As the district moves closer to making a final recommendation regarding school closures, parents and staff at West Seattle schools have grown frustrated with the process and are voicing their objections to the school board.

To address a project $24 million deficit in their 2009 budget, the Seattle School District is looking to close some schools across the city and relocate others. There is also an imbalance in capacity across the city. While many schools in north Seattle are operating over capacity, schools in south Seattle have many empty seats.

In West Seattle the district is looking to close the Genesee Hill school building. Built in 1948, it is home to Pathfinder K-8, an alternative program that is founded on Native American values and practices expeditionary learning.

Pathfinder has been on a list to get a new building for several years. Its current facility is not large enough for the student population and has numerous structural problems.

To preserve West Seattle's only alternative program, the school district is considering closing another elementary school in the neighborhood so that Pathfinder might move in a new building. So far, the district has suggested that Arbor Heights and Cooper are the only two schools large enough to house the K-8 program.

On Dec. 16 parents and staff from Arbor Heights, Cooper and Pathfinder gathered at Genesee Hill for a public hearing and were given the opportunity to voice their opinions to the school board.

Several parents, students and staff members from Pathfinder thanked the board for recognizing the value of their program and attempting to keep it intact.

Jennifer Giomi, parent-teacher and student association president at Pathfinder, opened the meeting by emphasizing that Pathfinder has never wanted to displace any other school community.

Meanwhile Dana Varon, Arbor Heights parent-teacher and student association secretary, suggested to the board that Pathfinder be given its own building so that successful programs like Arbor Heights and Cooper can continue to serve their own communities.

Parents from Cooper elementary objected to the district's recent consideration to close Cooper, which occurred after an initial recommendation that Arbor Heights close instead.

Charita DuMas, a parent at Cooper, talked about the school's unique programs which assist autistic and bilingual students. She described the school as a model that should be replicated, not closed.

"What sense does it make to close a school that is successful and distribute those students to schools that are less successful," said DuMas. "How is that responsible?"

When the district first presented its initial recommendation to close Arbor Heights on Nov. 25, School Board director Steve Sundquist, representing West Seattle schools, asked the district to consider closing Cooper instead. On Dec. 9, the district added Cooper to its revised recommendation.

Since then Sundquist has been the subject of many community conversations.

"I think our school was targeted," said Shelley Williams, a parent from Cooper Elementary and former alum. "It makes no fiscal sense to even suggest that Cooper be dispersed regardless of what you're going to do with our building."

Williams emphasized that Cooper is in the West Seattle North cluster where there are far less seats available than in West Seattle South, where the Arbor Heights building is located. If Cooper students are distributed to other local schools it is likely that some will have to commute to schools outside the cluster that they live in.

The district has previously considered closing Cooper Elementary in 2005. But Williams said that Irene Stuart, West Seattle' s school board representative at the time, was able to justify the proposed closure because the Cooper building was being underutilized. Today Williams says the school has at least 100 more students and continues to grow.

"When the first list (of recommended school closures) came out it seemed like the things Cooper had accomplished were being honored and respected," said Williams.

Williams also said that she has asked Sundquist about the future of Cooper's autistic program, which includes 24 students, but got no explanation.

But Sundquist defends his request that the district consider closing Cooper. He explained that the one reason the Cooper building was not initially recommended as a new home for Pathfinder is because of the existing student assignment plan, which guarantees every child the opportunity to attend a school in the cluster that they live in, whether it is West Seattle North or West Seattle South. Nonetheless the district plans to revise that plan before the end of the current school year, and Sundborg says cluster lines could be redrawn.

He added that while Cooper may have less time to respond to the recommendation because they were added to the list later, the school community will still have had six weeks by the time the district presents its final recommendation to the school board.

"What matters in the end to me is the quality of the analysis that they're pointing out to (the board)," said Sundquist. "I don't think that in the end timing will be decisive."

Others still say that Sundquist should be less focused on finding a new home for Pathfinder and instead think of what would be best for West Seattle schools as a whole.

"I feel like (Sundquist) has one goal in mind and that's Pathfinder," said Varon. "I think he could be looking at the whole community with the realization that wherever Pathfinder goes it's going to hurt some part of (West Seattle)."

Final recommendations on building closures and program relocations will be released by the district on Jan. 6 and the School Board is schedule to hold a vote Jan. 29.

For more information please visit http://www.seattleschools.org/area/capacity/index.dxml.