QAE Facilities Update

Dear QAE Community:

For families who attended our 2/4 PTSA General Membership meeting, the 2/12 Kids Co Child Care meeting, or have been following news related to Facilities on our website and/or the Rocket Reader newsletter, we had the first of what will be many meetings with the Seattle Public Schools Capital Planning team yesterday, 2/17.

The Director of Capital Projects and Planning and a team of seven other Capital Projects and Facilities members toured QAE and sat down with us to discuss the plans outlined in the BEX IV funded QAE Addition. We were asked thoughtful questions from the SPS team and given a chance to walk through our facilities needs and how we can best support students and staff and the community with this capital project.

Here are the key points:

• New Addition Schedule. We are scheduled to remain at QAE for the next three years, with a new addition scheduled to be complete for the 2019-20 school year.
• Interim Site. Our current Kindergarten, First grade and incoming families will call the John Marshall School, located at 520 NE Ravenna Boulevard, home for the 2018-19 school year.
• Pre-Planning/Design. We had a good discussion related to how we use our campus and how a new addition could offer us a way to centralize resources and improve our core facilities. Down the road, we will have an opportunity to participate in a Design Phase, allowing you a chance to see proposals and provide feedback.
• 2015-16 Classrooms. We add two classrooms next year -- a 4th and 5th grade. Currently, our only option to support and provide space for two new classrooms is to convert two of our four portable spaces into classrooms.  We are in the process of determining how we will do this and working with our Capital Planning partners at SPS to maximize our budget.
• Additional Space. Our goal is add new classroom space on our campus for the 2015-16 year. There are several barriers to getting it done, but it’s important -- so we are seeking creative ways to add new space to our site.  We are exploring options with an external partner.
• On Site Childcare.  Over 25% of QAE families rely on childcare. Both QAE and the QAE PTSA are working with Kids Co to mitigate the facilities impact on childcare and maintain onsite space for childcare services for the next three years.

Adding additional space that supports our school, preserves childcare, and reflects our learning environment is an important focus for us. Support from our parent community will be critical to meeting facility needs and supporting families who rely on childcare. SPS and the Capital Planning Department expressed an openness to consider QAE-driven options.

The QAE staff, along with the QAE PTSA, is working together to make sure that the needs of everyone in our community are heard. If you would like to send questions, comments, or volunteer for our facilities related efforts, please do so here.

We will continue to keep our QAE families informed during this process.

Sincerely,

David Elliott, Principal
Queen Anne Elementary

Amy Janas, President
Queen Anne Elementary PTSA