Seattle high-school mergers, closures put on hold

The latest from Seattle Public Schools' discussion of closing/relocating schools: The district will defer a decision about whether to close any of its large high schools or merge them with other schools.

That means that Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson is no longer considering merging Aki Kurose Middle School or the Center School, an alternative high school, with Rainier Beach High next fall.

She previously had indicated she would not recommend merging Rainier Beach with Cleveland High.

The school board Wednesday seemed to agree that waiting would be a good idea, given the planning and other issues involved, including student safety. The earliest that a large high school would be closed is now September 2010.

The district however is still considering closing Meany Middle School and moving Nova, a small alternative high school, and the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center into Meany's building.

Goodloe-Johnson continues to analyze how many schools to close, and which ones those should be. She's also looking at moving a number of schools into new buildings.

The main goal is to save money. The district expects it will need to cut at least $24 million in expenses to balance its budget for the 2009-10 school year, and perhaps as much as $37 million. But the superintendent also says she's trying to increase equity and access to special programs, too.

She's scheduled to make her final recommendation on Jan. 6, right after school opens again after the winter holidays.

The options have changed significantly since Goodloe-Johnson announced her preliminary recommendations a few weeks ago, with a number of schools — including Rainier Beach High School — moving on and off the list of options.

Some have criticized the fast-evolving list as evidence that the district is disorganized or bending to the will of one school community or another.

But Goodloe-Johnson's supporters say it's a sign that she's keeping the public in the loop.

"This is a transparent process," said Michael DeBell, recently elected School Board president. If the public would prefer the staff spend more time developing proposals without discussing them publicly, then "there would be less change," he said. "But I'm not sure that's a good thing."

Some critics also question whether the district should close schools at all, given district estimates it would save only about $3.6 million a year by doing so. But the district says the choice is closing buildings or laying off teachers, and they'd rather do the former.

"We have already looked at every part of the district budget," DeBell said. "All that's left is the instructional side.

"We feel that we do have to look at consolidating schools before we would make significant cuts in instruction."

The Seattle Education Association (SEA), the union that represents Seattle teachers, this week voted to maintain its resolution in support of closing schools as a way to best utilize limited resources.

One member brought a motion to rescind that position, but it received about 50 percent of the vote, less than the two-thirds required to pass, said SEA President Olga Addae.

In addition to closing schools, the district also is looking at trimming central-office expenses by $5 million, reducing the amount of money it distributes to schools by $4 million, saving $2 million through a hiring freeze, cutting $2 million in transportation expenses and more.

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