By Johnson, on April 10th, 2013
 As you may recall, last month we posted a summary of a meeting we had with Ms. Pegi McEvoy and others with the Seattle Public School District about the process for design and construction of the new NE Seattle K-5 School. The new NE Seattle K-5 school is being constructed following the overwhelming approval of Proposition 2 by Seattle voters in November 2012. While the 650 student school had originally been proposed for construction on the Thornton Creek Elementary site, local opposition from neighbors opposed to the loss of open space at the school successfully lobbied the District to modify the language within the BEX IV levy program to the following:
Northeast Seattle elementary school: To meet growing capacity, add K-5 school on Thornton Creek site by 2016 or equivalent additional seating capacity at another location.
Due to this modified language and an agreement to complete a review of additional, potential sites or options provided by the community. At last month’s School Board meeting, District staff committed to presenting the results of their review to the Superintendent on Monday, April 1st. On Tuesday, April 2nd, the District published the results of their Capital Projects and Planning website and summarized their new recommendation to the School Board. Our summary of this revised recommendation is provided below. However, to understand this revised recommendation, it may be helpful to provide a brief history of this particular new K-5 school (so far as we’re aware).
Brief History
In June 2012 I met with a member of the Thornton Creek Site Council who explained from their perspective how the District arrived at their recommendation to build at new 650-student K-5 (at that time a K-8) school on the Thornton Creek site. It was explained to me that in response to larger enrollment and District capacity management planning, the District wanted to bring in 4 new portables over a 4 year period and expand the enrollment of Thornton Creek Elementary school. Thornton Creek staff and parents thought that this proposal would hurt their program. After some public meetings, the District countered with a request that the school expands their geo-zone (e.g., where students are preferentially chosen from). The intent was to have Thornton Creek Elementary accept more students from the attendance areas of Wedgwood, Bryant, and View Ridge elementary schools. Also, new portables would also be added at Wedgwood, View Ridge, and Olympic View elementary schools. By December 2011, Ms. McEvoy asked Thornton Creek staff and its Site Council if it would be willing to become a K-8 school to also alleviate capacity needs at Eckstein Middle School. In response, the Thornton Creek Site Council said that it would grow up to 500 students if the District built them a new building on their site. The District never responded to the Site Council’s counter offer. Instead, the District proposed a new 650-student K-8 attendance area school within its Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which has since been revised to a new K-5 school. Thornton Creek Elementary, an option school, would have remained in its existing building at the site.
Revised Recommendation
 As we understand it, the District’s revised recommendation is essentially to build the new 650 student NE Seattle K-5 School at the Thornton Creek School site and then move the Thornton Creek Elementary program into the new school. If capacity forecasts remain the same, the plan will likely include demolishing the existing the existing Decatur building once the new school was built. It’s important to understand that this is only a recommendation at this point and no decisions have been formally made (to our knowledge).
Upon learning of this revised recommendation, we sent the following questions to the Ms. McEvoy and others at the District to clarify their new recommendation. Below are our questions and District responses.
Q1: Why did it take the District this long to acknowledge the Thornton Creek Parent’s Group’s offer to accept Ms.McEvoy’s counter offer, if that is what this recommendation is?
A1: Annually, the District receives updated resident enrollment projections in February. In order to ensure that the most current information was used for this important decision, the District decided to wait to make recommendations about the NE school configurations. Additionally, the School Board had asked for additional feasibility studies on which to base their decisions. These became available in late March.
Q2: My presumption that the District did not move forward with this counter offer was that it ultimately did not provide the capacity needs that we’ve heard about throughout NE Seattle, which was required to alleviate overcrowding at Wedgwood, View Ridge, and Bryant Elementary Schools. Does this proposal meet the District’s goals for meeting the forecasted capacity requirements in the Eckstein Service Area? If not, are there other capital improvements expected to be required during subsequent BEX levies?
A2: Per the BEX IV levy, four schools will impact positively the permanent capacity for the NE region, including Thornton Creek, Olympic Hills, Jane Addams K-8 at Pinehurst and the remodeled Cedar Park. With the subsequent boundary changes due to new schools being opened, the District believes that it can meet the projected capacity needs in the NE Seattle area.
Q3: Should this proposal be accepted by the Board, should we presume that Thornton Creek Elementary would become an attendance area school or remain an alternative school? Would Thornton Creek Elementary also become a K-8 program, as it was suggested last year (per my understanding)?
