If you’ve got kids, you’re probably too exhausted at this point in the night to be reading this blog. But maybe you’ll be up at 4 a.m. like we are with Baby Z, and you’ll see it then.
Either way, that would give you enough time to sign this petition that some Wallingford parents have put together asking for a change to the new school boundaries.
The deadline for submitting the petition is apparently tomorrow, Friday, as they would like to have it reviewed at the November 18th school board meeting.
There is, of course, a whole section of Wallingford (namely, those of us west of Wallingford Ave down to Stone Way) who prefer the proposed boundries, and would like them not to be changed.
I’m a West Wallingford mom too, but personally I could take or leave JSIS. I signed the petition for this reason:
“Many more siblings will be allowed to attend JSIS if the northern border is North 50th Street.”
Floor Pie — Do you walk your kids across Stone Way and Aurora to attend B.F. Day? I would be in the walk zone for Day even though our walk to school would require crossing both those streets.
WWM – We live in between Stone Way and Aurora, so we do a lot of crossing both streets to get to playgrounds, shopping, libraries, etc. It’s doable. We use that pedestrian bridge at 41st Street to cross Aurora. My oldest just started K at an option school, so we don’t walk to school.
We’ve walked our son to B.F. Day often, over the last three years (reasons we don’t walk everyday have more to do with time and dragging our four year-old along!), and have never had a problem with crossing Stone Way and the pedestrian bridge over Aurora. We know many other B.F. Day families who live in Wallingford and do the same, without hesitation. My main issue with the newly-proposed boundaries is that my daughter would have to attend JSIS while my son remained at B.F. Day.
Actually, I’m signing a petition right this morning encouraging the adoption of the proposed guidelines. Perhaps a Wally vs. Wally cardboard tube cage match is in order.
Another way to deal with the issue would be to advocate with the school board for sibling grandfathering. If we put our energy into this fight, which affects so many more parents across the city, we avoid the unpleasant need for a cardboard tube cage match between North and West Wallingford. Folks like Margaret and the parents between 45th and 50th would both come out happy.
http://keepourkidstogether.org/
Most of the parents on my street have opted against BF Day. Partially because it has an undeserved reputation that scares parents, but also because it simply doesn’t feel like a neighborhood school for those of us east of Stone Way. I know it’s possible to walk there, but most people don’t want to cross two busy streets — both of which that have more pedestrian accidents than 50th, not to mention a porn video store and seedy motels — to get to their child’s elementary school. Especially when we also happen to be within the walk zone of JSIS. Parents I know have either moved, opted for private, or hoped for a spot at an option school, like Floor Pie.
Margaret — It’s my understanding JSIS links with BF Day for parents that want an English track. If so, count yourself lucky, since your daughter would have an assignment at your desired school.
Disappointe to see Wallyhood posting a link to a petition that potentially pits Wallingford residents against one another.
I agree with cleo – this petition is unnecessarily divisive. The area between Wallingford and Stone Way is no less a part of our neighborhood and why should we pit one area of Wallingford against another. Many of the arguments in the petition also do not hold water. If you look at pedestrian injuries over the last few years, Stone Way and 45th have much higher rates of injuries than 50th – crossing 45th may be more dangerous for these kids than crossing 50th. As far as BF Day parents being concerned about not having sibling priority at the school – if you read the assignment plan closely they indicate that, because some parents do not want the international curriculum, individuals in areas served by these schools will also be guaranteed a spot at a school with traditional curriculum. The school board has not defined which school that would be for our region but it is very likely to be BF Day (this is something concerned parents could push for rather than changing their neighbors school assignment). As to the sibling argument, this is a problem citywide and petitions are circulating to try to prevent as much separation as possible in this time of transition. For JSIS, I think it would make more sense (given its popularity and the unique curriculum) to preserve a larger percentage of option spots (in the last plan I think I saw that because of shifting boundaries there would be less option spots). Sibling would be the first tie-breaker for option spots. Although I can understand the frustration of the parents who started this petition, I think that this petition is poorly thought out and insensitive to the needs of the whole Wallingford community and would urge people not to sign it but to come together to propose other solutions that don’t divide the community for our children.
