Earlier in the year, we told you about the rise in the number of kids attending Hamilton in the 2013-14 school year. Initially, there was some speculation that the district would open an annex for incoming 6th graders at the John Marshall site on Ravenna Blvd. in Green Lake; however, that idea was taken off the table. Still, there are capacity management issues that remain, which will not only impact the school building, but also the traffic and parking around the school. On June 7, Seattle Schools Superintendent, Jose Banda, sent the following letter to Hamilton families:
Dear Hamilton International Middle School community,
As many of you are aware, enrollment is on the rise throughout our school district, including at Hamilton International Middle School. At every school we must balance the safety and security of our students with the need to ensure all of our students receive a high quality education.
For the 2013-14 school year, we are planning for 1,100 students at HIMS – an increase over our current enrollment of 975. We believe we can serve this number of students in our current space. We are not planning to relocate any 6-8th grade students to other schools for the upcoming school year. The maximum capacity of the building is 1,294, and we will continue to work with the City of Seattle to ensure we are meeting all the safety codes.
I know supporting this increase in students will present some challenges, so we are working with HIMS staff to ensure there is enough space to continue the quality teaching and learning. We have already increased the staffing allocation for HIMS, so the necessary teachers will be in place for the start of school. If needed, we may also add staff such as hallway monitors. We will also work with the City of Seattle on traffic safety in the area, and look at solutions for staff parking and drop off/pick up for families.
In addition, any students who are testing into APP during the summer will be placed at Hamilton only if there is space available. All current APP students who live in the Hamilton APP pathway will have a seat at HIMS for the fall.
For more detailed information about enrollment at Hamilton, please visit: http://bit.ly/HIMS2013capacity
I want to thank Principal Cindy Watters and the HIMS staff for their ongoing work to ensure the needs of students are met. I know they will do an excellent job next year serving and supporting all of our students.
Sincerely,
José Banda
Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools
WHEW! It’s a reality.
The school seems pretty full as it is.
Note that on the SSD open website they are hiring at least 2 teachers at this time.
Thank you for posting this. We are an APP family currently at Lincoln, and have not received this news yet, AFAIK. Though, my son will not be at Hamilton until the following year.
“In addition, any students who are testing into APP during the summer will be placed at Hamilton only if there is space available.”
What this really means: “Any students who test into APP during the summer won’t be going to Hamilton.”
Disappointing
As one involved in the design committee proces, I recall the School District designed Hamilton for 1100 maximum, but planned to run the school at 950. The 1294 referred to in the letter is likely the CODE capacity for the structure, not the classroom capacity. The code capacity is usually driven by the largest assembly space and has little to do with the actual functional program space.
I sympathize with the District, but they do it to themselves. It is very hard to watch happen again and again and again.
A solution still available is to remodel Lincoln as an appropriate size middle school that has space to accommodate growth in enrollment. As was discussed since 1996, in endless meetings and presentations, doing so would allow the Hamilton program to have an all-weather sports field, generous music rehearsal spaces, and a full-size performance space. The existing Hamilton building could provide program space for a K-8 or for APP.
The latest plan to turn Lincoln into a substandard (by District standards) high school with no sports field is just more poor District planning at its lowest. Why Facilities continues to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to design and build facilities on sites that do not meet their own standards for space is a complete mystery.
Our new superintendant, or someone on the Board, needs to have the courage to speak up and question the poorly thought out plans proposed by Facilities. It seems so obvious that they are again going down the road that will dead-end at another expensive, yet limited, facility.
I am curious to know where students who are entering APP in 6th grade will be assigned. Anyone know?
Has anyone attended the school board Operations Committee meetings? They make operations (including facilities) recommendations to the full board. Meetings take place the 3rd Thursday of the month from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Current Committee Members: Sharon Peaslee (Chair), Kay Smith-Blum , Marty McLaren
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=94602b518b7403b31ac506b8299968af&pageid=205535&sessionid=94602b518b7403b31ac506b8299968af
@Marley’s Ghost in 4:
Okay, so turn LHS into a middle school. Now what? Where are you going to put the high schoolers that the soon-to-be-reopened LHS is about to serve? It seems unlikely that such an obvious solution has not been discussed at SPS.
Here’s an easy solution. Disband APP which draws from the entire north end and limit enrollment to the HIMS reference area.
prop3, how is that a solution? The problem is simply “more students than planned for” in the north end of Seattle.
Your solution would just push the problem elsewhere.
Disbanding APP would not reduce the number of students.
Moving APP out of HIMS will not reduce the number of students in the north end. Making APP students attend their local middle school or one of 4 the K-8 schools in the north end will create more space at HIMS for students that actually live within the boundaries. It would also give HIMS a chance to develop its international program. Too much time and resources are spent catering to the demands of the APP program. It is called Hamilton International Middle School after all.
prop3, I actually agree with you that APP should exist at every school, much like Spectrum. The reality is that I have never met a another parent, teacher, or administrator who agrees with me.