A3: At this time, it is recommended that the Thornton Creek Elementary program remain an option K-5 school although its geo-zone may be updated during the future student assignment plan updates to help alleviate over-enrollment at nearby elementary schools.
Q4: Within the BEX IV levy program, approved under Proposition 2, the project that voters approved is described as follows:
“Northeast Seattle elementary school: To meet growing capacity, add K-5 school on Thornton Creek site by 2016 or equivalent additional seating capacity at another location.” Does the District’s revised recommendation provide “equivalent additional seating capacity” at another location or otherwise? Is so, great. If not, would this recommendation meet the intent of Proposition 2?
A4: With the combined additional seat capacity for the four schools in the Eckstein service area, the revised recommendation would provide sufficient capacity to meet the current resident projections.
We weren’t the only ones caught off guard by this curve-ball-of-a-recommendation. You can watch the School Board meeting from the evening of Wednesday, April 3rd, when many of the School Board members were just hearing this revised recommendation for the first time as part of Agenda Item 11, which was to authorize the construction management contract for Heery International, Inc to manage the construction of the new NE Seattle K-5 School.
In the following video, Ms. McEvoy introduces Agenda Items 10 and 11 with rationale for why the District awards construction management contracts for these type of projects. The conversation that follows is focused on Agenda Item 10 though (not the new NE Seattle K-5 School).
The following video is the District’s presentation of their revised recommendation for the new NE Seattle K-5 School and their justification for the change. The School Board discussion and Q&A is very interesting.
By Johnson, on April 3rd, 2013
We apologize in advance for a less-than-thorough post on this subject. We will expand on this shortly when time allows. However, we thought it prudent to get some information out to the community as best we can about significant changes proposed by the School District on what to do with the NE Seattle K-5 School that voters approved.
As we understand it, the District’s revised recommendation (summary of alternatives and recommendation) includes constructing the new NE Seattle K-5 school building at the Thornton Creek School site (as planned) with the intent that the Thornton Creek Elementary School would relocate to the new facility with the existing Decatur School building to be demolished. We have provided the District with a series of questions to get more information on the revised recommendation. We hope to provide that to you along with a more thorough blog post.
In the mean time, you’re passionate one way or another on this topic, there is a School Board Meeting tonight (going on now) and this topic is to be discussed along with a construction management contract for the new school. Here’s the website with all the detailed alternatives analysis and supporting information behind this recommendation.
By Johnson, on January 29th, 2013
As we’ve previously written about, the School District is in the midst of a discussion on what to do about overcrowded schools in both the short and long term. In the next few weeks, some decisions will be made by the School Board and by the voters of Seattle.
Short Term Capacity Management
This Thursday, January 31 (5 PM at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence Auditorium), the School Board will vote during a special meeting on what to do to address short term capacity management. The vote had been delayed until the Board could review updated attendance forecasts which were to come out this week. One of the more controversial aspects of their decision will be on how they address overcrowding at Eckstein Middle School. While we are not experts on this subject, there appears to be 3 options before the School District, although this is the proposal that appears to be before the District to approve as part of this action/motion. Also, here is the agenda for the special meeting for those interested in attending.
Long Term Capacity Management
Ballots should have been delivered to your mailbox now for the upcoming election on Proposition 1 and 2. If passed, Proposition 1 would provide approximately 25% of the School Districts operations budget while Proposition 2 would fund capital improvements which is known as the Building Excellence IV levy (BEX IV). You’ve likely heard that part of BEX IV would include construction of a new K-5 elementary school in Northeast Seattle. The new school was proposed for the present site of the Thornton Creek Elementary School playfields, but a grassroots campaign of local residents successfully lobbied the District to broaden the language to allow more time for other sites to be evaluated. However, we are currently unaware of any other potential sites besides the Thornton Creek Elementary playfields that the District has evaluated as alternative sites.
While the new Northeast K-5 school is a contentious issue for many Wedgwoodians (see Comments Section of our 2013 Priorities Poll and this post), it should be noted that there’s more in the BEX IV levy than just the new school. If Proposition 2 is passed, these other improvements would be coming to our neighborhood schools:
- Thornton Creek School would get new athletic field improvements (although it is not clear if this is a result of the new school proposed on the ballfields)!
- Eckstein would get a new science lab!
