SEATTLE — After a proposal to close 20 elementary schools during a Seattle Public Schools board meeting Wednesday, parents have a lot to say.
The suggested closures, which would go in effect as early as the 2025-26 school year, has some parents pushing back.
MacDougall and Sarah Nau volunteer with All Together for Seattle Schools, a group that formed in response to "limited information" from the school district about staffing and student changes within the district last year.
"A school is the heart of the community, or it can be, and it sort of feels like closing them rips your heart out a little bit,” said Nau.
During a Wednesday night meeting, the district said reducing the number of elementary schools from 70 to 50 would help address the budget shortfall of more than $100 million.
"Change is hard. Change is hard for everybody. And it's often very necessary,” said Sam Scharenberg, the Sand Point Elementary PTA president.
“My kids are at Sand Point Elementary, which has been a great place to be. It's under 200 students,” said Scharenberg. “I don't focus really on my school is closing. It could be consolidated with another school. I see it as gaining more students, which means gaining more funding, maybe gaining more families that would be able to be involved."
"We don't feel that it actually is in the best interest of students and families at this point,” said Nau.
MacDougall adds that it could create challenges for families.
"Further travel time or extra transit costs, the likely disruption or elimination of option and alternative programs,” MacDougall said.
"There's going to be hurdles, but I think as a community, hopefully we can pull together and help each other figure it out,” said Scharenberg.
Some parents said they want the district to deliver more.
"We need to see their work. We need to see how this will actually impact students,” said Nau.
"Slow this process down so that families can be engaged appropriately,” said MacDougall.
So far, this is just a proposal, and no schools have been specifically identified. The superintendent is expected to provide a presentation next month. There will also be public meetings.
The Seattle Education Association President Jennifer Matter issued the following statement on Friday regarding the superintendent’s proposal:
"School closures have profound impacts to our school communities, especially our students. It’s critical that Dr. Jones and his team explain how closing schools fits into a long-term vision of a system of well-resourced schools in order to get the school community’s buy-in. We also have many questions and concerns about how closures and reductions will be implemented. We know District leadership wants to do this right and our expectation is that there will be authentic and robust engagement with the school community to better inform everyone about the potential impacts of any decisions and to best mitigate them. We also expect the District to listen closely to community feedback before making any final decisions."