Teacher pulls group together to stop Seattle school closures

Jesse Hagopian, a middle-school teacher and son of former Seattle School Board member Amy Hagopian, hopes to stop plans to close Seattle schools by creating one big anti-closure group.

He and some fellow teachers and parents have collected about 1,300 signatures on a petition urging the School Board to vote against closing a single school. The petition says the district instead should work to increase its revenue.

They're calling the new group ESP Vision — for "Educators, Students and Parents for a Better Vision of the Seattle Schools" — and plan to hold a noon rally and march on Jan. 25, starting at T.T. Minor Elementary.

Hagopian, a teacher at Madison Middle School, isn't the only critic of Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's recommendation to close five schools and move eight others. But he's likely done the most in urging parents from all the affected schools to quit fighting to save their individual schools and unite.

If efficiency was the district's main goal, he said, it might as well send all students to one huge school in Safeco Field, and broadcast lessons on the big screen."Our first and foremost goal shouldn't be efficiency but the education of our children," he said.

District leaders say they anticipate that expenses will exceed revenues by at least $24 million next year and closing schools is one of a number of difficult cuts they must make. They say they're trying to protect the classroom as much as possible, and would rather spend money on teachers and books than buildings.

But Hagopian points to an analysis done by Lowell parent Meg Diaz, who questions some of the district's numbers and estimates the proposed closures could cost — rather than save — money.

Diaz said it looks like the district "is aiming high at what its savings will be and downplaying the cost."

Hagopian also argues the district should do everything it can to attract more students to avoid closing schools.

"Let's fill the classrooms instead of having a shortsighted, panicked view," he said.

And he proposes that Goodloe-Johnson and the School Board descend on Olympia with 10,000 parents and teachers to demand that the state provide more money for public schools.

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