School attendance area boundary maps released

Geeky Swedes Ballard

The Seattle Public Schools has just released the proposed attendance area boundary maps. Here’s a link to find all the attendance areas by school. Here is a link to Ballard High School’s attendance area. You can also click on the yellow badge on right of this page to lookup your schools by address.

Parents raised concerns that Ballard students would be bussed to Ingraham High School while Queen Anne and Magnolia students went to Ballard High School. According to the map, the cutoff is NW 85th St. Any high school student north of there will go to Ingraham, south of there will go to Ballard.

As part of the Student Assignment Plan (.pdf) which was approved in June, the district was given the green light to draw boundaries around each school so students will know where he or she will go to elementary, middle and high school based on their address. There will be no more district-wide open enrollment to apply for schools.

The district also announced that it plans to reopen Viewlands Elementary School at 10525 3rd Ave. NW.

The district will hold informational meetings throughout the city to hear feedback on the attendance areas. “I urge families to review the boundary maps and to give us their feedback,” said superintendent Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. “We will be listening, and we will review comments as we evaluate any needed adjustments in the boundaries. An extensive schedule of community meetings; an on-line survey; brochures and comments cards are just some of the ways we are reaching out to as many families as possible.” The meeting for our area will be held at Ballard High School from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on October 14th. The School Board will vote on the map on November 18th. The entire plan will be implemented in phases starting in the 2010-2011 school year for students at entry-grade levels—usually kindergarten, 6th, and 9th grades.

Geeky Swedes

The founders of My Ballard

85 thoughts to “School attendance area boundary maps released”

  4. THIS MAP IS A LIE.

    At the meeting today, the board said they were going to revise the nothern highschool boundary (meaning bring the boundary from 85th to somewhere south of that) because some new “last minute” data has come in (how stupid do they think we are?)

    They are trying to distract you and get you to forget about this issue.

    DO NOT LET IT WORK.

  5. This makes no sense. We live West of 28th & just north of 85th. So for K-8 they will go to Loyal Heights, and then for High School it's a whole different cut off /border & they'll have to move on to their High School years with a whole set of kids they don't know (that they didn't go to K-8/Elem with)?

    Ballard High is 5 minutes from our home. How on earth did they come up with this northern border? So we'll have to haul them up to Ingraham instead of just down the street?

  6. “At least the buried busing”. Yippee. Another failed social experiment. Yet basically the same morons are STILL running the show. Can all the people be pleased “all the time”? Does everybody reading this shop only at any grocery store? Got competition? Meanwhile they lower the grade point to graduate or play sports. DOH.

  7. To confused – Most kids in our end of town will go to Whitman (pretty much all of the northwest schools). Then those Whitman kids will either go to Ballard High or Ingraham. So, your child will know kids at Ingraham, because a lot of those kids will be kids that went to Whitman. We can't all keep living in our little circles. I think it's probably good for kids to branch out and have to meet new people!

    Let's all get over ourselves. Roll with the punches. Have a positive attitude. Life is not perfect, but let's make the best of it!

  9. Can anyone verify the Ballard_Curmudgeon claim that at the meeting today the board discussed a revised northern boundary for Ballard High based on new data?

  10. Oh man, that is a major bummer. Ingraham is literally one of the grossest places on earth, I would have s*** my pants in public on a daily basis before I would have attended that school. Sweet jesus, I bet a lot of kids would rather go to Blanchett.

    Why don't they re-open AAA in Magnolia.

  11. This high school boundary thing is really ridiculous, I agree. But hey – at least they're not sending any of our kids to Highline High School. That's where I went and it was awful then and much worse now. But you know, I survived. And I know some people who did really well in life despite going there. I'm sure Ingraham has it's good points. And for those of us with gradeschool kids, Ingraham could be a whole different school by the time our kids are in high school.

  12. These borders make sense to me. I am sure people in Olympic Manner, North Beach, Crown Hill and Blue Ridge feel more part of Ballard then Aurora North neighborhood but we can't all go to Ballard.

