District still can't see forest for the trees

Seattle Public Schools sometimes employs an act-first-feign-contrition-later approach to dealing with the public. No wonder then that citizen complaints of being shut out have grown louder.

It's time to switch tactics in favor of a more conciliatory approach. That advice comes in a King County judge's astute ruling in the case of the $24 million expansion of Ingraham High School and the future of 100 trees nearby.

Judge John Erlick has halted the district's plan to fell the trees by the start of school next Tuesday. He correctly admonishes the district for putting the cart before the horse by seeking to cut down the trees first and apply for a city permit later.

Credit for exposing the district's plan goes to a group calling itself Save Our Trees. The members are neighbors of Ingraham who hope to preserve the trees for their scenery and contribution to wildlife habitat.

The district's response has been less than genuine. Faced with vocal community opposition, the district withdrew its application for permits to build an addition to the school. It then contended it was free to cut down the trees because none of them constituted "exceptional trees," under Seattle's legal code. The overall strategy — breathtakingly sneaky — was to remove the trees and then reapply for master-use permits.

The School Board's murky role in all of this must be cleared up. They either failed to set the tone for sincere public engagement or they were ignored by the district's facilities staff. Neither bodes well for the board members who invoked leadership skills and an affinity for public process in their recent election campaigns.

The district plans to have the ruling dismissed on the grounds that school officials weren't properly notified of the hearing and that the issue is outside the court's jurisdiction.

More legal tactics would be a disappointing response. The district may see this as a skirmish over use of its land, but members of the public sees a battle against them, using their money, over an issue from which they were mostly excluded. That's insulting.

The next steps ought to be a review of the expansion plan with an eye toward saving some trees. Mayor Greg Nickels has already indicated this is the direction he favors. The outcome won't be amenable to everyone — some or none of the trees may remain — but everyone will have been heard.