Seattle Public Schools will be renovating Lincoln High School and it will re-open as a permanent high school in September of 2019.
Join Director Burke and SPS staff this Thursday, Oct 27 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM for a community listening meeting about the reopening. They will share plans have for the site renovation and restoration, while academic programming and student assignment plans are still developing. Come and share your concerns and ideas to help make Lincoln’s opening a successful start for a vibrant school. Representatives from Teaching and learning, International Education, Enrollment, Capital Projects, Bassetti Architects, and the School Design Advisory Team (SDAT) are expected to be present.
Oct 27 2016 6:30 PM — 8:30 PM
Lincoln High School Library, 4400 Interlake Ave. N.
This is the first time SPS will have officials from teaching and learning and student assignment publicly talking about Lincoln. Most of the public discussion to date has focused on the building and facilities issues, not what the school offerings will be, who will lead the school, what the concrete timeline is for hiring and program placement decisions (e.g. will this be an HCC site? an international school? an IB school?) and what students will be pulled in to populate this school. Many important questions remain to be answered. Please come with your questions.
And for those who can’t make the 10/27 meeting–or for those wanting some follow-up–School Board Director Rick Burke, who helped organize the 10/27 meeting and who represents the district including Lincoln High School, is having a community meeting at the Fremont Library from 11am – 1 pm on this Saturday, Oct. 29th.
There are also a fair number of SEPA comments that the District needs to address, which their checklist identified as “no significant impact”, but will be.
It would also be good to hear how the District intends to accommodate elementary and middle school students that will result from the City upzone plans for Wallingford. Some blocks are going from SF zone to LR2 with MHA bonuses that can create new buildings in the SF zone that are up to 55 ft tall. So much for what we were told that any proposed upzones would all match the bulk, height, and setbacks of the adjacent former SF property!
Of course, none of the Council, or the Mayor, live in an Urban Village, so they are happy to propose higher density and huge buildings in someone else’s neighborhood. Yes, In Your Backyard!
Have you seen data that predicts student growth due to Wallingford upzoning? If so, can you please share in time for tomorrow’s meeting?
Last night’s meeting made it crystal clear that SPS and the school board MUST determine boundaries for Lincoln High School ASAP and NOT wait until 2018 or 2019 to do so. Lincoln decisions will affect THOUSANDS of families. All other decisions cascade from those boundaries. The district and board need to hire a rock-star principal who can draw top-notch staff, regardless of what flavor program they decide to offer there (international, STEM, STEAM etc.) They need to offer comprehensive, rigorous academics.
It’s disingenuous and a recipe for backlash when a community meeting asks the community for ideas and input around programs and then at the end the community is told: “Well, SPS can’t afford anything anyway.” Present concrete options to the community that SPS CAN afford. Present real, reliable data that justifies and explains the decisions SPS and the board are making. Transparency, transparency, transparency.
I think the meeting was very productive. I definitely agree with you that boundaries are the most important issue for parents right now. People I know in Laurelhurst consider it a done deal that their kids will go to Lincoln. Boundaries are critical. It will remove a lot of anxiety, justly felt, by parents about their kids.
The opposite of having them occur and, asking our opinions, is NOT having any community meetings. In my opinion, a backlash would be more likely o occur if all this planning was withheld. What the SPS can afford, is dependent on bond issues an levies. I think the funding is “there,” whatever that means. Hamilton upgrading was $$$way over budget, as was the rehab of Lincoln to the extent that it could be inhabited. Teacher salaries are dependent on levies in this backward state that does not have a state income tax, so the SPS can have a chance at predicting future earnings. The other funding source is property taxes, which is very redundant and unfair to everyone but wealthy and financially comfortable folks. We are one of either seven or eight states that do not have a state income tax. It may sound like I am all about SPS, but I am simply stating my own experience with never ending meetings with the SPS re Lincoln and Hamilton. The architect is great, and a rock star, and I hope he has the stamina to stay in SSD for a while. He is more realistic and candid that any SPS employee I have ever met or heard. And he has a lot of people to deal with.