PTSA Message about Boundaries & Option Status Meeting on 3/29/17

This message was sent from the QAE PTSA to our community on Friday, March 24th. We hope to see you at the meeting on March 29th! See the Boundaries and Option Status FAQ page for more details...

Dear Queen Anne Elementary families,

If you believe that Queen Anne Elementary should continue to be an Option School located at its current site on Boston Street, please attend a meeting at QAE on Wed. March 29th, at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.
 
Wait, what???  
 
In the 2018-2019 school year, Seattle Public Schools will reopen Magnolia Elementary School. Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has worked with the city to plan and coordinate Magnolia as an attendance area school. SPS is having community meetings to engage families as it redraws the boundaries of Blaine, Lawton, and Coe to balance enrollment and alleviate capacity issues at each existing school.

At the first community meeting, on March 13th, SPS presented six scenarios of different boundary lines. Four of those scenarios would mean that some students who live on the west side of Queen Anne hill and are currently zoned for Coe would be part of the new Magnolia School zone.
 
At that meeting and also in emails directly to SPS, a group of parents (not from QAE) who want to prevent changes to the current Coe boundaries have suggested that QAE be changed from an Option program to a neighborhood school. Other parents have suggested that the QAE Option program be moved to the Magnolia School when it opens in Sept. 2018 so the QAE campus can be used as a neighborhood school.

If QAE was changed from an Option School to a neighborhood school the innovative programs that QAE offers might be at risk. Option School status provides "programs of choice" and for QAE that includes our 5 Pillars and technology focus.

No decisions have been made, but our community coming together on March 29th, being present and participating in this important conversation will relate a strong and clear message to SPS that we’re invested in decisions that affect our school and families. The not-so-distant future of QAE is dependent on our parent voices now. 

Principal Janine Roy, Central Region Executive Director of Schools Sarah Pritchett, SPS Director of Enrollment Planning and the QAE PTSA Board will all be in attendance. SPS Director Sue Peters has been invited to the meeting.

We hope to see you at the important meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29th at the QAE Cafeteria. The PTSA has created a FAQ page with more details about how we got here, our concerns, details about our Option program.