This map shows the latest division line between elementary students who will go to Madison (darker shade, to the north) or Denny (lighter shade, to the south) middle schools.
Seattle Public Schools are working to accommodate ever-growing enrollment and new construction at the elementary and middle school level, and are currently working through school boundary changes that will begin phasing in during the 2014-15 school year and continue for many more to come.
After releasing their initial recommendations in mid-September and holding a round of public meetings for feedback, SPS is back to the table with changes – a few of which hit home for West Seattle families.
The most significant change for West Seattle occurs in the High Point area, where SPS now plans to feed students from the area to West Seattle Elementary and Denny Middle School. The original recommendation split recommendations in High Point, with some going to Denny and others funneling towards Madison.
Highlights that did not change include keeping the new K-5 STEM elementary at the Boren building permanently and eventually expanding it to 8th grade by 2018. With Boren potentially becoming a permanent home after decades as an interim site, current SPS plans are to make the E.C. Hughes building (currently home to private Westside School) their new interim location.
Additionally, Schmitz Park Elementary students and staff will be moving to a new school on the Genesee Hill site in 2015 to 2016, and SPS now says they hope to use Schmitz as an early learning center “to serve students in special education development preschools along with typical peers.”
Accompanying newly released boundary maps and information is a 96-page document full of citizen feedback from the first round of reviews, many of which hail from West Seattle. All of that information can be found online at http://bit.ly/GrowthBoundaries.
The School Board will be evaluating the latest revision at a meeting on Oct. 16, starting at 4:15 p.m. at 2445 3rd Ave. S. Public testimony begins at 5 p.m. (already full), followed by the board's boundary discussion.
Seattle Schools is asking for additional feedback after this latest round of revisions with a survey. The deadline is Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. and the survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7BKFRS3.
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