Photo courtesy of Marc Kramer
These three “1994 vintage” portable classrooms currently located at Bothell High may be moved to Woodinville elementaries.

The Northshore School District has said enrollment declines coupled with inadequate state funding and the rising costs of doing business necessitate budget cuts: $3.4 million in cuts next year, $3.18 million the following year, and $1 million the year after that.

One proposed budget cut for the next school year is to close Woodin Elementary, which could save an estimated $700,000 annually. Other cost-saving measures are proposed; however, it is the recommended school closure that seems to be resonating most within the community.

Over 100 Northshore School District parents filled Woodinville City Council Chambers March 18. Those who spoke during the public-comment portion of the council meeting asked for the City Council’s help.

Citizens say that they are unable to dialog with school district officials, who will decide in May whether to close Woodin Elementary and re-draw school boundaries. The closure could result in as many as 800 Woodinville elementary students being bused to schools other than those in their own neighborhoods.

“There is a lack of detailed answers to our detailed questions,” said Susan Huso.

“Unfortunately,” said Helen Pederslie, “Northshore School District has not been willing to work with us to find other options. I implore Woodinville to help us ….”

“Our goal has always been to work with the district,” said Greg Fasio in a phone conversation, “but it is has been difficult to react to the (closure) proposal because it doesn’t contain accurate and complete information.”

Tiffany Barker said in an e-mail, “I really want the Woodinville community to know that we are strongly against the closure of Woodin, or any Northshore school. We do not have confidence in the very document (the analysis and recommendation) on which they base their recommendation. We want to work with the district, not against them, in finding alternatives and solutions to the budget crisis.”?

The district maintains there has been an enrollment decline of 600 students over the past two years. They expect a decline of an additional 600 students over the next three years. Enrollment declines are not apparent at the school recommended for closure. District data dated Dec. 7, 2007, supplied by the Enrollment Demographics Task Force, for years 2002 to 2007, shows Woodin Elementary enrollment has increased steadily since 2003. Enrollment in every other elementary school in the Woodinville High School feeder pattern is lower today than it was in 2002.

The district cites as key reasons for the closure of Woodin its location and condition. It is the oldest of the eight Woodinville service area elementaries considered for closure. It has ingress and egress restrictions. It is built on a small site, which could limit reconfiguration, they say.

Using state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) projections taken from the Web on Jan. 18, 2008, Helen Pederslie told the City Council March 18 that there were no enrollment declines projected for Northshore elementaries beyond 2008. Any enrollment declines, she said, would come from grades 7-12, not K-6. Based on OSPI projections, she said the district would actually have a shortage of elementary school space by 2009 if Woodin were closed.

Pederslie stated in an e-mail, “I sent in this information to the Northshore staff, and what I got from them was this: ‘The capacity analysis is based on how schools currently use their space. The capacity can be increased by changing how space is used. Enrollment is weakest at the elementary level, where each year we have 500 fewer incoming kindergartners than we have graduating seniors. In other words, we are not able to replace the students we lose to graduation because the incoming kindergarten cohorts are smaller than in years past. Although the general population may be increasing, the percentage of the population that is school age is declining throughout King County.’”

Pederslie responded to the district by agreeing that the number of graduating seniors was becoming less every year – but only through the year 2013, five years away. The number of graduating seniors would increase between 2014 and 2020, she said. The kids graduating between 2014 and 2020 are in elementary school now, and elementary enrollment, according to the OSPI, was slated to increase until 2013.

Pederslie told the council, “Closing an elementary school to solve declining enrollment in grades 7 to 12 just won’t work. If you close Woodin, what do you do in a year’s time (when there could be a shortage of elementary school space)? Stuff kids in more portables? Reopen Woodin …?”

The Northshore Web site Q&A page notes that the district’s capacity analysis “did not assume that additional portables would be added to any school.”

Greg Fasio said that he wasn’t sure what influence the city had on Northshore School District, if any.

“But I do know that it is impossible to separate the schools from the city,” said Fasio. “They have always been and will always be intrinsically linked. … A city’s reputation rises and falls on the strength and quality of a school system. … Realtors, who generally don’t praise one district over another, would say off the record, ‘I’d go with the house in the Northshore District if I were you.’

“What do you think happens to the value of a house whose children are within walking distance of a school and whose parents are told that their children will have to be bused across town because there is no room in the neighborhood school, and there’s no room in the neighborhood school because schools are closing down? What do you think happens to the value of homes in that neighborhood?

