Increased Enrollment Impact On Laurelhurst Elementary School With Proposed Boundary Changes, Give Input At Upcoming Meetings

A concerned Laurelhurst Elementary School parent and PTA Board Member, Elizabeth, would like to share with the neighborhood about the upcoming meeting on next year's SPS boundary changes for elementary and middle schools. 

The meeting is happening on Thursday from 6:30-7:30pm at John Stanford Center Auditorium (2445 3rd Avenue South). 

Another meeting will be held April 26, 2016, 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Roosevelt High School.

To offer comments on the proposed changes send email to growthboundaries@seattleschools.org 

The boundaries for Laurelhurst Elementary School would increase with the addition of two new attendance areas - Northwest of Sand point Way and South of NE 50th Street.

"This could place increasing demands on our already overcrowded school," Elizabeth told the Blog Staff.

The meetings provide an opportunity for the District to share information with the community on the upcoming changes, and for the community to provide feedback on any changes that could affect the boundaries that were approved in 2013.

Elizabeth is heading up a committee that is working to eliminate the proposed boundary changes for Laurelhurst Elementary School due to unequal distribution of students in the NE. Currently the more northern part of that area attends Sand Point Elementary and the southern part attends Bryant

Elizabeth told the Blog Staff:

Boundary changes are set to be implemented for all of the elementary schools in the NE region, including Laurelhurst beginning in the 2017-18 school year. 

Unlike the last round of elementary boundary changes, SPS is considering a method known as a geo-split for the 2017-2018 changes.  With a geo-split if your home address is drawn into the boundary of a new school, then your child will be removed from their current school and enrolled in their new attendance area school.   

This means kids that are currently in those areas will not be grandfathered into the school they are currently attending. The geo-split method will assign them to their new attendance area school, regardless of how long they have been attending their current school. (This will not apply to students attending Option Schools).  

An example of the geo-split method is if you currently reside within the Bryant Elementary boundary south of NE 55th St. a proposed change is to map the area south of NE 50th St. to Laurelhurst Elementary.  If your child currently attends Bryant they would be assigned to attend Laurelhurst starting in the 2017-2018 school year. 

As a bit of history, when SPS enacted the New Student Assignment Plan (NSAP) about seven years ago, students were grandfathered at their current elementary school, and Sand Point Elementary was started as a roll-up.  The first year of SPE was just K, as well as students new to the district. 

Also take note of how boundary changes could impact your middle school assignment.  As an example, you live within the current boundary of View Ridge, that will become a part of John Rogers in 2017-2018.  View Ridge is a feeder elementary to Eckstein and John Rogers is a feeder school to Jane Addams Middle School. 

Laurelhurst is currently 36% over capacity, while neighboring schools, Sand Point and Bryant are 10% and 5% over, respectively. Wedgwood is 1% over. View Ridge is almost as overcrowded at 24%, but they are not proposed to gain any additional attendance areas in 2017.  

Here is the proposed map of the changes.

 

Go here for more information and here to learn more about the proposed changes, as well as view the proposed new boundaries at the SPS Growth Boundaries page.