We’re now hours away from the next significant release of school closure/change-related information from Seattle Public Schools, during a School Board work session this afternoon/evening (we will be there to post live updates; it’s not expected to be televised and it starts too early — 4 pm — for everyone who’s interested to be there from the beginning). Here’s a quick recap on where things stand:

*The official proposal on the table remains the one announced by Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson on November 25th (original coverage here): Close the Arbor Heights Elementary “program,” move Pathfinder K-8 into the Arbor Heights building, close the Genesee Hill Elementary building where Pathfinder’s been located since 1994 (five years after GH Elementary was closed as a school of its own), in addition to recommendations involving other schools around the city (full proposal here).

*That same night, after hearing the proposals, School Board members made various requests to district staff for additional research. One such request: Look into whether Cooper could become Pathfinder’s new home instead of Arbor Heights. As a result of those requests, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson presented an “update” at last Wednesday’s board meeting (see the full presentation here), and that update included this:

At the work session on November 25 the School Board indicated that the option of altering the Student Assignment Plan to permit the location of Pathfinder at Cooper should be evaluated. Staff are evaluating this option.

*As part of that 12/3 presentation, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson proposed tonight’s work session to discuss new data (for example, district staffers have been touring schools to determine “functional capacity” – how many students can really be served under current conditions, as opposed to the “planning capacity” – optimal theoretical conditions – that’s been discussed in district documents) and “potential final recommendations.” This, although the superintendent’s “final recommendation” is still not supposed to be announced until January 6th.

*Many schools caught up in this have already had meetings of their own to discuss strategy and status; the district has had two official “public workshops” in the past week (here’s our coverage of the first one Thursday night); and many more meetings are coming up, including an official meeting tonight at Arbor Heights (6 pm) with a district rep and an official public hearing 12/16 at the Genesee Hill building (6:30 pm – the full School Board won’t be there as there are other hearings that same night elsewhere in the city; West Seattle rep Steve Sundquist said at his 11/26 coffee gathering that he and fellow board members were working to decide who would go to which hearing).

Needless to say – more later! Meanwhile, WSB coverage of this round of school closure/change talk is all archived here; all the official district info related to what SPS calls “capacity management” is linked here.

We just checked with Seattle Public Schools to see if the official dates were set for the public hearings at the school buildings proposed for closure – and this list is hot off the pixels. (We’d reported earlier that West Seattle School Board rep Steve Sundquist said this morning that he thought the West Seattle hearing would be December 16th, and he was right.) From the official announcement:

In order to strengthen academic programs across Seattle Public Schools and protect its long-term financial health, the School District is now considering building closures. Public hearings will be held at buildings proposed for closure from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the days and locations below.

Monday, Dec. 15, 2008
▪ T.T. Minor – 1700 E. Union St.
▪ Pinehurst – 11530 12th Ave. N.E.
▪ Van Asselt – 7201 Beacon Ave. S.

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008
▪ Genesee Hill – 5012 S.W. Genesee St.
▪ Mann – 2410 E. Cherry St.
▪ Old Hay – 411 Boston St.

Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008
▪ Lowell – 1058 E. Mercer St.

Public testimony will be limited to 3 minutes per speaker, and should focus on the school building about which the hearing is being held. To sign up to give testimony, please call (206) 252-0042 or e-mail hearing@seattleschools.org.

For more information, visit www.seattleschools.org, and select “Capacity Management.” Comments may be e-mailed to capacity@seattleschools.org, schoolboard@seattleschools.org, or mailed to School Board,
P.O. Box 34165, MS 11-010, Seattle, WA, 98124-1165.

Direct link to the “Capacity Management” page is here. We also have just created a coverage category for all reports we publish related to this round of school changes – you can click “West Seattle school closure” in the WSB CATEGORIES list on the right sidebar, or just bookmark this (you can subscribe to this category or any other one in RSS, if you read WSB that way – choose the RSS link next to the category name in that sidebar list).