    The bigger question is, why is one school perceived that much better (Ballard) that the other (Ingram). The school district should do a better job bringing the schools on the same par.

    Also, I hope the school district will work out a plan with Metro to provide kids from Olympic Manner, North Beach, Crown Hill and Blue Ridge a direct bus connection to Ingram.

  13. I want to know where the District is getting the money to re-open Viewlands and Rainier View… and WHY they are opening Rainier View. There are a ton of half-empty elementary schools in the SE! The ONLY reason they closed Viewlands was because of political pressure to close a North End school in the face of closing so many Central and South End schools. There wasn't a data-driven reason, make no mistake. (Anyone in Ballard who has kids in elementary school can tell you that there are more local kids in the NW area than there are seats… which is why Loyal Heights has a second grade class in a portable this year…)

    Regardless of why Viewlands was closed, it's gonna be dang expensive to reopen because it's been empty for over two years. When bldgs are empty for more than two years, they have to re-apply for an occupancy permit and when you re-apply for an occupancy permit, the City will require all kinds of upgrades and renovations to the building. AND when the City requires upgrades, it opens a Pandora's box and suddenly it will cost $10m to reopen Viewlands. Where are these funds coming from? I guess the next levy…? All because the District had to bow to political pressure.

  14. I'm with Jeff. Can anyone confirm what Ballard_Curmudgeon said about the currently published map being wrong (or a lie)? I heard a similar rumor through the grapevine but haven't been able to find any official corroboration yet.

  15. Doesn't Ingraham have the International Baccaluarate (I can't spell it so I wouldn't have gotten into it) Program? I thought that was supposed to be a big draw for kids.

  19. just curious? do you have children that this will effect? answer that and then try and have a positive attitude depending on location. i have to admit, you get an a for optimism.

  21. Can anyone tell what street the boundary is between Loyal Heights and Adams? It's not marked so I'm not sure if it's 67th or 70th? Or am I just blind?

  22. We're in the same boat. It's absolutely insane to force our kids to travel nearly 4 miles to school when another school is within walking distance! Needless to say it's private school for us. Just as well since even Ballard High is a pretty mediocre school.

  23. well aside from a few folks that live “a block away” from school X, it sounds more like folks in N Ballard are horrified to be lumped in towards aurora….

  24. Knowing these idiots they'll move the boundary to 67th! If anything they need to move the boundary north. Makes no sense for people in Oly Manor to ship their kids 4 miles away to Ingraham when Ballard is 1.5 miles.

  25. “The school district should do a better job bringing the schools on the same par.”

    What you're proposing is equality – a fundamentally un-American concept! Keep in mind “Liberty, equality, fraternity” is the motto of France, not US. In America it's “Screw you, I got mine” ;)

  26. B_C is right that this is not the final decision, but there is no information saying that they have last minute plans to move the high school boundary south. Here is the information we were given:

    Assignment maps go live 4:00 p.m. on Oct. 6 go to http://www.seattleschools.org/area/newassign/ma…

    School board work session, 4-6 p.m.

    John Stanford Center Auditorium, 2445 Third Ave. S

    Feedback needs to be quick. Here's the process:

    – Map 1 Oct. 6. Feedback. Revisions

    – Map 2 Nov. 3. Feedback. Revisions

    – Boundary map introduced to board Nov. 4

    – School Board vote Nov. 18

    New attendance lines are being drawn; the first (10/6) map will not be the final one; and folks should check the second map (11/2), too. SPS will be looking for data-driven reasons to make adjustments and will be seeking input. Parents should send comments to both the district and the school board.

