| Rosa Parks is a new structure with 10 portables but is already 107% of capacity |
Below, is the cover letter to an 18 page document Rosa Hill residents prepared for the Board and Pierce's consideration. Read More >>
Dear School Board:
The Enrollment at Rosa Parks Elementary has been growing exponentially over the last three years to over 768 students during the 2011-2012 school year; and this dramatic growth is continuing due to the build-out of Redmond Ridge East.
Ten portables are installed to Rosa Parks to meet class size standards, but the physical capacity of the school was not built to accommodate this high number of students. Overcrowding impacts the students' overall safety and learning experience and will only get worse as the growth continues.
We understand (from talks with Administration) the district may be considering wider enrollment re-balancing, however we know this process would take time and a lot of community involvement. The overcrowding at Rosa Parks requires emergency action and needs to be addressed immediately.
The current Capital Facilities Plan indicates a new school in Redmond Ridge East will be built in 2015 if a proposed February 2014 bond passes. Within that three year timeline, Rosa Parks will experience severe overcrowding. This issue cannot wait three more years. Moving lunch to classrooms, increasing number of recesses and other mitigation measures won't solve the problem. They are not enough.
The Administration anticipated higher populations and included construction of a Redmond Ridge East Elementary school in the 2010 bond, but the bond did not pass. The Kimball Administration
indicated a boundary adjustment would not be considered before the 6th grade shift, but that the district "may need to make adjustments before a new school can be built."
Re-balancing enrollment with an adjacent school is the only workable solution to Rosa Parks serious overcrowding problem. Wilder Elementary has vast excess capacity that could be filled by the transfer of Rosa Parks students. Wilder has declining enrollment and is anticipated to be less than half the enrollment of Rosa Parks this fall.
We are requesting an expedited schedule for a re-boundary process to re-balance enrollment between Rosa Parks and Wilder to be initiated (September) and be in effect for the 2013-14 school year.
- Submitted by Rosa Park residents to the School Board and Administration on July 27, 2012
some edits for brevity BY
Rosa Parks was 159 percent over total capacity last year (285 students over the original capacity of 483 students), and will continue at this level even with the 6th grade shift to the middle school this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your coverage of the ongoing, severe overcrowding issue at Rosa Parks. Quick action by the school board is needed to achieve and maintain at least a 25 percent reduction of the school's enrollment for 2013-14 and beyond. A reboundary is the most impactful way to limit enrollment and alleviate the continued daily effects of crowding on student learning at Rosa Parks.
ReplyDeleteI was under the impression that one of the main reasons we were shifting to a Middle School model was to alleviate overcrowding at the elementary schools. I do realize that there were other reasons as well, but this was definitely one of the main reasons. Now Ms. Pierce is saying that there will be another bond so that they can build additional schools! I had high hopes for Ms. Pierce, but this sounds like business as usual. I have friends at Wilder who have expressed that they wish some of the Rosa Parks students would be shifted to Wilder because they are losing wonderful long term teachers as their population declines. Seems like a win-win situation for everyone involved. I think that a bond issue is going to be a tough sell after having our arms twisted for the last one by Mr. Kimball's threats of portables at the high school. My understanding is that even though the last bond passed, RHS will still have portables. I have never voted against a school bond, but I regret voting for the last one and will not vote for another one any time soon. I know I am not alone in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe 6th grade shift actually lowered Rosa Parks enrollment in 2012-13 by 4 students so there was some improvement, but the enrollment trend is up significantly over time.
ReplyDelete4 student improvement? That's statistically insignificant.
ReplyDeleteThis mismanagement of our schools is one reason we're sending our child to private school and moving out of Redmond Ridge in the next 2 years.
