Committee revises closure list

Seattle's school-closure committee scrapped one of the most controversial aspects of its school-closure plan yesterday, sparing Thurgood Marshall from closing and Montlake Elementary and TOPS K-8 from moving.

The committee didn't recommend for closure any school not on its preliminary list, but the group did make other changes: Summit K-12 would stay open and the programs at the Wilson-Pacific building would remain; Fairmount Park and High Point elementary schools would merge at High Point and Pathfinder K-8 would move to the Boren building.

But Thurgood Marshall may face another hurdle: The committee believes another Central Area school should close and has asked district officials to determine which one. Thurgood Marshall, Bailey Gatzert and T.T. Minor are among the schools in the neighborhood.

The list was forwarded Tuesday to Superintendent Raj Manhas. Manhas will submit his version of the proposal to the Seattle School Board later this week. The board will vote at the end of July.

The district's 14-member Community Advisory Committee on School Facilities and Programs met in private throughout the weekend to finish its recommendations.

Over the past week, parents from many of the schools on the list showed up in droves at town-hall meetings designed to let the committee hear from the public. Some accused the committee of unfairly burdening poor and minority communities, because most of the affected schools have large populations of students of color and students on the free and reduced lunch program.

But some of the loudest protests came from Montlake and TOPS, academically successful schools just south of the ship canal. Parents at TOPS argued that their children shouldn't be displaced when their school didn't meet any of the reasons for school closure, which include poor academic progress and failing facilities. Montlake was wary of moving, but acknowledged that its tiny building is in bad shape.