We are at Coffee to a Tea with dozens of parents who have come to talk with School Board rep Steve Sundquist, many here to hear why Arbor Heights Elementary is being basically dismantled so Pathfinder K-8 can move there (coverage of the announcement and followup here and here). More later. 10 AM UPDATE: Sundquist offers this advice to concerned parents: Bring the board ideas and research, not emotion. First chance – sign up Monday to speak at next Wednesday’s board meeting. Sundquist says he has not made up his mind on the first recommendations and added that he doesn’t feel “bound” by them either – he is open to hearing alternative proposals. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON P.S. We will write more about the meeting later (including the key points Arbor Heights parents made about why their school is a success and shouldn’t be dismantled – West Seattle parents of Lowell APP students had a significant presence too), but one other important piece of info to share now – Sundquist says he thinks the one public hearing that will be held in West Seattle, as required by state law when a building is proposed for closure, will probably be Tuesday 12/16 at Genesee Hill (Pathfinder), and he expects it will follow the format of up to 40 speakers, up to 3 minutes each. “Why no hearing at Arbor Heights?” asked an AH parent; “this is what’s required by law,” Sundquist explained, to which the parent wondered aloud if the district couldn’t go above and beyond what’s “required.” Meantime, we are checking with the district to see if they have a timetable for when the official announcement of the hearing will come (and we of course will publish the dates for all the hearings as they’re set, knowing local APP parents will want to attend the Lowell hearing).

(keep refreshing to see latest updates, as we report “live” from school district HQ – toplines are now available on this district document … also, as of 10:15 pm, an overview is now posted on the district website – see it here)

10:30 PM NOTE: If you want to read the full rationale for the “close Arbor Heights program, close Genesee Hill building, move Pathfinder K-8 to Arbor Heights building” proposal, it starts on page 40 of this document. Interesting side note on that document – Alki Elementary is the only building in the West Seattle area in worse condition than Genesee Hill, but the district says it would be tough to consider closing that program/building for a variety of reasons including the fact its boiler supplies heat to the adjacent Alki Community Center, so even if the program was closed, the building couldn’t be taken out of commission.

10:19 PM: After 4 1/3 hours, the meeting is over. Checking for additional links to share before we pack up and head back to HQ and assemble for later a more concise “where things stand, what next” post. *There are a ton of additional links now – go to this page and scroll down to the list under the November 25th, Preliminary Recommendation Presented, heading. This one in particular, Preliminary Recommendation Report and Appendices, likely has the full details on the decisionmaking behind suggesting moving Pathfinder to Arbor Heights – we’ll read it to check. Reminder that Steve Sundquist has his monthly “coffee hour” tomorrow morning, 9 am, Coffee to a Tea in The Junction – we’ll be there and we’re sure a lot of Arbor Heights, Pathfinder, and West Seattle APP elementary students’ parents will be there as well.

10:05 PM: Summarizing the recommendations now (see the link above for the list). Next step, School Board meeting Wednesday 12/3 (public testimony that night no doubt will be dominated by the closure proposals). Crowd starting to clear out. Some more board remarks even though Q/A was taken throughout the presentation. Hard copy of the recommendations (same doc as linked above) being handed out – though it’s clear that the board members have a BIG sheaf of additional info. Will advise as soon as the date for West Seattle-specific hearing is set. DeBell is saying, it’s tough to have an all-city-draw program that’s not centrally located, and adds, nobody’s being done any favors by keeping half-full buildings. “This is not fun,” Dr. Goodloe-Johnson summarizes, “(but) the hard choices will only get harder. We know people don’t want schools to close, we don’t either, but the fact is, we don’t have a choice.” She says some of the notes and the questions asked tonight will lead to data shared at the next board meeting. Board president Cheryl Chow points out that several board members went through the last school-closure round: “Our job now is to look at the data, ask more questions, listen to our constituents and their ideas, and share those with the staff, look at the data again … I would like to encourage all of us to remember, it’s human nature to want to solve everything ‘right now’ but I caution us, too, the most important job we have as elected officials now is to listen openmindedly but not promise things because we need to have this process be vetted fully … The final decision isn’t until January 29th, and as hard as it is for the seven of us to sit here and just listen and take notes, I think it’s very important, because there’s lots of people that want us to hear their viewpoint, and we need to honor that.” (10:17 pm, in addition to the list on the FAQ document posted earlier, here is an “overview” document that appears to have some more details)

