Rosa Parks Elementary on Redmond Ridge is severely overcrowded and the LWSD School Board and Administration know it. More than 20 parents and students have presenting twice during Board meetings for over an hour about the unacceptable conditions and Superintendent Pierce visited the school in August. Pierce's short term solution so far is to add more administrative help and limit recess to two grades at a time. The school's ten portables cut out 50% from the play areas not leaving much room for fun or a solution to the overcrowding. The school structure and grounds have a capacity of 483 students yet according to parent Heather Rosenburg "it's almost approaching 800 students."
Another parent, Karen Swenson says "enrollment could reach 900 students if development keeps increasing at Redmond Ridge East. Sending only Kindigardners to Wilder does not achieve right size. We need a decision by the end of January before Kindigarden registration - including forcasted enrollment - to decide if we should stay, move, varience, home school, and go to private schools."
Dr. Pierce will hold a meeting with the Rosa Parks community September 27, 6:45-8:15PM, at the school to seek feedback on short term solutions and discuss long term plans. According to parent Beth Zimmerman, Katheryn Reith of the Administration identifies short term solutions as: 1) eliminate full day kindergarten, 2) convert specialized classrooms to regular classrooms, 3) set new boundaries, 4) bus students, 5) add two more portables. Zimmerman called the overcrowding an emergency situation.
Julie Ann, parent of a second grader and past community liaison to the Seattle Public Schools understood the Superintendent Pierce's goal not to reboundary twice for students in Redmond East. She recommended temporary relocation saying North Shore District has accommodated schools similarly in the past where she once lived and the boundaries are not complex.
A parent with a second grader recommended moving Kindergartners and 1st Graders to Wilder (which is 75% of capacity with declining enrollment). Or, to move Redmond Ridge East except Chandler to Wilder.
Boardmember Chris Carlson said:
Boardmember Chris Carlson from the Kirkland district concluded for the Board saying,
Redmond's new school board member Siri Bliesner said "it's been a long term problem and it's important to be addressed now." Redmond Ridge school board member Doug Eglington said "it's not fun. It's frustratingly slow and will take some time."
President Pendergrass from Kirkland and Juanita area said "there will be a solution" before Kindergarten registration in January so parents can decide where to send their kids. "Superintendent Pierce is trying to involve the entire Redmond Ridge East and West communities and it takes time."
Reported by Bob Yoder
"The job of the Board is to represent the citizens and to lead the organization by asking critical questions and by determining and demanding appropriate and excellent organizational performance." (LWSD By-Laws)
Another parent, Karen Swenson says "enrollment could reach 900 students if development keeps increasing at Redmond Ridge East. Sending only Kindigardners to Wilder does not achieve right size. We need a decision by the end of January before Kindigarden registration - including forcasted enrollment - to decide if we should stay, move, varience, home school, and go to private schools."
Dr. Pierce will hold a meeting with the Rosa Parks community September 27, 6:45-8:15PM, at the school to seek feedback on short term solutions and discuss long term plans. According to parent Beth Zimmerman, Katheryn Reith of the Administration identifies short term solutions as: 1) eliminate full day kindergarten, 2) convert specialized classrooms to regular classrooms, 3) set new boundaries, 4) bus students, 5) add two more portables. Zimmerman called the overcrowding an emergency situation.
Julie Ann, parent of a second grader and past community liaison to the Seattle Public Schools understood the Superintendent Pierce's goal not to reboundary twice for students in Redmond East. She recommended temporary relocation saying North Shore District has accommodated schools similarly in the past where she once lived and the boundaries are not complex.
A parent with a second grader recommended moving Kindergartners and 1st Graders to Wilder (which is 75% of capacity with declining enrollment). Or, to move Redmond Ridge East except Chandler to Wilder.
Boardmember Chris Carlson said:
"I wanted to hear from somebody from Redmond Ridge East. I have yet to hear from such people. It still feels we have a community that's asking to move the other half of your school but I haven't heard that yet. People clamouring to "Please bus us to Wilder" would be fantastic but I haven't heard that yet."
Boardmember Chris Carlson from the Kirkland district concluded for the Board saying,
"We do feel your pain and the solution is going to be frustratingly slow - glacial. It won't happen before the next meeting. The community must work with Superintendent Pierce. We as a Board are not writing a check to move all those kids [to Wilder Elementary]. It's unacceptable not being able to solve it [the overcrowding] this year but it's slow. Tracie will work with you as a community. It's something we are hoping you can work with her."
