October 25

School boundary letter making neighborhood rounds

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There are clearly Maple Leaf families both in favor and opposed to the proposed changes to the Seattle School District boundaries, according to the comments in our recent post.

Those opposed are making their voices heard not only by responding to the district’s survey, which is due today at 6 p.m., but also by asking neighbors to sign a “Maple Leaf Letter to the School Board” by 4 p.m. today that supporters have been distributing around the neighborhood and via the Facebook page Maple Leaf Parents.


From the Maple Leaf Parents Facebook page.

The text reads:

Maple Leaf is a solid Northeast Seattle neighborhood with a strong sense of community and neighborhood pride. Our community has very natural geographical boundaries including a western edge at I-5, a northern boundary at Northgate Way, and an eastern boundary at Lake City Way.

To realize the potential of the neighborhood schools approach, Seattle Public Schools should look for opportunities to preserve and nurture neighborhood communities. Kids should be able to go to school in the neighborhoods where they shop and play and otherwise congregate – that is, in the community that they and their parents consider home. The community where they walk to school, volunteer at the library, and help at the senior home.

Please reconsider your proposal to send Maple Leaf children to three separate elementary schools, three separate middle schools, and (likely) three separate high schools including schools on both sides of I5. We understand the pressures the school districts is facing and want to work with you to find a solution that makes sense.

The Maple Leaf Community Council Executive Board also has weighed in with an email and post to its Facebook page stating that it because of the division on this issue, it “is not in the position to take a formal stance on behalf of the neighborhood.” The post continues:

Please know that however this boundary issue may play out, the MLCC remains committed to keeping our children safe en route to/from schools, and will continue our efforts to secure pedestrian safety improvements. We are aware some of the proposed changes affect pedestrian safety and we will be watching what SPS decides, hopefully with the input of many Maple Leaf neighbors like yourself, and advocate accordingly with City Hall for related transportation improvements.

Be sure to weigh in by 6 p.m. today to the district’s survey if you want your voice heard!

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  1. As one of the authors of the recent letter to the school board regarding the proposed boundary changes, someone asked me today to clear up some misunderstandings.

    The first point I would like to reemphasize is that the idea behind the letter was for the Maple Leaf Community to advocate with a single voice in addition to all of the individual feedback provided directly to the district. I started by asking the Maple Leaf Community Council to advocate for us, but the council felt unable to do so. By my count, the school district had divided Maple Leaf into at least six different constituencies. And even within those constituencies, in many cases there was no clear consensus. With so many different groups and personal interests, certainly not everyone is going to be happy no matter what the outcome or message, but we did our best to come up with a message that we felt at least some people in all constituencies would support and a message we felt was in the best long-term interests of all of Maple Leaf.

    The second point is that the letter was conceived of during a conversation around noon on Wednesday October 21, posted online for review Wednesday afternoon, and then printed and initially distributed Wednesday evening. Sure it would have been great to have time for people to get together to discuss it and we would have liked more feedback, but because of the school district’s deadline we simply didn’t have time. Frankly, I was dumbfounded that I could attend 4 meetings discussing plans for the new park over a period of months, but that there would be no community meetings discussing such drastic changes to our schools before the feedback deadline. I had asked several community leaders if they would help organize a meeting, but for whatever reasons, no one was willing to help do, so the letter and its advocacy was the best solution we could come up with given the time. I apologize to those who would have liked to have been more involved in the process and would love to see a better process in place for responding on behalf of the community.

    The third point is in reference to a comment that we knew the high school boundaries were not changing. Well, the fact is when I drafted the letter and flyer I used a map that another concerned parent had put together and posted on the Facebook page on October 21, two days earlier. They had derived the map from the school districts document titled GB_20131016_MSserviceareas.pdf, page 12, which shows the attendance area for Wilson Pacific. On that page, it also shows Ingram marked as “AA High” (Attendance Area High School). It’s possible to argue we should have used a different map. It’s possible to argue the parent that put together the derivative map had misread the school districts map. In attempting to make sense of things, I did post a 20+ page compendium of all of the current and proposed school district maps for Maple Leaf to Facebook. Unfortunately, I am no expert on the workings of Seattle Public Schools but simply a concerned parent. The letter that was submitted to the school board has “presumably” (instead of likely) next to Ingram in both the text and on the map, but after people had started signing the letter we didn’t feel we could make any other changes. Currently Maple Leaf feeds 6 schools; the latest proposal suggests either 8 or 9 depending on how you read the map. In an ideal world, there would be 4 schools. I take full responsibility for any mistakes we made with regards to the map as they were not intentional but from my perspective they don’t materially change the message.

