QAE Boundaries & Option Status - Frequently Asked Questions
Why is this being discussed?
The QAE PTSA strives to advocate for our community. We believe it's important that QAE families understand that these discussions are happening and want to give a chance for all families to be heard since these proposals would have a dramatic and disruptive impact on our community.
Magnolia Elementary, a renovated K-5 elementary school located at 2418 28th Ave W, will open for the Fall 2018 school year. Seattle Public Schools is currently reviewing how boundaries should be drawn to best serve students who attend schools in the our neighborhoods. The initial six proposed boundary scenarios impact the current school boundaries of Blaine, Coe and Lawton families. Proposed boundary scenarios can be found here.
On March 13th, 2017, SPS held a public meeting primarily for parents from Blaine, Coe and Lawton to discuss the proposed scenarios. At this meeting, some parents from those schools suggested that Queen Anne Elementary should be changed from an Option school to a assignment school. They believe that, with this change, the boundaries on Queen Anne Hill could be adjusted between Coe, Hay and QAE so that no families currently assigned to attend Coe would re-assigned to the renovated Magnolia School in 2018.
Another suggested proposal was moving QAE’s Option school program to the Magnolia School in Sept. 2018. This would mean all teachers and staff who want to be part of the Option School program would have to move to a permanent new location. Existing QAE families would be forced to choose between switching their child/children to the Magnolia School site or switch their child/children to their assignment school.
What’s happened since the March meeting?
On May 1st, 2017, SPS held another meeting at McClure Middle School. Two additional scenarios were presented.
Scenario G - View SPS map and comments pdf This scenario redraws all boundaries for every school in Queen Anne/Magnolia cluster so each school is under their 'right sized" capacity. However, just as with Scenarios A-F, many students who north of Coe will be re-assigned to Lawton (depending on the scenario, the northern boundary is Barrett Street, Bertonia Street, or Dravus Street, and west of 11th Ave W). In this scenario, to keep keep all QA/M schools at or below capacity, SPS will need to move a large number of students from their current schools. Yet, even with so many re-drawn boundaries, there are students who live north of Dravus/Bertonia who will be re-assigned to Lawton.
Scenario H - View SPS map and comments pdf This scenario keeps all kids who live on QA (east of 15th Ave) in QA schools (Coe, Hay, or QAE). However, both Coe and Hay remain OVER their capacity in this scenario. Additionally, the necessary boundaries are very different from current boundaries, and students who live as close as 2 blocks to Coe would have to attend QAE, and others who live as close as 3 blocks to Coe would have to attend Hay.
The QAE PTSA believes that the two scenarios that involve eliminating QAE's Option School status are extremely disruptive to QAE as well as the other QA Hill without offering enough positives. We've included a link to a pdf of each scenario -- note that the handwritten notes are from the May 1st meeting.
Blaine (K-5), Coe, Hay, Lawton, Magnolia and QAE all are at right size capacity
Cons:
The elimination of an Option school in the McClure MS service area, which impacts all 2792 K-5 students. Option school are invaluable alternatives to assignment area schools not an indulgence afforded to neighborhoods with excess capacity.
Each school is disrupted by this scenario. New bus routes, new families at each school, PTA leadership will likely be disrupted, and more.
As the head count at Coe and Hay will be drastically reduced, staffing will be reduced by several teachers at each school. Teachers with less seniority will be reassigned to other schools. Staffing likely would be reduced by 6 teachers at Coe, and 8 teachers at Hay.
It is unclear if this will increase or decrease transportation costs overall.
About 60 Coe students will be reassigned to Hay, QAE or Lawton. An estimated 200 students at Hay would be reassigned to QAE. A minimum of 120 QAE students will be reassigned to Coe & Hay, or their assignment area school.
Families being re-assigned to QAE would be bussed to a temporary location in their first year.
A majority of the kids who would be reassigned to Lawton Elementary (ones who live on both QA Hill and Magnolia) come from families with a more modest family income. Effectively, this scenario exaggerates existing socio-economic disparities between neighborhoods.
