When happens when your city pisses away all of your tax revenue on trying to feed, shelter and coddle activists and homeless people? You wind up having to make budget cuts. And, in Seattle, those cuts could be coming in the form of closing up to 20 elementary schools.
The district’s budget deficit has reached more than $100 million, according to new reporting from MYNorthwest.
And Superintendent Brent Jones' proposal for 'Well-Resourced Schools' might lead to the shutdown of over a quarter of the district's 73 elementary schools, the report says.
According to the Seattle Public Schools, 29 of these schools have fewer than 300 students each, and are considered under-enrolled. The district warns that keeping these schools open may necessitate cuts or the elimination of preschool programs, a reduction in core staff, larger class sizes, and fewer curriculum offerings.
The plan has been met with considerable opposition from both parents and teachers, who expressed their concerns at Wednesday's meeting.
Ben Gitenstein, a parent of a student in the SPS district commented: “It’s not 20 schools, it’s 20 communities. All the kids who thought they knew who their next year’s teacher would be. All the local mom-and-pop stores that sell ice cream to the kids after school, they’re all going to be seriously impacted."
He continued: “Closing neighborhood schools is really bad for neighborhoods and it’s really bad for all of us because, at the end of the day, the real problem here is enrollment."
Superintendent Brent Jones commented: “We’re trying to make sure we’re focused on the students’ experience and not just a building.”
The report concluded stating that, at the meeting, Jones reflected on his own experiences as a student within SPS, noting that he attended four different elementary schools. He described each transition as a positive experience.
School closures, under his plan, would not take place until the 2025-2026 school year at the earliest. He is scheduled to present an initial recommendation at a school board meeting on June 10.
Good luck with that.
