Parents at Cooper Elementary are frustrated as the Seattle School District once again considers closing their elementary program.

On Dec. 9 the school district released a new set of recommendations for capacity management, which suggested closing the Cooper elementary program and moving the alternative Pathfinder K-8 program into the Cooper building.

But this is not the first time that the school district has discussed closing Cooper since the new school building opened in 1999. Between the spring of 2005 and fall of 2006 the district considered closing Cooper or merging the program with Pathfinder in the Cooper building.

Because Cooper was added to the recommended closure list later than other programs, the school community has less time to respond.

"The (district's) "process" has been as fast as we can with little to no warning and inaccurate information to the minority schools," said Shelley Williams, a parent of students at Cooper and former alum. "Cooper's community is not adequately or equally represented by (school board member Steve) Sundquist."

Now parents and staff at the school are letting the district know how Cooper is effectively meeting the needs of its students. Compared to others in West Seattle, says the school community, these children would be most negatively affected if they are forced to move to other schools.

More than 80 percent of Cooper students qualify for free or reduced lunch, meaning they are recognized as living in poverty and 56 percent of Cooper students do not live in two-parent households.

While changing schools alone could negatively affect these students, staff are also concerned that students might not receive the same level of support at their new schools. Federal funds that cover free and reduced lunch are distributed based on the percentage of a school's population that qualifies for the program. If students in poverty are sent to schools where few qualify, they may not receive the same level of aid. Federal funds might not follow students if they are dispersed to other neighborhood schools because it is distributed based on the percentage of students at each school who qualify.

Mason Wardell teaches in the YMCA's Community Learning Center, an afterschool program at Cooper that aims to help students who are considered at risk for academic failure. He says Cooper students are most negatively impacted each time the district considers closing their school.

"I feel the (school district's) focus is off," said Wardell. "If you're going to put attention on Cooper it should be about improving (the school) not dislocating it."

Cooper is an especially diverse school where 45.5 percent of Cooper students have limited English proficiency. These students are well served by Cooper's bilingual program, including two bilingual teachers and three instructional assistance assisting parents and students who speak Spanish, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Somali.

"So frequently bilingual communities, due to language and cultural barriers, are only minimally involved in their student's day to day school experience," said Williams. "That is not true at Cooper. Our parents know we are there for them."

Cooper also has a very successful autism program that currently serves 24 students. Some of these students receive additional support in general education classrooms while others are taught in Cooper's self-contained K-2 or 3-5 classrooms.

Others in the school community have argued that Cooper should be maintained due to its historical relevance to the community. The first African-American teacher hired in the Seattle School District, Thelma Dewitty, taught at Cooper in 1947. The school was also named after Frank B. Cooper, a pioneer superintendent from 1901 to 1922.

Since 2006, enrollment at Cooper has steadily increased but parents say it is difficult to attract new students when the local community so frequently hears about the possibility of the school closing. According to a fact sheet released by staff at Cooper Elementary, "Many families have communicated to Cooper staff that they are hesitant to enroll their child in a school that has been previously identified as a school in need of closure."

The school's WASL scores have been strong in comparison to Roxhill and West Seattle elementary programs, serving a similar demographic of students.

One argument in support of closing Cooper has suggested too few of the students live within the school's reference area. Staff at Cooper argue that relocating current Cooper students to other programs would violate the existing Seattle Public Schools student assignment plan's guarantee that all students have the opportunity to attend a school in the cluster where they live.

According to data released by the school district, elementary schools in the northern cluster of West Seattle are unlikely to have enough open seats to accommodate displaced Cooper students. As a result, students living in the north end of West Seattle could be forced to attend schools outside of their cluster, violating Seattle Public Schools student assignment plan and creating additional transportation costs for the district.

Still, the district is planning to revise the student assignment plan this spring, and the lines that determine each cluster could change.

The school district will not release its final recommendation until Jan. 6 and the school board will vote on the issue on Jan. 29. Until that final recommendation is released, all options for school closure in West Seattle are still being considered by the district.