    IMPORTANT: Community meetings to share info, solicit feedback:

    http://www.seattleschools.org/area/newassign/co…

  27. I have children at both Loyal Heights and Whitman who will now attend Ingraham and I am not panicking. Ingraham has one of the best IB programs in the country that will gaurantee a spot at most colleges. My children have lots of friends at school and from other places in thier lives. They play on soccer teams with kids from all over the city, they do scouting with even more, and attend other activities with children who will go to all different high schools! I hope I have raised them to not make all their decisions about life on who they will talk to in the hallwasy in high school!

  28. See my above response to Jeff for the information we received. I think B_C's claim that it is a LIE is a bit extreme. It sounds like they made it clear this is their first proposal and they are taking feedback and continuing to research data to either support or revise this initial proposal. Anyway, this is not the final decision but the first step. So, the good news is, if folks aren't happy about the boundaries – they aren't set in stone and there is still time to make your case to the school board. There is NO information saying they are moving any boundaries south.

  29. SeaSpider – you're absolutely right! They should move the line north and include Oly M. Most the kids in Magnolia will go private anyway…

  30. Look again at the map. A large number of Ballard kids will go to Hamilton for middle school, not Whitman, then Ballard for H.S. The current map does not align with the actual neighborhoods.

  31. I don't think it's that cut and dry. There are significant transportation and community impacts not being addressed in the us vs. them argument.

    We live on 83rd and 15th, about 1 mile from Ballard, which is a 3min bus ride or 15min walk. If the border is 80th or south, our kids will be assigned to Ingraham which is 4 miles away, a distance that is not walkable and requires 2 buses and ~45mins. Kids from Magnolia and Queen Anne are not going to walk to Ballard, so for every kid south of the Ship Canal that gets into Ballard in exchange for a kid north of the border, you've doubled the number of cars/demand for seats on buses.

    From a Ballard community standpoint, I have never heard of N Ballard or S Ballard before, but you have birthed a very interesting distinction that will become part of the local lexicon if the boundary line is south of 85th. This arbitrary line will cut the community in half, and that will impact the face of Ballard on both sides. (Will S Ballard become “Condoville” and N Ballard will become “West Aurora”?)

    Ingraham has its strengths, like Ballard has its weaknesses. But it's not about choosing any specific school. It's about continuing to be a part of a community that has been shaped by our involvement in the schools, getting to know other families and working together in improving the community. Having that uprooted due to a boundary schema that hasn't been explained thoroughly as to the why, that's frustrating when it doesn't make sense.

    So if you want to engage in the “fear of aurora” argument, enjoy, but that's missing the point.

  32. Well said Northballardite! I couldn't agree more – it's about being part of our community, one of the primary reasons we moved to Ballard. I'm so disappointed.

  33. curmudgeon is right. There are “last minute data” to the north boundaries that should be out this week – Loyal Heights had a strong contingent attending the meeting last night.

    Please set aside negativity and fear and GET INVOLVED! Splutter (Aggie) will do no one any good. Educate yourself on the plan at SPS website or get a hard copy from any library/community center, attend one of the feedback meetings, email school board reps and district plan people if you have VALID concerns. If parents put as much time in at their local public school as they are required to at private, there wouldn't be any “bad schools”. There is only bad involvement!

    The predictable school model means kids will go to school with most of the same friends throughout his/her education.

    I do have 2 children in public schools and live very close to the proposed north boundary for those of you who may cast aspersions:-)

  34. so Ballard H.S. is mediocre, huh?

    why do you even care then? have fun DRIVING your kids to private schools, many of which are also mediocre.

  37. Yes, Ballard High is mediocre. Actually I'm being polite. In reality it's terrible. That's not my opinion – that's a fact. Let's not forget that back in April the school received an award because their WASL math scores rose to a 65% passing rate and science scores rose to a 53% passing rate. In most places 65% earns you a D grade and 53% means you failed. You consider that to be a good school??? I guess you must live by the motto “It's lonely in the middle”!