Keeps more existing boundaries intact, including students living on the west side of Queen Anne would remain in the Coe area.
Cons:
The elimination of an Option school in the McClure MS service area, which impacts all 2792 K-5 students. Option school are invaluable alternatives to assignment area schools not an indulgence afforded to neighborhoods with excess capacity.
Coe and Hay are still over-capacity in this scenario. Coe by approximately 40 students and Hay by approximately 15 students. Staffing likely would be reduced by 4 teachers at Coe, and 8 teachers at Hay. Teachers with less seniority will be reassigned to other schools.
Magnolia School would not open at right size capacity but approximately 150 students below capacity.
Each school is disrupted by this scenario.
It is unclear if this will increase transportation costs overall.
This scenario disrupts students at all schools. An estimated 200 students at Hay and between 150 and 200 students, which represents about between one-third and one-half of the students at each school, respectively.
Families being re-assigned to QAE would be bussed to a temporary location in their first year.
In conclusion, Scenarios G & H are very disruptive to students, families and staff. The Option school program that services all students in the QA and Magnolia school would be eliminated for the sake of capacity at Coe and Hay, yet Scenario H does not even get Coe and Hay to right size capacity, nor is Magnolia School opened at close to its capacity. In Scenario G, there are uncomfortable consequences for social-economic balances between schools. It is unclear what the financial costs of reassigning so many students would be, nor is it clear that transportation costs would remain close to existing costs.
Why is the QAE PTSA concerned about these proposals?
The discussions have not been inclusive. A group of parents have been motivated by good intentions -- they wish to preserve the current assignment boundary for Coe and reduce overcrowding at the school. However, we are concerned that they have done this by directly advocating for a change that significantly affects QAE and John Hay families without first reaching out to those communities.
Changing QAE to an assignment school will not reduce overcrowding at Queen Anne Hill schools. QAE is an Option School, which means that any student who lives in Seattle can apply to be part of the QAE community. However, a significant majority of the current QAE students are already from Queen Anne Hill (in either the Hay or Coe Geozones). And in lower grades, the numbers are even higher due to the expansion of the QAE Geozone to all of Queen Anne Hill in 2013 (see below). For example, more than 90% of of QAE Kindergartners and 1st Graders either live within the QAE Geozone or are siblings of older students. Removing students who live outside of Queen Anne Hill doesn’t solve our overall capacity issues.
Changing QAE to a assignment school would create awkward boundary lines that would affect families at all three QA Hill elementaries. QAE and Hay are very close to each other. If assignment school boundary lines were redrawn to split QAE between three schools, the divisions would be awkward and likely force many Hay and Coe families to move schools. In a draft boundary map under this scenario, the QAE assignment area boundary would have to be very close to Coe. Families living closer to Coe would be sent to QAE. This is even more acute for Hay families, since their current zone includes QAE.
QAE as an Option School benefits students and the larger community and we're committed to it. Our charter is to provide an alternative for children throughout the McClure service area and the city who seek an alternative approach to learning through the fundamentals of our Five Pillars of learning. There are many reasons why families decide to come to QAE, but giving families another choice when deciding on what education would be best for their child is invaluable. Furthermore, by drawing students largely from the Queen Anne Hill area, QAE has and continues to reduce the crowding problems at our neighboring schools.
Since families must apply to attend an Option School, we know that 100% of families made the conscious choice to come to QAE. Our staff also joined because they believe in the Option School model and our curriculum. Our community is committed to remaining an Option School.
What is an Option School?
Queen Anne Elementary was designated by SPS as an Option School when it opened in 2011. SPS defines them as:
“Option schools provide a variety of programmatic opportunities, different curriculum and educational styles for families looking for alternatives to their attendance area schools.”
Options schools provide flexibility on the foundation of our learning. QAE believes in learning through the approach of Social Emotional Learning, Project Based Learning, Creative Approach and Technology. Neighborhood schools have the ability to incorporate aspects but do not have the established focus that Option Schools have to provide to SPS for Option School designation.