Even if that were done, then yes, you might save some crowding at HiMS, but at the cost of crowding elsewhere. The data I have seen show no north end middle school with available capacity. But I am sure there are other parents at those school who would resent that crowding. Over enrollment is not an APP problem – it affects every student.
The reality is that the school district has a very difficult time planning for capacity. We find ourselves at the same place we have found ourselves each of the last 4 years (at least). Until we elect board members who will take a stand and either take responsibility for district planning, or enforce it in a workable way as the responsibility of the superintendent, nothing is going to change. Every year will bring a rushed compromise solution that pleases no one.
@prop3 in 10:
That’s fine, except that those schools are also all either at or over capacity, with the exception of Pinehurst, which seems like it’s about to disappear because (as understand it) the building it is in is falling down, and they don’t know where to move those students to.
And the APP parents are going to scream bloody murder.
And speaking of APP, all of those elementary APP students that are currently at Lincoln will also need some place to go, if one simply abolished APP. And they will need someplace to go anyway, because I believe that turns into a construction zone in 2016.
I think it is a bigger shell game than people are giving it credit for being.
i agree w/ prop3- it is possible to dismantle a MS APP proram at HIMS. Dealing with capacity is another issue.. what happened to the Marshall building on 65th? Big building.. is it torn down? How about the facility at the CPPC? Cascade Parent Partnership?? it seems to have space and very small class sizes. yes, I worked in it last year.
Thee was a school up on Capitol Hill about 2002 which Microsoft(? )funded with a lot of social services- it is not on the SSD school list- what happened to the building? Finally is Lowell full?
Sure, it is possible to dismantle APP, but what would that get you? You can’t dismantle the kids.
Lowell filled two years ago, and APP was moved to Lincoln at that point. It housed three programs, north end APP, special needs, and a neighborhood elementary school program. When crowding happened there (in an emergency due to inefficient district planning), APP was picked up whole and moved to Lincoln.
Right now HiMS is the _only_ APP middle school in the north end. There is no where else for the APP program to go. As with all programs in the SPS system, there are certainly administrative issues and problems, but from a parent’s perspective based on teacher involvement and student achievement, the APP program is a good program. Yes, you will find that APP parents will scream, especially since the entire school was already moved without any notice two years ago.
I believe large parts of Marshal were leased, and may not be usable next year by the school district.
The capacity problem at HIMS is an APP problem. Each year there are 100s of APP students enrolled at HIMS that would otherwise be assigned elsewhere. JSIS is bursting at the seams. McDonald, Greenlake and BF Day are at or near capacity. In 2 years every available seat at HIMS will be needed for students in the reference area. It is much easier for schools like Whitman and Eckstein to absorb their share of APP. Unlike HIMS, those schools have space available to add portables. While portables not an ideal solution, at least it’s an option. There simply is no space on the HIMS campus to expand.
I don’t think that APP should exist in every school. It shouldn’t exist at all. APP focuses a disproportionate amount of resources on students that don’t need it. Even harder to justify when you look at the demographics. Not exactly a group of families without resources.
@New Neighbor in 14: Marshall is the building in the north end that the district is going to use to house displaced schools while those buildings are being remodeled under the BEX levies.
@prop3: B. F. Day actually is pretty underenrolled and underutilized compared to the other two schools. That’s probably going to change as they shift boundaries, kids and programs from McDonald and JSIS, but as of right now, BFD is about half of what it was in the seventies, and about 180 kids less than program capacity.
First: what happened to re-assigning Laurelhurst students to Eckstein? Is that still happening?
Second: you can’t put APP in every school. This is why Spectrum has become nothing–because it is so diluted. You need enough students to support dedicated APP classes. Especially in middle and high school, where the students’ schedules vary so much, it takes a large group of APP students in one building to make a feasible program.
Prop 3–Every student in APP in Seattle has a family with resources to support a gifted student? Because every family in Seattle is rich and has bountiful knowledge about education? Maybe SPS shouldn’t offer special ed, either–parents can take care of whatever that entails.
APP doesn’t use disproportionate resources–it just puts a group of kids together in a set of classes, a group of kids who would be in classes in SPS anyway. And likely bored.
@Chad in 7
The proper long term solution for high school is to provide a facility to serve Queen Anne/Magnolia. Until the District finally addresses the problem created when they sold QA High School, it will be year after year of patchwork primps… and inefficient spending.
What was acceptable for an interim high school is NOT automatically appropriate for a permanent program. The Lincoln campus is too small by District standards for a middle school, let alone a high school. There is no space for an athletic field, a key component of most high schools. There IS, however, space for a middle school sports field on the north lot because middle schoolers do not drive.
The community met and coordinated with District admin for at least 13 years, starting in 1995 (some say in 1983), trying to get a new facility for Hamilton at Lincoln. Promises were made. It was included in the Facilities Master Plan. It was the wise thing to do to provide flexible growth for the Hamilton program. At the last minute in 2008, Facilities reneged and the School Board let them, and a few Hamilton parents bought into the ploy. It was a stupid choice that cost millions and backed the program into a dead end space. The chickens are home to roost.