I was disappointed to see the petition to return Wallingford to the old John Stanford boundaries.
I know this is a tricky issue (and in a sense everyone is a special interest) but…
Wallingford Ave is the center of Wallingford–not a street that should be used to split the neighborhood in half. I think it will bring Wallingford together if children on both sides of Wallingford Ave can go to school together.
If you agree with me: please email [email protected] immediately to support the new proposed boundaries.
Extra credit: If someone has the time to create a counter-petition using this site http://www.petitiononline.com/ that would be awesome–unfortunately I’m swamped right now with the kids and work but of course happy to spread the word about a counter-petition.
I agree that sibling grandfathering should absolutely be a priority. Even if you don’t have kids in Seattle Public Schools now, it’s a good precedent for the future. This isn’t the last time school boundaries are going to change, and it would be nice to protect future families from being split into multiple schools.
I feel kind of lame saying this, because we ended up sending our son to TOPS when he got in (totally unexpected), but BF Day is a good school too! The principal is very sharp and engaged, and they have a very robust community volunteer program from local businesses like Google and Adobe. They may not be an international school, but their student body seems more diverse than JSIS’s. The famlies I know who attend that school have been very happy with it, and I would have been proud to send my kids there.
Don’t let the busy streets intimidate you. We have to cross Stone Way to get to the library and Wallingford Playground, but it still “feels like” our library and our playground. We have to walk by that porn store to get to Fremont, but we still love being walking distance from Fremont and aren’t going to let that stop us. (Besides, from the outside, the porn store looks totally innocuous. Just some grey walls and a parking lot. My kids have no idea.) I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 8 years and I’ve never once encountered a shady character on that bridge. I wouldn’t hang out there at midnight, but at 9 in the morning it should be fine.
To anyone that thinks Stone Way is more dangerous than 50th, I challenge you to walk with your kids along the south sidewalk from 1st NE to Latona. Even better, try it with a stroller on a stretch of sidewalk that is about six feet wide and actually slopes towards the roadway with cars whizzing by at 35 mph or more just 2-3 feet from the curb! I can pretty much guarantee you won’t do it again. From a data standpoint, Stone Way is NOT a dangerous street. The data that some have been using to show Stone Way as dangerous is from 2006 and before. There have been significant improvements to the road since then, most noteably changing it from 4 lanes. Since they changed it, there has been ONE pedestrian accident. That’s right, ONE! Check with SDOT for pedestrian collisions from the beginning of 2007 (the ‘road diet’ was implemented in 2007) to present. The reason 45th has more incidents is because there’s way, way more pedestrians. Almost nobody walks on 50th! One of the goals of the new SAP is to create safe walk zones. 50th is not safe.
Brian — I feel the same way about walking along Bridge Way under Aurora. Side walks are very narrow for a walking with a child and stroller.
It’s no secret that JSIS is a highly sought after school that a lot of parents want their children to attend. The school district cannot please everyone and it is expected that many parents will not be happy with the new assignment maps – especially those who will be removed from the JSIS assignment area. Likewise, those being added will be happy. The argument of which street is more dangerous to cross is only one part of a complex equation (and 45th is a major street by any definition). Anticipated students, building capacity, and distance are others factors of equal importance. Wallingford is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Seattle. Bottom line is McDonald Elementary is much closer than JSIS for north Wallingford residents and the new boundary maps make sense. How insane would it be to live a few residential blocks away from McDonald and be assigned to JSIS? We could drag this process on for years with petitions, counter-petitions, counter-counter petitions, etc. A lot of thought and effort has been placed into these new maps and it is time to move on.
@Cleo Hate to disappoint, but I see Wallyhood as a place for the free exchange of ideas in the neighborhood. I’m not supportive of the petition, nor necessarily against it (I should have made that clearer in the post), but am certainly supportive of the notion of people being able to have their say (and those that disagree having a forum to do so, as well).