  38. Great attitude NotworriedMom. The lines have to be drawn somewhere and people are not going to be happy however you slice it. 85th seems like a decent choice. Now if it would have been anywhere south of that, I would probably agree. They have to fill the High Schools we have. And, I agree that all schools need to be brought up to the same standards. It's not good that some schools are considered the “good” schools and some the “bad” schools. Let's work on bringing them all up to par and stop bickering about lines.

    I have kids at a Ballard school who will move onto Whitman and then Ingraham. We'll deal. They'll have friends.

  39. Is is possible these test scores are an indication of the range of intellectual ability at the school? Frankly, I wouldn't want to go to a school where everyone gets an 'A'.

    A 65% passing rate sounds just about right in fact. It would be generous to say 35% of the general public is too lazy to achieve satisfactory results in academics. This sounds like a realistic 'slice of life' to me.

    The point is, it's quite possibly your child could excel in such a program. There's a good reason lots of parents try to get their kid into Ballard H.S. Beavers go on to pretty decent colleges from what I understand. I hardly think a private school will get you out of the 'middle' (where it's not lonely at all. In fact, you are also there with me:)

  41. Thank you Northballardite. That is all I was trying to say.

    We live in Ballard (be it North Ballard or whatever) because we love this community. It isn't about Ballard HS being a better school – to be honest my kids are young enough that I haven't yet checked into the high schools in any depth so it isn't a matter of which school is “better”.

    It's a distance & community issue for us. My children have friends from all over Seattle – they will continue to do so, but I do like them to have a sense of belonging to their immediate community.

  42. “A 65% passing rate sounds just about right in fact. It would be generous to say 35% of the general public is too lazy to achieve satisfactory results in academics. This sounds like a realistic 'slice of life' to me.”

    Perhaps but should that be acceptable? I do enough hiring to know that the competition for the good jobs is more and more from students raised overseas. It's not enough that my daughter be able to compete academically with kids from Ingraham or Roosevelt. She needs to compete with kids from Mumbai, Osaka, and Busan. Doesn't matter whether you're talking about doctors, software engineers or graphic designers. I'd like my child to aspire to something a little higher than working in a call center or on an assembly line though the way our education system is these days that's about all most students will be capable of. Math and science education are especially bad in this country even though that's where most of the good paying jobs are at.

    I want a middle school that has a solid math and science program. I also want a school that requires students to learn a foreign language. Not because of any shiny, happy global village crap but simply because it's been well established that students who have the discipline to learn a foreign language tend to do much better in all other subjects. Of course in this country many high school students can't even master English (and I've interviewed LOTS of HS grads – including honor students – to know this first hand!)

    As for being in the middle, I think not. In terms of education, income/donations, physical fitness, and veteran status I'm definitely not in the middle by any measurable statistic. I've worked very hard to get where I'm at, thank you very much.

  43. It looks to me like it's 73rd. Check out the little “jog” that the line takes around 28th. Bummer for me as my kids currently go to LH and I'm around 70th.

  44. No, but it certainly is an indicator. I hire people for a living and have seen first-hand the “quality” of graduates from Seattle public schools.

  45. So how does it work if your kid is currently NOT enrolled in their “nieghborhood” school and you want them to be? Do they get dibs on transfering next year? Anyone know the skinny on that?

  47. The boundary is most likely going to move south if they keep the Queen Anne and Magnolia assignments in. There is simply no way all those kids can fit. I think the district would do much better to put a new high school in the Lincoln building to accommodate the Queen Anne and Magnolia students (or, even better, I think some Seattle billionaire ought to just bankroll a building in Queen Anne where it belongs — that would do more for education in Seattle than any number of Gates grants, but it would look so much like a sop for rich kids that no one dares do it).

    We looked pretty seriously at Ingraham when my daughters were picking high schools. They liked it better than Ballard, not as much as Garfield (one of them has since switched to Nova). The tour at Ingraham was certainly better done (I think at Ballard they didn't put much effort into the tours as they knew they'd have a waitlist regardless — though the same is true of Garfield and their tours were very well run, so who knows). I was happy that Ingraham taught from a much better math series than most of the schools (the principal said flat out that they “don't do fuzzy math”), but they may have been pressured into changing their materials by now, don't know.

