KPLU Local News
(2009-11-17)
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More kids will be walking to school in Seattle under the new neighborhood school plan.
AP Image.
How one feels about the new attendance maps depends on where you live. Some parents are concerned about how to keep siblings together, after finding their home drawn outside the new boundaries. Elizabeth Gay is a north Seattle parent.
"We will not move our son from the school where he is. He'll be in 3rd grade next year, and I guess I'd rather disrupt our you know, make our family life more complicated with having two schools than move him at this point."
The sibling issue won't be decided by this board vote. They're focus right now is on boundaries. In January, district officials are expected to recommend siblings get top priority under a new tiebreaker plan. For now, they say it's important to keep the big picture in mind: neighborhood schools will give parents options closer to home and cut district transportation costs.
Superintendent Maria Goodloe Johnson says it will also increase community involvement in local schools. Tre Maxie welcomes that idea. He leads a nonprofit called Powerful Schools, which provides student support programs in south Seattle. Maxie says many south end schools don't even have PTA's.
"Seattle Public schools is not divided up into separate organizations. It's one school district, one city, and so if something is working at one school, why aren't we duplicating that at another school?"
Maxie says the district eventually needs to address the inequities among schools for the plan to succeed. If approved by the board, the new boundaries will take effect next year for incoming Kindergarten, sixth and ninth graders. Gary Davis, KPLU News, Seattle.
Click here for more information about the Seattle Public School District's Student Assignment Plan
Click here for the Powerful Schools web site.
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