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Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Community and supports for students and families (students/families not felling othered but rather celebrated in the school)
• Support for students in Spanish and the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ� as well as English language development support
• Caring teachers who look like our kids
• Easy access to transportation
• Family connection center
• Safe schools (no gangs/fights)
• Communication with principal(s) and teacher(s)

Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• Bring students together as a cohort
• Bring some of the same teachers along with the students
• Provide transportation
• Provide socioemotional support for students who need to move and the ones receiving them
• Create a sense of belonging/community
• Keep the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�

Question 3: What questions do you have?

• When will this decision be made?
• How will the community be informed about what is happening?
• Does our voice really count?
• Will classes become larger if we close schools?

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

Not applicable

Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

The participants in this forum were agreed on a handful of themes that included:

• A lack of confidence in the data
  • A local hospital’s website says birthrates went up, not down.
  • Closing schools causes decreased enrollment.
• ������Ƶ�ٷ�’s competitiveness
  • Closing down Advanced Learning will cause parents to leave the district.
  • Closing our schools reduces our competitiveness.
• Student focus
  • Concern that consolidating will hurt student’s social emotional well-being.
  • Students should be invited to the school board meeting to tell their stories.

Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

• The enrollment for Tyee is up, yet the data says the utilization is down. Why?
• Can more information about the budget – and how it affects this decision – be shared?
• How will we manage student/teacher ratios if we lose teachers?

Combined Notes

Question 1: To best utilize district resources, should we consider consolidating a school or continue to operate five schools with reduced resources and ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming?

• In the data, are we including only ������Ƶ�ٷ�-resident students or is this data including open enrollment students? A lot of families outside ������Ƶ�ٷ� chose to come to Tyee and Sammamish – there was a big population movement from Issaquah district to ������Ƶ�ٷ�. I am concerned with consolidation; it will increase school size in some schools and Issaquah residents already enrolled in ������Ƶ�ٷ� will be forced to disenroll in the future.
• We have concerns about consolidation because we have seen the impacts from the elementary school consolidation. Impacted students and families feel not heard, not adjusting to new school because they feel far away (not in their neighborhood anymore), reduced bus service is really hard on the students and families. Also, ������Ƶ�ٷ� announced that there will be emotional supports and counselors, but for many students, they have not felt supported or accessible. What is the district’s real plan?
• This year, a lot of students came from outside ������Ƶ�ٷ�. My neighborhood falls very closely between Issaquah and ������Ƶ�ٷ� district, and as ������Ƶ�ٷ� opened up spots, there was big population movement from Issaquah district to ������Ƶ�ٷ� (Tyee middle school and Sammamish). If consolidation happens, will the Issaquah district students will be kicked out ? Can we actively enroll more students from outside of ������Ƶ�ٷ� and continue having 5 schools open without having to reduce resources?
• I want to know the purpose of this consolidation study. Are we finalizing to decide to think student number issue is a fact and making this consolidation study? Even the data seems too soon to determine. We could need to consolidate in many years later, but we cannot do that now because it will be too chaotic! Can we approach this as a long-term project? The enrolled students already form good bond with their friends, and it is hard to break that based on the data and 7-10 years futures’ projection.

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Question 2: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Education and activity opportunities are important. My oldest child went to Chinook and had enriched club, after school activities, and field trips. This year, my youngest one is not having much of that enriched experience due to shortages. This has reduced the quality of experience for the child. Also, students are worried that clubs they are actively involved will be gone next year. They put a lot of effort and love doing it and it will be very unfortunate to lose those opportunities.
• Diverse experience is important. Students in my child’s school is already having rumors that their school is at risk of closing. Our children and their friends are worrying a lot. The ������Ƶ�ٷ�s they are worried that their ������Ƶ�ٷ�s they are involved will be closing, and their clubs will no longer be available. For example, since Olde and Tyee both has Advance Learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�, and if district decides to close one of those schools, would that mean that the opportunity for their Advance Learning will be gone? Enriched social interaction they have now will be gone if schools are consolidated. For middle schoolers, friendship is most important and if students will be located to different schools, it will be impacting their middle school experience negatively.
• There are teacher dependent clubs. If the resources are reduced, how will it affect all these clubs??
• Transparency of decision making!!! Last year, Enatai was one of the elementary schools to be closed but they did not. Rumors are because they are in rich neighborhood. There was not much transparency or announcement from ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Nowhere on the website says the logistics behind decision making. To avoid rumors, we want to know CLEARLY the decision points.

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Question 3: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• OUR STUDENTS!!!! They are in their sensitive time of life where social and emotional support is important. They would not want to be separated from their friends and teachers that they have already created a bond with.
• Geographically, Highland and Odle are very close, and these two seem like to be the most affected school from this consolidation result if it will happen. Does that mean these two schools will combine?
• If so, what will be the boundary of school? Will it be combining these two schools? Or will the boundary be affected?
• Will the transportation issue be covered? We are struggling this year already with School bus service. We don’t have transportation available every day and it is already an added struggle to families. Currently, after the consolidation, elementary school students take more than an hour to get to school which is too long.
• This year, a lot of students came from outside ������Ƶ�ٷ�. My neighborhood falls very closely between Issaquah and ������Ƶ�ٷ� district, and as ������Ƶ�ٷ� opened up spots, there was big population movement from Issaquah district to ������Ƶ�ٷ� (Tyee middle school and Sammamish). If consolidation happens, will the Issaquah district students be kicked out?
• Once we are consolidated, will we have the transportation issues covered? My child was affected by the elementary school consolidation last year, and because of the shortage of drivers it has become very uncomfortable to commute to school.
• What are the factors in choosing which school to close?

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Question 4: What questions do you have?

• Is the reduced student population issue an overall reduction or is this happening in specific location or school? What is the reduction rate of each school?
• If we keep 5 schools, are we going to have more limited learning opportunities? Can you explain what kinds of services will be impacted?
• Will the change happen right away starting next school year? It would be nice to make the gradual change so that it would be an easier transition.
• For last year’s elementary school consolidation, there was not a clear explanation behind the logistics why certain schools closed. There are rumors that schools in rich neighborhood (Enatai) was one of the candidates but it did not close. Without clear
• If we do the open enrollment, wouldn’t it only help the popular schools remain and non-preferred school to get consolidated?
• If the schools get consolidated, will the specific features of those schools be gone as well? Each school seems to have clubs that has significant importance to each school. Will this be also gone? It will be so negatively impactful to students.
• Are we absolutely not thinking about consolidating the choice schools? Are these schools out of discussion?
• My child’s school does not have room to accommodate all students and uses multiple portable classrooms. If the school utility rate shows it is low already, can we use those spaces instead of the portables? Or is this overall usage? I would appreciate to know the utility rate of individual schools.
• Will we be talking about high school consolidation in the next few years??
• I live in the neighborhood which school gotten closed down last year (Eastgate). I have seen a lot of sad elementary students then and still unable to cope with their loss.
• Friends are separated, teachers are no longer there. Passing over I-90 feels too far and they do not feel connected to the new school. They were told there would be social emotional support, but it does not seem to be very supportive, nor do students find it helpful. It is already a sad loss and i am very concerned we are having this conversation again for the middle schoolers. Middle school is the time friendship is more firm and bonding gets strong. The district says there will be social emotional support. But can you tell us what kind of support you are planning?
• When Wilburton closed down, they let the 5th graders remain so that they could finish as 5th grade cohort together. I think that was helpful to that grade. Can such transition be supported if consolidation has to happen??

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Advanced learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�s to support students.
• Quality of education to prepare for college (math, English.)
• Opportunities for electives (robotics and rocketry).
• 7^th grader starting at Odle last year, the adjustment from elementary to middle was hard. If there is a consolidation, I want him to be minimally impacted by school changes. Middle school are tough years for a lot of kids. How do we make sure he is supported, and all students are supported in a
• First year in ������Ƶ�ٷ�, daughter at Tyee and in 5^th – came from Seattle – saw problems with declining enrollment and problems when that wasn’t addressed. Our previous middle school lost a lot of teachers and ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
• Like his teachers a lot, some exceptional teachers, passionate about students and enjoy teaching.
• Prefer to attend Odle because of the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, administrative staff is friendly and welcoming to students. Wanting to maintain the friend.
• Nonresident group; just moved this year and a choice transfer, but was a prior a ������Ƶ�ٷ� student. The choice transfer is a great option, closer than home school. Just started about 2 months ago. Will this impact them as a transfer back to home school; being unstable is a concern?
• Environment and best academic environment. Feel like they are settled; especially for middle school; very important to stable environment during this move from childhood to teenagers.
• Odle is a top-ranking school across of the nation; might impact.

Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• Student to teacher ratio.
• What is best for the future students? Distance to school.
• My child spends 40 minutes on the bus per trip, we are happy with that ������Ƶ�ٷ� – I think that will be longer if we consolidate – that should be considered.
• First year in ������Ƶ�ٷ�, just moved into the area, my son is a 5^th grader – he is in AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� now at Somerset. Transportation is an issue for us too – right now he doesn’t have a bus – I drop him off and pick him up.
• My kids are in AL – this was our number one reason for choosing ������Ƶ�ٷ� when we moved. We’ve been happy with the level of education for our middle schooler. We also chose ������Ƶ�ٷ� for the 7-period day – not offered everywhere – we value this a lot. My kids like to do foreign language and music – you need a 7-period day to fit this and other things in. Gives you the space for exploration without sacrificing what you want to do in the long term.
• Make sure kids can get to school – we don’t have enough buses now – how can we make sure all kids can get to school if we consolidate?
• Course continuity – in Seattle, they cut French from 8^th grade after she’d taken it in 6^th and 7^th, and that was really frustrating for my child – would want to make sure there is continuity of course work for students.
• My child is at Odle – to have the least impact on the most number of students, don’t close Odle.
• Advanced learning is least the same number who have like-minded students; they are humbler when
• Continue non-resident through the middle
• Keep neighborhood school.
• Does the standards of each school the same if our school is closed.
• Can the choice schools be considered along with comprehensive middle schools?

Question 3: What questions do you have?

• What other considerations have been made other than consolidating a middle school?
• How are property taxes used to fund the school district? They keep increasing.
• Be more transparent: What is the cost per student, what amount do we receive per student from the state, what is the cost per school?
• What is the alternative to consolidating the school?
• What studies have been done to eliminate this consolidation factor? To reduce the impact on the students.
• What assumptions are being made in the enrollment data about housing? How does this align with the city’s active process to increase housing? (Question from city council member)
• Are there other ������Ƶ�ٷ�s that can be added that would bring new students into the school system and increase enrollment? How can we increase the revenue (we are only focusing on the expense).
• Who is making this decision? What led to this option?
• What would the transportation to the gifted ������Ƶ�ٷ� look like if we consolidated a middle school?
• Are you going to cancel the gifted ������Ƶ�ٷ� if we consolidate?
• How soon do we anticipate there will be a consolidation?
• When looking at the chart of the 8^th grade class and projected 9^th grade class – the 8^th grade class is a lot smaller than the 9^th grade class – where are we projecting that students are coming from? Are they non-resident students?
• How would this happen?
• What would this look like?
• What are the top factors that would be considered?
• Why was the information not shared earlier shared with the community about the declining environment?
• Why does them so sudden for such a large impact?
• What is the impact on the choice schools?
• How did the pandemic impact the drop of enrollment?
• Did the district overspend during the pandemic that impacted our budget?

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

The participants in this forum surfaced the following themes:

• High quality education – this is why people move to ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Course offerings and extra-curricular activities
  • Advanced learning – keeping intact at Odle.
  • Electives.
  • Variety.
  • Clubs.
• Student connections.
  • Friendships.
  • Social, emotional wellbeing.

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Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

The priorities that this group centered on were:

• Maintaining manageable class size.
• Keeping peer cohorts together.
• Transportation.
  • Bus routes.
  • Commute times.
  • Drop off schedule.

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Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

There were many questions from participants. A full list of the questions can be found in the combined notes below. Several of the questions fell into the following categories:

• What will happen to Advanced Learning?
  • How will we maintain quality?
  • Will it become part of the neighborhood schools and how would that affect teachers?
  • What is the plan and timeline?
• How will students be affected?
  • Will they stay with their peers?
  • Will they be able to access the electives they want?
  • What will class size be like?

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Build solid academic foundation for success in high school through quality teachers who are passionate about their subject and providing a challenging environment to learn.
• Safe place for students to feel mentally and physically safe.
• Being able to differentiate the services that students need (ex: AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�)
• Additional ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming such as band, video production, and Spanish immersion to align to their interests.
• Resources to support all students, such as advanced math classes and athletic interests.
• Electives helps students be excited to be at school.
• Mental health supports including counselors to provide students someone to speak to.
• Stability to provide emotional and mental supports.
• Friendship and support at the school
• For middle school, would like daughter to continue to be challenged academically.�� Safe and supportive environment, with friends and teachers
• For middle school, it would be nice to have different clubs and different extracurricular activities.
• Would like to see AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� advance as it is right now.�� Don’t want to see it sent back to schools.�� Not the same experience as it is in the same cohort where students can discuss ideas with each other.
• Most important thing is friendship.
• Music is critical, happy with the clubs.
• Good learning experience, middle school is such critical academically and socially so important to be prepped well.
• Stay with their peers, keep AL together, transitions are hard, and some students don’t feel as welcome to the AL students at their new elementary school. AL students staying together. Super important for them to stay together and ready for IB at Interlake.
• Proper lunch times are important, time of day of lunch, too many lunches (3 is too many), need more time at lunch to eat, worry this will get worse with consolidation.
• After school ������Ƶ�ٷ�s important. Odle soccer and other clubs is important and that they are open to all students.
• Want to have elective courses and variety. Unique courses: ceramics, engineering.
• Worry about having portables at the buildings. Class sizes are too big. Main purpose of schools is education. It’s hard for students to make new friends and so please keep them together.
• One 6^th grade and one 3^rd grade student, the friendships, the ability to spend time together, the learning, the rigor.
• Looking for quality of the ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, variety, ratio of educator to kids, AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� has been a challenge when moved, closer to the home, and keeping the ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• CC students, 1^st generation immigrant, come because ������Ƶ�ٷ� has best schools in the country, get into the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, are smart, CC is one of the best schools, test schools, environment, safety, best learning experience in terms of ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, in the neighborhood, rarely hear anything bad, kids are hanging out with other kids in the same neighborhood, share similar interests, ex. Math club, can do it together, good quality classmates, buy a house and look at greatschool.com, test score of the school, don’t take it too important, but shows some of the basics of the school, Odle is another great school, BHS and Interlake is another great school.�� Test scores and college admission rates, those are the things I care about, regardless of the level of the school, if there is going to be consolidation, want to make sure it continues to have the same quality, don’t know the consolidation and what the impact would be to the school, and what is the impact to the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, by default they would go to Odle, but don’t know where it would go to, if it happens that the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� has to move to a different school, will care about the similar qualities of that school, will they have the same test scores, similar interests, some other not so great schools in other district, want the same good qualities all around, may have good.

Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• How will this affect class sizes?�� For elementary consolidation from 24 students to up to 30 students
• Maintain teachers with students of the schools consolidated.
• Location- consider how this will affect student travel to school (bus routes).
• Programming offerings:�� if they are not available at different schools, how will we meet all students interests and needs?
• Can we provide options for friend groups together to make sure that there is emotional and social support?
• Read consolidation of elementary had over 30 kids per classroom.�� Worried kids would be left behind.
• Think it’s important to make sure teachers and students get the support they need.
• Student/teacher ratio.�� Make sure teachers have enough help to support all students in the classroom.
• Once there is change, it will affect the emotional wellbeing of kids.�� Will be important to have not only teacher resources, but also counselors.�� Make sure we have enough counselor support.
• With the addition of more students at one school, will there be a staggered drop off?�� It will be important to have easy access to drop off and pick-up.�� Right now, it’s really hard to get into Odle (drop off).�� Consider block scheduling, staggered schedule.
• Peers move with peers, friends stay together.
• Would want the breadth and depth of elective choices to remain the same.
• Property values.