    Currently the ESL program draws quite a few kids from south Seattle (and of course from the north as well — the far north end of Seattle is full of immigrant families). I don't know if the busing from the south end is slated to change.

  48. So we live three short blocks from West Woodland- we have been voting there for years. However our new assignment address is now BF.Day, which is 1.7 miles away ( up and down Phinney Ridge- we live in the semi industrial zone of East Ballard)
    Middle school would be Hamilton and high school Ballard.
    weird.

  49. The people in Queen Anne and Magnolia could say the same thing about Ballard being their most logical choice. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that everyone can go to their closest schools in every single case. Not mathematically possible.

  50. True but it seems a bit lopsided that the southern boundary for Ballard is over 4 miles from the school while the northern boundary is only 1.5 miles from the school. I know part of this is due to the lack of a nearby school for people in Queen Anne.

    Given how many families live in Magnolia/Queen Anne, the increase in people living in South Lake Union and the projected growth of the city you'd think they'd be building a school somewhere in lower Queen Anne. Of course that would require planning and this is Seattle…;)

  51. Did you go to a (Seattle) Public School by any chance? Were you one of the 'over-achievers' then who struggled against all odds to create a decent life for yourself, despite being deprived a proper education?

    If you hire people for a living, they must not be very good jobs if you're actually considering their high school record. I mean, do people actually put that on their resume or something?

    And what does veteran status have to do with 'being in the middle'? If you're talking about 'measurable statistics', you might be better off living on the East Coast. Nobody cares here how much you make or how far you can run.

  52. I went to West Woodland, Hamilton and then Ballard.
    I lived walking distance to West Woodland but then choose to go to Hamilton because even at that young age I felt WW was full of snobs. Hamilton was the BEST choice I've EVER made (school wise). I never got picked on (no one did! Hell the fat kids seemed to be the coolest kids around), the teachers were a super fun group, yes the school was OLD, but it sure did have a lot of character! Middle school was best school times I had. My BF went to Whitman and got picked on SO badly by many kids that hes now racist. We both went to Ballard and while the school was nice, don't let that fool you! I remember the walk though and they showed all this cool science equipment but when school started they were all used as cupboards. The teachers were scared of the librarian so we never really used the library, and many of the teachers were tenure and really shouldn't have been teachers (LA class where we never read a book, but we watched Finding Forester about 4 times!). I understand the whole 1 mile vs 4 mile thing, but what if it came down to you being able to send you child there, but the school was WAY to overcrowded and therefor your child gets a bad education. I guess all I'm trying to say is don't judge a school by the way it looks, just because its new and pretty, don't mean its a A+ school or vice-versa.

  54. Fortunately, I did not go to a Seattle school.

    “If you hire people for a living, they must not be very good jobs if you're actually considering their high school record. I mean, do people actually put that on their resume or something?”

    The positions I refer to are internships aimed at giving students an opportunity to try out a field before committing to it at the university level. We've also tried to hire various office assistant/admin roles which pay a pretty decent amount for an entry level job. There's no need for someone to have a university degree for that sort of work even though many companies seem to insist on it for some reason. Also I don't look at their academic record – try reading my post before putting words in my mouth. I do look at the resume and when the resume is an incoherent mess it doesn't reflect well on the quality of their high school education. You'd also be surprised how many university graduates with solid work experience still list what high school they graduated from on their resume or what their GPA was at the university level. I have no idea why. For that matter, I don't even care what university they went to or even if they graduated. For most jobs that pay $50k+ all that really matters is your recent work experience.

    “And what does veteran status have to do with 'being in the middle'?”

    Simple: most people are not veterans. Those of us who are therefore are not in the middle. What part of that do you find so hard to understand?

