Alums, teachers say goodbye to Seattle's Summit K-12

There were hugs for old friends and teachers, but mostly a sense of loss.

Alumni and staff members who reunited Saturday to mourn the impending closure of Seattle's Summit K-12 alternative school said the same thing over and over: They are like a family.

Now that family is without a home.

"It's a profound loss. These are my babies," said Eleanor Weston, a Summit teacher from 1984 to 1995.

Weston is proof of the Summit's multigenerational ties. She taught English and French there, her sons went to school there, and now her granddaughter attends Summit, where students call teachers by first names and everyone who goes out for a sport gets to play.

"There's no reason to close something successful," Weston lamented.

But for budget reasons, the Seattle school district will disperse Summit's students to other schools next fall and convert the northeast Seattle schoolhouse into a neighborhood elementary/middle school.

Summit students, staff and alumni followed Saturday's reunion with a farewell talent show at the small school known for its focus on arts.

The last hurrah was held in the Cathy Smullyan Auditorium, named for a Summit teacher who died almost six years ago. The show was organized by Smullyan's daughter, Maya Smullyan-Jenkins, a professional tap dancer and teacher who attended Summit from kindergarten through high-school graduation.

Thanks to Summit's emphasis on encouraging creativity, Smullyan-Jenkins said, many of her classmates went into teaching. "Summit breeds teachers. I think it's because we grew up witnessing creative ways to educate ourselves."

Lexi Harris, a classmate and martial-arts instructor, said she also benefited from Summit's socio-economic diversity. "It was good for me as a white, middle-class girl from Wallingford to be around people of all different backgrounds." (Roughly half of Summit's student body is nonwhite, according to recent school-district statistics.)

Jody Granatir retired in 2007 after teaching math and history at Summit for almost 30 years. Granatir said Summit "was everything that school reformers want or have tried to implement: small, community-oriented, arts-focused, multicultural."

Summit was unique among Seattle's public schools in another respect. It was the only one that mixed pint-size kindergartners with strapping seniors. And it was the only school that had some students under the same roof for 13 years.

That continuity helped them forge lasting bonds and friendships, said former Summit principal Cathy Hayes.

"You couldn't be anonymous. Everybody knew you and you couldn't just fade away," Hayes said.

When asked what would be lost with Summit's closure, Hayes got teary-eyed.

"There's a hole in my heart because of what's been and what could be, because of all the kids who won't have a chance to go to Summit."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com