    The fourth point is in reference to “another parent” who felt we were suggesting that those of Northgate Way should find other schools. The fact is that was not our intent and I apologize to those who feel that’s what we were advocating. PTAs advocate on behalf of their schools. Parents advocate on behalf of their kids. Our goal was to advocate on behalf of the Maple Leaf community. We never intended to say that any given school should only be for those living in Maple Leaf, but rather that those living in Maple Leaf should not be scattered to so many schools.

    Finally, everything we did was posted to Facebook and we used our full names. A reference to the Facebook page was on the fliers asking people to sign the letter. The only thing that I have not posted is the list of 240 plus people that signed the letter because I never requested their permission to do so. I’m proud of the letter we submitted, appreciate all of the people who helped, and believe 100% in the integrity of our efforts. I strongly believe that there should be Maple Leaf community advocacy to the school district in the future and invite those who find fault in our efforts to help us do better next time.

  2. Are the insults necessary? Let’s not lose sight that the main issue of the flyers is parents in Maple Leaf trying to keep their kids going to school in Maple Leaf and NE Seattle–that is re-establishing the western boundary of Olympic View Elementary to I-5, where it is currently, and was even in the September 17th proposal. I think the October 16th proposal caught many of us by surprise with how drastically different school boundaries are, for Olympic View in particular.

    I’m sorry if people think they have been misled by flyer’s statements on high school assignments, but the October 16th proposal’s diagrams certainly do suggest a feeder model. The flyers also use wording such as “likely,” “possibly,” and “presumably” in reference to high schools. If people are opposed to the flyers, I’d be very interested in what you think is the best solution, so I can be more educated on what my neighbors want.

    I commend the efforts by the Maple Leaf Parents Facebook group to bring this issue present to all of us, and opening a forum for us to discuss what works best for our neighborhood and children.

  3. Hi Steve and “another parent.” I’m the parent who started the Facebook page, and I’d just like to say that I was sad to read your comments, which assigned malicious intent to my advocacy efforts. I certainly don’t think of myself as elitist or classest. Most folks who know me would tell you that I’m a “good of the wholer.” I started the page because I was alarmed about our families being sent west of the freeway when so much of our life is in NE Seattle — and because I found it tough to sift through all the SPS information on such a quick turnaround. (I didn’t engage with the boundaries issue before last week!) The Facebook group is open, the discourse has been civil, and all view points have been welcomed. // I’m not worried about property values or average income of the school my kids attend or anything like that. What I am worried about is community and social networks being completely disrupted. It’s true that the current proposal is about elementary and middle school boundaries — not high school boundaries — but at least one of the district maps had middle schools with arrows pointing to high schools. In the beginning, when we were first drawing up the flyers, I did not have a thorough understanding of how the high school boundaries currently work. And honestly, I don’t think anyone knows what the plan is going forward. But if my kid goes to Wilson-Pacific and then DOESN’T end up at Ingraham, he’d be leaving MOST of the kids he went to school with. So it’s a bit of a lose-lose in my view — which is why I believe Maple Leaf kids should be able to stay east of the freeway. I also feel for the parents who will be forced to move to Olympic Hills when Olympic View is in their backyard. Beyond that, I don’t have all the answers, and I certainly wouldn’t wish to exclude folks from the Northgate neighborhood. We did the best we could with the flyers in the time we had, and they represented our understanding of the possibilities. Thanks!

  4. @ Steve. I hope you are not suggesting it is a bad thing for elementary students to go their own way to middle school. I grew up in a small town where there was only one elementary school, middle school and high school. It can get real old to see the same faces year after year. Spread your wings and be diverse.

