout the summer months, school principal Barry Dorsey and a task force of parents, teachers and community members studied various options. The answer, Dorsey said, kept coming up Montessori.
He said that a Montessori program had the best chance to draw students from the school's racially and economically evolving reference area, something the school has not been able to do in recent years.
The task force also was bolstered by the success of two other Seattle public elementary schools, Daniel Bagley and Graham Hill, which have implemented successful Montessori programs and turned around declining enrollments.
"If we have some exciting programs, then people will come." Dorsey said. "This is our best shot."
Actually, it's the school's second shot because an initial Montessori proposal to the district was rejected in December, mainly because it didn't bring enrollment up to building capacity and because the district was hesitant to initiate new programs at the school with the possibility of school closures looming.
This week, Dorsey's group will submit an "accelerated" Montessori proposal that calls for the creation of four new multi-grade classrooms next fall and two more the following school year. He said that this plan would increase school enrollment by about 100 students the first year and another 60 the following year. The original proposal would have taken three years to implement and would have added only about 100 students.
Leschi school
Leschi Elementary School has problems similar to Martin Luther King, with enrollment currently at 232 students and only half of building capacity.
However, Leschi appears to have several more positives on its side that makes the school far less vulnerable to closure than Martin Luther King, at least by preliminary district standards.
For one, it has a much newer building (built in 1988) that also is slated to receive already approved capital improvement levy funds sometime in the future.
The school's building capacity of 464 could ensure against closure because the current threshold being touted by district staff as ideal for elementary schools is 400.
The extra capacity might also be used for students who would be displaced by closures at other facilities.
Toss in the full-time day care operating in the building, also high on the dis-trict's preliminary list of criteria, and Leschi might be well-fortified against closure should the plan be implemented.
School principal Jo Lute-Ervin said she has no plans to implement new programs specifically designed to increase enrollment.
Instead, she said, she will continue promoting what she feels are the school's strengths, including a focus on multi-grade classroom learning and music partnerships with Washington Middle School and Garfield High School.
"We feel that music gives the students the discipline to do well academically," Lute-Ervin said.
Both Martin Luther King and Leschi tout a steady increase in fourth-grade WASL scores the past two years, and district projections of increasing student populations in both school's reference areas might help make the argument against closing either school.
McGilvra
It doesn't appear that either McGilvra elementary or Madrona K-8 school will need much more ammunition than they already have to win any such argument.
McGilvra's enrollment is at capacity, and the school has some of the highest test scores in the district.
The school also enjoys the benefits of an affluent and supportive reference community whose residents are willing to put their money where their children learn.
Thanks to the generous contributors and a very active PTSA, McGilvra sports privately funded amenities that most elementary schools only dream of, such as between three and four extra classroom teachers who help keep class sizes at about 20 students, a choral instructor who works with all age groups and an art coordinator who trains school parents to teach art in the classroom.
"Our parents are very invested in the learning of their children," principal Jo Shapiro said. "We work together. Parents and teachers are working together."
The school has moved beyond the situation three years ago when there were nearly as many scraped knees in the building as students because of the school's gravel-on-gravel playground. Taking charge, the PTSA secured enough donations and grant money to install a new state-of-the-art artificial turf soccer field and play area.
Madrona school
Though Madrona does not benefit from contributor's deep pockets, it has been blessed with money - levy money, that is.
In 2002, the district completed a $15 million renovation of the school, which in itself almost certainly eliminates it as a candidate for closure.
The fact that it is now a K-8 program, another big plus in preliminary criteria, practically seals the deal for this school.
"I think that K-8 serves mid-dle-school students well, and serves elementary students well," principal Kaaren Andrews said. "This is sort of the movement right now in urban schools."
Andrews, who has been working in the K-8 model for years in Seattle and San Francisco, said that the key to the format is the continuity of education for students who stay at the school for nine years. That, she said, and size.
"Because we're K-8 and we're larger, we can offer more to all of our kids," Andrews said.
She said that Madrona has a full-time librarian, counselor and vice-principal. Add to that full-time music and physical-education instructors and a Spanish program for all ages, and Madrona is well situated academically.
Andrews said that while she appreciates the wealth of her school's situation, she worries that smaller schools don't have the resources to offer such programs and that already existing inequities between schools will continue to grow.
Superintendent Manhas shares her concern and said that school closure and consolidation option could give the district the chance to resolve some of these inequities by allowing for the reconfiguration of programs and facilities to match needs, as well address the district's financial concerns.
Community input
However, judging from comments made at a community forum held at Meany Middle School on Jan. 20, not everyone agrees that closure is necessarily the right way to resolve either problem.
"This is premature," Seattle School Board president Mary Bass said. "The funding format needs to be looked at first. Once we clean up the policy, it might be that we don't have to close schools."
Every public comment at the two-hour Meany forum, with the exception of one, was against the closure plan.
Elizabeth Peterson, a Columbia City resident, received a round of applause from the overflow crowd in the school library when she described the process as "disrespectful.
"You're asking us to choose which one of the administration's options we want," Peterson said, "not what options the community wants."
Comments made after the forum by another Columbia City resident, Catherine Costello, summed up the sentiment of several forum contributors who spoke at the forum, questioning the veracity of the forum process in general.
"There's an assumption in how they have designed the process," Costello said. "They're going to close schools."
Superintendent Manhas, who did not attend the Meany forum, said that there is nothing at all predetermined or disingenuous about the process.
"This is not a done deal here," he said. "I can say that categorically, absolutely."
He said that even though it may seem premature to discuss criteria for closing schools before the district even decides to adopt the plan, it is necessary to do so now to allow for the necessary lead time it will take to implement the plan after next school year. "If we don't have this discussion now," Manhas said, "we are closing that option."
Which is exactly what Bass said should happen, at least for now. She said that before considering closure, the district should do a complete examination of the weighted student formula and the student assignment plan to see if the mechanism is not only driving funds as designed but also if those funds are being spent effectively and efficiently in each individual school.
"We need to stabilize what we have," she said.
Including facilities, she added, with respect to the ongoing capital improvement program.
"It seems a little perverse to be out there building these beautiful structures, and we're not even sure which ones are going to be closed," she said.
School-district spokesperson Patti Spencer agreed that the entire student funding system should and will to be examined, but said that even if there are problems found and fixed in that system it will only result in the shuffling around of existing monies and will not bring "new" revenues into the system.
Timeline
The argument will play out over the coming months. The remaining timeline for the closure and consolidation process calls for a public hearing on the district's preliminary criteria in early March, followed by a vote of the full school board on March 15.
If approved then, the superintendent and district staff will create a set of final criteria, which would be put before the school board for a final vote on July 13.[[In-content Ad]]
