Proposed school closures hurt poor, critics say

Many who testified Wednesday at a Seattle School Board meeting criticized the fact that four of the five schools on Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's school-closure recommendations have a high percentage of low-income students and students of color.

"The brunt of this budget shortfall is being placed on the backs of our most disadvantaged students," said Rachelle Brown, a parent at Meany Middle told board members at the first meeting since Goodloe-Johnson announced her final closure recommendations.

Brynnen Ford, a parent at T.T. Minor Elementary and former vice principal at Cooper Elementary, said the superintendent's recommendation "just screams institutional racism and classism ... and it's asking for a lawsuit."

She asked for more specifics about how the district will ensure that those students will not be hurt academically by the moves.

If the goal is to make sure those students receive a better education, "in what way specifically and how will you ensure this?"

Board members asked some questions, too, but most continued to seem committed to closing some schools.

The exception was Mary Bass, who suggested that the board put off any decisions about school closures until after members pass a new student-assignment plan.

In general, however, most of the board members praised Goodloe-Johnson for presenting them with a thorough plan that represented what one called the best work he'd seen from district staff.

Some board members said before the meeting that the superintendent's proposal is close to something they could support — and an improvement over preliminary recommendations announced in November.

"I think it's very close," said board member Harium Martin-Morris.

And some of the board members' questions now focus on how the plan is to be implemented, as opposed to what is in it.

Goodloe-Johnson announced her final recommendations Tuesday to close five schools and move eight to new sites.

The list was a little shorter than her initial proposal to shut the doors of seven schools and relocate nine.

The closures aren't spread equally across the city because some areas have greater excess space in their schools than others.

In the northeast part of the city, for example, Goodloe-Johnson is proposing closing Summit K-12, an alternative program that's using just part of its building, and opening a new traditional school at that site to help ease overcrowding in nearby elementary and middle schools.

If the School Board approves Goodloe-Johnson's recommendations, the district says it would end up cutting the number of excess classroom seats by 2,300. About 1,775 students would go to new schools.

The School Board still plans to look closely at closing a high school, too, but decided last month to postpone that discussion until this spring at the earliest.

Some concerns that remain center on the African American Academy and Summit K-12. Before the meeting, for example, Martin-Morris said he had concerns about closing those programs.

He doesn't want to see students who've succeeded at the academy forced back into schools that didn't work for them, and he isn't convinced there is enough room in North and Northeast Seattle for all the students at Summit K-12 if that school closes.

During the meeting, he also said he thought the African American Academy building is better used for a K-8 school than an elementary school as proposed.

Critics of Goodloe-Johnson's closure plan argue that the savings wouldn't be large enough to offset the disruption that closures would cause, or the loss of funds if too many students leave the district rather than move to another Seattle school.

While several outside audits support the argument that Seattle has more schools than it can justify for its 45,000 students, Goodloe-Johnson has emphasized that her recommendations are about more than just saving money.

She said she is also working to spread more high-quality programs into more neighborhoods, proposing, for example, that half of the district's Accelerated Progress Program move from Lowell Elementary to Thurgood Marshall in the south, so it will be closer to students who live there.

The district expects the closures and moves would save about $16.2 million over the next five years. And that doesn't count the dollars the district would not have to spend on overdue maintenance in the five closed buildings, many of which are in poor shape.

That said, closing schools alone won't close the gap between the district's rising expenses and its income.

Estimating it will have to cut about $25 million in expenses to balance its budget next year, the district also is looking at trimming central-office expenses by $4 million, reducing the amount of money it distributes to schools by $4 million, saving $2 million through a hiring freeze, and cutting $2 million in transportation expenses, among other cuts.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com