Superintendent's Preliminary Recommendation

Questions and Answers

SECTION G: Board policy and criteria

1. What is the School Board policy on school closure?

School Board policy E61.00 establishes the steps which must be taken before any schools are closed. A copy of this policy is included in the Appendices.

According to Board policy, the Superintendent's preliminary recommendation on school closures must include:

• General criteria for school closure(s),
• Demographic and integration effects,
• The relationship of the proposed closure(s) to any ongoing, established long-range program for facility use, and
• Proposed site classification.

After the Superintendent's preliminary recommendation, a public review and public hearings are required. Following these meetings, the Superintendent makes a final recommendation for school closures, which is followed by public review and a public hearing. The School Board then discusses the final recommendations and takes action on them.

This policy is consistent with the State of Washington's RCW 28A.335.020 on school closure.

2. What steps are you taking to follow the Board policy?

In the summer of 2004, district staff began studying school consolidation as one possible option to address an ongoing budget shortfall. Since Board policy requires the development of general criteria to be one of the first steps in the closure or consolidation process, focus groups were initiated in the fall of 2004 to gather input about which criteria should be used in the event of school consolidation.

Focus groups examined criteria used in the 1989 closure process in Seattle, in addition to national criteria used by several other urban school districts more recently. In January of 2005, community forums were held in each of the director districts. The format of each session included an opportunity for participants to rate the proposed consolidation criteria and provide feedback about consolidation.

In February of 2005, the Board discussed consolidation criteria as one topic at a Board retreat. District staff presented a summary of the feedback and results from the community forums. Board members provided additional suggestions regarding the development of the criteria.

Following these meetings, a new set of closure criteria was developed to reflect the district's academic priorities. Board and community input was also included to provide maximum flexibility in the use of school buildings.

In March, the School Board reviewed these criteria, and their suggestions were included in the March 8, 2005 Revised Draft: Superintendent's Recommended Criteria for Building Consolidation. This document is included in the list of Appendices, and these criteria are shown in the response to Question 3 in this section.

On March 16, 2005, the School Board directed the Superintendent to proceed with a complete analysis of schools for potential consolidation or closure.

3. What criteria did you use in making recommendations about school consolidation?

These criteria are as follows:

Academics

• Any school consolidations will maximize the opportunity to create and sustain school and community programs that are highly effective for all students.

Demographics

• School building is in an area of the city where capacity is needed for resident students and school supports long-range enrollment projections.
• School building has high percentage of students who could walk to school.
• School or school building contributes to optimal and equitable district-wide distribution of school programs, school configurations, and grade-level capacity.

Facilities

• The building is of sufficient size to operate efficiently and the capacity is large enough to generate resources to serve students effectively.
• Building is in good condition (recent capital work has been completed, newer portables).
• Building can accommodate specialized educational programs.
• Building has capacity for future expansion and sufficient common space (e.g., cafeteria, auditorium, and gymnasium).

4. What are the next steps in the consolidation or closure process?

On April 20, 2005, the Superintendent's Preliminary Recommendation on school consolidation will be presented to the School Board.

This report will outline all proposed school consolidations, building closures, and program realignments. Following the Superintendent's report, there will be site-specific public hearings to gather community input and take testimony on the proposed building closures. After the public hearings, the Superintendent will offer his Final Recommendation to the School Board in June of 2005. The School Board will then hold a public hearing on the consolidation plan. The School Board is scheduled to vote on the plan in July 2005, and will decide whether or not to move forward with school consolidations for the 2006-07 school year.