The proposed redistricting — You can view a larger PDF map here
The Seattle City Council isn’t the only civic body in the city undergoing a redistricting. The Seattle School Board also faces a legally required shake up of its borders as populations and demographics of the city shift.
Seattle Public Schools is asking for feedback on a redistricting of its board boundaries that lay out the areas each of its seven directors represent but do not impact attendance boundaries:
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is currently redistricting the Seattle School Board Director districts. This means we’re redrawing the boundaries of existing school board director districts. This process will not impact where students go to school. Director district boundaries are different from school attendance area boundaries. What are School Board Director Districts? Director districts are the seven geographic areas in Seattle that school board directors must live in. Map of the seven director districts Every 10 years, SPS must redraw these districts to make sure each includes a nearly equal number of people. SPS uses data from the 2020 U.S. Census to determine director district boundaries. We need your feedback.
The district is collecting feedback and has posted a draft map here. Community members will also be able to provide public comment in-person and virtually during School Board meetings on Wednesday, September 28th and Wednesday, October 26th.
You can view the current board district map here (PDF). Currently, Capitol Hill’s public schools and their attendance boundaries mostly fall in the board’s District 5 represented by Director Michelle Sarju. The proposed shifts would move much of the area into District 3 with areas like Laurelhurst and Bryant.
Seattle School Board Directors are elected citywide in the general election and “are responsible for serving all schools in SPS, not only those located in their represented district,” SPS says.
You can learn more at seattleschools.org.
The school board redistricting mirrors work underway to set new borders for Seattle’s city council districts. CHS last reported on that process in August and will have an update soon on the latest changes to the proposals.
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I think it is safe to say that, of course, the high school boundary map below does not present a perfect population distribution, but it does depict relevant school communities and would have to be tweaked. And there are more attendance area high schools than districts so it makes sense that Rainier Beach and Franklin would be in the same director district, as would Cleveland and West Seattle. It is pretty safe to say that most Garfield students live east of downtown and that very few of Franklin’s live in SODO; therefore moving downtown and SODO into other director districts as Seattle’s council redistricting map indicates would mean less impact on the fewest possible families and students. I am willing to work with you on this.
The Seattle Redistricting Commissions work seems to make a lot of sense for many of the school communities. A case could be made to make changes in the Northend to better reflect school communities.
Highschool attendance boundaries.
https://www.seattleschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SPSD_B_AAHS_2022.pdf
Amended City Council proposal. The Dave’s Redistricting App isn’t ready yet for the amended map, but below are links that show details of streets.
https://kingcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=fc4b5c02196d4e8a807a56c2de9d0044
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Redistricting/Approved_Amendment_Commissioners_Plan_9282022.pdf
Design review areas also show areas of communities of interest.
https://www.seattle.gov/sdci/about-us/who-we-are/design-guidelines
As a Central Area resident, I also want you to consider our community as real and not to be divvied up as though it doesn’t exist. Please see maps on pages7 and 24.
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDCI/About/CentralAreaDesignGuidelines.pdf