Redmond's new school board member Siri Bliesner said "it's been a long term problem and it's important to be addressed now." Redmond Ridge school board member Doug Eglington said "it's not fun. It's frustratingly slow and will take some time."
President Pendergrass from Kirkland and Juanita area said "there will be a solution" before Kindergarten registration in January so parents can decide where to send their kids. "Superintendent Pierce is trying to involve the entire Redmond Ridge East and West communities and it takes time."
Reported by Bob Yoder
"The job of the Board is to represent the citizens and to lead the organization by asking critical questions and by determining and demanding appropriate and excellent organizational performance." (LWSD By-Laws)
Corrections: The meeting is September 27. The school's total capacity is currently 713.
ReplyDeleteClarification: What the parent cites as solutions I identified were actually the answer to a reporter's question about a menu of possible ways to ease any situation involving overcrowding. They were not a list of specific solutions under consideration for Rosa Parks Elementary School and are not a complete list of possible solutions.
Reminder: Dr. Pierce took office on July 1. On August 31, she wrote to all Rosa Parks parents, setting the date for the first meeting to begin developing a solution in conjunction with the entire Rosa Parks community. On Sept. 5, when school opened, Dr. Pierce visited Rosa Parks Elementary to see the situation for herself. She will meet with them on Sept. 27th to begin the process of working with the entire community. This group of parents has asked for a solution to be in place for next fall, just under 12 months away, which will be achieved. I'm not sure exactly where "glacial" comes in.
The school structure and grounds capacity is for 483 students. To get to 713 you must be counting the 10 portables. 've edited for clarity. "Glacial" is a direct quote from School Board Member Carson.
ReplyDeleteThe issue occurs with several elementary schools. Alcott is at 680 kids with 6 portables (a decline of only 30 kids despite moving the entire 6th grade to middle school), the same is true for Rachel Carson and both remodelled high schools, the minute they opened. It's amazing that the district still can't accurately forecast the number of students attending school each year. In fact, they can't even get close. They continue to insist that enrollment is due to go down, despite more housing being built in high growth areas like Redmond Ridge, Sammamish and Union Hill
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOne related issue you may wish to research further is the cost of the overcrowding at Rosa Parks and the under enrollment at Wilder. LWSD pays for a full time principal at Wilder (340 Students) and a principal AND associate principal at Rosa Parks 796 students). The associate principal is at Rosa Pakrs three days - but she probably costs taxpayers $60,000 + benefits. If LWSD utilized existing space at Wilder, there would be no need for the additional expense of the associate principal.
Beth Zimmerman said...
ReplyDeleteAt the district's Sept. 10th school board meeting, Director Nancy Bernard addressed the following comment to Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce:
"So you have done some intermediary things right now, prior even to the Sept. 27 meeting [at Rosa Parks]... Only two grades are going to recess at a time? So that's making it down to roughly 133 kids out at recess at a time, something like that..."
I would like to clarify for Director Bernard that Rosa Parks has two grades at each recess (like other LWSD elementary schools) due to the simple fact that 6th grade is now part of the middle school. But, Rosa Parks has not had roughly 133 kids at recess since probably 2007. There are currently up to 281 kids out at recess. Here are the current morning recess numbers at Rosa Parks using enrollment by grade available in early September.
Current a.m. Recess Numbers
Grades K-1: 274 students (ADK + a.m. K)
Grades 2-3: 281 students
Grades 4-5: 226 students
Enrollment by Grade for 2012-2013
K: 22, 20, 22 ,22, 21, 15 = 122
1: 24, 24, 24, 24, 23, 24, 24 = 167
2: 24, 24, 24, 25, 25, 24 = 146
3: 26, 25, 28, 28, 28 = 135
4: 27, 27, 27, 27, 27 = 135
5: 31, 31, 30 = 91
While Dr. Pierce started her new job as superintendent on July 1st, she has been cc-ed on emails dating back several years when the Rosa Parks community first brought up the overcrowding issue. Several years later and the school is at 796 students, certainly the term "glacial" used by Director Carlson was accurately applied.
We greatly appreciate Dr. Pierce setting up a community meeting for September 27th after we spoke about overcrowding at Rosa Parks on August 6th. We look forward to hearing more solutions given that not all are listed in the district’s document “Space Needs and Solutions” nor in the Redmond Reporter article
2 years ago the LWSD sought public input into ways to fix overcrowding problems.
ReplyDeleteHere is the article from the Redmond Reporter on September 22, 2010
http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/103545154.html
Short term strategies were already considered back then including eliminating full-day Kindergarten programs or setting new boundaries to balance enrollments.
