New list of schools on Seattle closure list

The proposals about how many — and which — schools to close in Seattle continues to evolve, with new options unveiled today that would alter the lineup of schools that might move or close.

Perhaps most surprising, Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson is no longer looking at merging Rainier Beach and Cleveland high schools just a week after raising that possibility. Now, the district is looking at perhaps moving Aki Kurose Middle into Rainier Beach High to create a joint middle-high school, or closing the Center School, which rents space at Seattle Center, and moving its students to Rainier Beach.

The district still appears to be looking at closing seven or eight buildings, one of which might reopen within a few years, and relocating 10 or 11 schools, up from nine in the initial analysis.

But a number of the names have changed.

Arbor Heights Elementary, for example, no longer appears to be under consideration for closure, at least by district staff.

Hawthorne Elementary may close. Up until today, staff recommended that half the students in the Accelerated Progress Program at Lowell be moved to Hawthorne.

The district now is listing "potential final recommendations" and "other options" because the moves are an increasingly complex puzzle, in which one change can affect others.

Goodloe-Johnson told board members today that closures are necessary to avoid devastating cuts.

"If we don't close facilities, we cut people and we cut programs to the point where we really won't have quality," she said.

Operating more schools than the district needs, she said, "means we're not efficient. It means we're spending more money than we need to serve the students that we have."

The new options, she said, were developed in response to questions and concerns raised by board members as well as parents, teachers and others.

Seattle Public Schools decided last month to consider closing schools as early as September 2009. Goodloe-Johnson's initial proposal called for closing seven school buildings (one perhaps temporarily) and moving nine schools from one building to another.

The district wants to close schools to save money, but it also intends to use the opportunity to improve access to special programs in some neighborhoods.

Public meetings about the closures started last week. The superintendent will make her final recommendation to the school board Jan. 6. The board will vote on those recommendations Jan. 29.

The meeting today made it clear that discussions will continue, as board members continued to ask questions about many of the recommended alternatives.

The district expects its costs to exceed its revenues by $24 million to $37 million in the 2009-10 school year, depending on how much money public schools would get in the state budget. One problem is that rising costs are out of the district's control, but Seattle's expenses also have gone up because it decided five years ago to boost teacher salaries enough to make Seattle one of the five highest-paying districts in the Greater Seattle area.

In its 2008-09 budget, the district also added about 100 jobs. Some of those jobs also were required under its contract with teachers and other school employees, but some were not.

The district closed seven school buildings in 2006, but that didn't eliminate all of the district's excess capacity. It's unclear how far the district will go this time. Staff members recently walked through all schools to fine-tune previous estimates that Seattle has an excess of roughly 9,000 seats.

District staff estimate the superintendent's initial closure proposal would save roughly $3.6 million a year.

The district has estimated it is saving $2 million a year from the schools it closed in 2006, counting day-to-day costs such as utilities, maintenance, and salaries.