- Eckstein, View Ridge Elementary, and Wedgwood Elementary School would get seismic upgrades!
- Eckstein, View Ridge Elementary, and Wedgwood Elementary School would get new track and/or playfield upgrades!
- Eckstein would get its roof worked on!
- And a variety of technology upgrades…
The WCC has been asked to oppose BEX IV by those who are part of the grassroots effort to stop it. They have done an absolutely wonderful job advocating their position to us and the District. The WCC’s position on this issue has not changed. To read more about the WCC’s position on BEX IV, please read the bottom of this post. Despite our unwillingness to support or oppose the BEX IV levy, we have reached out to Lucy Morello to remind the District that the Wedgwood community expects to be part of the project design process should the voters approve Proposition 2. We were assured by Ms. Morello that “Yes, we (the District) very much want the community represented on the School Design Team Committee (SDT) for the NE Seattle K-5 school.”
One way or another, long-term capacity management choices will be made by the voters on February 12th.
By Johnson, on December 11th, 2012
By now, you’re probably aware that school capacity is a big issue at the Seattle Public School District. Apparently, people are still having kids! More increase is projected, so the crowding is only going to get worse. The District has been hosting a series of meetings over the past year on what to do. Our NE Seattle and Wedgwood-area elementary and middle school buildings are beyond the capacity they were designed for and multiple portable units are being added. To address this, the District is looking at both short and long-term solutions.
Short Term (2013-2014) Capacity
On December 11th the District is hosting a community meeting at the John Stanford Building auditorium from 7-8:30PM to discuss their short term capacity management proposal. According to information shared at the December 5th board work session on short term capacity management, it looks like a new portable is planned for View Ridge Elementary and may be required at Wedgwood Elementary. If you can’t make it to the December 11th meeting, a NE Seattle Capacity Management Community meeting will be held on December 17th at Olympic Hills Elementary from 6:30-8 PM.
Long Term Capacity
In November, the District formally adopted a $694.9 million Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) Levy proposal to be voted on in February 2013 (along with a $559.1 million Operations Levy…that’s $1.25 billion). It is well known to some in Wedgwood that part of the District’s proposed long term solution to the growing capacity is a new school that is proposed to be constructed adjacent to Thornton Creek Elementary School, although language has been formally adopted by the school board in the BEX IV levy to allow some more flexibility on its location should another suitable site be identified. The adopted text is as follows:
“Northeast Seattle elementary school: To meet growing capacity, add K-5 school on Thornton Creek site by 2016 or equivalent additional seating capacity at another location.”
Now that the BEX IV Levy proposal has formally been approved, here’s a little bit on what the levy will do in the Wedgwood area if approved:
- A new K-5 school would be built at the Thornton Creek site or some place similar, to be open by 2016.
- Thornton Creek School would get new athletic field improvements (although its not clear if this is a result of the new school proposed on the ball fields)!
- Eckstein would get a new science lab!
- Eckstein, View Ridge Elementary, and Wedgwood Elementary School would get seismic upgrades!
- Eckstein, View Ridge Elementary, and Wedgwood Elementary School would get new track and/or playfield upgrades!
- Eckstein would get its roof worked on!
- And a variety of technology upgrades…
Not all of the proposed improvements have been welcomed with open arms by everyone in Wedgwood, but it’s because of these improvements and the pressing need to pass the Operations Levy, representing 27% of the District’s budget, that Schools First is hoping to emphasize how important these two levys are.
By Johnson, on November 4th, 2012
Help Nathan Hale’s Highly Regarded Radio Station!
North Seattle KOMO has a story that Nathan Hale’s amazing radio station, C-89.5, is in the midst of a fundraiser to sustain the station. They’re hoping to raise $140,000 and YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE too!
Wedgwood Area Schools Are Still Amazing!
As we’ve report in 2010 and 2011, the public schools in our neck of the woods are pretty amazing. Last week, the Seattle School District’s new superintendent, José Banda released their Annual School Reports and State of the District. Schools are scored 1-5 (5 being the highest score) based on a variety of metrics.
In 2010, the first year that all public schools were scored, there were 12 schools that scored a 5, including Wedgwood, Thornton Creek, and View Ridge Elementary schools while Bryant Elementary, Eckstein Middle School, and Roosevelt High scored a 4 and Nathan Hale High received a score of 3.