  56. I wouldn't say a large number. Mainly those kids that go to West Woodland. Otherwise, most other Ballard kids will go to Whitman. Those original West Woodland kids will be split for high school though. Some going to Ballard and some going to Roosevelt. I don't think it's possible to slice up the city so that every single kid will go straight through kindergarten to 12th grade with all the kids they started Kindgerarten with. And, what's so horrible about that! Change can be good!

  58. I went to Seattle Public Schools for K-12 and I can honestly say that I got out of my education what I put into it.

    At Whitman, we memorized the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in middle English and I studied French.

    At Ingraham, I learned to write grants for our musical theatre program and finished my college language requirements by the end of my sophomore year via the UW extension program.

    Private schools seem to enforce the idea that other people will show you what to do, instead of teaching you to grasp knowledge for yourself like public schools do.

    Because of your private school experience, however, it sounds like you're sneering at public school education. But, you're right. Private schools do have a place–some children need to be pushed to learn by others instead of doing it themselves.

  60. You could not have expressed my views better! People think we are afraid to leave Ballard. (eric's comment, as well as others).

    Nonsense! We want to engage in our community, support children being able to bike and walk to their own school, find local after school jobs, and for schools to continue to have good relationships with local businesses – supported by their local families.

    It's not Us and Them. It's a community we have been building for years with our kids and it may be given away, while we're sent away. Ballard High may not be the best school, but it is where my elementary school kids had their spring concert every year, where they have enjoyed camps and sporting events, where they took swimming lessons as toddlers. This is their 'hood and they should be proud of it, support it, and be allowed access to it.

  61. “Private schools seem to enforce the idea that other people will show you what to do, instead of teaching you to grasp knowledge for yourself like public schools do. “

    I suppose you also think the best way to teach them to swim is to toss them in the pool and hope they figure it out before they drown? That's pretty much what you're suggesting. The appeal of a private school for me is that teachers actually get to spend more time teaching and less time dealing with discipline issues. Also parents tend to be much more involved when they're having to pay to send their kids to school. Sorry but you're going to have a hard time convincing me that Ingraham is as good as the Bush School.

    Also I never went to a private school – you mistakenly made that assumption. I was public school the whole way through and yes, I also learned to memorize Chaucer (who didn't???)

  63. Well it is a fact that almost half the kids can't pass a very basic science test and more than a third can't pass a very basic math test. Keep in mind we're talking about the WASL which isn't exactly the SAT or GMAT. How is that not terrible? Again, I'm confused by the rush to defend mediocrity.

  64. That doesn't answer my question. My kid currently does NOT go to our neighborhood school (according to the new plan.) We want him to. We got edged out by siblings or something, and now he goes to a school further away, and not with his neighborhood friends. But based on this new plan, he should be allowed to transfer to our neighborhood school, right?

    Don't worry, I'm not relying on the blogosphere for real answers, I have calls in to some peeps.

  65. I'm not defending mediocrity, just saying that when you start stating opinions as fact you're going to rub people the wrong way and lose credibility in your arguments.

  66. are you still allowed to be on waiting list for neighborhood school?
    Is he in kindergarten?
    It isn't a matter of the new plan, but class capacity. If you are enrolled in one school, you basically stay there. Openings sometimes occur after the end of the semester – most parents are hesitant to move children year – it takes some doing to transfer, but it can be done

  67. Well said, northballardite. I admit I do have a fear of Aurora. Not in the way eric seems to be implying, but we live near 83rd & 8th, and to get to Ingraham would require not only two busses and almost an hour, it would also require waiting for 20 minutes at 85th & Aurora at 7:15 in the morning, a time when I have personally seen prostitutes still 'working' along there. Also, for several months it will still be dark then. So yeah, I'm afraid.

