If Evergreen Elementary in the Edmonds School District closes next year, seventh- and eighth-graders at Terrace Park K-8 will likely move to Brier Terrace Middle School to make room for Evergreen students.
That proposal upsets some Terrace Park K-8 parents, who say their children are “collateral damage.” Some parents and teachers also oppose closing Evergreen.
Who is affected
Parents of students in schools near Woodway and Evergreen can probably breathe a sigh of relief. Though boundaries will be redrawn, no students at schools other than those to close will have to move, said Sue Venable, assistant superintendent. (The exception could be seventh- and eighth-graders at Terrace Park K-8.)
It’s proposed that the Challenge Program for highly capable kindergarten through sixth-graders stay at Terrace Park.
Officials are working to ensure that out-of-neighborhood students who attend Woodway or Evergreen through open enrollment will be able to move with their peers and not be sent back to their home schools. However, this could change if the schools students are sent to reach capacity.
Finally, there is now no program for highly capable students in seventh and eight grade.
District officials are looking at creating such a program at Brier Terrace Middle School for fall 2009.
History
The district is looking at closing Woodway and Evergreen elementary schools for fall 2009 because of low enrollment and budget problems. Officials cut about $3.3 million last year due to rising costs and insufficient state funding.
It costs more to operate a small school. Enrollment at Woodway and Evergreen has dropped for years. Closing Woodway and Evergreen is estimated to save about $1.4 million a year, about $722,000 a year from each building. If approved, the closures would take effect for the 2009-10 school year.
If Evergreen closes, it’s proposed that its students will move to Mountlake Terrace Elementary and Terrace Park K-8. If the seventh- and eighth-graders at Terrace Park K-8 move to Brier Terrace Middle School, then Terrace Park K-8 and Mountlake Terrace Elementary could hold all Evergreen students, officials said.
The Citizens Planning Committee is the citizen’s group studying the issues. They will make a recommendation to the Edmonds School Board, which has the final say. The board is scheduled to vote in December.
Terrace Park K-8
Megan Hudson, a Terrace Park K-8 parent, said the time the citizens group was given to study the issues was extremely limited.
“The action of the district in this matter has been reckless, poorly thought out and cannot be defended with research into savings,” she said. “The decision has basically already been made that (Evergreen) students will be housed at Terrace Park, leaving our children in the position of collateral damage.”
There are many parents at Terrace Park who feel the same, she said.
Formulating a plan to move students from Terrace Park before the closure of Evergreen had been decided or even studied was “putting the cart before the horse,” parent Derek Simkoviak said at a public hearing on the Evergreen closure Tuesday, Oct. 14.
The move would put the school almost at capacity, he said.
A few others defended the advantages of a K-8.
The citizens committee looked at other options besides Terrace Park, Venable said at the hearing. At Brier Elementary, there wasn’t enough space, and near Cedar Way Elementary there’s a large housing development possible that could bring in more students, she said.
Parents asked officials to keep Evergreen children together rather than breaking them up to several schools.
If Terrace Park K-8 did reach capacity, then officials could restrict out-of-neighborhood transfers, said superintendent Nick Brossoit.
Evergreen
At the hearing, two people spoke about the Evergreen closure. Parent Andy Simonson spoke in favor.
“There’s a lot of angst out there, a lot of parents who are fired up,” he said. “But if you look at state funding, there is very little we can do.”
Special education teacher Susan Gipstein spoke against.
“My students will be pulled away from relationships they made with general education students,” she said.
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