QAE Boundaries & Option Status - Sample Letters

Below  is an email templates to serve as a starting point in advocating for Queen Anne Elementary and our community. We encourage you to send a personal message that reflects your family's concerns.  Show your passion, but do so in a positive manner that reflects the Five Pillars, SEL, and other things we value about QAE. Please consider this as a starting point. At the bottom you'll see some important talking points you may want to include. 

Suggested Email

Send to: 
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Dear SPS staff, Dr. Nyland, and Seattle School Boards members,

I am a parent at Queen Anne Elementary and I am writing to you today to advocate for Queen Anne Elementary to remain an Option School.

Personally, it’s important to my family that QAE remain an option school because [ your personalized thoughts here. Some quick topics listed here:
  • All kids learn differently, valuable to provide a different approach for students in the area
  • Actively teaching Social Emotional Learning helps all our students
  • Five Pillars curriculum
  • Project-Based Learning
  • Digital Learning and our school's technology focus

See our Learning page for details our QAE's approach. ]

Beyond my personal concerns, QAE’s option status should not be removed because it won’t significantly reduce overcrowding at Coe and Hay. QAE already enrolls new families almost completely from the Hay and Coe GeoZone (excluding sibling priority), so changing QAE to an assignment school wouldn’t improve enrollment numbers. Shuffling students between schools would disrupt more families than the original Magnolia Elementary boundary plans without actually lessening overcrowding Queen Anne Hill.

As you review the proposals for Magnolia Elementary boundaries, please focus on changes that will minimize the number of students and schools that will be affected by the changes and continue to consider other factors, such as preserving the valuable role that QAE provides as an option for area students.

Sincerely,

[ your name ]
QAE Parent to [ add the grade(s) of your child(ren) ]

Talking Points

For either message, or in other conversations you have about this issue, here are some additional suggestions for data points and reasoning you can consider including:

* QAE already draws more than 90% of of QAE Kindergartners and 1st Graders either live within the QAE Geozone or are siblings of older students. Changing QAE's Option status would not alleviate overcrowding for Hay and Coe, it would just switch students between the three schools without changing the attendance numbers.

* If the current students and siblings attending QAE were grandfathered in to remain at the school, which they should be based on the district’s commitment to these families when they chose to attend an option program, then the change would have no immediate effect on overcrowding for Hay and Coe. If the district overturned grandfathering for these families, then over 400 students would be disrupted without any net improvement, since QAE students within the Hay and Coe attendance areas would merely be exchanged for students at those schools.

* Making QAE a assignment school will disrupt the families of over 400 kids. More than 20 staff members, who have chosen to teach at QAE because of its unique blend of PBL/SEL/technology infused curriculum, will also be impacted.

* The 2018-19 remodel will not add 200 seats. The remodel replaces 4 classrooms in portables and adds 4 new classrooms. The net addition is approximately 100-120 new seats. However, that puts QAE about 40 students over its targeted 500 student capacity in the school that has the smallest average room-size in our cluster.

* The Option School caps are necessary for any school with an all-city draw. However, QAE families and staff would like to see SPS better manage the caps and waitlist so that enrollment at QAE is as equitable as possible.

​See our FAQ page for more details.