Seattle Public Schools begins talks on potential school mergers

SEATTLE - Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner announced that the district is beginning conversations around potential school mergers.

What we know:

In a letter sent to parents on Sunday, Shuldiner said the district is opening discussions on school mergers after enrollment dropped below 50,000 students.

Shuldiner noted he visited some schools where some students learn in buildings without interior walls, while other campuses struggle with forced split-grade classrooms. In the letter, he cited one K-8 school with fewer than 50 students and a K-5 school with fewer than 120 students.

Timeline:

Shuldiner said it will be a months-long process of hearings and conversations to evaluate proposed school mergers.

This week, Shuldiner said he will be visiting the staff and executive directors of all the schools that could be impacted. Family meetings at proposed receiving schools will follow from November through mid-December before a formal list is presented to the Seattle School Board.

Communities will then have a 60-day window for public hearings in January and February before the school board takes possible action in late February or early March.

Shuldiner also pledged that families displaced by any approved closure will receive priority during open enrollment, and the district will extend the transfer application window until one week after a final board decision.

The backstory:

The district previously held off on formal merger discussions until finalizing a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Education Association. The contract, ratified in September, established parameters for staffing levels, class ratios, and educator wage increases totaling 8.8% to 9.8% for teachers and nearly 11% for paraeducators over three years.

Shuldiner noted that the district inherited a structural budget deficit, operating with a shortage of funds after reducing roughly $50 million earlier this year.

What they're saying:

"I don’t want students to spend one more year in a building where bookcases serve as walls, if we don’t have to," Shuldiner wrote in the letter. "I don’t want students to spend one more year in a sixth-seventh-eighth grade split if we don’t have to. I don’t want teachers to be the only teacher in the grade if we don’t have to. I don’t want to accept large class sizes if we don’t have to. So, the conversation around school mergers begins."

What we don't know:

Superintendent Shuldiner did not publicly release a specific list of schools currently under consideration for mergers or closures.

What you can do:

The full newsletter from Superintendent Shuldiner regarding potential school mergers can be found on the Seattle Public Schools website.

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