(Image: Google Earth)

Seattle Public Schools says this week is about providing information and answering questions as it holds a series of community meetings including a districtwide online session Thursday and a local meeting Friday night at Stevens Elementary to discuss the planned cost cutting-driven closure of four campuses including the North Capitol Hill school.

“Please note this is not a public hearing,” SPS says about Thursday’s online session. “Those meetings will be held in December.”

The same goes for Friday night’s session at Stevens. The district has already wrapped up meetings at other schools on the cut list including a session Tuesday night at West Seattle’s Sanislo Elementary where parents reportedly heard from district officials about the planned closures and asked sometimes loaded questions of the district officials who attended.

CHS reported here last month as Stevens emerged as one of four Seattle elementary campuses on a list of planned “consolidations” as the district backed down from an initial plan that could have cut 21 schools from the system after public outcry.

Stevens-area kids would be split to E Mercer’s Lowell Elementary — or Montlake where Seattle Public Schools is making its capital investments in the area. With long-term projections showing continued demand in Central Seattle, SPS is overhauling and expanding the Montlake Elementary campus as a centerpiece in the system.

Cuts in state funding and a forecast for a continued near-term drop in enrollment has the district scrambling to cover what has been expected to be a $131 million budget deficit for the current school year with continued financial shortfalls expected over coming years. But there is growing pushback on the closure plans as the district’s forecasts have been thrown into doubt. In his latest update on the cutback proposal, Superintendent Brent Jones said the district’s current projections would represent a $94 million deficit — down significantly from previous forecasts.

The district says the decision to close Stevens and the three other elementary campuses is based on criteria including building condition, the “facility’s design in support of all types of learning,” and enrollment and capacity with a threshold requiring a campus to be able to support at least 400 students with space for services and preschool classrooms.

Stevens is old. A shutdown would end more than 100 years of public education on the campus and the landmarked property where a Stevens school has welcomed children since 1906. The campus buildings have been overhauled and seismically improved in recent decades.

Stevens is limited. The campus reached a peak enrollment of just over 400 in 2013 when the district adjusted area attendance boundaries to address concerns about overcrowding at the school. Its blacktop schoolyard is surrounded by single-family style homes in one of the wealthiest areas of the city.

(Image: Google Earth)

But Stevens is loved. CHS reported on an open letter signed by nearly 200 people with testimonials about why the school should not be closed. The letter also provided responses to how Stevens meets or exceeds the district’s needs under the criteria it says it is using to determine the cuts. “Stevens is the most active and accessible school in the district. SDOT assessed in June 2024 that 70% of our students traveled to school safely by foot, bike and transit every day,” the letter reads.

The district has said it plans to hold two meetings at each of the schools targeted for closure before December’s public hearings required by state law.

The board could vote on a final plan in January.

Some families are not waiting. A parent group says it has filed a complaint in King County Superior Court for permission to collect signatures to mount a recall against school board president Liz Rankin.

The Recall Liza Rankin group writes:

We seek Director Rankin’s recall because we care deeply about the education of Seattle’s children, so they can reach their full human potential and become well educated citizens, and because we believe fervently in the critical importance of public schools.

We allege several distinct ways in which Director Rankin demonstrated malfeasance, misfeasance, and violation of her oath of office. Director Rankin has not met her responsibilities to the citizens of the School District, or, most critically, to the children who she is charged with educating.

We seek the recall of Director Rankin for:

1. Adopting a rushed and improper process for closing schools,

2. Repeatedly failing to provide transparency and community engagement on decisions critical to the well-being of the District,

3. Failing to perform the basic oversight of the District expected of any Board Director,

4. Failing to uphold the responsibilities of the School Board to ensure the District delivers student educational outcomes.

5. Closing the Interagency Academy without following proper procedure

“Each of these repeated failures not only rise to the level of misfeasance, malfeasance, and/or violation of oath of office, they endanger the future of Seattle Public Schools, they hinder and undermine the education of Seattle’s children, and they do damage to the public’s trust in a foundational civic institution,” the group writes.

Voters could be right behind those families. Polling by the Northwest Progressive Institute shows that 41% would support a recall while 33% aren’t yet sure. 55% said they are unsatisfied with “the direction of Seattle Public Schools” and 54% oppose the plan to close campuses.

Thursday’s online meeting information is below:

This districtwide, online meeting will take place on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 6:30 p.m.

Please note this is not a public hearing. Those meetings will be held in December.

Click to Join the Zoom Meeting
Join by phone: (253) 215-8782
Meeting ID: 879 8488 7463

Our online capacity is 1,000 attendees, but families will be able to watch via these methods:

• SPS TV website
• SPS TV YouTube channel
• Comcast channels 26 and 319
• Wave channels 26 and 695
• Century Link channels 8008 and 8508

Friday’s meeting at the Stevens campus is scheduled to begin at 6 PM. You can learn more here.

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻 
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