Last year, while most school scores remained the same, View Ridge Elementary dropped from a 5 to 4, Bryant Elementary rose from a 4 to 5, and Nathan Hale rose from a 3 to 4.
This year, Wedgwood-area schools continue to score well with Nathan Hale the rising star of the year!
Great work to our local schools, including the phenomenal educators, staff, PTAs, and students that make our schools so successful!
Building Excellence IV Levy – UPDATE
As you may be aware, the Seattle School District has proposed, within a draft list of a projects for their upcoming Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) levy, to construct a new elementary school generally located on the Thornton Creek Elementary School playfields. Their list of projects has gone through several iterations although the new “North Seattle Elementary School” has largely remained unchanged despite vocal opposition by some neighbors. On Wednesday, November 7th, the school board intends to vote on a final list of projects for the BEX IV levy that will go out to voters on February 12, 2013.
At this Wednesday’s school board meeting, the board will vote on Building Excellence (BEX) IV Capital Improvement Program and Authorizing Resolution 2012/13-4. Based on the new version of this resolution, the following language has been added relative to the new North Seattle Elementary School.
“At Thornton Creek, the project list allows for the possibility that any needed additional seating capacity may be built at an alternative location.”
Furthermore, within Exhibit “A” – List of BEX IV projects, which the board will be provided, has the following language.
“North East Elementary @ Thornton Creek or equivalent additional seating capacity at another location – Opens 2016″
We currently are trying to get more information on what this revised language really means, although it appears that the District is providing themselves some ‘wiggle’ room to continue the school siting process while maintaining the necessary timeline for BEX IV to get on the ballot in February.
The upcoming School Board meeting will be on Wednesday, November 7th, starting at 4:15PM at the John Stafford Center at 2445 3rd Ave South. Public testimony is supposed to start at 5PM (see rules if you’d like to testify).
By valarie, on September 15th, 2012
 Shearwater is the name of an ocean-going bird and in 1961 it was proposed as the name for a new school in Wedgwood. Neighbors protested because the name Shearwater also referred to a large area of wooden barracks-style housing, used by Navy personnel attached to Sand Point Naval Air Station. As an alternative, the name Stephen Decatur was chosen for the new school, referring to a Naval hero of the War of 1812.
The present-day Thornton Creek School at Decatur, 7711 43rd Ave NE in Wedgwood, was built in 1961 with an expansion in 1966. The school has had a stormy history, beginning from the time of the Shearwater housing on the site in 1945. Valarie’s Wedgwood in Seattle History blog has begun a five-part series of articles telling the story of the Shearwater Navy housing, how Decatur Elementary School came to be built and what finally happened to the Navy buildings.
By Johnson, on September 12th, 2012
The Seattle Public School District has sent out a letter summarizing their latest iteration of what’s included within the Building Excellence IV Capitol Levy (BEX IV levy), which will be voted on in February 2013. According to the letter, signed by the new Superintendent, José Banda, and Assistant Superintendent of Operations, Peggi McEvoy, more and more students are entering Seattle public schools.
Anticipating approximately 1,000 new students this year, we have been working hard to address our enrollment growth challenges. Projections show continued year-to-year increases in our enrollment for the next five years and beyond. We estimate an enrollment of more than 57,000 students by the 2021-22 school year, if current trends continue.
The BEX IV Levy is intended to address their growing (no pun intended) capacity issues while improving safety and security, addressing poor building conditions, and providing greater flexibility for programs and services. The District has released this list of projects to help solicit feedback from the community over a series of 3 community meetings/open houses beginning next week. Using the community feedback, the District proposes to refine their BEX IV Levy proposal for the School Board to vote on in early November.
Of most concern to some Wedgwood residents, the latest list of projects (which the District emphasizes is not final) still includes:
Northeast Seattle elementary school: To meet growing capacity, add K-5 school on Thornton Creek site.
Also of interest to some residents is the following project that has since been removed from the list of recommended projects:
Jane Addams K-8: Will not move to Cedar Park.
Under its current form, the revised BEX IV Levy totals approximately $650 million. The 3 upcoming community meetings/open houses for the revised BEX IV Levy will be held on the following dates. You can also EMAIL your comments to the School District.
- Thursday, Sept. 20, 6:30-8 p.m. at Whitman Middle School
- Sept. 24, 6:30- 8 p.m. at Madison Middle School
- Sept. 27, 6:30-8 p.m. at McClure Middle School
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