The Seattle School Board has approved a plan that could shutter 20 of its elementary school campuses across the city to help cover an expected $105 million budget gap.
Wednesday’s vote approved a plan from superintendent Brent Jones to consolidate the system’s elementary school campuses from 70 to 50 based on the district’s “Well-resourced Schools” framework it says has been shaped by public feedback and establishes a base level of resources that should be available on every campus including the number of teachers per grade level and additional resources like “education intensive service classrooms.”
To achieve that level, Jones says the district must reduce the number of elementary schools it supports to more than 400 students per campus. It currently supports about 23,000 students across 70 sites — just under 330 per campus.
“K-5 students would be better accommodated in approximately 50 sites evenly distributed with 10 per region,” a presentation on the proposal reads.
The framework would also call for maintaining the district’s current level of staffing that has also added to the deficit under the three-year deal reached with the teachers union in 2022. In the three-year pact, the district agreed to 7% raises for educators across the board, plus a 4% salary increase in year two, and a 3% raise in year three to cover the cost of inflation.
