Foes plot to revisit first phase of Seattle school closures

Protesters say they will seize on the Seattle School District's vulnerability as it reels from the resignation of its superintendent and a recent turbulent School Board meeting.

Superintendent Raj Manhas said Wednesday night's meeting was a tipping point in the timing of his decision. At the end of the meeting, the board voted to kill Manhas' most recent proposal for a second round of school closures.

School-closure opponents say they will closely watch the board as it grapples with the fallout of that six-hour board meeting, which careened into bitter tirades, chanting, threats of civil disobedience and even racial remarks by one speaker.

On Tuesday, School Board President Brita Butler-Wall offered to give up her position as leader of the board over the way she handled the racial remarks, which were directed at board vice president Cheryl Chow and Manhas.

Butler-Wall did not chastise the speaker publicly, which she said she regrets. During a frank debriefing at district headquarters Tuesday morning, other members of the board declined Butler-Wall's offer to resign as president.

The board members said the first step in avoiding another meeting like last week's is to change the way they accept public testimony, and the board formed a committee Tuesday to begin work on that, hoping to defuse public frustration with more opportunities for the board to respond. The board tried such a format last year but quickly abandoned it.

A majority of the board, however, appears committed to its July vote to close seven schools.

"We are poised to close schools, and let's not forget that," said board member Irene Stewart, adding that the estimated $2.5 million in annual savings will help restore faith in the district.

The district has been looking at closing schools to save money because of falling enrollment.

The NAACP met Monday night to strategize how it will fight the first round of seven school closures. One school, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, already has closed; the other six are to close next fall.

"We definitely don't see Manhas resigning as our sign that we need to retreat in our efforts," said Sheley Secrest, president of the Seattle King County branch of the NAACP. "If talking gets us nowhere, we will proceed to take direct action — be it protests, marches, shutdowns. ... We're serious about educating our children."

The School Board's vote last week to kill the second round was a show of good faith, NAACP Education Chair Priest Amen said, but it didn't go far enough. Two board members — Mary Bass and Sally Soriano — are so opposed to the first phase of closures that they joined a lawsuit against the district that seeks to reverse them on the grounds that they unfairly affect students of color.

Protesters know they need only two more votes to undo the first round.

"Everybody feels like this is the right opportunity to bring up phase one and to fight for their schools — to get their schools back," said Sakara Remmu, spokeswoman for Stop Closures, a citizens group. "People's immediate thinking is, 'Well, they revoked phase two based on this criteria, so they've got to be thinking about phase one the same way, so how do we get our schools off the chopping block?' "

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com