School Closure Criterion

Board OKs closure criteria; schools continue anxious wait

By Tan Vinh
Seattle Times staff reporter

When Rainier View Elementary parent Bryan Pugh heard about the Seattle School Board's criteria to close schools, he figured his neighborhood school was a target.

The South End school is 45 years old and deteriorating, and test scores are well below the district average. Enrollment is low and most of the 257 students who attend are assigned there because they live in the neighborhood or didn't get their first school choice. "It's demoralizing to know the school will close, and all you can do is wait," said Pugh, whose daughter is in third grade. "I hate to wake up and not see a school there. It would break my heart, and it would break my daughter's heart."

On Wednesday night, the School Board unanimously approved a checklist for evaluating schools, using factors such as building condition, academic performance and enrollment.

A Seattle Times analysis shows that Rainier View is one of two dozen elementary schools that fit many of the criteria the board established. Based on some of the data that would be used to support the criteria, The Times has identified six schools in each area of the city that fit most of the items on the board's checklist. While the district won't decide which schools to close until the summer, The Times' analysis offers a number of possibilities for consolidation or closure.

The board has tentatively agreed to close 12 schools in the 2007-08 academic year, but it won't vote on that until April 5. Still, board members instructed their recently appointed citizens committee to use those criteria to pick alternative and elementary schools that it will recommend to the superintendent to close.

Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas proposed closing 10 schools last spring — Rainier View was one — but withdrew his plan after a public outcry.

This year, the board has said it is committed to closing schools as one way to save money. Long-term district plans also call for reducing yellow-bus transportation for high-schoolers as another way to reduce deficits of nearly $15 million in 2006-07 and $25 million in 2007-08.

Closing schools "is a big statement that we can make change," board member Michael DeBell said. "The board and superintendent realize that this change was long overdue and has been sapping our resources. And finally we are able to grapple with it."

The closure process has generated anxiety, especially in the southeast neighborhoods where a third of the closures will take place. The district also wants to close three schools each in the northeast and southwest parts of the city, and two in the northwest.

Anticipating a drop in enrollment in the southeast quadrant, the board initially discussed closing five schools there but scaled back to four to lessen the community impact.

Using Interstate 90 as the north-south boundary of the four quadrants puts a few schools traditionally considered in the South End of town into the northeast quadrant. That potentially would allow the district to close more schools with ties to South End neighborhoods, such as Martin Luther King and T.T. Minor, but to classify them as northeast schools.

Board member Cheryl Chow, who represents South Seattle, said the district did not intentionally draw the boundaries to close more schools in her neighborhood. The district divided the city into four quadrants — east and west of I-5 and north and south of I-90 — and those are natural boundaries, Chow said.

Past tense

At Rainier View Elementary, many parents already talk about their school in the past tense. Cuong Ngo, a Vietnamese refugee, may transfer his daughter next year to a school that isn't threatened with closure.

The district hasn't picked which schools to close, but you can see the signs, Ngo said. After all, he said, Rainier View was proposed for closure last year.

Built in 1961, Rainier View is one of the few schools in that area that haven't had major remodels. Even on less tangible criteria — academic accomplishment and community involvement — the school is on shaky ground.

It does not have a PTSA. Its scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) are below the district average. Using the district's "value-added," or progress data, which measures individual student performance from one year to the next, Rainier View ranks "average" in reading and math.

Teachers face many challenges because of the large low-income and immigrant population. Currently, 77 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and about a third are immigrants and refugees. Parent meetings typically require the assistance of Spanish, Vietnamese and Somali interpreters. Teachers often pay out of pocket for student field trips or special pizza nights.

Unlike a few other schools that ended up on last year's closure list, Rainier View didn't protest the plans. It's not that families don't care about the school, parent activist Marlene Fuller said, but many parents don't speak English or have other jobs and just don't have time or money to contribute to the school.

Focus on academics

Principal Cathy Thompson, in her third year leading Rainier View, said she chooses to ignore closure rumors and focus on something she has more control of — teaching.

"We have to a job to do. As long as we are a school community, we will" focus on academics, she said.

Thompson doesn't want students distracted by closure talks. Even if it's marked for closure, the school would remain open at least another academic year, and this week, students are taking the WASL.

At a recent staff meeting to discuss the curriculum and budget for the fall, no one questioned why the school was planning for a future that may be in doubt, Thompson said. "I was proud of them."

Despite the challenges, staff and parents said they want to save the school because they think students have improved academically and will do better as their English improves.

Pugh said his daughter has improved academically by working with the same principal and teachers who know her strengths and weaknesses. "I would love for her to finish here," he said. "It's an environment that works" for her.

Still, many parents are convinced next year could be Rainer View's last. "I'm kind of nervous. I'm sure our school will be on the closure list," said Fuller, whose four children, including a current fourth-grader, have attended Rainier View over the past 11 years.

The district should renovate, not close, the school, Fuller said. Students fly kites and learn how to ride bikes here, and if it snows, they sled down the school field on cardboard boxes, she said.

It's not perfect, but it's still a part of this neighborhood, she said.