The School Board is considering several proposed changes to the student assignment policy that would create special privileges for students from certain neighborhoods. They should reject these proposals, not only because they are inequitable, but because they are unnecessary. There are better solutions to all of these problems.

 

One proposal before the Board would reserve some of the seats at TOPS for students from the neighborhoods close to the school: Eastlake, Roanoak, and North Capitol Hill. These neighborhoods do not have a neighborhood elementary school nearby. They would accept assignment to Montlake, McGilvra or Stevens but they can't get in due to the popularity of the schools, the small size of the schools, the decision to limit enrollment at the schools, and the distance tie-breaker. Children from these neighborhoods usually get mandatory assignments to ML King or Thurgood Marshall and the families usually choose private schools instead.

 

Instead of the inequitable solution proposed, there are two alternatives which would work better.

 

1. Move The Option Program to Madrona. Both Madrona and Seward were recently renovated as K-8s. The buildings are comparable, so just switch the program's location. This would put a neighborhood school right where the district needs one. The people going to TOPS would be just as happy if the program were located in Madrona. The students at Madrona could choose another nearby elementary school (they have lots of room for more students), or they could attend the new neighborhood program at Seward.

 

2. Address the capacity crisis at Lowell. There are over 500 students at Lowell. They are turning closets into classrooms to provide learning space. Split the elementary APP between two schools, one north of the ship canal and one south of it. Each program would have about 250 students. This would reduce the bus ride for students living in the North, which has been a barrier to participation for some families. The school in the South could be Lowell, which would allow space for another 100-150 students there. If the school offered a neighborhood program, that would provide the underserved neighborhoods with an acceptable alternative. If the school offered a Spectrum program it would attract 100-150 students, many of them coming from Montlake, McGilvra and Stevens. That would free up seats at those schools for children from Eastlake, Roanoak, and North Capitol Hill. An APP/Spectrum elementary school would probably also draw students now in private schools. The district could also choose to re-locate the southern APP elementary program to one of the small, under-subscribed schools in the Central cluster, such as ML King (only 12 students have named ML King as their first choice for assignment in the past three years - that's 12 total for all three years). That would free up all 400 seats at Lowell for neighborhood students.

 

The lack of access to an acceptable elementary school for families in these neighborhoods is a direct result of the district's refusal to address the capacity crisis at Lowell.