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Question 3: What questions do you have?

• Seems like there are two conversations, one about middle school consolidation and one about the advanced learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�.�� Why are we talking about advanced learning? (another parent responded to this question and said they AL students and families weren’t prepared last year when we consolidated elementary schools)
• Want to hear how the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� is being affected.�� What is plan and timeline for all the changes?
• Will they switch to A, B, C track (different groups go different times of the year – e.g. one group goes 3 months on, 1 month off; another group goes a different 3 months with 1 month off)?�� Please don’t do that!
• Where will the students go?�� Will they stay in same school?�� Will they move their peer groups?
• In BHS, heard people have issue getting the elective classes they want, wonder if middle school will have same concerns.�� Concerns about availability of some electives
• Would district consider opening more lottery spots for International School?�� Would help alleviate potential overcrowding if we do consolidate.
• Concerned about combining middle school students with high school students.�� Thinking about if AL would get sent to high school. Don’t want to mix 8^th grade AL students with high schoolers.
• What will class sizes be like?
• What will happen to the AL quality if we separate them?
• Last two slides that were shared, for the projection data, what saw for the current enrollment and projected enrollment for 6-8 grade, the current enrollment are all higher than the projected enrollment, what makes think the projected is accurate?�� How can you use this to make the decision? Are to consolidate the schools, what is the impact to the teachers and the schools consolidate for next year, not talking about 2030, talking about 2024.�� With more being allocated to one school, is there enough facilities and educators to support them?
• Accepting non-resident students, and consolidate, would they continue to accept the non-resident students, and the data is biased.�� If this part of the students is increasing in enrollment.
• What is the plan if there is an increase or the demographics change, to make sure that the right level of education is there?
• How quickly can we shift?
• If AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are considered to be in neighborhood ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, how does the teacher of the AL section do that work, and how does that impact the ������Ƶ�ٷ�?

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

The participants in the online forum consistently said that class size or student to teacher ratio is important to them. Specifically, they want lower class sizes and manageable ratios for students to get support. In addition, the range of offerings for electives and extra-curricular activities was mentioned several times. Transportation or drive times were also a priority for this group. Safety and security, while mentioned less, were also a priority for the participants.

Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

The number of responses to this question in the notes were too small to make generalizations. What did appear aligned with the responses to question 1, around transportation, and safety.

Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

Questions were wide-ranging and all can be found below in the combined notes for the meeting. A few were somewhat aligned around the student transfer data, the non-resident students and Big Picture and International School. In addition, participants wanted to know how many middle schools we are considering closing and whether there will be another opportunity to weigh in on where their students will transfer to. These questions are similar to those raised in other forums.

• Why aren’t Big Picture and International included in the demographer’s report? Will they be part of this decision making?
• How will non-resident students be considered in this decision-making? Will they be forced to leave, or will they transfer in ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• How many schools are you considering consolidating?
• Will parents have an opportunity to decide where their students go to school?

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• The variety of electives available are important to me for middle school, as well as classroom size. Interested in maintaining access to electives in language, science, tech, music, art, CTE.
• Smaller classrooms, leading to better student-teacher ratio. Good facilities including after school sports and non-sports activities.��Core subjects should be under 25 or under 20 students, especially math and science.
• Interest in after school activities and sports include Badminton, basketball, soccer. ideally group sports – to encourage team play.
• Other two kids were impacted by closure at Eastgate. Involved in all meetings and surveys last year. Recall this. Would value and prioritize not having too many students in the class. Know that middle school classes tend to be larger than elem. How does that work when a middle school gets consolidated, how will students be allocated. One concern last year was about friends and teachers. Kids in special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, what happens to the teachers. AL moved out of Spiritridge. How would that happen in MS, can’t really move an entire middle school into another middle school because of size. Want students to have 1:1 help or assistance. Drive time is a concern. Having same amount of class choices for electives and extracurriculars. Already competitive now. Signups get full really quickly for Jubilee. When more students attend, how does that impact signups for students who want to participate. Think about class size and overall school size?
• Hearing students says they’re worried they won’t have assemblies because too many students. Biggest concern from students is will there be enough room?
• Concerned about student/teacher ratio. That would be priority for me. Even if rotation of assembly meetings, the ratio of student/teacher is what will provide best educational opportunities for student learning experience. Athletic offering is also a priority (does work for ������Ƶ�ٷ� A&A)…don’t want to see athletic offering go away or have it be encumbered. When enrollment goes down, chance for sport to go down. That won’t change; its up to size of people who sign up then random drawing. Would be nice to offer even more because of social emotional benefit of athletics.
• Appreciate opportunity to have voices heard. Class size – yes, student/teacher ratio – yes. Also want to add…we need to consider equitable access to MS. Think political needs get involved in these decisions. Have a group of students who need to get themselves to school walking, make sure that schools chosen have lots of different transportation options.
• Concern about safety…how big will middle schools get. Will there be a resource officer? Who is available at middle schools in way of officers like we’ve had in the past. Is safety a part of the conversation?
• Having activities where kids can come together and be social.
• Student to teacher ratio
• Somerset PTSA
• Utilization
  • After elementary consolidation, Somerset is now using two portables.
  • Now, we’re over 100% utilization.
• Challenge to run after-school ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
  • Avoid this issue with middle schools.
• The district projected lower enrollment.
• 14% students went to private school last year – Consolidation.
• We live 4 minutes from Somerset, but now my daughter goes to Spiritridge. We’re happy there.
  • When we moved here, we thought we were going to be in Eastgate.

Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• Transportation, safety and security
• Class size, student/teacher ratio, equitable access, make sure most marginalized populations aren’t the ones who suffer the most.

Question 3: What questions do you have?

• Hard to know what questions to ask or concerns to have if we don’t know what the proposal is.
• If the chat/Q/A gets enabled, will add…last week when demographer reports were emailed to families, spent a lot of time going through each slide. From going through process last year, it was miserable. It will go a long way that there is way more transparency this time. This is much a different experience. When looked at demographer findings, wondering why for the slide that says, neither BP or Int’l numbers are being considered…wondering why.
  • Why aren’t Big Picture and International numbers included in the demographers’ reports?
  • Why aren’t the 980 non-resident students reflected in the stats?
  • Would like to see both BP and Int’l and non-resident numbers included in projections.
• When we consolidate, are those non-resident students getting kicked out of school district? If we’re worried about ratios, overcrowding, and equitable access, what happens to the 980 students? What is the thought process there?
• Of the 980 non-residents, how many are attending BP or Int’l?
• Once the recommendation is made, is there going to be an opportunity for parents on boundary line to choose? When you have a student in a group of friends, the social part of school is really important. Would be nice to have opportunity to keep that social piece together.
• Slide in demo report, “Where have students transferred?” The data on that one slide tells interesting story, In 20-21, the numbers are really high of students who moved out of ������Ƶ�ٷ� to another WA district — ~800ish and next year was ~700ish.
• Is there a target for utilization?
• How many middle schools are you planning to reduce? I have heard that you are considering combining the ISA with the dual language Spanish ������Ƶ�ٷ�s in middle school. Is this true? How would this affect the ISA ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• Please quantify the 14% of private school.
• Do you know yet which schools you’re considering closing?
• What are the top three factors that will impact the decision?

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

The participants of the Chinook forum were aligned on the following areas in this discussion:

• Keeping the community whole and giving students the opportunity to join other middle schools as a cohort.
• Making as little change as possible so that students are not disrupted.
• Access to the Advanced Learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Participants consistently said they wanted AL in more schools so they could access it in their neighborhood.
• Maintaining rigor of the academics.
• Maintaining high quality educators.

Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

The priorities discussed most were class size and maintaining a reasonable student to teacher ratio; maintaining rigor and access to advanced coursework; integrating Advanced Learning into all middle schools to allow those students to attend their neighborhood school; transportation shortages and commute times.

In addition, there was skepticism and questioning of the demographers’ data and the participants asked for additional options, not just consolidating schools.

Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

Participants had many questions about the demographers’ reports including a reflection on whether they were correct for the elementary school consolidation and what happens if we have unpredicted growth. They asked whether students would have a choice of where to go if their school was consolidated. There were questions about the cascading effect of this decision and whether high schools will be consolidated next. Some wanted to know how the district is prioritizing and what other options are being considered.

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Strong desire to keep local communities/students together. Emphasis on importance and benefit of school community beyond academics (including the recognition that schools function as social clubs & sports hubs).
• Value of access to above level courses and concerns shared over rigor of courses/high level teaching if students from other schools are added to Chinook (mother shared her experience with new students at Medina from consolidated elementary, and her perception that the level of the class is no longer the same as it was when her older students attended a few years ago)
• Recognition that the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� will likely be tied up in this decision. Question: Should there be change with AL structure, how will this be implemented? “We do not want to lose access to more advanced classes. Adding AL to more middle schools could add and enhance learning opportunities for all of the students.”
• Concerns about loss of community connections if school is consolidated. Sports Fields are a community connection for our neighborhood and bring tremendous value.
• “All my students are in AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. We live here in the neighborhood. We moved here to be near the schools but now they are going to Odle for AL. We want them at Chinook since we live right here. For us, it would be the greatest if we could have our students in AL embedded in the community we live. Odle is the furthest acceptable commuting distance.”
• Concern over rigor in classrooms & access if middle schools consolidate to become larger; “will a 6th grader needing 7th grade math be able to get into the class? Or will it be too full?”
• We know something is going to happen. To some families who experienced this last year, it felt like the decision was done to them. When we don’t know, we make assumptions that can be very negative. We want to be involved in the process.
• “If we were to hold the ������Ƶ�ٷ�s like choice ������Ƶ�ٷ�s whole, I worry about the inequity there. I worry about a divide. I do think that at MS, there are the options of leveling up (ex. 7th grader in 8th grade math.) I am concerned that the flexibility of student schedules might be limited with larger student populations (less access to classes). Do we have the classroom size and the number of teachers needed to absorb the students? Or are we maxed out already at this school?” Concerns shared over class sizes. The group agreed that half full buildings is not as important to families as the number of students in a classroom.
• Students are currently in elementary and I am wondering what will happen to the special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
• Concerned about where the Advanced Learning Program will be going.
• Similar concern about where advanced learning will be located and what will be the resulting commute.
• Wondering what the appropriate utilization level is or what is optimal.
• We are wondering what people are looking for.
• Most important is getting to know new people and the importance of being within your neighborhood.
• Balance between being in your neighborhood and having some exposure to other students from across the district.
• High quality teaching, safety, friendly peer environments, same level of teaching quality needs to remain.
• Keep the peer and teachers’ relationships the same, not too many changes.
• Good teachers are critical, whatever is consolidated we need to make sure that we minimize the change and we don’t want to lose amazing teachers.
• After school clubs are critical and want to make sure we have as many after school clubs as possible. Being part of ASB or other activities are critical.
• Having friendly environments and keeping peer groups together.
• Make sure there is timely information for staff and families.
• It would be great to have less lunch periods (no more than two so that students can get to know most of the school community).
• Quality of the education, extensive research to get to this school district, safety in the school, have had bad experiences in other districts with safety, having students in elementary and secondary it is important that the schools are close together.
• Don’t lose the engineering lab at the schools.
• Facilities matter. We went through this last year and had to move to Woodridge and 5th grade is in a portable so want to make sure there is enough room at the school he will go to, friends in the neighborhood.
• If there is going to be a school closure, please make the decision now.
• Social aspect and being with friends so students feel comfortable.
• Consistency and as little changes as possible.
• Good teaching and ensure friends can stay together.
• Having an option to take AL courses at their home school.
• Good food, good buildings, small classrooms,
• Safety, academic support (from parent perspective), stability for students,
• Safety, Teaching quality – if enrollment goes down does teaching quality change?
• Resources – Advanced learning access, and resources support and resources to continue to support the ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. How do we guarantee we have advanced learning support. Continue to support the AL experience in HS as well. Can provide opportunities to rethink supporting students. Distance to travel/convenience is also a concern.
• Experience opportunity, students engaged and build skills to be lifelong learners.
• Options for learning that meet student needs.
• Smaller class size
• Kids at Woodridge and high school. Before consolidation at Woodridge, some friends went to Tyee and some came to Chinook. I would have liked my child to go to Tyee, more creative classes that she was interested in than at Chinook. More academic classes at Chinook. Dance, Art. Easier for us to get to Tyee than Chinook. Location is also important, sharing custody, one week with mom, one week with dad.
• Distance from home to the school is a concern. Now with 4 schools, you will have more traffic to drive through. If you close one, people will have to drive farther? How do you mitigate that?
• Has there been conversation about middle schoolers taking the metro? That could help with traffic. When my child was a freshman, I was more uncomfortable with her taking the Metro – I was more comfortable with students taking a school bus with other kids. But on the Metro, there are other students too. My older daughter can take her younger brother on the bus, and that makes me feel more comfortable.
• Class options, and the social aspect. Continue to develop friendships, and shared interests. My daughter is now double accelerated in math – she felt bored previously. She had already learned the curriculum. We came here because ������Ƶ�ٷ� does double acceleration – came from St. Thomas. She is really excited, and even though she misses her friends, she is glad to be able to learn and accelerate in math. Her last school, she fell asleep in math every time. Now a change in her mentality. A pod of students – forming a tight bonding system. Want to continue this ������Ƶ�ٷ� and the friendships developing.
• Thinking about putting my child into the middle schools – concerned about student to teacher ratio – more students per class is a concern for me. If the location is farther, I wouldn’t make the switch. What is the class size before consolidation, and what would it be after? Will there be a floating teacher to support if the class sizes are much larger? Dealing with a lot of kids and different demands. How do you make sure all the kids are getting enough attention and all the help they need?
• We were at Woodridge – there are 30 students per room now, previously when we were touring, we were told they would have about 25 students per room. There is no assistant teacher available.
• What space is available? If you consolidate, will there be more classes in portables? In Woodridge they moved a 5^th grade into the school and closed the science lab.
• What is the definition of full utilization? Has ������Ƶ�ٷ� ever operated under full utilization? Is that 35-40 students per room?
• Maybe we should target 70% utilization.
• What is the trend in the history of utilization? What is the trend? Are you talking about classrooms used? Number of students per classroom?
• Property taxes have been going up, it has been doubling and tripling the property value and thus increasing the property taxes. Even with non-district students enrolling, do we get money from the other district? That should offset it.
• From the state, if we get a certain amount of money, is that amount of money per student fixed? Or has it been increasing as the standard of living and taxes go up?
• We have a classroom chat group – some parents can’t come tonight. They would like to see the ������Ƶ�ٷ� revenue – to know this side of the story and help reach that understanding and agreement.
• Same thing with enrollment numbers. Has the number of students proportionally been lower in lower grades and more in higher grades – just seeing the snapshot of today’s enrollment doesn’t help us know about trends.
• How come the data for enrollment stops at year 2020? If we have data to 2022, we should show that.
• We should see the full papers that the demographers have sent us? How to get to the demographer reports.
• Everyone in their mind might make their own back-of-envelope calculations.
• 950 non-resident students who came in, perhaps from the Arabic language ������Ƶ�ٷ�, that’s about 5% of the whole district – so now, maybe starting a Hindi ������Ƶ�ٷ� and Korean ������Ƶ�ٷ�, starting next September, that could increase enrollment.
• If ������Ƶ�ٷ� offers attractive offerings like heritage language ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, music, ������Ƶ�ٷ�s for students with artistic talents, this could increase enrollment.
• How do families if they have their children enrolled outside the district get their kids to school?
• Is there a cap on how many students we want to have from outside districts? Who makes these decisions for various ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, who decides how to start a new ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Make a newsletter to announce these types of new ������Ƶ�ٷ�s – even outside of the community that speaks that specific language.
• There are lots of kids who are multicultural. Is there anything talking about children understanding what it means to be a multiracial/multicultural student?
• How do you engage parents who aren’t paying attention?
• The more languages you offer, the more vibrant your district looks.
• In the advanced learner ������Ƶ�ٷ� – with a school closing, International will go to Odle, and the Odle advanced learners will disappear. This causes a lot of anxiety. If a teacher at Odle is teaching history to 4 different classes, how can the teacher move around the 4 schools over the course of the day? What happens to the advanced learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• Two locations for Advanced Learning – if you spread it out, they will lose that friendship from peers. And teachers will be spread out.
• Maybe you do have some of the classes online for Advance Learning across different schools?
• When I went on a tour of the schools, the teachers said that for advanced learning students, they only accelerate in math, and social/emotionally these students are sometimes behind their peers and need extra support in these.
• Teachers who have taught AL year after year, they know what the students need, and they can tailor to their needs year after year. If not, the students don’t have the challenge they need, and they don’t get the help they need in SEL. That’s why an effort to put them together.
• How about somebody who is accelerated in their learning, they can use those skills to teach someone who is behind in that subject. And they can get SEL support from that other student.
• Advancing a student whose academics are high their SEL may not be in the right spot when they come to middle and high school.
• People think the decision is already made. Will any input from parents of AL students have any influence or voting power?
• If AL students are separated into 4 different schools, would AL students still have dedicated classes with their peers?
• It would be important for AL students to be cohorted together, especially as it feeds into the IB ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Interlake.
• What percent of students in the IB ������Ƶ�ٷ� come from AL and what percent come from gen ed?
• The value of having an interest in students going through a track of AL classes together from elementary to high school/IB.
• This makes a clique of students – how do you keep more diversity, and different perspectives from different learners?
• There are people who are very analytical, emotional, creative, how do you keep that diversity of students?
• I don’t want to have a place where everybody is one thing.