This new superintendent isnt any better than the last one. All she can say is that it is complex???? And she wont talk to us until the school year has started. I can pretty much guarantee they wont get that levy passed up here again. At least 1/2 of our residents up here on the Ridge are not even US citizens and cant vote. We are all tired of the district trying to raise our taxes and then spend our money irresponsibly. I am done with you Lake Washington, you wont get another vote from me until you can show some kind of responsibility with what we have already given you.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty obvious that Traci Pierce isn't going to order a redistricting because she says she wants to revisit the problem in late September, long after parents have committed their children to attend Rosa Parks. Way to go, Traci - a serious problem with an obvious solution and your plan is to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteParents can also send their students to Wilder on a variance. Wilder starts at 9:00 AM so there is extra time in the morning to drive the kids over there and it's only 3 miles from Rosa Parks. (The road that connects Trilogy/Redmond Ridge and Wilder wasn't opened until just a few years ago so this wasn't an option until recently.)
Another option is homeschooling. Last year, after 5 years of overcrowding and a non-responsive administration, I took the leap and decided to home school our youngest son (of 3 chidren.) I'm not a teacher so it was a challenge for me. There are online bookstores (Rainbow Resources or Christianbook.com) that showed example pages of work books before we ordered. We used Wordly Wise, Singapore Math (ironic, huh?), Key to Math and Easy Grammar (since LWSD doesn't even bother to teach grammar in elementary school). We also did geography, history, science and even Spanish. It was trial and error, often not a lot of fun, but very rewarding.
From the beginning of the school year, we said that if homeschooling didn't work out, we could send our son back to public school, but that didn't happen. Even now, we keep saying to ourselves, "Thank goodness we didn't send him to public school. He learned so much more by staying home with us." We will be homeschooling again in the fall.
Parents should not sit back and wait for the Rosa Parks problem to be solved for them. They should consider home school, private school, variances, or even moving. We now realize that the time our son spent in public school was a waste and robbed him of years of learning. We wish we could take the years back and have him redo elementary school - but NOT in the Lake Washington School District.
One more thing - the district receives $10,000 from the State for each child who attends LWSD. If 10 students leave the distict, LWSD loses $100,000 in funding. If 100 students leave Rosa Parks or other schools in the district because of overcrowding, LWSD loses $1,000,000 in funding. The district needs to keep its customers happy or they will go elsewhere.
We scratch our head in bewilderment as we look at our playground with 265 children running around all at the same time, nine classes plus music in $40K trailers, 8 classrooms (185 students) sharing 6 toilets, 50 children with 2 teachers in the gym for P.E., the added expenses of a Vice-Principal, and paying teachers for their 20 minute lunch time now spent with their students in the classrooms and the stress of so many bodies in the school. Then we drive 3.5 mikles up the road to Wilder El. to see a top-rated elementary school open in Sept. 2012 with 330 students and empty classrooms!
ReplyDelete- DZ. LWSD mother, commmunity leader, and 11 year resident of Redmond Ridge.
My older daughter just completed Kindergarten at Rosa Parks, the younger one is scheduled to start there in September 2014.
ReplyDeleteWe moved to Redmond Ridge before we had children and before the school was built. While I knew Rosa Parks was a big school, I had no idea how the over-capacity would impact the kids in attendance. I commend the administration, teachers and support staff for all that they do. Without their commitment to these children, there is no doubt in my mind that basic education at the school would suffer.
What has suffered, from my vantage point, is the core belief that was used when the school was designed - utilizing the pods, the cafeteria, the field & playground in ways to enhance education. There just aren't enough of any of them to accommodate the number of children and classes within the school day.
I encourage the district to take a hard look at the overcrowding situation and mitigate it for the 2013-2014 school year.
The board needs to act ASAP to return Rosa Parks kids to an effective learning environment. It seems a reboundary of Rosa Parks and Wilder is the most impactful, community-supported solution.
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.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing that can be done for the children NOW and for several years down the road, is for the Lake Washington School District to demand an immediate moratorium on new home construction (GASP!) in the north Redmond and Sammamish plateau area. Builders don't fund and build schools; they build houses. Taxpayers fund and approve school construction. Until the taxpayers of LWSD agree to fund schools, new developments need to be put on hold and LWSD has to better utilize the space they already have.
ReplyDelete