  68. Private schools are a great place for children with behavior problems that need extra attention. They are also a great place for children who cant function in a typical school environment. One where kids act like kids. Private schools are better for kids whose parents dont want to put any effort into their childs learning. If you take an interest in your children, support them and encourage them, they will succeed in any learning environment.

    i did not realize teasing was the cause of racism….

  72. If childhood is a time when kids prepare to be grown ups, I think it makes a lot of sense to completely traumatize your children. Gets 'em ready for the real world.
    George Carlin

  73. Comparing the numbers between Ballard HS and Ingraham HS seems to be a no-brainer in favor of Ballard. Better test scores, better graduation rates, and a TON more AP classes (only 7 at Ingraham?!?). Although, I'm not familiar with the International Baccalaureate program — is that somehow similar to AP classes? I also personally like the focus on science at Ballard.

  76. the plan only applies to entering grades: K, 6, 9. You can request a move for older sibs, but would enter based on room & lottery. Not sure if you get an advantage if you have an entering K.

  77. It's a no brainer mark, I've lived here for 31 years and you have to be blind to not see the differences that put Ballard ahead of Ingrahm.

    Lucky I won't have highschool kids for at least another 15 years or i'd be really pissed ;P

  78. We are in the same situation, instead of walking a few blocks our kids would need to take the bus 1.5 miles to Fremont. I don't understand why B.F. Day's reference area was expanded to the west and north, removing area that was West Woodland. In the case of B.F. Day at least it seems more kids will have a longer way to travel and will miss out on being in their neighborhood school.

  79. I am not commenting on the actual choices of Ballard/Hamilton or West Woodland compared to other schools, because my kids have never attended any of those schools.

    However- in 1983, we made the decision to buy our current house because it was so close to West Woodland and we felt that proximity was very important for elementary school. We also did not know about the relative value of attending SPS or that the building was actually considered to be of such poor even toxic condition ( at the time) that the UW released a study showing it should be condemned ( only they didn't have any where to send the children)

    I am well aware that a school should not be judged by shiny-my older daughter started elementary school in a building that is behind the transfer station in Fremont/Wallingford, it was a former City Light print shop I believe, It isnt being used now, but the mural is still there.

    What I am interested in is- boundaries where the school is in the middle of the zone, and you don't have kids riding a bus to one school , when they could walk to another.

    Middle schools which have clear feeder elementaries- and at least one clear alternative choice for those elementary school students for middle school.

    HIgh schools which have clear feeder middle schools and if they can't make the boundary the same distance from where the school is centered all the way around then if a student 1.5 miles away on the Northeast side is inside the boundary while a student 1.5 miles away on the Northwest side is not- then that NW student gets points to choose another school or has points added to be considered for the 10% ” not in the cluster”, for that school.
    ( I also think wait lists should be used much longer than Oct1st)

    You must have not been out of school very long SeaSchooler, because while Ballard was new when my younger daughter looked at it, I don't believe it was remodeled yet when my older daughter was looking at middle/high schools( She attended high school in a former car dealership)

    Schools in other countries- India- China et al. are often overcrowded yet students also often perform at a higher level than students from US.
    Overcrowding is not the( only) reason why some kids are not getting much of an education.

  80. As am I, however- I still care very much about the viability of the neighborhoods. We already have fewer families wanting to stay in the city than when my husband was attending Ballard schools. Seattle has fewer children than any major city other than San Francisco.
    Of the children that stay in the city- we have a relatively low % of choosing public schools.

    I want to continue to live in the city, I think families are critical to the make up of a healthy city and public schools- excellent public schools entice families to stay.

    I don't want to live in Detroit, I don't even want to live in Boston.
    However, if Seattle schools continue to turn a deaf ear to the concerns of the community, especially parents, I may be living in Portland.

  81. Hamilton is in Wallingford, yes — currently in the Lincoln building, but the currently-being-remodeled Hamilton building is right around the corner; both are right off 45th a bit east of Stone Way. Last year they decided to split the elementary and middle school Accelerated Progress Programs, and the north-end middle school APP ended up at Hamilton, which is working out okay so far. Hamilton is an international school and has three years of Spanish and Japanese (either immersion level, for those coming up from John Stanford or with equivalent fluency, or starting at square one for those new to a foreign language in sixth grade). Most middle schools have only two years of a foreign language.