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Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• “We would hate to lose the higher levels of classes for student’s needs.” (ex: will there be room for 6th graders in 7th grade math classes.) “I see benefits if Odle was hypothetically dissolved, and if we can provide the level that students need here at Chinook. The positives are that we are uniting our community kids. We hate having to say goodbye to our friends after they leave Medina Elementary to go to Odle for AL.”
• Idea shared to use magnet schools for advanced learning like she experienced in North Carolina. One school that is all of the AL students. Other parents in the group disagreed with this idea. “We have fought for years to integrate our AL students with Gen Ed. Can’t they take PE and other classes all together?”
• “I like consolidated community schools to minimize commute times. I want students learning or in activities, not commuting on bus for long time riding across town.”
• “Agreed. Commute time is an issue for us with three kids in two different schools with AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Odle and elementary at Medina.”
• “It is hard to reconcile the demographers’ projections with the intrinsic birth rate. ������Ƶ�ٷ� is a preferred destination for school-age families. It is an attraction – families are moving here for school. I’m not sure how the demographer can project that influx. Sometimes there are external data pieces. ”
  • Example, Medina always shifts down in 4th & 5th because families can go to private schools and can afford to send them (Lakeside example from her neighbor). How are there micro-changes coming/going with other factors included in demographers’ projections?
• Our teachers that we know don’t live here in ������Ƶ�ٷ�. They live in Renton or Woodinville with lower housing costs. They commute in.
• Shared further concerns with staffing of school bus drivers and bus routes that are frequently cancelled.
• One of the most important is location.
• What happens to the school that is closed/consolidated.
• We need more information to participate more fully in this conversation. Right now, we have too little information.
• Would like to hear about the alternatives.
• Most important, having a variety of ������Ƶ�ٷ�s to pick from, band, orchestra, AL, Special Education. Will services be available at every site through consolidation?
• Bussing efficiency.
• Choice for the students and families that are being displaced.
• Elevate the voices of the families that have experienced consolidation at the elementary level.
• The district may want to consider ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming and systems in the district simultaneously. Take this opportunity to “fix” things.
• After school ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming, availability.
• Maintain quality of teaching, not too crowded.
• Keep the quality of the equipment and special classrooms (labs, engineering lab, computer labs, etc.).
• Keep current peers together.
• Would want to move one middle school into three schools so we don’t make one school too big, it would be better to have as little change as possible.
• Not too overcrowded, keep neighborhoods together geographically. Length of bus rides is important and having buses together.
• Heard from parents that experienced this last year about the emotional toll it took on them and specifically hear from them. Prioritize communication and requests from those families.
• The district should be asking what are the strengths and opportunities at each of the schools?
• Chinook: Strengths: amount of clubs, and different courses available, great people that work here, educating students about being safe.
• Really good experience here at CMS.
• Opportunities: too many lunches.
• Having a robust amount of afterschool clubs is important.
• It’s much more difficult to consolidate a middle school than an elementary school.
• Keeping tutorials is also a priority.
• Building a stable environment and structures in place for transition of students, especially.
• Priority would be to keep students together, focusing on the elementary experience.
• Prioritize AL placement. What is the ������Ƶ�ٷ� going to be for these students? What will this ������Ƶ�ٷ� look like? Can student relationships be considered as well? Both are important.
• Be very specific about future special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s and resources.
• The idea of closing a middle school is really sad, because your school is just gone. How do we help students to understand what is going on?
• How do students get to choose, if they do, where they get to go if their school is closed?
• The community the students built is gone – but can it shift and be in a different location?
• Diversity is important. I want to make sure my kids are learning from all aspects, even if my child is very academically driven, it’s only middle school, and I’d be anxious to see what she chooses.
• Even in AL, people can come from different backgrounds, and kids find a way to learn from each other.
• Will enrollment keep declining over time? Why don’t we wait a few years to keep tracking trends before we decide to consolidate?

Question 3: What questions do you have?

• How do we handle the big boom of populations over time like what was shown on the slides? What has been done in the past and did it work?
• Group asked more questions about the new apartments; Are the demographers connecting with city planners to ensure incoming families and local employers who are recruiting have housing and schools? This isn’t reflected in a single birthrate calculation.
• One group member asked specific questions about the methodology used by the demographers.
• What is the fundamental reason that makes hiring teachers difficult? Is it that there are no candidates, no one going into the profession or something else?
• The group asked if the presentation could highlight class size potentials instead of Utilization numbers. What would 50% utilization translate to in affective class size? Will class sizes be 15-20?
• Clarity sought on the actual budget deficit. How much money would the district lose with the enrollment loss?
• Curious about what happens to ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming at the current sites.
• What other options exist, creative problem solving.
• Will we be having to look at the High Schools within the next 2 to 5 years as well?
• Will teachers be reduced as a part of this process?
• Which is more expensive? Consolidation of specific ������Ƶ�ٷ�s at specific sites or offering a full continuum at each site.
• What will it do to the student teacher ratio? Will with ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming become too diluted to offer intensive ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming.
• Wondering what the boundaries would look like for each site for each school that is under consideration for consolidation.
• Would this result in a cascading effect? Would this affect all or just some of the schools?
• What has been the impact on students that were moved in the elementary consolidation?
• Would there be a choice for students that want to stay with their friends?
• What are the most important factors to the district??
• What are the guiding principles that the district will utilize to make a final decision?
• Please respond to the questions even if the district does not know the answer.
• Report back on the successes and challenges of the schools that were consolidated. How can this inform our decision making going forward?
• Were the metrics we used to consolidate the elementary school correct? Did we achieve the outcomes we were hoping for with the consolidation?
• “QFC is being demolished to create 400 apartments. How are we going to have 1000 more apartments and still thinking that enrollment will actually decrease? How will the district accommodate all of these kids in apartments? Is it a pipeline problem and then will we repeat this process in a few years? For example, we saw Wilburton closing five years after it opened.”

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

The participants at Highland were aligned around many themes in their responses. These included:

• Community
  • Students feel welcome and a sense of belonging.
  • Proximity to home.
  • Cultural identity.
• Teacher quality and student/adult relationships
  • Teachers work hard to support students.
  • Student / teacher relationships matter.
  • School psychologist provides supports.
  • Longevity of teachers is important for quality and relationships.
  • Keep class sizes small.
• Access to the clinic
  • Provides important health services.
  • Creates wrap-around support.
• Safety
  • Make sure there are enough adults to keep kids safe.
  • Larger middle schools could impact safety.
  • Improve safety.
• Diversity, equity and inclusion
  • Pride in the diversity at Highland.
  • Students feel a sense of belonging.
  • Diverse needs and diverse talents.
  • Closing Highland is not equitable.
  • More equitable access to ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, services and supports.
• Access to support and accelerated ������Ƶ�ٷ�s
  • Dual language.
  • Advanced learning.
  • Social emotional supports.
• Feeling “othered” for being a Title 1 school
  • Parents won’t send their kids to Highland because it’s a Title school.
  • People think it’s unsafe at Highland because it’s a Title School.
  • People look down on Highland because it’s a Title school.

��

Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

The participants at Highland were aligned around many themes in their responses. These included:

• • Students feel welcome and a sense of belonging.
  • Proximity to home.
  • Cultural identity.
• Teacher quality and student / adult relationships.
  • Teachers work hard to support students.
  • Student / teacher relationships matter.
  • School psychologist provides supports.
  • Longevity of teachers is important for quality and relationships.
  • Keep class sizes small.
• Access to the clinic.
  • Provides important health services.
  • Creates wrap-around support.
• • Make sure there are enough adults to keep kids safe.
  • Larger middle schools could impact safety.
  • Improve safety.
• Diversity, equity and inclusion.
  • Pride in the diversity at Highland.
  • Students feel a sense of belonging.
  • Diverse needs and diverse talents.
  • Closing Highland is not equitable.
  • More equitable access to ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, services and supports.
• Access to support and accelerated ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
  • Dual language.
  • Advanced learning.
  • Social emotional supports.
• Feeling “othered” for being a Title 1 school.
  • Parents won’t send their kids to Highland because it’s a Title school.
  • People think it’s unsafe at Highland because it’s a Title School.
  • People look down on Highland because it’s a Title school.

��

Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

There were a large number of questions from participants. A full list of the questions can be found in the combined notes below. Many of the questions fell into the following categories:

• What will happen to special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s?
  • Dual language
  • Advanced Learning
• Are choice schools part of this decision-making?
• What are other districts doing and can we partner?
• Can we delay this decision?
• What are other options, what are the trade-offs?
• How are students being engaged in this decision?
• How are we supporting students?
• How many schools will be consolidated?
• Is high school next?
• Will we have a choice about where to go if Highland is consolidated?
• How are we planning to address special education needs?
• What did we learn from last year?
• Does the district understand and value its Latino/Hispanic families?

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

English Session:

• Ensure the facilities match the needs of students, especially for kids with special needs (i.e., lift, toileting, size of rooms and space to maneuver, etc.)
• Program placement where students are safe in emergency, exiting building, parking, etc.
• Coursework that fits the needs of the students, challenging advanced classes available for students within their home school so they can stay with peer groups.
• The access to the health center, HUB, and Lifespring available is an important support.
• Dependable transportation that allows for feeder pattern drop off of older/younger students.
• Students have shown exponential growth at this school, both social/emotional and academic. Supporting every type of success for the student is important (sports, academics, music, etc.)
• Avid ������Ƶ�ٷ�
• Concentrating on the academic skills at the level needed for the student.
• Strong parent communication
• Strong relationships with friends need to be supported. Pay attention to groupings of students if we are making transitions.
• Health center makes it easy for families to access services.
• Staff who treat students like family.
• Strong sense of community
• Stability and consistency in order to build solid skills before moving forward.
• Strong core schools with ������Ƶ�ٷ�s for a variety of student needs.
• Quality education – Teachers know how to work with our students. They have cultural competency. Relationships have been built over the years.
• Transportation hub for students who work, ensuring that they still have the ability to continue with school and not drop out.
• Make sure that a community who will receive students is welcoming to any student no matter where they are coming from.
• Location and ������Ƶ�ٷ� should be good. Language ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are important. Advanced Learning is important.
• School and option mainstream with no special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, are we becoming so specialized it takes away from core funding.
• Highland is only title 1 middle school and mix them economic background, they all get along. representative of the world. Diverse student body at highland, diverse culture and language. Doesn’t want students to be��in a bubble.
• Feel as though Highland is looked down on. Do if they move to another school they will be looked down upon.
• Safety of students. If consolidate and packed students in the school, losing the ability to identify problems. Middle school doesn’t have critical thinking, so students are still developing. Kids will get lost in the system.
• Heritage and dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�s make it educational outcome is increased for those that have for
• Heritage and dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are not being used by the “right” group of parents. Not being used for the families it was designed for.
• Good transportation
• Variety of electives
• Diversity of cultures
• Too many choices, ignoring the basic neighborhoods middle schools.
• Choice schools take away from the gen ed schools.
• Pulled student from International and put them back at Highland.
• Priority for choice instead of gen ed.
• Why do we need to have AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Middle School?
• Cutting teachers at Highland in June but then had to hire them back in September.
• Important to have supports for students in middle school. Ease the ramp into middle school.
• Feel supported, to be socializing, to be happy, and be in a neighborhood.
• Sense of community first
• Proximity to home
• Extracurricular activities
• Son needs extra help. Knowing that he’ll still have access to that help.
• What are the next steps?
• Maximizing resources, wide enough parent body for PTSA. We struggled with that at Ardmore. Would like every school to be large enough to have enough people and resources.
• Like the diversity at HMS, gives people good Some schools are not as diverse. With HMS having so many community resources nearby, concerns me (if moved)
• Cannot get domain specific AL here. Need to bring ������Ƶ�ٷ�s for kids who may not qualify but have the need. Equity is very important.
• Beautiful brand-new building – just close it? We just invested in this facility and to just close it doesn’t make any sense.
• Almost 50% kids in F/R. Other schools – this school needs the resources.
• We just went through this last year at Ardmore.
• These communities were hit hard during covid.
• Kids said it’s a little rougher here. Focus on how to make it safe for everybody, including underprivileged and getting them what they need or not getting from home.
• Worried about safety. Newest school, so it makes sense to keep it.
• Love about LHE – white people are the minority. That’s why we stay in ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Reputation is an old reputation.
• People look at test scores.
• The culture has really changed.
• Diversity in the school community and diversity in class offerings and opportunities. (EX) domain specific services at their community school.
• Lots of hormones, social-emotional component and dynamics of friendships changing. Prep for high school, keeping organized, learning how to balance everything with the internal turmoil.
• Learning to navigate assignments, grades, have support for that. Support for students (with ADHD) was critical, would be hard to start over somewhere else, might cause some anxiety. Navigating new types of learning after middle school.
• All subjects given equal importance, extra time for subjects where they are behind (in tutorial). Near to home.
• Resources that Highland offers in comparison to other MS, more support with clinic and dental services. More robust in taking care of the student and family. Other schools are more academically focused, Highland is more focused on creating good community members. How can they contribute to their Universal Design is part of the student thought process, not as competitive or individually focused.
• Highland recognizes that everyone’s life is different. Challenged academically and to be a better person.
• New here, already feels like there are arms around them to support them. How can that be replaced? Psychologist was available when needed for their student. There is a sense that people want to help you here.
• (6^th grade student)—Teachers are nice and welcoming. Everyone is very friendly.
• Tutorials are very valuable. Teachers are very accessible. Band teacher invited student who could not take band to come to tutorial so she can play in the band.
• Ensuring that students have the support in these critical foundational years. Social emotional, academics. Teachers are important in this process. More teachers per child. Need amazing teachers and quality teachers.
• More inclusivity added to the schools. Neurodiversity and other needs being mainstreamed in the classroom.
• More adults per student. Students are being exposed to things way earlier and we need more adults to monitor it. Safety. Peer to peer interactions need to be positive. Safe place for all kids. Students that qualify for Special education need to feel included.
• Ensuring that our Social emotional needs are critical.
• All races, abilities, languages, and cultures need to be embraced. All students need to be included. We should not judge a student’s intelligence based on the ������Ƶ�ٷ� they are in.
• Include more ������Ƶ�ٷ�s that are teaching our students life-skills.
• When students are happy, academics are better. We need to build a community. All children are intelligent.
• Culture is important and there’s a difference between AL schools and Title schools.
• Sports and after-school activities are important.
• Having the amazing school psychologists stay with the students.
• Closeness of the School: It’s important that the school is close and walkable for your convenience.
• Special Education Program: Concerned about the impact on the special education ������Ƶ�ٷ� if teachers change, particularly the bond between teachers and students.
• Daughter’s Education: Daughter is currently receiving special education.
• Class Sizes: Worried that class sizes might increase if a middle school is consolidated.
• Factors for School Consolidation: You’re seeking input on important factors to consider if the school were to consolidate one middle school.
• Variation in Programs and Resources: Wondering if each school will have different ������Ƶ�ٷ�s and resources and concerned about losing ������Ƶ�ٷ�s due to school changes.
• Cohort for Advanced Learning: Want to ensure that the cohort for advanced learning remains intact despite any consolidation.
• Dual Program and Cultural Diversity: Concerned about how students will be separated in the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ�, and you value the importance of learning from other cultures.
• Program Equity and Accessibility: Have friends who attended a school called Puesta and are concerned about ������Ƶ�ٷ� equity and accessibility. Also concerned about the distance to the school.
• Access to Dual Language, cohort stay together, community like at Lake Hills, small classroom size, longevity of classroom staff and teacher to foster community,
• The community, longevity, teacher, especially with the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Because of the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ� that is our community. We lose students in the ������Ƶ�ٷ� from elementary to middle to high school. Want to minimize disruption. It was almost like the elementary was two different schools, so the kids were very closely knit. The fact that they move through together creates a tight knit community. I feel like students with disabilities may have some struggles.
• Support for students for students with disabilities. Teachers are consistent, keep good communication, consistency.
• Excellent teachers, peers in the school. Close relationships for students. The choices and the resources, it’s important to find students with similar interests, extracurriculars, clubs and sports.
• Diversity, equity & belonging is essential for a middle school experience, this exists at Highland, class sizes, clubs, extra-curriculars, great relationships between teachers as well as students, inclusive.
• Having a good facility, safety of the students, curriculum of the school. Lots of options for courses.
• Had a twice exceptional child. Middle school is a hard time for life. A block schedule is good for middle school students. The community—a relationship with strong, trusted adults, having extracurricular options. A diverse school environment is important for students. A strong community, a strong supportive school environment.
• Academics, what dual language would look like at Highland.
• Support for families that we work with (from clinic), families new to the community and new to the country, helping families learn to navigate many systems, language support.
• I want my child to be happy every morning when they go to school, I want him to want to go to school, he is stressed because he does not know what will happen.
• Each child has their own needs, sometimes one school setting is better than other (one child went to Odle, the other went to Highland) Want to support the learning experience and make sure it matches.
• At Highland, it felt like part of a community, accepted, kids that were different from them, they loved it, their friends their community.
• My daughter loves Highland, there are adults here that are here for her, they see her and care about her, I love that Highland reaches out in so many ways to connect with students and families, example, last year, play was presented to other students and community during the day, all kids are cared for.
• Diversity has this true diversity (experience with other middle schools), a big plus with Highland.
• Son loves MS, loves Highland, coming from Bennett, we heard rumblings in the neighborhood, “don’t want to send your kids to Highland…” Has been very active, it is mind-blowing. I don’t know why the reviews are the way they are.
• Challenge with projected low enrollment last year, and then did not materialize, teachers are amazing.
• Child at Cherry Crest, not impressed. Pulled from Cherry Crest to Bennett, better experience, and stay in community and go to Highland.
• Positive experience collaborating with Highland, strong support from school leadership, do one on one work with B&G Club, build healthy relationships with staff and students, partnership, keep the good things happening at Highland extended after the school day. Keep the connections with the clinic, the Hub, etc., space for all of us.
• The care at Highland…
• Highland is the only Title I middle school.
• Mom of 6^th grader, 3^rd hoping for Highland – move from LA. Stability is important especially with pandemic. Lives have been upended. The thought of more change is crazy. He loves it here. We were iffy about Highland, but we love Incredible ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. I’m surprised by the non-resident students coming to ������Ƶ�ٷ�. That could be a strategy – to bring in more. Why close them down, open them up to others in nearby communities?
• Parent of 7^th grade, and family is ������Ƶ�ٷ� alumni – great experiences at Highland. Consistency is a must. Students had similar experiences that are upending – with Covid and Sherwood Forest. ������Ƶ�ٷ� borders Lk WA School district. Audubon Elementary just redrew their district lines since they are overflowing and overcrowded. This is so close to us. The kids are near Ardmore and get bused across town in Kirkland to go to elementary. Ardmore is actually much closer for these families. This is a huge opportunity for ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Can we have districts work together? Perhaps a cross-district collaboration. It is crazy to me that we were having the “close Ardmore” conversation at the same time as Audubon is having kids in portables and overcrowding and sending kids across town to Rose Hill Elementary. The schools are right next to each other! Let’s work with the neighbors. Microsoft is building apartments on 140^th. How can districts collaborate to help provide stability to all children in the area? Things like this have worked in the past. Bennet was a part of Lake Washington school district before. Clearly there was partnership. Could something like this happen again?
• 6^th grade Highland student – I love the teachers. I have awesome teachers. I knew the teachers from my elementary. Continuity and community aspects are what I like best. I love the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�. I’m involved in ASB.
• Mom of 6^th grader and younger elementary age siblings at Sherwood Forest – engagement and community building, diversity has been a huge benefit. Our school is incredibly diverse both ethnically and economically. Diversity is a way to learn and grow. We need to raise well-rounded human beings. Highland has done a great job of including everybody. We want to ensure that the systems of strength that are currently here remain. This is an amazing school.
• Mom of 7^th grade son at Highland – I am displeased with the questions on the survey. It sounds like decisions have already been made. ������Ƶ�ٷ� screwed Highland by allowing people to choose out and this continues to forward the bigotry towards us, our kids and our school. The other parents talk poorly about Highland. Parents have said directly to me on a group mom text, calling the kids here at Highland “riff-raff.” And, “Oh, well nobody will want to go to Highland.” The district is promoting this attitude, forwarding this open bigotry with open enrollment policies. We need to all feel proud instead of promoting this prejudice. (The group agreed that they also feel this way and have openly seen / heard this narrative.)
• We were hesitant at first as 6^th grade parents, but then when we got here, this place is Fabulous school.
• We have many students that would benefit from AL services, and they should be served at their neighborhood schools. They shouldn’t have to go to another school.
• I know that the info online says that International and Big Picture are not in this study. Why not? The kids at those schools ‘won the lottery’ and now they are being excluded from this process. They should not be excluded. How is that equitable?
• If this process is truly equitable why is Highland even on the chopping block?
• Mom of 5^th & 6^th grade at Highland, similar feelings as others. Wants stable experience for daughter. Especially with pandemic instability. Most of the Bennet kids came here and they love it. As a former middle school teacher, I want a supportive staff. It is good and positive here. She (my daughter) gets that. She loves the teachers. I have background knowledge and I know a good school and good teachers when I see it. I hear it all at curriculum night. It is great. My younger daughter will need more services provided to her, and I cannot bear to think that she may not get to go here to Highland. The kids that choose not to go to Highland, they talk that way (offensively), and it has to be 100% acknowledged. Gosh, they’ve done something great here and that would be sad to go away. Can we have them stop choosing other schools? Stop the open enrollment. Or work to attract others? Bennet parents, we are going to Highland. We love it. The bus is packed! We love it. I want to be here. We service a community that needs people to support the kids here. Don’t take away the staff. They’ve built something great here.
• The staff works to create a collaboration environment, taking care of all kids. It is neat to see.
• My kid goes to tutorial every day because he enjoys it. He wants to be here.
• Piggybacking on the riff-raff, my daughter has one very good friend going to Tillicum. Her friend sends “we’re in a lockdown” text. We haven’t even had one. This is a safe fabulous school.
• Mom of son 6^th grader – really enjoying it. I resonate with all of the comments. I started volunteering on Thursdays here. Parents fill the need of hall monitor, cafeteria. Getting to know the staff has been so valuable. I had heard things about the staff. The amount of effort to make the Title 1 school a safe and fabulous place. They put their own money into getting laundry done and the Jubilee sports teams. As the only Title 1 school in district, for the kids who don’t have the privilege as others. How are we possibly going to give them rides if their school is across town? We give them breakfast and lunch. Are we really going to bus all these kids somewhere and get them breakfast for a 7:30 start time? That is not fair for our community here. It would be 7-8 buses. These kids were affected by covid more than others. It is not fair for our community at all. This is a brand-new building. They want to be here.
• Doing anything with Highland is the least equitable choice of all, unless we add kids. Add kids and keep it open.
• I don’t think our district really knows the needs here. You have to walk through the halls. The Board needs to walk the halls, mystery shopper style. Invitation to monitor the halls. Come at See the kids eating. See this community. What do you like about school here? Hear from the kids directly.
• Single mom with daughter 7^th grade – she loves the school. Very happy to hear directly from school. I got such bad comments about the school and its reputation but once I met everyone and saw my daughter. It is fantastic, new ������Ƶ�ٷ�. I got a recommendation from another principal to have my daughter here. She’s my only daughter and I am totally happy that she is integrated into the community. I am here because I want to be here totally integrated with you and the community. It works for us as Spanish speaking; she can learn both languages and really grow.
• STEM ������Ƶ�ٷ� – applied engineering and python and video and robotics. These ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are offered and unique. We have tech talent here, let’s keep it going. Many middle schools in the area do not have resources and classes like this.
• DL ������Ƶ�ٷ� is great.

Spanish Session:

• All their lives are around school.
• The school is close to the students’ homes and they feel safe.
• Classmates at school are neighbors and that generates a sense of community beyond contact at school.
• Since the parents are working, it is a peace of mind for them that the children are at school playing in the afternoons since it is close to the house.
• The dual ������Ƶ�ٷ� benefits students.
• The fact that the number of Latino children is large is a help to the Latino community. Getting closer to Latino culture is important as culture shock is important for our children.
• Students feel supported and helped to reach grades.
• Being able to be close to school prevents students from getting together with bad company.
• There are many homeless people in the surrounding area and knowing the school area makes them feel safe as they know the surroundings.
• They have continued paying high rents so their children can continue coming to Highland Middle School.
• Most of the teachers are bilingual. That makes Latino children feel more supported, helped, and integrated.
• The clinic means that parents do not have to travel and is an advantage over other schools.
• The boys and girls club is important for both parents and students.
• The Family Connection Center does a very important job for both students and parents.
• Highland culture, safe space and bilingual space.
• The opinion of my student, the environment of the new school, how staff and new classmates are going to receive the Hispanic community.
• Social/Emotional, how this change will impact our students emotionally, are they going to be able to stay with the same teachers, counselor, staff, etc.
• What’s going to happen with the Dual Program? Students who have been together since Preschool or kindergarten have built their community, they are united and belong to stay together.
• Transportation, many of our students have schedules, or walk to school, moving them could affect the family and the student.
• Mental health, this age is very vulnerable, and some students have some issues adapting to new changes too soon.
• Are classes going to be bigger? More students in one classroom?
• The most important experiences are:
• The Dual Program (Spanish-English) because it helps students keep in mind their culture, traditions, and values.
• Location, because it helps students walk to school. They also know the area and parents feel safe that their children walk in the area.
• Security, because students and parents feel that it is a safe school regarding to bullying, drugs, and inappropriate behavior.
• Other answers: All school information is shared in Spanish, safety and knowledge with IEP cases and Counseling in Spanish.

Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

English Session:

• Equity
• Who bears the cost?
• The design of the facilities in supporting the needs of students with disabilities
• Pay close attention to staffing needs for students transitioning to a new location.
• Staff who push the kids from where they are to the next level.
• Community is important because of the demographic of Highland – distance, many kids walk to school.
• Highland kids need to be close to their school to have the community.
• Student wellbeing.
• Don’t plan around the special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. Like language.
• First priority should be mainstream gen-ed.
• Choice schools are taking away from neighborhood enrollment.
• Choice schools are not on the consolidation list.
• Location – school bus doesn’t take too long.
• Flexibility – adapting to change.
• Electives – to find diverse friend groups.
• Not focus just on academics, but also on electives.
• Might be good for students to be exposed to many electives.
• Greatest good for the greatest number.
• Evaluate the small ������Ƶ�ٷ� middle schools as part of the consolidation process.
• There needs to be clarity around why does International and Big picture exist.
• Have BP spread out amongst the buildings.
• Waste of tax dollars in building these new buildings and then walking away from them.
• Consider the max capacity of each building.
• Consolidated students – will they have a choice where they go? They will pick Highland last.
• Making sure to catch those that need a boost.
• Consider class size.
• Teacher retention.
• How can we prevent this?
• Leadership – diversity, making sure resources are going the right way.
• Who is leading the kids?
• Cannot be talking about the how without the why.
• What can we do to stop those rumors about the school?
• Needs to be a partnership (parents, leader, staff)
• My son is playing sports he would never play before.
• Has now grown proud of his race.
• He needs help with English – every kid needs that option.
• Having meetings in different languages is important.
• Last year, a lot of people thought Ardmore was closing and so they moved to another school.
• We have to be clear that we’ve not made a decision.
• Timing of open enrollment is important.
• Last year, the Board hearing was at 4:30 and people could not get to Wilburton in the traffic.
• Need public transportation after hours.
• Didn’t hear from the whole community at those events.
• Start innovative ������Ƶ�ٷ�s, like robotics.
• Maybe attract more people from private schools
• Researching what private schools are doing that we could be doing.
• Have more enriching activities.
• Changes the availability of dreams, occupation.
• Community-building things like drama
• Like HMS is a walking school, it’s in the community where we live.
• When we have community activities
• The AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� is centralized – seems broken to do that.��Removes kids from the neighborhood.
• Reconsider how AL kids qualify for the ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Perhaps a lottery ������Ƶ�ٷ�.��Spread out to all the schools and make it more like a spectrum, every student would benefit.��It creates a weird hierarchy with AL.
• Concerned about the distance some kids would have to travel to get to school. Parents can’t always transport them. Kids who have to travel the farthest should have a school closer.
• Extra help needs to be provided to kids who are in lower half, getting them to keep up with their peers at the same level.
• Equity for all the kids.
• Feeling welcome in the community, no matter.
• Culture of respect, understanding, and acceptance.
• We are the role models for our kids.
• Middle school needs to have a better community building session at the beginning of the year.
• We’ll have better scores if we can spend a week or two to build community at the beginning of the year.
• Community building was not robust enough, we still have some families who feel they don’t belong.
• Middle school kids need it more because parents are no longer their primary support when they get older.
• Test scores are not the only aspect of our school. How you measure the success of a school is not just in their test scores.
• Community resources, clinic, things that are not easily replicable.
• If Highland receives students in a consolidation, how can we deal with the perceptions that people have about Highland? How do you protect students from the racism and perceptions of others that might be consolidated here.
• Normal for students to be welcoming and part of the community. Would be worried that they would be siloed elsewhere.
• Socioeconomic diversity at Highland is a benefit.
• Integrating Immersion and Spanish DL could be a benefit, cultural exchange that could be beneficial to Immersion students.
• Students are getting so many benefits. ������Ƶ�ٷ� curriculum and Title/LAP funds benefit everyone.
• Some parents have the ability or privilege to leave or threaten to leave and go to a private school, many Highland families don’t have that ability.
• Diversity is one of the rich benefits of being at Highland.
• Consider staff commute times. Will they be asked to drive even further?
• Does not feel that district does enough to reach out to families who are not here. People don’t read e-mails. What outreach is being done? Is it all on the PTSA or a few people to reach everyone?
• Highland does not have as many speed bumps as Odle. Don’t consolidate us to Odle.
• Location of Highland is conducive to students taking the metro after tutorial or activity. The bus line is essential.
• Highland is a community school and also has unique ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. A lot of integration of Pacific, teaching to whole human. DL is part of the community.
• In comparison to other middle schools, it seems to have a lot of lockdowns. Disagreements can cause disruption. Cell phones are a concern. Too much emphasis on policing cell phones and not enough on just teaching.
• Highland provides a lot for families that they might otherwise need to travel to. It is very accessible to resources in the community. More than a middle school, like a community hub with all of the resources, beyond academics.
• Teachers are dedicated, excellent communication. Gets kudos, gets concerns.
• Keep neighborhood togethers. Bus rides need to be short. It is important to consider the income levels of the families, situations, etc. in this decision.
• Consider other models for schools, like K-7 and an 8-12. Supportive of this ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Staying together with their peers. Staying close to their schools. Need to ensure that we keep the students together as much as possible. Ensure that families are together.
• Safety concerns.
• Location of Highland is very important to us.
• Large number of Spanish speaking families are here at Highland. There is a lot of support and services here at HMS. Family hub is Learning labs at this school is great and we don’t want to lose that.
• Inclusivity and Opportunities: You want the consolidation to be inclusive and provide every child with opportunities, particularly highlighting the robotics ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• After School Program: like an after-school ������Ƶ�ٷ� that’s accessible and close to your house, as there is no bus service.
• Participation in Clubs: Child participates in clubs and being able to walk home is important.
• Quality of Classes and Teachers: Concerned about losing familiarity with teachers and value the quality of classes and teachers.
• Electives: Interested in knowing if all schools will offer the same elective options.
• Highland’s Applied Engineering Class: Daughter enjoys this class and wants to know if it will still be available.
• Commuting and Traffic:
• Due to consolidation, all kids will have the same opportunity to participate.
• We need to consider what will happen next year.
• Keeping community together is really important. It’s a community for the students and the families.
• Consider the demographics of the students that are attending the school. Students at Highland have higher needs than some other communities. Consider the impact of students who most need to be served by the community, especially those who are underserved.
• Transportation is an important consideration. We need to make sure students get to school with reliable bus service, not long bus rides, make sure students are safe, safe with peers.
• Commute can’t be too long, especially students may be caring for siblings, support for multi-lingual learners must be considered and is important.
• High quality teachers that aren’t stressed, keeping class sizes small and reasonable is a critical consideration, consistency. Center the voices of the teachers.
• Transportation and to on a long bus ride, access to supports, concerned that this is short sighted.
• Consideration for transition if there is consolidation?
• Concerned about competing interests between ������Ƶ�ٷ�s (AL/Highland) competing interests in ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. Can have AL other ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
• Diverse needs of families must be taken into consideration.
• Students here need Highland need this space because they will thrive, and that they cannot take advantage of other ������Ƶ�ٷ�s or other schools. The students should be protected.
• Equity must be taken into consideration, Highland has done a great job of creating equitable spaces, but that should not be treated as equal.
• The teachers at Highland are so well qualified, need to keep the quality of teachers, they care about the students, many are multilingual.
• I got a call from a teacher during the day on how good my child was! (happened to several parents at the table)
• I have changed my opinion about the quality of education in Highland, (could have gone to Chinook)
• Kids here need to be protected more, need a different type of support.
• Dynamics change in middle school, some peer relationships change, need to be aware of that (transition)
• We have chosen Highland, vs. the feeling in some of the community how to avoid Highland.
• The positive vibe here, connection, how do we preserve/integrate all that is good about Highland?
• “I believe that ������Ƶ�ٷ� is rewarding the bigotry toward Highland students by offering open enrollment to other schools.”
• Doesn’t it cost more money to bus kids? (Bennett area has a but to Tillicum that that is our area!)
• Title 1. Don’t pick our school because of these factors. Equitable decision-making shows that this school cannot be split up because of these reasons.
• Glad to see that these questions are being posed. I’m a bit skeptical that the equity process will really be followed.
• DL ������Ƶ�ٷ� is very important. Don’t get rid of this.
• I really don’t want to consider consolidation, period. If we could brainstorm those other options would be great.
• I felt like if consolidation has to happen, Highland needs to be kept standing. We deserve to have as much as other kids. It is hard for this group to have less. I want them to have everything that they deserve. Stop promoting segregation. Stop letting families choose out of Highland.
• Teachers, staff have worked so hard the last 2-3 years. It is just starting to turn.
• Doesn’t the district get Title 1 funding? From an economics stand-point closing doesn’t make sense. We’d likely not qualify for Title 1 otherwise.
• I don’t think the district has been clear about the budget. What are things that we can be doing to increase income? We are in a really affluent area. Could we ask, have families donate?
• I’m curious about the deficit.
• The city of ������Ƶ�ٷ� has a ton of money. Does the ������Ƶ�ٷ� school district have access to the money? What could we do to work together?
• ������Ƶ�ٷ� School District needs to treat our school better. They’ve created this. They need to step up and help. There are parents who are willing to help financially if we knew what we needed to do.
• Lack of trust in the equitable decision-making process. Sherwood Forest went through this last year.
• ASB students putting together a survey (student-directed and they wanted to do this, so they took up the project.) Student: “We have a PowerPoint and a survey”

Spanish Session:

• All families agreed that their priorities and factors to consider were:
  • The Student Community: because some of the students have been together since kindergarten and are used to having the same circle of friends.
  • Mental Health: Parents fear that when changing schools, students may manifest mental health issues by feeling unprotected, alone, depressed, or unable to accept the change.
  • Transport: Families claim that because ������Ƶ�ٷ� School District Transportation has some routes closed, families do not feel safe having a school for their children farther from their homes.
  • Other answers: A school with all services, bullying prevention, and space to celebrate the traditions of the Latin community.
• Student’s opinion.
• Programs that are being offered.
• The community that the Dual Program has, is not easy to move many students from the DL ������Ƶ�ٷ� to different schools, it would be better to keep them together.
• To keep a small number of students in a classroom.
• Transportation, easy access for the families
• Not over fill middle schools with more students that the school staff can handle.
• Safety concerns with
• Students’ mental health
• Special education services and after-school clubs.
• Having support for low-income and minority (Hispanic), there’s a lot of Spanish-speaking parent involvement. Family Connections. Dual language is very important.
• Increases the time required to pick up children.
• Highland offers a successful dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Hispanic community cherish this for many reasons. Aside from the benefits that dual language education has to offer, it goes much deeper.
• It gives parents peace of mind that their children will not lose their cultural identity.
• It provides their kids a safe space from racism and bullying (which parents expressed they hear happening at other schools).
• Parents also feel more comfortable is HMS environment – many which do not feel that their English allows them to communicate with confidence. Highland has a true sense of community for all the parents at my table.
• Parents and students feel welcomed / safe / supported at highland.
• The IEP ������Ƶ�ٷ� is much appreciated as well as counting with extra tutorial support.
• Counseling support is right up there with the above priorities.
• One family at my table wanted their child to attend Odle, but the child refused and begged them for Highland. When prompted why – hearing from child friends experiences at both.”
• We care about the full educational ������Ƶ�ٷ� that the school has to offer which includes the core classes, electives, dual language, extracurriculars, sports, and special education.
• Many of our children, and the parents as well, enjoy the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ� and feel like they have benefited from that ������Ƶ�ٷ� which has become a key part of highland’s identity.
• Highland has a special education ������Ƶ�ٷ� that is different from other schools. What will happen to those students and where will they go?
• Lots of students are arriving from other countries and they only speak Spanish. Highland is a starting point for many because of the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�. If they close this school, then they don’t have this community to get them started on start a big transition in their lives (Latino culture community).
• Emotionally students feel more confident with the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�. It’s important for students to be comfortable. Their children have gained more confidence over time with the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Lots of kids have been in the dual language ever since kindergarten. This is a lifelong family and a community to many students and parents.
• “I have back pain and when we were told that we were going to be changed to Stevenson I made the choice of getting on a metro bus to take my daughter to school. Now I hear that the same is being done to Highland and I think about the challenges of commuting every day.”
• The community is more supportive towards Latinos within Highland due to the large numbers of Latinos in the nearby community.
• Students are more motivated to do better in a community that they know they can thrive in and are continuously supported.
• Don’t take away ������Ƶ�ٷ�s like the clinic, or the boys and girls club.
• The family connection department should be maintained as it is very important.
• Mariela helps students graduate with emotional support and information support. She should be able to continue to do that work.

Question 3: What questions do you have?

English Session:

• What percentage of the new out of district students are former ������Ƶ�ٷ� students who have moved out of district and are staying enrolled in ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• Do special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s deserve to exist at the cost of neighborhood schools?
• Transportation impacts
• Who will have the conversation with students about what is happening?
• Is there a session for the students to give input?
• Flexibility to changing
• The lottery system should be more fair for the choice Have an opt-out system instead of opting in for those ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
• Have similar.
• Who is the target audience for International and Big Picture? Why do those ������Ƶ�ٷ�s exist? Many families can’t navigate the lottery.
• Will the apartments bring more students?
• Do we need to consolidate now? Maybe we should wait? We are still right off of Covid, maybe not everything has settled.
• Dual classes – what’s going to happen. Will other schools have it?
• We live in Lake Hills area. Would like DL to stay in one area/school.
• Are the high schools next on the chopping block?
• Are the demographic reports suggesting anything in high schools?
• Would like to see a map of the district with boundaries so we can see where our children would go.
• If students moved and there are different options for electives, how could that be addressed?
• What would happen to DL if Highland closed?
• What would happen to the Highland building if it were consolidated?
• What is the actual enrollment of Highland if AL students were included? (The ones that end up at Odle)
• Could we look at middle school and high school at the same time so that there is not a continual upheaval for students?
• Is the decision just based on the birth rates? Is that being considered that
• How many schools are they proposing to close?
• What are the ratios for middle school classrooms?
• Why are we building schools or remodeling schools?
• What are the levies being used for?
• What happens with the elementary buildings that were closed?
• What will happen to a closed middle school building?
• If we consolidate, can we allocate more resources to inclusivity, including neurodiversity.
• How do we plan to tackle the mental well-being of all students if we consolidate?
• How do we support the students that are homeless?
• How are we ensuring that we are reaching out to our families that cannot be here tonight because of multiple jobs?
• Why is AL not in all the schools?
• What will happen to the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• How can we get the information about these sessions when they are announced?
• How will the PTSA (Parent-Teacher-Student Association) work? I’m pondering the challenges it may pose.
• Who will be responsible for managing and controlling traffic with the influx of kids due to consolidation?
• How early will children need to wake up to catch the bus because of the consolidation?
• Do you think it’s necessary for children to wake up early, or should we consider their sleep and social/family time?
• Are all the facilities at the school new, and do they have everything they need for the students?
• Will students have the opportunity to stay together with their friends rather than being split up?
• Will parents and students continue to have the choice to select a school, even after consolidation?
• Is there a plan for ������Ƶ�ٷ� to rezone in response to the influx of students from other districts?
• It would be interesting to know the percentage of students coming from other districts and why it’s happening.
• Will there be options for students impacted by consolidation to move to another middle school based on their special education needs?
• Are there specific schools that specialize in special education, and which one would be better suited for these needs?
• Are there multiple schools under consideration for consolidation, and will parents and students have a say in the selection, or is the decision already made?
• What will happen to Title I funding, and how does it affect schools with diverse backgrounds?
• How will the Title I funding be utilized in the future?
• How will the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ� be affected by consolidation in terms of student numbers and teachers?
• What will the impact of consolidation be on the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ�, and will other ������Ƶ�ٷ�s be affected as well?
• How will special education services be distributed across the consolidated schools, and will they be equitable for all?
• Are there plans to address social and emotional discrepancies in students, especially in the next cohort?
• Future Enrollment and International School:
• If enrollment increases after consolidation, what plans are in place to accommodate the additional students?
• What is the plan for the International School’s needs and any potential new school?
• What social and emotional ������Ƶ�ٷ�s will be in place for students, and how important is it to address these needs during the consolidation?
• If a school is consolidated, will students still have the opportunity to apply to choice schools?
• What data is available regarding choice schools, and will there be efforts to expand access and opportunities to apply to these schools?
• Concern that demographics and projections are incorrect and underestimated. How do we know if these are correct?
• How are new families welcomed if we displace families, and are we putting aside funding and supports?
• What considerations are being taken to continue to support the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�? Honor K-12 commitment to the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• What is the learning from the elementary consolidation and what are we doing differently?
• What are we actually going to lose? What are we going to actually lose? What are the actual trade-offs? What else have we tried? Why now?
• What did we learn from the elementary factor? What did we not consider or what did we miss?
• Non-resident / resident—funding
• What is the criterion by which the decision will be made? That is unclear. What factors will be taken into account? Programs? Commute? Worried we will impact the most marginalized.
• If we consolidate, what are the benefits of the consolidation? The negatives are clear, but the benefits are not clear.
• Why do we have ISA and Dual separate? There’s an opportunity to consolidate? How do we support MLL?
• Big Picture and International data are not included in all of the data. Why not? Are they not being considered for consolidation?
• What ������Ƶ�ٷ�s could be taken away? What does support mean if taken away? Currently parent at Lake Hills in Dual
• What would that mean at Highland if supports were lost?
• What are class sizes if consolidated, special ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• How do we change the narrative about Highland?
• What is Lake Washington doing regarding declining enrollment?
• Is it possible that 2 middle schools get closed?
• Are Big Picture/International included in this process?
• What will happen to a brand-new facility?
• How confident are we in the enrollment data? What happens if it changes 5 years down the road?
• High schools are crowded. Will that continue?
• Will it happen at high school? (consolidation)
• If this happens, are families given a choice?
• Will real estate value be part of the decision-making? Example, Highland in a more commercial area, worry that the facility would be sold or rented.
• Will the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ� continue?
• How much are we in deficit? If it is not that big, can we all pitch in?
• What would Highland’s numbers be if students went to their neighborhood school? Demographers report doesn’t show this?
• Wondering about special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s? Why can’t we offer AL at every school? Can we move the AL self-contained ������Ƶ�ٷ�s at all middle schools? Can we have the ������Ƶ�ٷ�s here as well?
• Are we going to look at the choice enrollment or open enrollment and will that impact the decision?
• Is it possible to collaborate with other districts to meet needs?
• How will we have access and transparency to the equitable decision-making process? We want to see this implemented with integrity and have confidence in how the decisions are being made.
• Can we have Board members experience each school being considered? Ex. Hall monitor volunteer (not an official tour visit, just a normal day)
• How will this information be shared with our students? Is this causing anxiety for students now? What is the plan to share with students?

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Spanish Session:

• Is the School District considering the emotional and human impact the consolidation has?
• Will emotional support be provided to parents and students?
• Children already have enough stress; the parents would like to know what emotional tools are going to be provided at school and the families to cope with this process.
• What will happen with the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�? Where will it go? Will other schools have the dual language ������Ƶ�ٷ�, or will it be discontinued? Will the ������Ƶ�ٷ� be the same or will it change if it moves to other schools?
• What will happen to the IEP ������Ƶ�ٷ� that is unique to this school? Where will the parents with IEP students go and will the same services be provided at the other schools? Is the school district prepared to make such a transition?
• Where do we stand as a school in terms of how likely we are to close?
• How will the students be split up for the new students coming in to be consolidated? How is it determined which school they will get to?
• How will children be supported emotionally and psychologically from the experience of transitioning? and is the district prepared to handle that?
• This school is in proximity of a lot of our jobs to drop off our kids. How will the district accommodate if we cannot drop off our kids?
• Is this a competition between schools to not get closed? What can we do to not have our school close down?
• Does the school district care about the needs of the children or take it into consideration such as special education or the students that do not speak English?
• The Latino population is also growing in the area we live in, so how will this impact the Latino community if they take away such an essential part away.
• Is this an effort by the school district to displace Hispanic families and communities? It feels like the intent here is to displace the unified community that we spent years putting together.
• Fear that a consolidation would mean larger classes and less resources.
• What would happen the “the quality” of the dual ������Ƶ�ٷ� offered at Highland?
• If were where a reduction in # of classes, how does this affect academic development?
• What would happen to all the parent support they get – understanding schooling, paperwork etc.
• What is the main reason why it is closing?
• What will they do with this school/building?
• If they close this school, what will happen to my child? Why build a school of this size without taking into account the number of children there were?
• Is the community survey done?
• Dual language is why parents have kids here. Are the reviews of being a Good School fake?
• If Highland stays open, could you make transportation a little more accessible?
• How is it going to be handled?
• What students go to which school?
• Are they going to have options?
• Is the DL ������Ƶ�ٷ� will stay together?
• What’s going to happen with their teachers? Are they going to be moved with them?
• How is a student with an IEP will be served?
• What would be the numbers of students per classroom?
• What would security be like?
• Why would they close the school?
• Will there be more help for teachers?
• What school would the students transfer to?
• Would the two languages accompany each other?
• ������Ƶ�ٷ� is a very expensive city, why can’t it support the schools?
• Would closing a school improve education?