  5. If they use a geozone / street (like 85th) to split up elementary students in to middle schools then students who went to elementary school together for 6 years could go to a different middle school than their classmates, friends and neighbors

  6. I received a response to an email to the school board stating that they are considering changing the middle school Sacajawea feeds into from Eckstein to another middle school. They are also still deciding which middle school should house the APP (advanced) program which will impact where Sacajawea students go for middle school

    They are also looking at whether elementary students should feed into a middle school altogether or if there should be a geozone as is currently done with high school students. in this case they would use a street (for example 85th street) and have all students living north of 85th street go to the new Jane Addams middle school and everyone living south of 85th street go to Eckstein. I don’t know that they will use 85th street as the boundary, just a guess since that’s how they split the NE high schools

  7. I want to add, as a parent whose child had to go to Whitman (we are on the west side) it is indeed a PHYSICAL barrier. It is much harder to go east/west almost anywhere in Seattle than it is north/south.
    As someone who has been there done that I would support the freeway issue any day. And yeah, if you look at the demography differences they are real. Have a look at the demography of Northgate Elementary compared to Olympic View. Its almost shocking they can be that different but they are.

  8. your comment is correct Mat. The district is not currently redrawing high school boundaries, only middle school and elementary. this has been confirmed by the school board. The publishers of the flyer (“Maple Leaf Parents” group) are definitely extrapolating that the district will change to a “feeder” pattern so all students from a given middle school go to one high school. This fact was pointed out to them on their page. They have an agenda and will lie to get their way.

  9. Just a follow-up: it does look like high school boundaries are likely to be redrawn before 2019, when Lincoln High reopens in Wallingford. However, that would (presumably) shrink the boundaries for other schools, with the likely effect on Maple Leaf being to push the Roosevelt/Hale boundary north. It seems unlikely that the Ingraham boundaries would extend in to Maple Leaf.

  10. Ha Ha……….Elitist. Yes, you darn elitist parents who take interest and care about where your kids go to school and keeping them together with their friends if possible. Darn you. I bet you people are also 1% ‘er’s that drive SUV’s, club baby seals, and fail to use the word Namaste at least 10 times a day. How dare you corrupt our neighborhood with such concern over schools. You are supposed to just sit back and take your medicine because the government knows what is best for you and your child at all times.

    Namaste!

  11. A big issue with parents is you are taking Olympic View & splitting them into 3 different middles schools(& high schools which probably will change again). I believe no other school is doing this & some elementary schools have had a much louder voice so far & are getting their requests done. Also sending kids over the freeway and to a high school much farther north than 2 closer high schools. Signed by, not an elitist. Grew up on cow pastures in Montana.

  12. I think it’s also important to keep a close eye on what’s really in play for these proposals.

    The flyer that got dropped at my house yesterday has a map showing changes to the high school boundaries. There is nothing in the district documents suggesting that high school assignments will change from the current scheme: Hale north of 85th, Roosevelt south of 85th. Judging from the Facebook comments (“Maple Leaf Parents” group), the publishers of the flyer are extrapolating that the district will change to a “feeder” pattern so all students from a given middle school go to one high school.

    Maybe I missed some other information about high school boundaries. If so, please share!

  13. What’s going on with Pinehurst?

    Olympic Hills is way north, but our kid would have been there under this plan, we probably would not have been happy with that as our only option.

    Must be difficult to run a school district. Predictions, projections and reality are not always the same.

    At least forced busing is no longer required, always thought that was a bad policy.

    Will there be no flexibility on the part of the district? I recall we were able to look at four elementary schools, OH, OV, Sacajawea and Wedgwood. We are now “grandfathered” into Eckstein, otherwise it would have been JA. Nathan Hale in either case. If we lived about a hundred yards east, it would be Roosevelt, five blocks south: Ingraham, which does seem quite a ways away but is no further than Roosevelt. I guess crossing I-5 is more a mental barrier than physical.

    By the way, how DOES a kid get on the roof at Eckstein and fall through a skylight? Have no issues with any of the teachers, but some of the students are half a bubble off.

  14. The Sacajawea boundary used to go to 125th. It is strange that a few Maple Leaf families are now trying to argue that it is all for them and that everyone north of Northgate Way should essentially find some other elementary, middle and high schools. I find most of the comments by the small group of parents elitist and classest. Also, these boundaries will continue to change on a fairly regular basis as the school-age population in Seattle continues to grow.

  15. I think it is important to note, and for Maple Leaf Life to recognize that the opponents to the new boundaries only represent part of Maple Leaf. Please stay neutral and be even handed in the press you give this topic.

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