Southeast Seattle schools try to lure neighborhood's kids

Seattle Public Schools had planned to reintroduce Southeast Seattle families to their public schools Saturday at an enrollment fair in their neighborhood.

All the top district leaders were there, along with principals and teachers standing expectantly next to elaborate displays about their schools. The district bused in a Rainier Beach High School band and vocalists to perform in the entryway of Asa Mercer Middle School.

But the performance echoed off the walls of the nearly empty entry.

And while some families showed up to ask questions about the nearly 20 schools at the fair, turnout was small.

The district's struggle to attract neighborhood families to its South End event mirrors years of difficulty attracting neighborhood families to South End schools. More than anywhere else in Seattle, students leave Southeast Seattle for school, especially secondary school.

Of 1,645 Seattle Public Schools students for whom Rainier Beach was the closest high school in 2006, only 247 attended the school. Of 1,018 kids who lived closest to Cleveland, only 136 attended there.

The falling enrollment has taken a toll on many of the schools, which already teach some of the poorest kids in the city. As the schools' enrollment has dropped, so has funding. In the past few years, the schools have pieced together programs with fewer electives and fewer rigorous courses than schools have in other parts of town.

Saturday's enrollment fair was part of a renewed focus on Southeast Seattle's schools. The district's Southeast Initiative began this school year with $250,000 in extra funding for Aki Kurose Middle School and Cleveland and Rainier Beach high schools.

Plans for next year are much more ambitious: a $1 million proposal at Aki Kurose to add extra class periods and more music and art; more advanced college-prep courses at the high schools; a performing-arts focus at Rainier Beach; and a curriculum focused on math, science and technology at Cleveland.

"Flight" out of the South End has always been tough on Aki Kurose, said Don MacInnes, a special-education teacher at the school for a decade. "People fly to the North End, where the perception is, and the reality is, that there's more arts programs, there's more music programs, there's more support for higher-performing kids."

MacInnes said his school's plan — offering performing arts as "glitter" to draw back families, and backing that up with academic improvements — will work only if the district funds it. The school wants to change its schedule to offer more electives and more time for teachers to work together. It's an expensive plan that could require buy-in from the teachers union.

The district is advertising several programs that officials haven't figured out how to pay for. The district's enrollment guide says some schools plan to adopt a college-prep curriculum called "Springboard Schools," for example. The district plans to spend more than $100,000 to offer bus transportation for kids who live more than a mile from the three schools. Currently, students must live at least two miles away to catch a bus to school.

Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno said private donors such as the Alliance for Education will likely pick up some of the tab for the first three to five years.

"We're confident that we'll get them funded," she said. "People see it as a fresh new look. I think it's exciting, and Dr. [Maria] Goodloe-Johnson's going to ask for a serious commitment from funders." Goodloe-Johnson is district superintendent.

At Saturday's enrollment fair, Rori Campbell and his wife were looking at kindergartens near their home in Rainier Beach. Besides Maple Elementary and The New School, they are considering two private schools. But leaving the neighborhood for school isn't an option, Campbell said.

"That doesn't help my community," he said.

As Julia Hibarger circled the fair, she found herself cornered by teachers and administrators eager to tell her the benefits of their schools. Her son, Dexter, starts kindergarten next year. She took their zeal with a grain of salt, she said. Some of their efforts were so desperate she found them a little sad.

"What you really have to do is talk to other parents, and then you have to go in and do the vibe check," she said.

That's something that's hard to detect at an enrollment fair, no matter how well-attended.

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