Summary

Responses to Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

The participants at Odle described a strong community connection that is important to them and their students. They were aligned on their commitment to the Advanced Learning (AL) ������Ƶ�ٷ� and keeping it intact at Odle. They believe the ������Ƶ�ٷ� is successful because of the quality of the teachers there. If the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� moved, they asked that high quality educators be utilized in providing it. Participants are concerned about student teacher ratios and want teachers to have the time to give students input and feedback. They consistently said that 30 to 1 was too high to be effective. Some expressed skepticism about the demographers’ report and the data. Students’ social, emotional well-being was described often as a priority. Some were interested in finding out more about the budget and how additional money could be raised to support the schools.

Responses to Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors do you think we should consider?

Discussing this question, the Odle community participants prioritized keeping the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� intact at the school. They do not want Odle closed. They also felt strongly that the quality of the educators providing AL must be high and having high class ratios diminishes the teachers’ ability to meet the needs of every student. This group values keeping their students together in a cohort. If there were a consolidation, they would want the kids kept together with their teachers as much as possible. They also do not want long commute times for kids. Many asked about the pace of the decision-making and wondered whether this must be decided right now or if we can gather more data and decide later. Some expressed distrust of the process and the district.

Responses to Question 3: What questions do you have?

Many of the participants’ questions fell into the following themes:

• Budget and finance
  • People want to know more about the state of the budget, what our deficit looks like.
  • Where does the money come from and how is it used?
  • Are there other ways to raise money?
  • What are the savings with consolidation vs. other options?
• Options and alternatives
  • What other options are being considered?
  • Can we merge choice schools or integrate choice ������Ƶ�ٷ�s into each school?
  • Are Big Picture and International off the table? What about merging them?
• Demographer’s report
  • What was their methodology?
  • Are we too focused on the COVID effects of enrollment?
  • How do we know the data are correct?
• The AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�
  • If one middle school is closed, can AL be provided at the remaining middle schools?
  • If we disband the ������Ƶ�ٷ�, will it be put in the other schools?
  • If we close the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, people will leave.
• Enrollment
  • Why are people choosing private schools?
  • How can we attract more non-resident students?
• Process
  • How will the decision be made?
  • Will there be more community forums?
  • What will happen to community feedback?
  • Learn what we can from the last process, talk to parents who went through it.
• Staff
  • What will happen to staff in a school that gets consolidated?

Combined Notes

Question 1: What aspects of the middle school experience are most important to you/your student?

