Recap from the May 1st Boundaries Meeting at McClure

Below are notes from the May 1st meeting at McClure regarding the proposed boundary changes to schools in the Queen Anne/Magnolia area. For more context and other details, see our Boundaries & Option School information page.

Timeline/ Next Steps:

• June – next community meeting with revised scenarios. 
• September – final scenarios shared with limited time after for comment
• October – final plan introduced to school board
• November – school board votes on final boundary plan associated with opening Magnolia School

What can YOU do!

• Read the recap of the meeting below.
• If you haven't perused yet, see the SPS materials presented at the meeting.
• WRITE to growthboundaries@seattleschools.org, enrollmentplanning@seattleschools.org, and to schoolboard@seattleschools.org, expressing your strong support of QAE remaining an Option School. We have example letters to help you get started.
• With the next meeting in June, SPS is looking for as much feedback as possible on all of the scenarios (A-H) as well as any other comments regarding boundary changes. 
• A team of QAE parents is forming to help craft our plan and message on why QAE remaining an Option School is important to the entire QA/Magnolia reference area.  If you have ideas or would like to join the effort, please email president@qaeptsa.org.
• Attend the June meeting and be prepared to share your story as to why QAE should remain an Option School. 
• Keep an eye out for emails from the QAE PTSA and on the PTSA's Facebook page for updates.

Meeting Recap
The meeting had three sections: Opening Remarks, Break Out Sessions, and Comment Period.

Opening Remarks:
Ashley Davies – Enrollment Planning for SPS

• Opened with introductions of SPS staff and SPS Board Members
• Introduced parent leaders from all 5 schools who recently met to uncover common ground and solutions to capacity issues for QA/Magnolia  (Heath Dixon, Ian Stewart, and Karrie Sanderson are the QAE parent reps on this group)
• Ashley walked through the presentation, highlighting the new material.  The new materials included:
  • QA/Mag Middle School student density
  • Walk zones for all schools in QA/Mag
  • Neighborhood counts vs. capacity for all of QA/Magnolia
  • Proximity Polygons  for all schools in QA/Mag that show the closest school for each polygon.
  • Two new Scenarios assuming that QAE becomes a neighborhood school – Scenarios G and H
  • Starting point "Pro / Con " list of  each of the scenarios presented 

Break out session:
Posters of the currently proposed 8 boundary scenarios (A-F) in the attachment were on the walls around the room.  Attendees were encouraged to view each scenario and write comments on a comment sheet about what they saw as the pros and cons for each scenario.

A bit more info on Scenarios G and H:

• Scenario G -  This scenario redraws ALL boundaries for every school in QA/Mag cluster so each school is under their 'right sized" capacity.  However, this scenarios shows the similar section of the current Coe area STILL assigned to Lawton as in scenarios A-F.   Scenario G, the attempt draw boundaries that keep all schools at or below capacity, results in a significant increase in students who are disrupted from their current schools and there are STILL kids from QA that have to get bused to Magnolia.
• Scenario H – This scenario is an attempt to keep 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.  Basically, if you want all QA kids to go to QA schools, both Hay and Coe will be over capacity.  And the necessary boundaries are drawn in such a gerrymandered way that students 2 blocks from Coe would have to go to QAE.​

Open Comments from Attendees:

• Using a lottery system, attendees were invited up to speak and share their thoughts on the current set of scenarios
• Most speakers were focused on scenarios G and H since they were new vs. the previous meeting
• Many speakers were from the current Coe community and they spoke passionately about NOT having to bus their children from QA to Magnolia, so they were advocating for Scenarios G and H which turn QAE into a neighborhood school.
• Several non-QAE speakers discussed an idea to make QAE a neighborhood school and then creating an Option School “cohort” within QAE with any extra seats going to neighborhood students assigned to QAE.   QAE parent leadership at the meeting expressed that there is NOT support for this idea (nor do we have full details of what the idea entails)
• QAE speakers spoke about:
  • The important role QAE already plays toward relieving capacity for Coe, Hay, and other schools. 
  • The importance of having an Option School that meets the learning needs of students who might not thrive at a more traditional school. 
  • The large increase in number of students that would be disrupted in Scenarios G and H, compared to A - F for little to no real gain in capacity relief for the schools that are requesting QAE become a neighborhood school.