Directly from the article "The district could also bus students from overcrowded schools to others that are less crowded and/or add more portables, up to the state limits."
So 2 years later the only action the district has taken was to add additional portable classrooms.
These actions certainly did nothing to ease overcrowding at Rosa Parks
I would like to first commend Principal Tina Livingston and all of the teachers at Rosa Parks for doing an amazing job of maintaining the outstanding level of education the school has become known for, despite the overcrowding. And, we acknowledge that this situation is one that Dr. Pierce inherited and did not create.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Dr. Pierce's predecessor and the entire school board has been aware of this escalating situation for years, and their only solution has been to spend more taxpayer dollars in the form of additional portable classrooms, additional support staff, and a part time Vice Principal.
The district's consistent response to resetting the attendance boundary is, "It's hard." It's hard because no one wants to upset the parents who may have to move to a different school. A classic case of caring more about the adults than the kids. It defies all logic and reason to continue to overcrowd Rosa Parks, when an equally excellent school exists just 2 miles away -- a school that continues to see declining enrollment, empty classrooms, reduction of teaching staff, and shrinking PTSA funds.
If the school board truly cared about the well-being of the students and were held accountable by the taxpayers, they would utilize the space available in the neighboring school to solve this problem. It's just that simple.
People who bought their houses at Redmond Ridge when it was being built (2001-2005) now have kids who are in elementary school at Rosa Parks. Those kids will soon become middle school students and then move on to high school and beyond. Their parents will continue to live at Redmond Ridge for many years but all the kids will be gone. It's referred to as the "maturing" of the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteBy the time the school district builds another elementary school in Redmond Ridge East, Rosa Parks will be seeing a steady decline in its enrollment. The seven classrooms of current 1st graders won't even be at Rosa Parks 5 years from now. Ten years from now Redmond Ridge may not even need two elementary schools after all.
The district should fix up Wilder and use it for elementary students NOW and for the next few years while the area still has enough little kids for the two existing elementary schools.
The school district already owns a 10-acre parcel in Redmond Ridge East where it plans to build the second elementary school. Maybe they should use that lot for a middle school or a 6-12 school so that kids don't have to be bussed to Sammamish or Redmond every day.
It would be nice to see the district "think outside the box" and show some creativity in trying to address the Rosa Parks overcrowding issue, wouldn't it?
Regarding the suggestion to use the RRE parcel for a new 6-12 campus, I agree! With the addition of 9th grade, Redmond High School has now reached an enrollment of 1900 students. There are not enough lockers for the students, assemblies must be held in "shifts" and the hallways are almost impassable between classes. I know of no plan to address the overcrowding issue at the 6-12 level when the HUGE population of today's elementary kids enter middle/high school.
ReplyDeleteAdjusting the attendance boundaries to move kids to Wilder is the obvious short-term solution to address the overcrowding issue at Rosa Parks. But what happens when these kids leave elementary and spill into Evergreen Middle and Redmond High School?
As a member of the Lake Washington School District I have been following the severe overcrowding at Rosa Parks Elementary in Redmond Ridge over the past few years. I truly feel for the 800 students who have been left to fend for themselves at such a massive elementary, one comparable in size to a middle school. Why hasn't the district acted sooner to transfer students to nearby Wilder Elementary, which continues to decrease in size and will soon be well under 300 students? Why does the district continue to resist even now, when it's obvious that any caring parent or school official should be highly concerned about a diminished educational experience? As a near-neighbor to Redmond, I implore the superintendent and school board to take real action to reduce overcrowding at Rosa Parks substantially before the next school year. The district successfully managed booming enrollment during Sammamish's growth period, so I'm not sure why they can't seem to do the same in Redmond.
ReplyDeleteSammamish Parent of LWSD student
It should also be pointed out that in addition to the obvious impact to the quality of education the overcrowding is having at Rosa Parks, it is also creating a critical safety issue.
ReplyDeleteRosa Parks was designed as a WALKING school for less than 500 students. The assumption was that the majority of students living within Redmond Ridge would walk or ride a bike, rather than drive, to school. Therefore, the facility is woefully inadequate when it comes to providing the necessary infrastructure for the hundreds of parents who drive their kids to school each day.
The streets surrounding the school are dangerously crowded with parents dropping off on side streets and intersections. Rushed parents park illegally on side streets and often disregard the direction of crossing guards. It is an accident waiting to happen.
If maintaining the quality of education is not motivation enough for the school board to take action and reduce the size of Rosa Parks, perhaps minimizing the chances of a tragedy should be.