  82. The IB program is indeed comparable to AP, and it's possible to take IB classes individually as well as in a comprehensive diploma program. If you get an IB diploma, in theory you can get up to 24 semester hours of college credit (not all colleges will allow that much, of course). There have been kids who've gone on from Ingraham to enter college as sophomores or juniors because of those extra credits.

    A relatively small number of students go for the full diploma (I think under 50), but quite a few take one or more IB classes.

    Ingraham has about twice the percentage of ESL students as Ballard, and likewise about twice as many on free/reduced lunch. I would be interested to see the test scores and graduation rates broken down: is Ballard really doing any better by their students, or do they just have a different demographic mix? Also, the relatively high number of students from Ingraham who enroll in two-year rather than four-year colleges may reflect the relationship between Ingraham's business academies and the local community colleges.

  83. You misread me in your hasty flame. When I said public schools teach kids how to learn for themselves, it means that they teach them to seek knowledge outside of what the school provides for them.

    To use your swimming analogy, public schools teach kids how to swim in the shallow end and then let them progress to the deep end if they are so inclined. I think private schools put water wings on kids and protect them in the shallow end. Kids who attend private schools are taught that what they need will always be available, they just need to ask their parents or the school board for it instead of figuring out how to solve their needs/desires themselves.

    That's not much like real life, though. My friends who attended private schools have a mixed bag of professions, but most of the girls are now housewives or perennial students because they only know how to learn in a classroom environment. They've done well for themselves as housewives and students, but they rarely move outside their spheres because they've never needed to in the past.

    I'm not saying the book education at public schools is better. That would be a pretty big lie. But public schools teach you, in a protected environment, how to grasp the world on your own because the teachers, parents and administrators won't do it for you. Working for something vs. having it handed to you on a silver platter makes it more valuable and means you have full knowledge of the cost.

    That's more valuable than high school book learning, to me. When I went to college I wasn't as well prepared as private school kids, but they were the ones earning C's & D's or drinking and snorting coke to cope. I graduated cum laude from the UW with a 3.8 average.

    The only difference between my experience in the Seattle Public Schools and any other kids' is how much effort they put into their high school experience.

  84. The line for the Hamilton boundary is 15th NW to the west and 70th to the north. Ballard HS is within this area. Many Whittier Elementary students reside in this area. Under the new plan, these students will go to Hamilton Middle School, which is most certainly not the neighborhood middle school. As many of the below comments discuss, the problem with the current plan is that students are not assigned to schools in their neighborhoods, and are going to be traveling significantly farther then they would under the current plan. Two strong negatives of this is that a) connection with the neighborhood is significantly lessened, and b) there will be more motorized vehicles on the streets.

  85. “Private schools are better for kids whose parents dont (sic) want to put any effort into their childs (sic) learning”????

    Obviously you haven't had much experience with private schools, or a very different experience than my family did. When our child was in private elementary school the parents were involved all the time; volunteering in the classroom, the library, working to install a playground, coaching etc. When they were in middle school the parents were giving “suggested reading”, books dealing with changes in the pre teenage brain, bullying, etc. You would be hard pressed to find unengaged parents.

    Private schools have a very limited budget, if parents aren't there helping with their child's education no one will.

    I'm sure it makes you feel superior about your choice to wrap yourself in the illusion that all the kids at private schools are the ones with behavior problems, or unable to “act like kids” or who have parents who would rather write a check than be involved in the education of their child but that is not the case.

    Frankly if you are stroking a $300 + check each month for tuition you have a vested interest in being involved in your child's education.

    Private schools are also a good place for children who have parents who are more interested in a solid education than in dealing with politics.

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