• Environment, Odle, very good, feel safe, daughter was very successful, really great.
• Quality of education, AL, Cherry Crest, Odle, Interlake why we moved here just for Al
• Environment, actual learning, AL, teachers, ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are what brought us here, high quality, impact learning.
• Teachers are very strong, they care, care about the students, they learn from their peers, learn to become good citizens, I love that about this school.
• STEM, likes the environment, makes friends, work to connect with students, they compare to other schools, the strength of the teachers.
• The teachers are great, dedicated, you can feel that with the students, we love the school, kids like going to school.
• Kids are not great with changes, they are used to their friends, their network, worry that they won’t adapt.
• Kids have started a change.org petition.
• School meets the needs of a wide range of diverse students, AL, non-AL, kids from different families, backgrounds, etc. a very good mix of diversity.
• You can feel the positive energy when you walk in the door, very different from elementary.
• Odle has a rich history, many families have gone here for generations.
• It is a highly ranked school, what parents and families want.
• When we think of middle school, we think of Odle as the model.
• Students’ morale. Consistent and stable environment. AL community of students who have grown up together is very strong…reason not moving out of ������Ƶ�ٷ� is because of the strength and richness of the AL community.
• Student comment: Fear of having to switch schools and losing friends…how will we be able to start again at a new school without the built in support systems, like WEB Orientation activities.
• AL students need unique challenges throughout their day…how will these unique needs be met if the ������Ƶ�ٷ� itself is dismantled and spread throughout the district?
• The ������Ƶ�ٷ� she is in and the cohort she is with is what matters, not the physical building.
• Middle school that is from different places, opportunities for kids to meet others, adequate electives and choices.
• Stable and positive and supportive and secure environment. Not changing in the middle of school.
• Students love Odle. In a bigger school, how will they be supportive? Counselor at Odle is unavailable currently, if schools are consolidated, then how will the staff support an even bigger school. Important to stay with friends, students have already been impacted by pandemic. Consolidation is too much for the kids after going through the pandemic.
• Time for a lot of change. Providing a safe and reliable place. Place of job and have fun. Build a foundation where they like school. Gain joy and comfort.
• Diverse elective ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Electives were built up at Odle after many years. Daughter loves the community at Odle. Environment at Odle is welcoming and joyful.
• After an unhappy event last year, it’s too much. Kids don’t want to go back to home school. They want to stay with their friends. Many rumors.
• Keep AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� intact, if Odle shuts down, how will that work?
• Will current ������Ƶ�ٷ�s at Odle and established, closing Odle would cause disruption to these ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. (rocketry, chess, math)
• PTSA is strong at Odle, there are many after school clubs, run by parent volunteers. Would be hard to start this again from scratch. Would be challenging to re-start them at another school.
• Hard to find teacher to sponsor clubs.
• Uncertainty amongst students and they bring it up with teachers.
• If OMS consolidates, big impact for AL.
• Want to AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� to stay here.
• Keep our AL teachers, dedicated teachers.
• Compared with other students in the district, teachers use different materials and instructional approaches.
• Keep AL kids together.
• If we lose the AL, most students will leave.
• At least 4 classes together
• Reduce the bar to get into AL and draw back more students from private.
• Why not have a committee with AL parent representatives to help with decision making or recommendations?
• Keep AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� intact either here or other school but keep teachers together.
• Where would we move them to?
• We already have on in the South, the other one should be in North.
• Seems like Odle is most central for the North end.
• Fantastic teachers who understand how to deal with kids like this.
• Kids challenge each other, which really helps them.
• Regardless of what we do with the schools, we want AL to keep enough scale to have enough peers and teachers who understand AL student needs.
• Don’t want to see what Seattle did, they put all AL into the neighborhood schools but not AL classes.
• Curious about priority list.
• Where does AL come into the priority?
• How much do we care to maintain a high standard of the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• International School – would like to expand.
• Tesla School – would like to see something like this here.
• Facility utilization is not the right metric to track.
• What does it mean for the teachers when we merge?
• We should agree that AL is a specialty, and they need a special staff to support them. That is equity.
• What are the options to get out of the merge?
• The merge will result in more people wanting to leave.
• Families living in ������Ƶ�ٷ�, income is higher so education is important, and they can afford private school.
• Fix the problem from the root – fix the quality of education.
• If you can lower class size, kids get more attention.
• Do not agree with the merge.
• Property tax doesn’t make sense.
• Work with the community to contribute money.
• Raise money with the foundation.��Tax deductible.
• Get people motivated about funding if you give them a specific goal.
• A sense of community that students are part of cohort and keeping them together.
• Teachers are important.
• Setting students up for success by providing the right tools and support.
• Equity means that every student has special needs that need to be addressed.
• It is important for the district to support AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�s.
• Students need diverse opportunities in learning. Courses, etc.
• Understanding of competing interests
• Quality of education: (how can we measure this?)
  • Attention
  • Rigor of advanced learning
  • Variety of classes
  • Quality of teaching and professional development
  • Specialized AL offerings & centralized AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� compared to other districts
  • Number of AL kids at the school (keeps kid humble)
  • Quality of teachers may trump central ������Ƶ�ٷ� over DE
• Resources: Clubs, Sports, Band
• Well-being:
  • Mental health support.
  • Stimulated at school.
  • Friends – maintain same group.
  • Strong peer group.
  • Emotional support through transition.
• Quality of education
  • Number of teachers?
• Mental Health
  • Who can help students manage the transition?
• Communication
  • Competing interests during the decision-making process.
  • Understanding how open enrollment works.
  • What are the factors that the district is considering?
  • Share the operational savings of closing a school.
  • Middle school reimagining.
• Right preparation for their career is very important. Meeting the needs of all students at all levels. At university level it has been seen that students are not always ready to do college work. How can we close the gap? Not just passing rate, but what they really need to be successful.
• Supportive environment. Middle school sets a good foundation if it meets their needs. Friendship circle from elementary school continues, little worried about losing that. Kids need a supportive environment, familiarity is important. Students made the decision to come to Odle.
• Stability, supportive environment. Safe to make mistakes and learn from them. Middle school is a big transition stage, pace increases, higher stakes. Figure out what it is they want Middle school helps them explore their interests and passions. Friendship groups shift, protective environment is important.
• Counselors, everyone is assigned one counselor. What if you don’t connect with them? Be great if it is easier to change counselors. This is a big part of the supportive environment. Retain as many electives as possible. What do they like to do? Make sure that they can have a variety of music, art and tech classes. At least one class that they really love that they look forward to. Helps them stay engaged. Make retaining those electives a priority.
• Community is important. If you have a strong friend group, you don’t need counselors. Social circle is really important. Especially at this level.
• Transition from ES to MS, acts as a WEB leader to get used to Odle. Did a meet up to see how first month is going. Hard to catch up to the standards, have to rise to the level very quickly. Easy to fall behind and hard to catch up. Supportive environment is very critical.
• Elective requirement for Applied Engineering. Not excited at first but loves it now. Having friends in those classes, group that you are comfortable with is very helpful.
• Clubs and activities are really important, strong community and make friends at the same time. Sports, stay active at the same time.
• Meet people that have the same interests, can connect and form friend safety net.
• Culture/atmosphere at Odle, what older grades are doing, shapes what they see they can do. Clubs/activities to group students at all grades, can interact across different years and grow.
• There is a reason why students like a school. No matter what the decision is, you need to keep the culture and the things that people appreciate, find a way to preserve those things.
• (Suggestion/lunch discussion) Support ability to build social network. Make lunchtime the entire class period rather than 30 minutes. More time to socialize. Sometimes lunchroom is really loud. Need a quieter space to decompress, can’t eat in the library. If they try to eat fast to go out to the field, they still don’t have much time to go outside and run around and talk to friends. Don’t split up grades. 1^st lunch is hard because it is too early. What if students were in cohort/houses?
• Questions regarding the validity of demographer data.
• Methodology seems to be one- or two-year projections extrapolated to 2030. Not statistically reliable.
• Projections are consistently under predicted over time
• COVID had a significant impact on enrollment and may be the major factor of enrollment loss. Projections can’t predict events like COVID. Making a big decision on the basis of projections is dangerous if the foundation (projections) is not convincing.
• Even if projection is accurate and average the two, it’s still 6% inaccurate.
• With more density in ������Ƶ�ٷ� anticipated, we could be rebuilding 7 years from now when it’s much more expensive.
• It’s always a tradeoff. Smaller schools-strong communities versus larger schools with more choice but harder to create community.
• Small schools are more conducive for building community.
• Sense of belonging is extremely important for middle schoolers and supporting mental health is important. Displacement due to consolidation can have a deleterious impact.
• Students are already talking about it. Rumors abound. Students are distressed.
• The longer it takes to get to a decision can really be impactful. The waiting is very hard.
• If we have to cut costs, the brunt of the impact should be equally distributed. With consolidation, one group of students bears the impact.
• Consolidation could increase the loss of students to private schools. Closing schools creates instability and uncertainty and a loss of confidence in public schools and could perpetuate the enrollment loss.
• Consolidation doesn’t address the cause of enrollment.
• Consolidations will contribute to a loss of trust and the ������Ƶ�ٷ� reputation will be compromised.
• Love choices at Odle. Jazz ������Ƶ�ٷ�, sports, course options.
• Odle has a great Community feeling. Every student belongs.
• Kids feel supported in AL. One site for AL provides a strong community. If we lose it, it is impossible to bring back the same success if AL is dispersed.
• Electives, course offerings are not a game changer. Would rather have less choice to maintain current ������Ƶ�ٷ�. You could close Odle, and offer 10 additional choices, but it still doesn’t pencil out.
• We moved here because of the schools. I’m now wondering if we made the wrong choice in moving here.
• Quality of ������Ƶ�ٷ� schools is one reason for the high cost of housing. We need to keep the quality of schools high. Consolidating a school could jeopardize perception and perception is reality.
• Consolidating a school could cause snowball effect. Loss to private schools which could lead to a lack of support of future levies.
• Be aware of the long-term implications of decision today that could have impacts for years and perpetuate the enrollment challenge.
• Need to maintain the high quality of schools to maintain the students we have and to attract non-resident students and students currently in private schools.
• AL Odle and Chinook. Moved from LW to ������Ƶ�ٷ� for the community and the schools for the reputation. Stabilize the community and the peers. Emotionally, this is important. Maybe people will move here, and we will be overcrowded.
• Quality of education. Experience from elementary and the teacher experience was not good. AL is special and we need specialized instruction for AL students. 60% of students at Odle are AL. How do we maintain the same quality?
• Emotional stability is critical. It’s important to see familiar faces adults and students.
• Avoid worst case scenario: AL goes away, and we have to go to private schools.
• Need to improve the quality of teaching across the district.
• Best scenario: keep Odle and AL open here. If it has to move, make sure to preserve the quality of the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Concern of this process: and there’s not questions answered.
• 6^thGrade AL student.
• Odle is fun. I have lots of friends here. Don’t want to split up with my friends.
• Our son is in AL, want to make sure he still has the same quality of education as he has currently in AL at Odle. He used to be getting some AL support at Enatai before – that just doesn’t work, not close, as having a dedicated classroom for AL. Odle has very distinguished labs for robotics and similar, that are not at other middle schools, which make a significant difference in his life – he’s the president of the robotics club and very excited – we fear moving to another school will restrict his reach to those labs. And his friends – changing schools impacts friend and friend group, and includes those not in AL. That he has been with since 1^st grade at CCES. Location is close to their home. The teachers, we are happy with them, classmates. When my child was not in a self-contained ������Ƶ�ٷ� for AL before, it was like they didn’t get any services at all.
• Location – AL – Cohort, AL was his regular teaching, which is truly separate, don’t want to lose that in consolidation. School to teacher ratio – in elementary schools this has come up.
• AL remains a self-contained ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Concerned that there may be a push to cut AL as self-contained and distributed to other schools – it just doesn’t work. I’m very unhappy with how elementary schools were closed last year – told that due to a lack of students they had to close schools. My kids were moved to a different school – poor logistics to get to (Woodridge) and insufficient classrooms. My students were in an exterior cottage last year AND this year. The idea that we don’t have enough students doesn’t make sense. The student to teacher ratio right now is over 30 to 1, which for a district which averages 20 teachers per student is absolutely not ideal. Very disappointed. Now in the idea that there is a push in some parts to distribute AL in classrooms of 25-30 student per teacher, but understanding that kids learn at different rates, this will impact the quality of education – slow down the speed at which student learn and dilute the rigor of what students need. I have zero confidence in the demographic data. Looking at the study they were off by 20% in some years. If they were off by that much in one year, how do we think this would be right for 10 years?
• We know the population in ������Ƶ�ٷ� grows about 5% a year. The idea that real estate has gone up, we will see increased enrollment is BS. Those of us who work in tech, we can change stats any time. To make them suit what we want them to look like. My kids barely get attention now in a classroom of 30 to 1 – the idea that they can get better attention in a classroom where it is not self-contained and the class sizes are higher, that is terrible. He gets tests wrong because his computer didn’t work but he didn’t get attention from the teacher in time to get help.
• My daughter last year at Spiritridge – and this year at Woodridge with 30 students. The teacher doesn’t have time to answer questions. Last year my student got lots of feedback on writing, this year the teacher doesn’t have time for that. The time is a critical resource for teachers. My daughter is in 4^th grade, loves learning.
• AL doesn’t just build on each other grade by grade – the students are learning from each other, and that is the key importance. I think there is an essential difference between AL classes and gen ed classes. Putting them in a normal environment, nothing will happen for them. My daughter I still remember, in the beginning, she wouldn’t dare to start reading Harry Potter, and she was intimidated, but her friends did, and talked about it, and it encouraged her to read it. In 4^th grade now, they are reciting Hamilton! Because friends are doing this. The environment is very important.
• My daughter is in 6^th grade at Odle – in Elementary she was in Jing Mei – most of her friends went to Tyee or Tillicum, she’s the only one at Odle. Only here one month, she loves it very much. The teaching style and her classmates – she loves it. She doesn’t want to leave here. One of her classmates has a petition of her classmates to sign to not close Odle. Most students don’t want it to close. I think it is good for the students’ health – they don’t want to change, in the middle of middle school – this would be a disruption to be in another environment – different students, different school. It would stop their growth. The AL students – that environment is very good for students studying and learning. Odle teachers and the learning environment is good for them. They can learn from each other – they all want to learn. Odle is a big middle school – it is almost the biggest in ������Ƶ�ٷ� – it is not smart to disrupt that many students. That would affect almost 1000 students. The location of Odle is very good – AL may come from different places, but Odle is central, and it is convenient for AL students to go here.
• Don’t split AL at Odle, — this attracts parents, who move into ������Ƶ�ٷ� – I’m a real estate agent and my clients choose ������Ƶ�ٷ� for the schools – not just the housing prices, it is parent expectations. I moved from out of state to ������Ƶ�ٷ� to stay here due to the quality of the schools. ������Ƶ�ٷ� hasn’t been doing a good job since the pandemic. That’s why Dr. Duran was fired. If people can’t do their jobs well, they should get fired. School is a special place; they shouldn’t be run like a business. Teachers who are good have been teaching for a long time, and if their school is closed, they can lose their motivation. If they split them to different schools, they communicate less with co-workers, this is bad for students and teachers. I don’t think schools should be run like a business – this is a special place for children. Having a stable environment – Middle school only has 3 years, that’s not long. My kids are in 6^th grade AL – and if they had to leave next year, they would miss their friends, and this is unstable for them. For teens having to settle into a different environment, I don’t want another tragedy to happen like before. If you wait for a tragedy to happen, that is too late. Closing the school that would cause a lot of mental stress, and they have unstable hormones. A lot of girls are emotional – if they don’t see their friends again in a new environment, they could be attracted to a lot of bad things.
• If the demographers were correct, they shouldn’t have opened Wilburton, just to close it again. Property tax last year went up 30% which means the schools get a lot of money regardless of enrollment being down. The property tax is distributed by percentage, not by number of students. ������Ƶ�ٷ� should be transparent. If the school district really needs funding, we can make special donations to support our community – parents want to contribute. Keep the quality of education. Some of my friend’s kids went to private schools since the quality of education has been going down and class sizes are going up to 30 to 1.
• Education quality in terms of teacher to student ratio, ������Ƶ�ٷ�, electives.
• Sense of belonging with peers and teachers.
• Distance of the commute.
• Friends, if students are having to move keep them with elementary friends or back to the region they go to.
• Keeping in mind what supports for AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� will look like to continue to challenge students appropriately.
• What will the AL teachers look like if the ������Ƶ�ٷ� is moved?
• Ensure time to adjust to new schools if there is a change in placement.
• Think about the emotional support needs of the students if they only have a single middle school experience.
• Friendships are a primary importance for middle school age students.
• AL training for teachers to make sure they know how to appropriately challenge the students. Acceleration does not just answer the needs of AL.
• Beginning a foreign language has been exciting, music (band and orchestra) and coding are electives that students are exploring.
• Continuity into high school should be considered. Don’t impact multiple times.
• Consider ranking of schools in decision making.
• The support from the staff and that there be consistency of the education. Changing the environment will not help that.
• We want a high quality of education. Too Many changes are not good, and we don’t want to disrupt them (the students).
• Advanced learning ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Medina. It is important to stay in the advanced learning ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Want them to keep that and continue. It is important to their social-emotional growth and learning.
• We will go to private school if the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� loses value. People buy homes in this area because of the schools. We work very hard to afford to live here (working for Microsoft).
• There is no other ������Ƶ�ٷ� in ������Ƶ�ٷ� that will challenge our children like AL.
• Change is not good, and stability is important. Moving is too big of an impact and we don’t want a new start.
• Concerns of cramming students into another facility and wonders about sufficient space for students and over-crowding; needing to use portables. As a student who lived through a school consolidation many years ago, remembering the number of electives that were added because of the consolidation and the funding that was available to do so.
• As a single mom who invested in this area and money in this area to have a good education. Spend money and sacrifice herself to live in the area. Need a good environment to be successful.
• Kids traveling longer distances is a concern and the transportation shortage is not good in this regard.
• Want to help fundraising,
• What are we doing to get more students?
• Dad of 6^th grader with other AL elementary school students upcoming. Current student in the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Odle. He has questions about the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� impact. Most important is the quality of Education in Odle, in general education classes and about the quality of education in the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. “Teachers are the most important, and then the student peers that the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. So, they can learn together. Many other districts do not offer middle school AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�s. ������Ƶ�ٷ� does and it is important to maintain. AL Domain specific services were not effective for our students. We want a self-contained ������Ƶ�ٷ�. I can see the difference in the ������Ƶ�ٷ�.”
• Mom, twins at International, PTSA connection – Superintendent committee – taking notes and offering some thoughts. She shared the purpose of the superintendent committee.
• Dad, daughter at Odle, also the science club leader at Odle. His concern mainly is that we have to consolidate. “Is that the only option that we have to go? Based on the data and the birth rate and housing price. Housing prices will change soon with high interest rates. Now we make a big decision that is coming right out of a three-year pandemic. We need to remove that data from the pandemic years and then generate the predictions. What are the major reasons? Are there other reasons? If parents feel like the education ecology is not good, we will move to other school districts and the downward trends will continue. If it is good, we stay. If AL is a key attractor for the district and we disband it, then we might cause more parents to leave and make lower enrollment. We need to sync up with (whether) this is the only option. We can actually open the schools up to out of district families and attract more kids. Change is hard. Let’s keep it (the school and AL at Odle) going. It is a strong ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Attract the kids back. Attract more kids. In the data, the 9^th grade and 8^th grade has a sharp drop. That’s not related to the birth rate. That’s related to pandemic effects. We are making decisions on premature data. I am concerned. Academic experiences are important. Emotional experiences in middle school are important. Stabilize this, smooth it out and help with the kids’ emotions.
• Parent of 6^th grader in another middle school, Highland – I’m coming to understand other perspectives. As a PTSA leader, I’m hearing lots and was trying not to get siloed into their perspective. I want to hear your perspectives. For my children, middle school is the most important. It has been a place where they can grow and explore who they are. As parents sometimes we focus too much on academics. In my family, we like middle school because of social, academics, and personal growth. My concerns are the severance of a community, the loss of a community identity and the impact that can have on mental health and academics. Middle School is so short. Adding the consolidation mid-journey for our kids is so hard. 60% of families have free-reduced lunch at Highland. They tell me that this school (Highland) is our support and point of contact. We don’t have anything else. I come from a place of privilege, and I look at these families in my community and I know a school consolidation might be a tipping point. I’m also concerned about meeting student needs. The feedback I had is that it takes a special kind of training to work with kids who experience poverty. Larger schools might have a struggle to meet needs if there are more kids and less teachers. Let’s come up with other solutions. This is not the solution.
• 6^th grade AL mom, 2^nd grade AL (was affected by the Spiritridge-Woodridge move) – We did the consolidation last year. Now my kids have 30 kids in their class. 30! Not 20 as before. They (teachers, elementary schools) are not in a state that they can manage. We don’t really even support the teachers with large classes now. They (students) need nurturing and attention. What has the consolidation helped? My son was at Puesta before. Now this is the third school in three years. He told me ‘I have no friends.’ He is a first generation American. We are immigrants and that is hard for me to hear from my son. For my middle school daughter, we chose to be here in ������Ƶ�ٷ� for the AL community – the peers. They are her support system. We are 3 months into middle school and now she is crying every night with uncertainty. The aspect of the AL cohort is huge benefit for her. If AL cohorts disappear, we will leave. Odle is so successful and to disrupt a working system that doesn’t make sense. We want the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� at Odle. Let’s wait to see the results of the consolidation from elementary. Then let’s see the results from elementary and the budget savings, and then see if we still need to consolidate. This feels like a charade. Like decisions are already made. My son’s class has 30 kids. Breaking existing schools is not the way to go. If the cohort that my daughter desires is not here, we will not live in ������Ƶ�ٷ� anymore. It’s like-minded cohorts that make the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. The AL community has given her that opportunity. She’s into the orchestra ������Ƶ�ٷ� which is high quality. Breaking all of that up at Odle is not the answer. This is one of the best middle schools in the nation. Look at other set of stats than what the demographers say. Chesnut Hill Academy doubled in size this year. If I could afford private school as an option like CHA, I would go there. Also important is safety. If we are really truly listening to the community, then this consolidation is not the right move.
• Couple with two daughter 5^th & 7^th AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� – the teacher is most important, second is students around them. The AL curriculum is unique. The kids prefer to stay in a stable school. They want to know where they are going. They enjoy the connections. We will lose the connections with students. I agree with other comments. We can attract people and great teachers to come. We want to have high quality teacher experiences and have more kids. (group agreeing)
• Many are coming back to the Seattle area and looking to move to ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Amazon is now mandating back to office policies for us. It is driving all of us back to the area from pandemic moves out of the area. It is too early to consolidate middle schools without seeing how the elementary school consolidation turns out. We are not letting this play out. There is distrust.
• Let’s wait 1-3 years to allow pandemic anomalies to play out. Then, we can see how it plays. We cannot make a decision in 6 months. We have time to wait, and we should. Next year, if we cannot afford any of the schools and the enrollment mis low, then we start this process (proposing to wait one more year).
• What is the actual deficit? Are there other options? When a teacher is laid off, then it is hard to hire them back.
• I’m the Odle student parent. The Odle school is the good school and the largest in ������Ƶ�ٷ�. It is the first to have the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Odle is a quite good school and tradition. Odle is successful. We cannot afford to shut this school down. AL learning is the best ������Ƶ�ٷ� in the district, and it is the reason that the rankings are so high in the whole Washington State.
• I am amazed to see how k, 1 families go private, then they come back to ������Ƶ�ٷ� for AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� in 2^nd Deciding factors are teachers. We have the best quality teachers. (We did BCA for kinder, 1^st) . The ������Ƶ�ٷ� is so good. We must keep it.
  • Proximity to school is important for different reasons:
  • We don’t have time to take/bring our children.
• Our children can walk to school, and we feel safe.
• We are happy with the teachers since they are very good professionals and the communication with them is very friendly and fluid with both students and parents.
• The school environment is calm and there is no abuse. The children go to school calmly. Some students were in other schools and changed to Odle to avoid the bad atmosphere that existed in the previous schools.
• The tutoring offered by Odle is one of the most valued aspects.
• The children are happy with the subjects of engineering, robotics, video production, carpentry workshop.
• At Odle school they have the option of going to the advanced Spanish course in Sammamish and the bus brings them.
• Community with other children, teachers, and counselors is already established at school. Knowledge about the student that teachers and other school staff already have would be lost in the consolidation process.

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Question 2: If we were to consolidate one middle school, what priorities or factors are important that you think we should consider?