Just because a lot of thought & effort goes into something doesn’t make it right. A lot of thought and effort went into the originally proposed school boundaries and 80% of those were changed — because of community input and, yes, petitions. I live in N. Wallingford and I’m 1/2 mile from both schools so it’s not so “insane”, is it. What is insane is that they changed the originally proposed boundary from 45th, which is a main arterial, to a zig-zag line through our neighborhood. I was actually fine with the boundary at 45th even though it put us out of the boundary. It was the crazy move to 47th/46th that got me and my neighbors up in arms.
The school board should allow for the grandfathering of siblings. I think that is where our energy should be spent. This whole SAP is pitting neighbors against each other and I think it stinks.
I agree – they should have kept 45th the boundary as they had it on their original “new boundary” plan. Why do you think it was changed? Somebody probably complained. I don’t see anyone here in favor of the petition who is proposing to change the northern boundary back to 45th. The petition asks to change the boundary back to 50th St and Wallingford Ave. So you and your neighbors who are “up in arms” obviously just want JSIS as your school just like everyone else. I don’t blame you. But your argument that 50th is more dangerous than others is weak (and I would argue that Stone Way has a red light camera for a reason). Both 45th and 50th streets are busy/dangerous – but we can’t build a school right in the middle, so the school district will have to choose one street to make a boundary. Given the high population density of Wallingford, adding/subtracting 5 blocks to/from a school’s boundary will have a huge impact on enrollment that will have to be considered. The real solution is to start replicating in other schools what so many parents like in JSIS. That’s what all of us should be petitioning the school district for because no matter where the boundaries end up being, some people will be upset.
Jason, if you’re going to respond directly to my post, at least do me the courtesy of reading it first. I said in my last post that the boundaries were changed because of commmunity input and petitions. Why do you ask “Why do you think it was changed?” when I just said why. And, I don’t know if you have young kids or not but if you do, go walk the south side of 50th between 1st & Latona with them — then go walk ANY stretch of Stone Way and tell me you don’t feel safer on Stone Way. Stone Way and 45th both have wide sidewalks, including planting strips and there’s parking and bike lanes along the side so the distance between pedestrians and vehicles is probably 10 feet or more. More than half of the pedestrian accidents on 45th in the last five years were at one intersection (45th & Meridian) so you could say that that interesection may be dangerous but, given the volume of pedestrians, it’s still a very safe street.
But, to give you some perspective, my neighbors and I that put this together are already JSIS families (we’re not looking to have it all to ourselves) and we all have younger children that will be entering school in the next few years. We played by the rules to get in (none of us took apartments for a few months or used relatives addresses). Now, with this latest boundary change, there’s a very real chance that our children will have to go to different schools. Even if the district decides to grandfather siblings in, there’s a good chance that there won’t be enough seats for us because of the latest boundaries. We actually were fine with the boundary being at 45th since that gives us a better chance of keeping our kids together. If you had spent years volunteering, fundraising, and building relationships at your school, you might understand.
I think KMattaini had it right. All efforts should go into the sibling ‘grandfathering’ at this time. We ALL live in Wallingford and the district and Board are going to do what they are going to do – whether it is based on population of kids, old demographics, popularity of schools, walk zones, or whatever. It was clear a month ago that the ball was not in the parents and neighborhood’s court.
But, I must correct a wrongly expressed understanding of ‘grandfathering.’ If the district allows a period of ‘grandfathering’ in the transition plan, it will be for ALL families with students CURRENTLY IN A GIVEN SCHOOL.
[[Black’s Law Dictionary defines “grandfather clause” as “an exception to a restriction that allows ALL those already doing something to continue doing it even if they would be stopped by the new restriction.” Thus, “grandfathering” is allowing the whole of an existing operation or conduct to continue legally when a new operation or conduct would be illegal. This action can either be infinate or only allowed for a defined period of time.]]
If the district allows ‘grandfathering,’ which they undoubtably will for probably 1 to 3 years, then ALL siblings of students currently in a school will be in.