9:51 PM: Finally getting to West Seattle. Enrollment projected steady for next five years, says superintendent. Close Genesee Hill, one of the worst buildings in the district. Arbor Heights building much better, 70.74. Arbor Heights smaller than Genesee Hill but no portables, unlike GH, still big enough to house 391 Pathfinder students. Enough room in nearby schools to house all AH students. They would be reassigned to other elementaries in WS South cluster. Board questions now. West Seattle school board rep Sundquist: Please explain how did you get to the point of putting Pathfinder in either AH or Cooper. They’re reading from documentation. Really intricate reasoning for why they could not consider any building but Cooper or Arbor Heights for Pathfinder relocation (we were videotaping that part). Apparently had a lot to do with the fact there are a lot of West Seattle North cluster kids at Cooper but no place for them to go in the north cluster schools. Pathfinder to Arbor Heights – AH has planning capacity of 428, it’s big enough, plus there is excess capacity at other WS South (368 open seats) schools, plus 68 open seats at WS elementary, more than enough for AH students to be reassigned. 277 AH students live in WS South cluster, more than 400 open seats in other schools of that cluster, so there’s room for them, the superintendent says. Sundquist: Despite great temptation in the face of all this to not want to take the pain of closures, I still believe our financial condition is sufficiently dire that taking closures is better than the alternative of guaranteeing pain through more staff cuts and budget cuts so I am for the fact we need to do some more closures and I do believe WS has some excess capacity. I’m A-OK. But I debate in my mind whether AH or Cooper is the better of the two alternatives for us to think about as the receiving school for Pathfinder program. He continues, looking ahead to more of a neighborhood orientation in forthcoming Student Assignment Plan, I am more concerned about the ability of Cooper to be a successful neighborhood school. The enrollment in that reference area has declined and looks to decline further, so I worry about its viability under a plan we are going to be writing a couple months hence. Arbor Heights is very clearly a neighborhood school (BIG CROWD IN CORNER APPLAUDS). Sundquist says he’s concerned about putting so much weight on concern that the north WS cluster kids would be assigned out of cluster, in deciding that Cooper should not be PF home. Now, board member Maier echoes that Cooper reference area does not have so many students, in comparison with Arbor Heights reference area, so he is worried about it being a successful neighborhood school. He wonders if this can be held off a year to see what happens. (10:04 pm) Maier also notes Pathfinder students tend to be from WS north. Nobody else has questions about the West Seattle proposals.

9:42 PM: Southeast discussion continues. Meantime, as we get closer to the West Seattle discussion and why Arbor Heights Elementary’s “program” was chosen to close, with Pathfinder K-8 proposed to move there (from the ex-Genesee Hill Elementary building the district’s been trying to get it out of for years), here’s the district history of Arbor Heights, which first opened almost 60 years ago. Ironically, the Genesee Hill building opened right about the same time – 1949 (here’s its history doc) – but was closed in 1989, and has served as a temporary site (or, for Pathfinder, sort of temporary) ever since.

