The Board of Directors for Seattle Public Schools will meet tomorrow night at 6pm to discuss the new Student Assignment Plan Transition Plan for 2012-13. If you read the Board’s proposal (which you can view here), you won’t find any mention of placing portables on the John Stanford campus, but you will find language that supports the boundary changes below. (Click on the graphic for a larger view).
If you read the comments from our last update, where we discussed the proposed addition of portables at John Stanford, you’ll find a comment from our District representative, Sherry Carr, that reads, “I’m not convinced the proposed solution is the best answer – even for one year and will work with the staff and parents to find a stronger one.” So it seems, at least for now, that the idea of portables at John Stanford is off the table.
The proposal also contains the following language with regard to “Grandfathering Non-Attendance Area Siblings”:
Staff will continue to use available strategies to accommodate non-attendance area K siblings to the extent feasible, but families should understand that, in most schools, space will be extremely limited for assignment of non-attendance area K students to older siblings’ schools.
However, to assure families that elementary grade siblings will not be required to attend different schools, transition rules provide that:
- If the incoming K student applies only for the older sibling’s school during Open Enrollment and is assigned to the designated attendance area school instead, the older sibling will be assigned to that school upon request (as long as the services the student needs are available at that school).
- If the older student has been assigned to a school to access required special education or ELL services not available at the designated attendance area school, the transition rule of reassigning the older sibling to the designated attendance area school with the younger sibling is not possible.
- If the incoming K student applies just for the older sibling’s school, and if the special education or ELL services the older student needs are not available at the designated school, the incoming K student will be assigned to the older sibling’s school upon request.
These transition rules will be applied only if specifically requested by the family after Open Enrollment through September 30. Standard transportation rules apply.
Tomorrow night’s meeting is open to the public but be forewarned: the New Student Assignment Plan Transition Plan is one of many agenda items. Still, if you’re up for making the trek, the meeting will be held in the auditorium of the John Stanford Center, 2445 – 3rd Ave S. The School Board will put the New Student Assignment Plan Transition Plan to vote on January 18.
Shrinking the attendance lines makes sense to me. Just today I walked by the music classroom and saw kids learning music in a beautiful environment. I thought it would be a shame (and not a sustainable solution) to loose the music classroom.
We used to be on the North side of 46th and it wasn’t clear whether that was the demarcation line’s end or its beginning.
From what I heard the music room will still be taken and used as classroom space. I didn’t see that mentioned in this report from the school board but that’s what I have heard from other parents. I agree that that is a really unfortunate idea, especially since my son has loved music ever since he got to JSIS. I think shrinking the boandaries was the only option they had.
One important piece of information missing from this article is that the new transition plan proposes to guarantee incoming kindergarten siblings of JSIS students who live in the new BF Day region a spot at McDonald school (though, by my read, older siblings are only guaranteed a transfer if they live in what would be the McDonald region with the new boundaries – above 45th – so it doesn’t address the problem of splitting siblings).
@Frankie – the demarcation lines are poorly marked on the map but are 45th and Wallingford. The streets are essentially split down the middle with one side going to one school and vice versa. Under the new boundaries, 46th on either side would be assigned to McDonald.
Please note that not all siblings for JSIS are guaranteed into McDonald. I have a second grader who entered JSIS under the old assignment plan in 2009. Our second child is excluded from this guarantee of McDonald, as it specifically says those in Area 1 (slated now to BF Day). This is ridiculous! As well, we can’t even apply for JSIS and McDonald under the district’s process for siblings applying for open seats.
Great. Now they are creating two types of out-of-attendance-area siblings, the ones that get to go McDonald instead and the ones that don’t. What a mess. Will the ones in the ex-BF Day, then-JSIS, now-BF Day-again area get bussed to McDonald? How long this is going to go on for? Where is the going to end?
I do not understand the district’s reluctance to guarantee siblings a place at JSIS. Sending sibs to McDonald still splits families between two different schools, which is not good for kids, parents, or the school community. The number of incoming siblings should be a pretty easy number to figure out (require parents to register their younger kids if they want to be guaranteed a spot), then establish boundaries that account for those numbers. Establishing a joint boundary for JSIS and McDonald is another solution that has been proposed. Siblings of current JSIS students go to JSIS, new families go to McDonald.
This is a huge problem affecting the whole school district, not only JSIS. I am afraid we are a long ways to finding a solution