Yes, Hamilton-at-Lincoln was discussed. Facilities arbitrarily decided to stay at the current site which is smaller than MLK (which was closed and sold because it was considered too small for an ELEMENTARY school). Ask the District for the report on why they did not follow-through with their own Facilities Master Plan. Such a study was never done. That is how arbitrary District decisions can be. Folks need to be aware of that as they begin yet another planning process.
When it was discovered that no study had been done, a team of design professionals quickly assembled and submitted a study describing why it made sense economically and for future planning flexibility to provide more space for the Hamilton program. Much of what is happening now could have easily been avoided.
The public MUST get active and be involved in the planning for our schools. Do not, under any circumstance, trust that the District has performed due diligence in arriving at some of the decisions that they make. Many are completely arbitrary and capricious and result in much of the perennial mess we witness year after year.
Good luck!
@Marley’s Ghost in 18:
That’s great, it all could have been easily avoided by the powers that were at the time. I agree, all of those things should not have happened.
That fixes nothing going forward. It does not matter that Lincoln High School does not have adequate parking/sports field capabilities, because that is the building the district has. It is not the building the district wants, to be sure, however to get the building(s) they want would cost more -significantly more- than they can afford.
Crying over the displaced ghosts of Grizzlies past will not de-condo QAHS. Eminent domain, while an available tool, is an expensive one. And frankly, from a logistical standpoint, the only neighborhood that is likely to be served by a new school on Queen Anne hill is Queen Anne. It is less pain to the district, I would think, to ship kids off of the hill into one or two adjacent neighborhoods than to attempt to ship kids from five adjacent neighborhoods onto the hill (but that’s just a guess on my part).
So I respectfully disagree, and I think that what is acceptable as an interim high school IS automatically appropriate for a permanent program if the funding isn’t there to do something better, simply on the basis that the District owns the land and the building that sits on it. The funding’s not there for anything else, is it?
Not much is served by neighbors pitted against neighbors. My kid was an APP kid and a Wallingford kid and spent his entire 13 years in the SSD taking long bus rides. I know how much the Wallingford parents of APP kids must appreciate having the program at Lincoln and Hamilton right now; when our son was there he was at Madrona and Washington and the idea of an extra 45 minutes sleep and not crossing a street wider than Wallingford Ave. on a leisurely walk to school is beyond tempting. The kids have to go somewhere.
And, no, there isn’t anything spent on APP kids above what is spent on every other kid in the district, other than a small amount of testing cost. And wherever APP has been, the parents have supported the whole school at PTSA fundraisers, far out of proportion to the support from the rest of the school population, while the funds were used equally among all students. Please, let’s not fight about this.
I’m pretty sure there is plenty of room for middle schoolers at McClure….. Why not move APP over there? Still centrally located, and it’s the only school in the NE with plenty of capacity.
@ fruitbat 17. Not sure I understand your analogy between special ed and APP. Special ed is for students with a wide range of handicaps. APP is for kids that are bored?
APP is quickly becoming Spectrum. Students that don’t qualify for APP based on the SSD test can be privately tested. Not surprisingly, they pass. APP isn’t limited to truly gifted students. At best, it’s for above average students with parents that know how to navigate the system.
The problem is that the north end APP program is just too big for one neighborhood middle school (HIMS) to accommodate. The superintendent has suggested splitting it between Hamilton and the new Jane Adams middle school. That might work. Neighborhood kids in Wallingford should not be crowded out by APP, and I really think the “International” part of the school should become a major focus since two international elementary schools will be going there.
In response to a contributor’s statement that A.P.P. programs spend “…a lot of money on children who don’t need it”, he/she needs to understand that gifted children are also “special needs” children. If our schools are committed to bringing all children up to their full potential, gifted children need to have a school environment that challenges rather than bores them. Asking already overburdened teachers to address their needs is unfair to the teachers, just as asking gifted children to endure a curriculum they’ve already mastered is unfair to the children.
Breadbaker, you are right. My experience at HIMS is that the APP parents are disproportionately involved in PTSA, fundraising and other activities that benefit all the kids there. And despite the mysterious “demographics” cited by prop3, I know several APP kids whose parents are not wealthy and can’t afford private school and the like.
@Schellsburg – The excellent music programs at HIMS – open to everyone – come directly from the APP split:
http://hamiltonms.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=274893
“[Friends of Music at Hamilton International (FOMAHI)] was formed after the Seattle Public School District […] decided to relocate approximately 240 Washington Middle School […] students to Hamilton beginning in September 2009. Many of these students were active in the Washington’s [sic] music program, which is an integral part of the school’s daily curriculum. In comparison, at the time of the decision Hamilton’s music program had been maintained solely as an after-school, extracurricular program. The District resolved to support the development of a music program at Hamilton equivalent to Washington’s, with multiple ensembles (from beginning musicians to advanced), daily music classes and two full-time music instructors. In response to the District’s commitment, FOMAHI was organized to support Hamilton’s expanded music program and to provide continued assistance in the future.”