9:15 PM: Southeast cluster: Excess seats in elementary and K-8. Close Van Asselt building (poor condition), relocate its K-5 program to African American Academy building (good condition but the school itself was not doing well), repurpose that building as K-5, reassign AAA students to schools in the clusters where they live, co-locate Summit to Rainier Beach HS. (9:29 pm, board questioning continues – one focus includes, won’t there be issues with two high-school programs sharing a building, the 9-12 section of Summit K-12 in its proposed new home co-located with RBHS; further questioning on high-school capacity issues draws a district staffer who says the HS population has generally migrated north and the “Southeast Initiative” is meant to try to encourage students to attend schools closer to home, and maybe move some people out of overcrowded North End schools. DeBell says he’d like to see a school-by-school analysis because he wonders why no high schools are proposed for closure, but that’s where the biggest potential savings are, and the district is in a “desperate” financial situation. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson notes that “demographics tell us, in 2012 the high-school population will go up” and they don’t want to be without wiggle room for placement of future students. Superintendent says they may yet have to look again at the high-school capacity issue but they “think they have another year.”)

9:10 PM: Board president Cheryl Chow says she’s starting to feel uncomfortable and troubled (as the APP-splitting discussion continues) because there are gifted kids “throughout the Seattle School District” – “equity has not been around the district – we are beginning to address it.” So, Bass asks, are we trying to get geographic equity now with these APP moves, or are we trying to reduce costs? (If you don’t know much about APP, read the district explanation here.) Dr. Goodloe-Johnson reiterates, the Lowell building needs to be closed.

8:47 PM: They’re still discussing the concerns related to splitting up APP elementary (which has been self-contained, with all APP elementary students from around the city, at Lowell for a long time). Board member Mary Bass points out that the clusters with overcapacity problems are just southeast and southwest (West Seattle), and it would be important to figure out why, in addition to just shuffling kids around the city to those empty seats. The APP-splitting recommendation so far is getting as many questions as the “move Summit K-12 to Rainier Beach” recommendation from earlier. Board member Peter Maier wonders how this all plays into the new student assignment plan; district staff says they’re “liking what they’re seeing” because all this seems to play into what they’ve been working on. (8:59 pm) District staff says Thurgood Marshall and Hawthorne will have a “schoolhouse model” because they both have special-ed students as well as general-ed students, and now the added APP students will mean a more diverse student population. Board member DeBell says Hawthorne will be overfilled by 60 students with the move, so how will APP grow there, “without displacing the neighborhood students?” and notes that T-Marshall also will be slightly “overfilled” by moving half the APP kids there. Vaughan says 200 kids identified for APP are not using the program – they’re being “accommodated” at Spectrum and ALOs, “it’s not essential that every highly gifted student has to go into a radically accelerated program.” He says it’s more important to attract kids to Spectrum (the second-level gifted program), which is located in more schools around the city. DeBell points out there’s a waitlist for many of the Spectrum schools (crowd applauds). DeBell asks, was a north end site considered for APP? District staff says “we looked at that” but couldn’t find a building where they could move half the APP kids into, because there wasn’t one with that much room on that side of town.

*Editor’s note: Liveblogging up to this point is now on a separate page – if you are just coming into this and aren’t refreshing the post itself, click ahead to catch up on what we chronicled earlier – just trying to clear room on the home page*Read More

According to various online discussions we are monitoring, Arbor Heights Elementary is on the closure list that the school district will unveil at 6 pm tonight. There is already a Save Arbor Heights blog. More to come. WSB will report live from the meeting tonight (public is welcome; it’s at district HQ in Sodo) – both with frequent updates here on the home page, and also via Twitter (twitter.com/westseattleblog). Arbor Heights, by the way, was one of the first schools NATIONWIDE to have a website – dating back to 1994. As per the comments below this note (including one that says it will be proposed that Pathfinder’s program move to Arbor Heights’ building) – the presentation the district will make tonight will be a complicated list of “program” closures as well as “building” closures and moves, so the full picture of who’s supposed to go where won’t emerge till the announcements are done. Also, in advance of this, the district announced this afternoon that the “open enrollment” period for next year is being pushed back to March 2-31, 2009 (more than a month later than the original plan; here’s the full news release).