Update: A PDF of the actual plan is embedded below.
Under a preliminary plan in the Building Excellence BEX IV levy, Seattle Public Schools has revealed at recent community meetings a proposal to building a middle school on the campus of Olympic Hills Elementary School. The changes could be dramatic for the small neighborhood school.
One proposal being considered is to build a middle school on the campus and create a K-8. The proposal would add an estimated 1,000 students to the relatively small school. But the project being considered would depend of funding approved by voters. The school levy will go up for voter approval in February of 2013.
According to charts in the embedded PDF below, Eckstein Middle School is projected to experience growth that cannot be sustained. Also, comments during a community meeting suggested that officials are eyeing the Olympic Hills Elementary site for a new middle school because of the large campus.
From Families for Lake City:
Of three proposed options, two call for adding a building adjacent to the elementary school by 2018 or 2019. This would change Olympic Hills from a K-5 to a K-8 and add much needed capacity for 1,000 6th-8th grade students.
Here is coverage of a recent meeting about the proposed levy that notes some of the discussion about Olympic Hills.
Thanks to Families for Lake City for alerting us to this story.
The above post concerning the BEXIV proposals presented at the April 3rd SPS community meeting is not entirely accurate. The proposals presented at the April 3rd BEXIV community meeting do NOT call for a K-8 school at Olympic Hills. They plan to add middle school capacity, but not in the form of a K-8 school.
ReplyDeleteInstead of a K-8 school, two of the BEXIV options propose the construction of a separate, 1000-seat middle school, to be built adjacent to Olympic Hills Elementary School, sharing the property. As discussed at the meeting, it would be an assignment middle school, with a feeder pattern drawing from multiple attendance-area elementary schools. Although the feeder pattern for the new middle school has not been announced, it would presumably serve the northern portion of what is now the Eckstein Middle School Service Area, including, but not exclusively serving, Olympic Hills Elementary. Eckstein Middle School is currently over-enrolled, at just under 1300 students.
In addition to the proposed middle school at Olympic Hills, all BEXIV options include the construction of a 1000-seat middle school at the Wilson-Pacific property (Licton Springs neighborhood of North Seattle), to be completed in 2017. Both new middle schools, at Olympic Hills and Wilson-Pacific, are deemed necessary to handle projected middle school enrollment in North Seattle.
It was also mentioned at the meeting that, should additional middle school capacity be needed in North Seattle prior to the opening of the new middle school buildings, students within the feeder patterns for the future middle schools (Wilson Pacific and/or Olympic Hills) will be held at an interim site until completion of the new middle school buildings. The BEXIV proposal shows two such interim sites for projects in North Seattle, the John Marshall building (Green Lake), and the Lincoln building (Wallingford).
Public comments, questions, and suggestions concerning the BEXIV proposals are being taken through the end of April. Comments may be submitted to capacity@seattleschools.org.
-A SPS Watcher
Page 17 of the attached document states that one of the possibilities is a K-8 for the Olympic Hills site.
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