Seattle Public School’s enrollment numbers are expected to grow by an estimated 6,000 more students over the next five years. But instead of celebrating, the district is scrambling to figure out where to house all these additional students.
The latest to struggle with over-capacity problems is Lowell Elementary School. Last month, the district noticed a surge in the number of Accelerated Progress Program-eligible students who want to enroll at Lowell through its open enrollment program.
The district’s solution to this problem? Split the APP program by sending APP fourth and fifth graders to Lincoln School for the 2011-2012 school year. In a letter (.pdf) to Lowell staff and parents today, Nancy Coogan, executive director of the district’s central region schools, says that the latest enrollment numbers “has made it increasingly apparent that we will not be able to accommodate the growth we are seeing at Lowell.” Coogan called the split a short-term solution, one that would “ensure that we have adequate space for all students, including those with special needs remaining at Lowell.”
But some members of the Lowell community are vociferously protesting the idea, and have even started an online petition asking interim superintendent Susan Enfield not to break up the APP program. They would ideally like to see the entire APP program moved to Lincoln, not just a part of it.
The district hired an architect in May to figure out capacity management issues. Lowell was already over capacity by then, with 583 students (and reportedly no fire sprinklers). The school’s functional capacity is 475. The school is expected to have approximately 700 students in the new school year.
“By dividing the APP community now, siblings will be split between two locations, and our 4th and 5th graders, along with their teachers, will be detached from the larger school community and their entire APP cohort,” the petition says. “This will adversely affect the cohesion of the program. It would also create a potential inequality with the other APP elementary location, Thurgood Marshall, which is not splintered in this manner.”
The district has scheduled a public meeting for Monday, June 27 at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln School auditorium to get feedback from the community.
I don’t know what the capacity of Lincoln is, but it’s at least as big as Ballard, Roosevelt, and Garfield High Schools, all of which have roosted there temporarily in recent years while their buildings were being built. Shouldn’t be a problem, should it?
SPS will do whatever makes it easier to kill APP completely within the next few years.
The APP program was split two years ago, against the wishes of most parents. Now they’re thinking about paring off 2 of the 5 grades and send them to another school. Most of the 4th and 5th graders currently in the APP program at low have already been through one split. This is ridiculously bad planning by the District, and to me, an indication of their long-term intent to dismantle this successful program.
Only parts of Lincoln are in decent enough shape to be used without some major work being done. McDonald Elementary is in there now with approximately 175-180 students, and I think they are occupying as much of the decent usable space as they can. Once they move out, the district can probably assess what the functional capacity of Lincoln is as it is right now. Still, that’s one more site that will need food service, office staff, admin…. More cost for a very small population. Might be better to either move the whole program or find a site that is under capacity to hold 4-5 APP.
“Shouldn’t be a problem, should it?”
I’m just guessing you aren’t a parent. Kids aren’t bouncing balls that you shift from place to place. The district already split the program and now wants to split it again? How does that work? And guess what, if Save Seattle Schools blog hadn’t broken this story, the parents wouldn’t even know about it until when? July? August?
The district has many plans for Lincoln so no it will run out of space.
Potential inequality with Thurgood Marshall?! The schools weren’t equal from the start. But there are trade-offs. Most north end parents would be appalled to work with a south-end PTA budget. On the flip side, TM has a 20-year-old building (with sprinklers), a full-time non-MAP-infested library, and a top-shelf principal.
I feel for these kids, and the parents who get to deal with the fallout. The district’s mantra when they’re using APP kids as pawns: “Oh, they’ll be fiiiiine.”
As a Lowell parent of ALO Students (non-APP), I’d like to know what would be left of Lowell after the APP program is removed? We have before and after school programs that probably would not have enough students to continue, our art and music classes and other things that are no longer fully funded by the state are subsidized by the PTA. The ALO students at Lowell are transfers from TT Minor and only one year of students from the newly formed reference area, most of the PTA and volunteer positions are filled by APP parents, there are more of them and they’ve been around longer. We’re now supposed to reinvent all of this over the summer? How is that going to happen?
@4, the parking lot of Lincoln is completely full of construction vehicles and supplies all summer long, every summer for the past several years. What are they DOING in there if large parts of it are unusable? They were usable when Roosevelt was in there just a couple of years ago, and Garfield before that, and Ballard before that. There’s been a school in there EVERY YEAR for the past decade. I can see it from my work, I should know.
@8 Well, I live about a block away from Lincoln when I’m not stuck in Utah, so I see it pretty regularly too. Have you been inside Lincoln lately? It’s pretty rundown – even from the outside it’s looking pretty shabby, though I can say I’m glad to see it being used because there’s nothing more depressing than a vacant school. Anyway, kids are hard on buildings, especially HS kids who don’t have any real attachment to a building because it is an interim site. Many McDonald/QA parents were in painting and fixing things up in their section before – and after – the schools opened because the district only does the bare minimum to keep it open.
When Lincoln was used before, it was primarily used by HS students – and it was a HS, so the infrastructure was suitable for HS students. These would be more elementary students, who have different needs (like a playground! The teeny-tiny little space they have right now can’t handle more kids).