• Important to minimize transitions, they are teenagers.
• Most important is the quality of education and ������Ƶ�ٷ�, remember that people move here for the quality, so, if we consolidate, we cannot lose quality.
• Share experience of my son, impacted by last year at Spiritridge in AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, impact of bus driver shortage, canceled routes, and now Woodridge is overcrowded, using all of the portables, some classes are big, don’t feel it has been a positive experience so far at Woodridge, there is an uneven impact, that does not feel equitable, some schools were not impacted at all, and some students were not impacted. I don’t think consolidation is a good idea, but if we do, Odle should not be.
• Commute – has an impact for parents, how people get to and from school and work, how many people live close by to the school, traffic in ������Ƶ�ٷ� is a major factor.
• How do you pick which teachers to let go if you consolidate?
• What happens to the facility?
• How about we used a different question: what do we need to do to NOT close schools? Start with a different premise? What happens if the demographic trends change? Is this a money problem? If it is at school problem, are we addressing it?
• Don’t want anything to be rushed, can it wait in future?
• Want process to be transparent, equity-driven, what are the feedback loops for students, parents, others? Teachers are talking about this in the classroom.
• Message says there is already a plan.
• Life schedules will be impacted because of this consolidation…important to be able to maintain and continue in place…worried about having not enough time after school when now having to travel further for school.
• Fears about fitting in to the new school, culture and environment…how can this be better supported?
• Location, how far the new school would be from Odle.
• Bus service to the new location.
• How big is the shortage of the budget, what efforts did you make to. Would like to see the details.
• AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� teachers and resources to support the ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Odle set up of the AL and gen-ed combination; would like a middle school that is diverse.
• AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� stay intact.
• Self-contained AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� is a factor; happy to have students to be in the ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Not lose momentum.
• Maintain same quality and resources for the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�, teacher quality and resources.
• How will open enrolment be handled? Enrollment changes will be more spread out at other schools. How will those decisions be made?
• Teachers at Odle have the experience working at Odle with AL students. Spreading out the AL teachers.
• Question that AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� will be watered down.
• There is a perception that Odle has a lock on AL, since they have had it for so long.
• Quality is the most important.
• For core subjects, not social emotional.
• Just switched from private school
• Only here for AL
• Don’t want it diluted.
• Kids need more depth, pace, and intensity.
• All about learning at school, moral values can happen at home.
• Want kids to be excited.
• 3^rd grader does not feel he’s learning very much and wants to skip grades. 21 kids in his class, it’s too big.
• Maintaining AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Maintaining high quality ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• The number of students impacted.
• Drive time to get to school.
• Maintain strong ������Ƶ�ٷ�s like the Odle band, orchestra, math club, robotics, etc. Driven by students.
• Minimize splitting up groups of students, especially the extra-curricular.
• Preserve the good qualities that people appreciate. WEB leaders leading the younger ones.
• Unique in that they have so many quality teachers. So fortunate to have experienced teachers here who can provide what they need. With that critical mass of faculty that can concentrate. If teachers and students are dispersed the teachers can’t focus.
• Need a critical mass to keep a culture sustained. Need the same mindset.
• Make sure ������Ƶ�ٷ�s are available for students who need them. Languages, etc.
• Academic achievement. Odle 21-22 school year received a blue ribbon, highest award any K-12 school can receive for closing achievement gaps.
• Distance to travel to school matters. Bus riding/transportation for early/late start schools. Busses are late every day. Not beneficial for students to get to school late.
• Make sure we are digging deeper for solutions, not just the easiest ways to solve something.
• Maintain reputation of school so that it will continue to draw out of district families if the right decision is made.
• Worry that we will rush to make a decision.
• If there is a closure, make sure that there is support for students who are making the shift. Reduce the level of stress.
• Blend communities together to reduce stress. Little people with big emotions at this age. Can be sensitive.
• No long bus rides. It’s too hard on students. Need better communications with parents. We don’t understand why we are doing this?
• The consolidation might cause the AL community to break apart and then not be as strong. Peers are so important to middle school students. It’s important for AL students to stay together. The AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� has student leaders, and this will help our future.
• This question starts with an assumption and is flawed. My property taxes have gone up significantly and I’ve paid a lot to live here. If we do these things at the expense of self-contained AL, that is very concerning. People who sent their kids to private schools, their kids didn’t do well in gen pop – spent their time on iPad, and it doesn’t work for you.
• Much agreement around the table.
• When you ask which school should be closed – this question should not be answered without the AL solution. Everyone wants to know; how do we not hide the AL behind? So many AL students, even divided in various schools, this problem won’t go away. If you can’t solve the AL problem, you can’t determine which school will be closed. For me the most important, we have to make sure what the AL strategy for ������Ƶ�ٷ� is, now and in the future. I moved from MISD to ������Ƶ�ٷ� for the schools – 2 years ago. I live in Enatai now. Based on my understanding and my friends understanding, that AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�ming here is very strong compared to other districts. If you make this strength diluted by distributing to other schools – parents won’t have confidence, and you’ll lose students to private schools. We are facing this choice in 4^th ������Ƶ�ٷ� schools are quite good, and this makes families feel comfortable – they can get the school bus, save money, be with friends – how can we maintain these strengths for the district?
• Outside of this room, there may not be much appetite to keep AL – but I would point out, some of these kids are different – they are in it because they need a different learning environment – they are very academic. There are benefits for both gen- ed having their own learning spaces.
• If we had one class per school for AL – teachers would have to stretch to teach both gen ed and AL. And that would probably increase the student to teacher ratio. The concern is not that AL is going away.
• There is a subset of students who take accelerated math, and these students wouldn’t be able to benefit from this if they are spread out. There are certain areas where kids are really passionate about things – robotics, chess, soccer – Having a robotics team of 12 is an experience kids will remember for the rest of their lives and could propel them to do amazing things. That can do away if the team of 12 is divided across 4 schools. You start having critical mass around topics and enrichment opportunities if you only have 2-3 kids who want to do a thing, but you are spread out.
• Students who are AL in non-AL schools, they don’t get the enrichment and extensions that they should have.
• If you have fluctuations year to year between schools – if you have 35 kids in a school that need AL math, do you have one class of 35, or do you have 2 classes of 17? I’m guessing you would not have 2 classes. The learning becomes diluted and inconsistent.
• Kids need a stable environment. How often are they going to be closing schools based on study models? Are they closing a high school next? Parents will be panicking if we keep saying we are closing schools based on demographer projections. This will make the ������Ƶ�ٷ� reputation go down. This will send students to private schools.
• Impact the least amount of families.
• Compare the cost of running schools.
• Consider gradually consolidating a school (no 6^th grade, one year; no 7^th the next)
• Continue to work to attract students through various methods.
• Emphasize the uniqueness of ������Ƶ�ٷ�.
• Will all the AL students go to with their teachers? What will happen to them (the teachers)?
• The smallest school will have the least impact on students.
• Consider the school with the lowest number of students enrolled. Keep the school with the highest reputation for the district.
• For the impacted school- consider open enrollment and timeline for kids that may want to go to another school.
• Consider not closing down all at one time – a phase out approach year-over-year (don’t accept new students for subsequent years until they are all gone). Don’t shut down one school immediately – especially since we don’t know (trust) the data and in the past the numbers have always risen again.
• This information is not convincing enough.
• I want ������Ƶ�ٷ� to figure out how to increase trust. Is what we are doing eroding trust?
• Let’s work to keep the best teachers here. Teachers are not going to come back if we do this again.
• Invest in what we do best. If AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� works well, let’s have ������Ƶ�ٷ� invest in that. Ex. Highland language ������Ƶ�ٷ�. Starting to cut ������Ƶ�ٷ�s is not the right action. Sometimes the numbers are not the whole picture.
• This is not building trust with existing families. New families may not be coming in because of the uncertainty.
• Seattle is unsafe. ������Ƶ�ٷ� is the next city for us to come to. We can easily commute to Seattle. Project numbers together with Amazon and other big companies who are recruiting employees.
• We can do better. We are not a traditional city. We are urban and suburban. We can solve this problem in another way.
• Is it necessary to close this year? 100% no. Let’s play to our ������Ƶ�ٷ�matic strengths.
• Is there a benefit to adding AL at other schools? (question posed by a parent to group) Parent response: only if we keep cohort of kids and teachers.
• Housing and birthrate are not the only data. Market rates – young couples will bring more kids over the years. Immigrants must also be a factor.
• Primary reason we are upset is that the school district has let the parents down. You see the distrust in the room.
• AL cohort is very important – especially the friendships and similar interests kids share. This is the place where they can build their identity. They are free to be themselves in their own skin; they can thrive here. Same with IB at Interlake. Breaking apart will hamper their identity. It’s a cohort that is so important.
• It’s not easy to maintain the social circle moving to another school.
• We like being a community in a safe space. The nerds are together. These kids have comfort in these ways. Don’t put them in a situation where they are threatened or not thriving.
• DS AL services did not work for us.
• From the metrics we saw, it is increasing and then there was the pandemic. Can we look at this data without pandemic effects? I know many moving to other places and now companies are asking people to come back and are being asked to relocate to Seattle and ������Ƶ�ٷ�. This will bring people back. What will it truly look like in 5 years?
• Commuting to school would be a problem.
• It would be necessary to offer emotional support and adaptation to change. Change is difficult for children, parents, and teachers alike.
• It would be very important to have after-school ������Ƶ�ٷ�s and buses to transport children.

Question 3: What questions do you have?

• What does an optimal middle school size look like?
• How are we increasing revenue?
• Are we tracking private schools?
• What does trend data look like in other districts? Like Lake Washington, or others?
• Declining data included covid time and a period when housing prices grew unusually fast, … question:
  • Has the district considered the fact that many companies/tech companies are requiring people to work in person, just started this summer and not reflected in the demographer’s data?
  • Did the population projections consider the rise in public transit and the various new housing developments that have been built recently along the new light rail corridor?
  • Earlier projection (Wilburton build era) showed long-term population growth in ������Ƶ�ٷ�, but this did not occur. Did ������Ƶ�ٷ� learn from that history with the inaccurate prediction around Wilburton.
• When will these additional questions be answered?
• Is there another, or different forum for families to have more detailed questions addressed?
• How will our students’ curriculum be affected…specifically AL if Odle is consolidated?
• If a middle school is consolidated what will happen to the teacher-student ratio in middle schools and all levels?
• Can ������Ƶ�ٷ� show a comparison with other school districts that show a clear reason for why ������Ƶ�ٷ� feels it needs to close schools while other school districts do not?
• What other options is ������Ƶ�ٷ� considering instead of school consolidation?
• Can ������Ƶ�ٷ� provide the financial documentation to prove/demonstrate the true cost needs and what consolidation will actually do to mitigate this?
  • What is the cost of adding students to other schools…what will that cost compared to not consolidating?
  • What are the costs of other measures, those that are not consolidating schools?
• Why do we need to consider consolidating schools this year and not wait until next year?
  • Can the ������Ƶ�ٷ� justify WHY now? Vs. next year?
  • Will delaying consolidation another year or two allow us to have more reliable data as we continue to recover from covid enrollment impacts?
  • Similarly, why not wait for light rail to be completed and re-examine enrollment as Light rail is completed and the new housing units are filled?
• What will happen to the physical building when a Middle school is consolidated?
• What will happen to the staff at all levels of employment at the consolidated school? Will they continue to be employed by ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• Why is Odle being considered for consolidation when its enrollment and achievement is so high?
• International and Big Picture: will those two schools increase enrollment if consolidating? Will International or BP be increased enrollment?
• How will open enrollment be handled? Enrollment changes will be more spread out at other schools? How will those decisions be made?
• Student populations and projections. Odle will have highest student population? What are the criteria for closing? What kind of transparency will we get? For elementary parents felt like the decision was already made.
• What is the process going to look like?
• If school closed would this disperse the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� out to the neighborhood schools? Worry about students being spread amongst other buildings and students will lose their cohort.
• What will happen to all of the special ������Ƶ�ٷ�s that Odle has?
• Why isn’t disbanding choice schools a discussion for consolidation?
• How will student voices be heard about this topic?
• If there were not a self-contained AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� would parents then choose to go to private school instead?
• How will the decision for consolidation be made?
• Will we be privy to data and selection criteria to make the decision?
• How does this affect catchment for middle school?
• How will consolidation impact high school choices for kids?
• Can we explore more options to break out of the downtrend?
• Should the final recommendation be voted on by the parents? Not just the Board.
• Can questions be shared in advance?
• Is there any possibility of shutting down the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�?
• Is consolidation the answer?
• Why are students/families choosing to go to private schools?
• Will students and families leave if schools are consolidated?
• Is there data on private school enrollment? Is there a trend?
• What is unique about ������Ƶ�ٷ�? What about other local school districts?
• What will the impact of the City’s plan to build additional housing in ������Ƶ�ٷ� have in the future?
• Are these the same demographers? What changed?
• Why is the district moving from building new schools to consolidating schools?
• If there is staff reduction, are the teachers’ qualifications considered?
• What is the decision-making process and timeline?
• What are the possible recommendations? Is no consolidation a possibility?
• Are there other considerations? Is it possible that a choice school might be moved to middle school campus? Is that driving force?
• What does the utilization school by school?
• What will the impacts be on transportation? Bus routes have been cancelled this year.
• If one of the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�s is closed, will they all go to one school?
• What is the target class size? Will class sizes?
• Is it possible that a high school will be consolidated in the future?
• Can we avoid the same students having their schools changed multiple times over time?
• Is there a deadline for the decision?
• If a middle school is consolidated, can AL be offered at all four of the remaining schools?
• Will the district consider having a voting and/or ranking process for the criteria for the decision?
• What are the specific possible negative impacts of not consolidating a school?
• Has the district considered raising funds in other ways?
• How much was saved by consolidating the two elementary schools? What is the impact on student performance?
• What are other options to balance the budget other than consolidating schools?
• Can we gather more input from families about other options?
• Is consolidating the choice schools an option?
• What percentage of the district is from the State and what is the local funding amount?
• What are the course offerings including electives that are offered at all middle schools? What are the unique offerings including electives at each school?
• What possible reason would lead the consolidated school to be the smallest school?
• We make mistakes with data so how do we know we have the best/right data now?
• Can we find better alternatives? Consult with community.
• Can we increase the budget to get rid of transportation issues?
• What can help increase student enrollment in the short and long term?
• Could we offer choice ������Ƶ�ٷ�s in every school? Could it help balance numbers between schools, and would it be attractive for non-resident students?
• Will the district consider academic performance of the schools in the decision?
• Has there been a study or feedback done after the elementary consolidation – what do parents think? What is the fallout from this? I recommend waiting to get feedback from the last consolidation before we do a new one. If something is not working, why are we pushing for it again?
• How can we say schools are not being utilized if students are in portables and cottages?
• When we talk about teachers – if we consolidate – If AL is concentrated in certain schools, does this have to do with the ability and skills of the AL teachers – are they AL teachers because they have expertise and knowledge specific to teaching these students.
• What money is coming in, what is going out? Are we in deficit? What solutions to save money or raise money have we considered? Increase rental prices of facilities? Adding afterschool ������Ƶ�ٷ�s that pay to come here? Parents would be interested in enrolling their children in these. There is much more willingness to fund schools properly, rather than just causing a degradation in the quality of education of kids.
• People outside don’t know that they can open-enroll their students – how are we publicizing this? Why would we consolidate the schools if we can encourage people to come into the district from outside?
• I have friends who chose to live elsewhere because they can’t afford ������Ƶ�ٷ�, but they would love their kids to come here.
• Do we have the capacity for students coming in from outside the district to get into the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ�? Can we increase the capacity of the AL ������Ƶ�ٷ� to attract more people from outside the district? AL is one of the star ������Ƶ�ٷ�s in the district. Keep it, run it better, and not consolidate it and send it to smaller locations.
• How are schools funded? If our taxes go up, why don’t we get more money for the schools?
• Is this funding problem a capital expense problem or an operations expense problem?
• Who is having these conversations? Who is making these decisions? When can parents provide input on the actual decision-making bodies?
• Parents are not aware of the levy lid, that bonds can’t be used for teacher salaries. Who can families contact to advocate for ������Ƶ�ٷ� School District? The legislature? The City of ������Ƶ�ٷ�? Can the PTSA sponsor some of the needs? ������Ƶ�ٷ� Schools Foundation? We see property taxes going up, but now have to fight to keep our kids’ schools. We need guidance on who to talk with.
• What will disbursement of students look like? (redistricting)
• What happens to specific ������Ƶ�ٷ�s?
• Are there other options being explored? If so, please communicate?
• Have you considered putting Big Picture and International School together?
• Can you share more of the methodology for the forecasting on the district website?
• Do we actually listen to the parents?
• How can we help?
• Why are we rushing to close?
• Want the budget reports (shared that they are on the ������Ƶ�ٷ� website and any additional information requested can be made available with a public records request).
• If the school closes, when will the closure happen?
• Are there alternatives? Can we get the information sooner than later about the actual budget deficit the loss of enrollment represents?
• What are the drawbacks if we don’t do this? We cannot make an informed decision without understanding all sides. This cannot be a shot-gun decision. It must be looking at ten years, not just one.
• Is consolidation the only option that we have? Can we please consider other options first?
• What is the actual deficit? Are there other options?
• How many children per classroom are there in each school?
• What ratio of children per classroom will there be when the consolidation is done?
• How many teachers will there be per classroom?
• Why are Big Picture and International schools not considered within the process?
• Are these changes planned for 2030?
• What reasons are there for this decrease in children in the area?
• What do children think of consolidation? Have they also been asked?
• What do the teachers think?
• Is the SCAT a school-level group or is it a district level?
• Are any high schools planned to close in the future?
• Was it contemplated in previous years that the number of students was going to decrease? Why were schools built recently?
• Will teachers be fired if consolidation is carried out? If teachers have to be fired, how is the selection made?
• Do nearby districts have the same population loss problem?
• If Odle were closed, would the Advance Learning service be maintained at another school?
• Which middle school has the fewest students?
• If Odle Middle School were to stay open, does it have space to admit more students?
• Will there be a bus for the children currently at Odle if they are moved to another school?
• How will the district manage children’s emotional changes? How did it affect primary school students?
• Could a gradual closure by grade be proposed? Once it is decided which school is closed, no new students will enter in 6 the first year, 7 the next, and 8 the last.
• Could children impacted by consolidation have direct access to Choice Schools?
• Can students from other districts come to this district?
• Are children studying remotely included in the total count of children?
• Is the City of ������Ƶ�ٷ� aware that this is happening? Priority is being given to large companies and that impacts the population of the district. How do the city of ������Ƶ�ٷ� and the district support each other? Is the city of ������Ƶ�ٷ� aware that the increase in taxes and prices causes the community to move out of ������Ƶ�ٷ� and lose population?
• How does the city of ������Ƶ�ٷ� propose that there be housing available for people to stay in this area?
• Does Odle Middle School have empty classrooms?
• Which schools have the emptiest classrooms and the fewest children?
• Does the involvement/number of parents in these types of meetings influence the decision of which school to close?
• Does the district take into consideration that there are parents in the community who cannot read and/or do not have email and cannot access emails and this information?
• Can a more personalized response be given to the people who have participated in the meetings in the schools?