“The neighborhood school is the heart of any neighborhood. … Busing kids across town out of their neighborhoods rips at the very fabric of the community. … The proposal is ill conceived, not based on verifiable facts, and doesn’t address the impacts on families and children. If the plan fixed the budget deficit, (it would be different). It doesn’t fix the problem.”

Marc Kramer addressed the district’s use of modular classrooms or “portables.” He said portables were originally intended to add space during school construction projects or to handle temporary surges in enrollment.

After handing out pictures of portables to the City Council, he said, “Witness temporary classrooms at Woodinville primary and secondary schools. They’ve been in place for many years now, exceeding their design lifetimes.”

“… Temporary classrooms are just that,” said Kramer. “Please advise (the Northshore School District) that Woodinville schools are permanent schools and should be operated as such.”

Taya Vercelli told the council that school district representatives at both Wellington Elementary and Hollywood Hill Elementary were out measuring for new portables recently.

Kramer expanded upon this point in a phone conversation. He toured four “1994-vintage” portables at Bothell High School March 21 and was told that they might be relocated to Wellington and Hollywood Hill elementaries.

“I expected to see recently refurbished units,” he said, “but they were in extremely poor condition. … I was shocked. … These were fully depreciated assets.”

He questioned whether they would meet code standards for public buildings.

The Woodinville City Council discussed portable classrooms briefly, asking staff for more information about portable classrooms’ life spans and the city’s role in permitting and inspecting the structures.

Vercelli also said school district data indicated that there were 600 empty elementary school seats in the Woodinville High feeder path. She asked the district how many of those empty seats were in portables; she was told 301. She wonders if the district’s plan is to close Woodin Elementary and put more children in portables.

“Again,” wrote Vercelli in an e-mail, “the community feels very misled that what will actually happen was never clearly spelled out in the proposal.”

Kramer told the council that general space requirement guidelines for elementary schools call for 100 square feet per student. New elementary schools are being built with 120 square feet per student. Space requirements can be modified depending on how a space is used.

He said in a phone conversation that a 60 by 40 foot portable (2,400 square feet) would provide 100 square feet per student for 24 students if the floor were bare. The guidelines, he said, refer to 100 square feet of open space. Once desks, file cabinets, bookcases, computer stations, or couches are added to the portables, “You’re not left with much space per student,” he said.

In addition to adequate space, Kramer has concerns about air quality, noise, heat, cold, light, and comfort inside portables and the roles these factors might play in students’ learning.

The city council decided to request a meeting with the Northshore School Board. Mayor Scott Hageman and Councilmen Hank Stecker and Jeff Glickman volunteered to represent the city if such a meeting were granted.

“We are all looking for positive solutions to issues that affect so many families and children in the community,” said Mayor Hageman.

Gayle Hickey asked the council if it would consider donating funds to support efforts of the grassroots organization S.O.S., Save Our Schools, some refer to it as Save Our Neighborhood Schools. The group formed to challenge the district’s proposal to close Woodin Elementary and to ensure that the proposal is created using concrete and objective criteria.

City Attorney Greg Rubstello did not think a donation of that kind would be an appropriate use of public money.

Fasio said that the group retained an attorney to “layout deficiencies and flaws in (school district) analysis.” He said, “We need to pay people to get analysis done and present it. We have no desire to sue anyone. That’s never been our angle.”

Rubstello said, “The city can engage the school board. Can the city pay to hire a consultant? I don’t think that’s an appropriate use for public money.”

Fasio told the council that he appreciated their candor and willingness to enter into open dialog.

As of Friday, March 21, no meeting between City Council members and the Northshore School Board had been scheduled, though one was requested.

According to City Manager Richard Leahy, he was told that the Northshore School Board planned to discuss the City Council’s request at its March 25 School Board meeting.

District spokesperson Susan Stoltzfus said in a previous phone conversation, “Between 30 and 40 feel strongly about this proposal (to close Woodin Elementary). We are talking about a proposal affecting 800 kids. I’d at least expect 10 percent to disagree with the proposal.

“(People have to realize that) things evolve. Ricketts Elementary closed in 1972 when Westhill was built. At some point, the old Woodinville School closed, as did the Sorenson Annex. I wish that development occurred where we have schools.

“… The actions we are proposing are in the best interest of the kids. We won’t let kids slip through the cracks because we never do. We will provide support; that doesn’t go away. It just moves. We have no interest in letting kids fall through the cracks. We will continue to provide the extra things that kids need. That’s what Northshore does,” said Stoltzfus.