Currently, at least part of Lincoln is used by a night school program. Another part is used by McDonald/Queen Anne schools – soon to be just McDonald but with a larger enrollment. To my knowledge, the upper floor(s) of Lincoln are not being used, but would undoubtedly require more remodeling to make them suitable for little kids – assuming they would bring in the entire APP program, not just 2 isolated classrooms of 4th and 5th graders. Little kids have a hard time using big kid toilets, reaching big kid sinks, etc. Little kids don’t need science rooms with active gas nozzles and tall countertops. Another issue is noise – little kid feet on upper floors is not a good thing for those on lower floors. Little kids stomp, do active things, move around a lot – it is better to have them on ground floors – which McDonald already occupies. There is also at least one section of Lincoln that requires seismic (or something similar) upgrades before it can be used and probably some other updates that the city will demand to bring it up to code. SSD’s BEX/BTA documents probably outline everything that needs to be done there. If I recall correctly, the last major upgrade that school had was a new roof and some windows replaced in the late 90’s. Everything since then has been stop-gap measures in reaction to major issues – structural/slab issues, the auditorium (asbestos removal?), etc. That main building is over 100 years old and needs some major TLC.
There is only one possible long-term solution and everyone knows what it is: north-end elementary APP needs to move into the John Marshall building near Green Lake. A small general education program can co-locate with it there. If the general education program is an option program then it will relieve some of the over-crowding in the northeast without having to alter the attendance area boundaries. Designating it as an option program will also allow an enrollment preference to APP siblings, which will help keep families together.
There is no point in doing anything as a stop-gap measure if you don’t have a long-term solution in the works.
The APP cohort should not be divided. They should all go to Lincoln together. The strength of the program is in the cohort.
Several parents have created a petition to lobby to keep the APP cohort together. If you would like to be added to this collective voice, go to and sign the petitiion and also read all the great comments on why this is such a bad idea:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Keep-Lo…
Hi, Charlie (@10). I know you’ve been a passionate supporter of APP in the past, and I’ve appreciated it. But it’s clear (to you too, I think) that SPS doesn’t care about “the strength of the program.” They split the cohort once. They’ll do it again. They don’t care for APP. It’s only a matter of time before they get rid of it completely.
Sincerely, Doctor Sunshine.
There is another option that no one seems to be considering here. I realize that parents don’t want to transport their children any farther than they have to but the Thurgood Marshall APP program isn’t nearly as crowded as Lowell’s.
Yes, this is bad situation and yes we do need a long term solution but moving the entire APP program out of Lowell during the summer is a terrible idea for many reasons. 1. Lincoln is no where near prepared to house the entire APP program. 2. Moving the entire APP program would be outrageously expensive and we are in financial crisis mode right now. 3. The remaining programs at Lowell (ALO, general education and special ed) need more notice and planning in order to re-organize the PTA and other school support programs.
If no one is going to consider shifting some of the Lowell APP to the Thurgood Marshall APP (which was part of Lowell just two years ago) then moving the upper two grades to Lincoln is a good temporary solution.
As a parent who toured Lowell and made a difficult, heart wrenching decision to move our daughter from her neighborhood school it makes me sick to hear of the district’s decision to split the APP cohort. We were sold something at Lowell and now we are realizing that we were given the Kool-Aid and now are left floundering. We bought into the feel and energy of the program and staff. By splitting the cohort, they are weakening the program and setting families up for failure. My daughter was extremely sad saying good bye to friends and staff at her neighborhood school. Just this morning she commented on being excited to be at Lowell with some friends, who have also made the sacrifice, and meeting new friends and having new experiences. What do we do now? We don’t have our spot at our old school and we are signed up for an incomplete program that is in shambles. I feel sick. It seems convenient that the district announced this after school was let out for the summer. We need to find a building to move the cohort together. We need to keep the program strong, even if the district want to do away with it. Seriously so sick and frustrated.
What we really need is a building made with rubber walls and floors and ceilings so that it will never, ever lack the space for APP no matter how many kids test in and choose it. Teachers should be cloneable so that when they get ill or want to retire, kids won’t need to ever have new teachers-just think, 100 years from now our great-grandkids can have the same teachers-no need to ever change a thing.
And while we’re at it, let’s get those scores for admission back up-we don’t want so many pesky minorities-especially not as principals or vice-principals. Oh, and a moat and drawbridge would be good because we don’t want the “norms” anywhere near us-they just don’t understand us and god forbid we should have mix with them. Our kids just BLOSSOM away from the normal kids and having to share a building with them just sucks rocks. Because you know, they just don’t operate at our kids’ level. At anything, even lunch and recess.
One of the best things we ever did was run away from APP when we had the option. Our gifted kid in thriving in a “normal” school with “normal” kids where EVERYONE has value and people actually roll with the punches when, say, a teacher decides to leave or classes change location. It’s so damn refreshing.
@Erica Tarrant above, you are absolutely right. We have a petition that opposes the total APP move out at this time unless there is a strong plan in place to reinforce the quality and attractiveness of Lowell as a neighborhood school. Here is the link to the petition: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Lo…
The APP parents certainly have to put up with a lot, and they should have a north school. But the people really at risk in this situation are the 200+ general ed/ALO kids at Lowell. Many of them came involuntarily when the District closed TTMinor, and the rest took a leap of faith on a new school community over the last two years. Now their worst fears are realized: the APP dominated PTA is leading the charge to dump them and take their bat and ball and move north. What will Lowell, a school at the center of one of the most rapidly growing population centers in the city, look like after the APP program and all its side benefits disappears?
Hello Erica, the PTA shut us out of communicating with the school, so please forward to your classroom and forward to ALO friends in other classes!
See you tomorrow night, I hope!
Edcu- The entire weblink to the petition is not shown. I would like to sign it and have a number of other parents who like to as well. Please re-post the link.
Thanks!
I just went and found the link online. The petition is thoughtfully written. I have signed it and have forwarded it on to others to sign as well. Thank you so much to whoever started it!
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Lo…
Most interested parties have probably heard the news elsewhere already, but SPS has officially decided to move the entire APP program to Lincoln for the next school year.
Most interested parties have probably already heard the news elsewhere, but SPS has officially announced that the entire APP program will move to Lincoln for the next school year.