Doing what Brian states would actually be the district opting AGAINST ‘grandfathering.’ In the example Brian is stating, the district would be placing kids IN the attendance area to their assigned schools, then using “siblings” as the first tie-breaker for the open spots. This is NOT GRANDFATHERING. And, since all the talk (even in the districts description of what will be considered under the transition plan) is about ‘grandfathering,’ I think it is highly unlikely that they will choose to simply assign the open spots based on siblings.
So, I hope this helps clear up that ‘grandfathering’ confusion. I believe that the district will do at a very, very minimum, 1 year of ‘grandfathering.’ And, this should not be confused with something like making a sibling lottery the 1st tiebreaker for any open seats in a school.
Now, let’s all move on to kicking some district and board of director butt with regard to sibling ‘grandfathering’ which would make us all much happier neighbors. Hang in there.
WallingfordDad — Perhaps I was using the term ‘grandfathering’ a little loosely. However, the grandfathering of siblings is far from a done deal and it may look much different than what you would expect. I have been to school board meetings and forums and, while the district is being very tight-lipped about this issue, it has been alluded to that the grandfathering of siblings could be on a school-by-school basis. I know this sounds crazy but, if the new plan is supposed to guarantee seats to all incoming kids within the boundaries and the “in-boundary” kids take up all the open seats (or most of them), where are you going to put the siblings? With the latest boundary change to 46th/47th, you now have even less open seats. I appreciate your words of encouragement and, even though I’m not feeling very confident about it, I hope you’re right.
Brian,
I have some issue with your safety comparison between 50th vs. Stone. You fail to include the required crossing of Aurora/99 as well as Stone Way as a part of the “safe walk zone” we would have to navigate. That’s a total of six lanes of high speed traffic families would have to cross. They are both physical and psychological boundaries for those of us on the east side of Stone. We consider ourselves (as do you) residents of the Wallingford neighborhood. JSIS is located in Wallingford. B.F. day is in Fremont and we have no geographical tie to that school or community. If you read the Wallyhood blog from 11/13 you will note that a reader reported she was held up at gunpoint near Stone. That doesn’t make for a “safe walk zone” by my definition.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, this issue would be solved, with less divisiveness,if families put their energy into advocating for sibling grandfathering.
mroach72, that person was held at gunpoint at 11:00 pm. We walk up and down Stone all the time during daylight and early evening hours and have yet to be held at gunpoint. (Oops, hope I didn’t just jinx myself!)
I notice that there’s a police presence at 40th and Latona (or is it 1st?) some days to help the JSIS kids safely cross 40th. Is there something similar for the big intersections in the other schools’ walk zones? If not, maybe that’s something families at those schools could request.
mroach72 — first off, if you look back in the comments on this thread, I was not the one who brought up the issue of Stone Way v 50th. But, I do take exception to people claiming how “dangerous” Stone Way is based on old (pre-‘road diet’) data. It doesn’t hold up. Aurora wasn’t part of the discussion although I do agree with WestWallingfordMom that the sidewalk along Bridge Way under Aurora is a bit scary. But, really, when do you actually “cross” Aurora?
I can understand your point about Aurora being a psychological boundary. And, I completely feel that you are as much a part of Wallingford as I. But, it’s impossible for the school district to assign everybody from one neighborhood to one school. The current proposed JSIS boundaries extend beyond Wallingford without including everyone in Wallingford. The old boundaries did too. I live in Wallingford and so do you. So, who should get into the neighborhood school?
Alright, I’m done here. Good luck to all. I’m moving on to the sibling grandfathering fight.
Good call Brian, I’m with you. EVERYONE reading this blog should send an email today or tomorrow about the sibling issue. The boundary issue is done. The board has the info they need, and being that it’s Sunday, they are going to do what they “feel” is the best move for the district. But, we can ALL support our Wallingford neighbors by sending a ‘sibling’ letter. This affects every single school in the district, so let’s make our voices heard. It takes 10 minutes to send an email to them. Tell them we want at least 3 years of 100% sibling grandfathering!!