What is a GeoZone? What's QAE's GeoZone?
Option Schools typically have GeoZones to provide tiebreaker priority for students who live near them. This is necessary because many Option Schools, including QAE, have more applicants than spots available. The tiebreakers are, in order, 1) sibling preference (already have a sibling at the school), 2) located within the GeoZone and then 3) lottery.
GeoZones are used for all SPS Option Schools (see the GeoZone map). When QAE first opened, the GeoZone was essentially the same as the John Hay school boundaries (the eastern and southern portions of Queen Anne). With this relatively limited GeoZone, a student who lived on the western side of Queen Anne (in the Coe boundary) had the same chance of getting into QAE via the lottery as a student who lived much farther from the school.
In 2013, the QAE GeoZone was expanded to include the Coe service area as well (essentially it now covered all of Queen Anne hill). So starting with the 2014-15 school year, QAE’s available spots are typically filled by families who live on Queen Anne. For 2016-17, we had to turn away over 30+ kindergarten families total, including more than 20 who were from our Geozone.
I heard QAE isn't as crowded as Hay or Coe. Can't QAE accommodate more students?
All public schools in the area are bursting at the seams. While QAE has fewer students overall than Coe and Hay, we are limited by the number of classrooms and portables currently on site. The physical campus simply cannot handle the number of students who would like to attend. We use portables for both 5th grade classes and our gym. Our lunchroom, resource rooms and other areas are significantly smaller than the SPS’s standards.
What about the QAE remodel? Will that solve overcrowding?
QAE is scheduled to be remodeled during the 2018-19 school year as part of SPS’s BEX IV Building Levy. When it’s complete, we look forward to having 8 more permanent classrooms. The remodel was intended to add 200 more students to QAE. Sounds great, right?
Well, when the BEX IV Levy was approved in February 2013 (a $694.9 million levy supporting long-range plans to address Seattle enrollment growth) QAE student enrollment was 279. So they intended to design a building that would hold approximately 500 students. Today we are at 418 with the portables and next year we have over 450 enrolled. We rely on the use of portables and additional resource rooms that have been converted to classrooms. We will continue to welcome additional students once the renovation is complete, but likely not enough to "solve" all the capacity issues among Queen Anne Hill schools.
Further, while the BEX IV Levy materials state that QAE will have 8 new classrooms, it’s not quite that simple. Four of those “new” classrooms will replace the 4 portables that are located on the south end of the property. Another building, which will be an addition built onto the Brick building, will add 4 more classrooms. The current BEX IV budget for the remodel does not allow for changing the lunchroom’s kitchen, which means that the ability to prepare hot lunches will not increase. Thus, the classroom capacity of QAE will increase by 4 remodeled and 4 new classrooms, but the lunchroom capacity will not change.
I'm concerned about these changes and want to know more. What can I do?
The top priority for action is to talk back to SPS. Let them know what you think.
Option schools provide school choice for families. Option schools are not an indulgence because they offer alternative learning environments for kids that families have not found at assignment schools. Having a robust Option school program is an essential part of being a thriving 21st century school district.
Will re-designating QAE as an assignment school really alleviate overcrowding on Queen Anne Hill? What do the capacity numbers look like in three or four years? Have you provided each school community (Blaine, Coe, Hay, Lawton, McClure & QAE) with this data?
How do the hard numbers look? Specifically, how many families are disrupted by scenarios G & H? How many staff members? Are the transportation costs higher for these scenarios?
You can also:
Communicate to Principal Janine Roy
Participate in SPS survey sent on May 24th
Attend upcoming meetings
Remain collaborative, and kind, safe, & fair. Solutions to the capacity problems on Queen Anne Hill are only solutions if they are kid-centered and community-minded.
If you have further questions, the QAE PTSA will do our best to answer them. You can write to [email protected] or find one of us on the playground!