The Seattle school board, faced with explosive enrollment growth in the North and Northeast clusters and a brutal season of austerity, decided to pull the plug on AS#1 in order to free its building (Decatur) up to house a new K-5. Under the plan, AS#1 students would join Thornton Creek (the school formerly known as AEII) in creating a new K-8 at the Jane Addams site that currently houses Summit K-12, which is getting shipped to the other end of the city -- Rainier Beach.
Got all that?
This appears to be the end of "alternative schooling" in the North End, depending on the final complexion of the Thornton Creek/AS#1 merger. Interestingly, the Thornton Creek students will have much further to go than the AS#1 students with the move, making you wonder if the AS#1 parents will ultimately win control over how the new Jane Addams school functions.
The North and Northwest clusters will have no changes, it appears. Some space will open up at Northgate and Olympic Hills, which are majority underrepresented population schools and, well, not appealing to the white middle class parents in the north.
West Seattle Blog is doing its usual outstanding coverage; watch the Seattle Schools blog for the discussion and debate in the coming days. Me, I'm going to have to figure out what to do with my about-to-be kindergartner once all this dust settles.
