Under the new Student Assignment Plan, all students will be assigned to the school within their boundary area (look up your school here.) If the attendance area school isn’t your first choice, you can apply for your child to go to another school within the Seattle Public School system. The open enrollment period runs from today, March 1 through the end of the month. The school district stresses that all the applications will be processed at the end of March - there is no advantage to applying on March 1 vs. March 31.

If you’re interested in sending your child to an option school, such as Salmon Bay K-8, there will be a “Family to Family Option School Fair” from 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, March 13 at the John Stanford Center (2445 3rd Ave. S.)

On March 16th, enrollment staff will be on hand at the Green Lake Library from 5:30 - 7 p.m. to help answer your questions. You can use this opportunity to enroll new students and/or submit School Choice Forms for next school year. Make sure to bring all necessary documents to register your child. The staff will also be at the Ballard library on March 24th from 5:30 - 7 p.m.

On the other hand, if you’re satisfied with the school that was noted in the letter sent out by the school district last month, no other action is needed.

The newly adopted School Assignment Plan (.pdf) will affect many families and children who are entering kindergarten, 6th and 9th grades this coming fall for the 2010-11 school year.  (You can find schools in your area here.)  School assignments will be sent out in late February.  In the meantime, parents will get a chance to learn about the schools in their assigned area, as well as option schools, at open houses that have been scheduled over the next few weeks.  Unless otherwise noted, weeknight open houses will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  Saturday open houses will take place from 10 a.m. to noon.  Many of the events will include a formal presentation so you are encouraged to arrive at the beginning.  Families interested in applying to another attendance area school will be able do so during Open Enrollment (March 1-31, 2010).  For a complete list of open house dates, click here (.pdf).

The Seattle School District released its proposed school assignment boundary map on Tuesday evening, drawing some mixed reaction.  The Student Assignment Plan (.pdf), which was approved in June, gave the district the go-ahead to outline boundaries around each elementary, middle and high school.  Under the proposed plan, students would be designated a school based on their home address.  District-wide open enrollment would no longer be an option. 

This map outlines Fremont’s proposed elementary and middle school attendance area. 

This is how the proposed high school boundaries look.  You can click here to look up all schools by address or to see a larger view of the maps. 

The district’s plan is a return to a school assignment system that keeps students in their neighborhoods.  In doing this, not only would children be closer to home, they hope to save money by reducing the number of buses required to transport students across the city.

B.F. Day Elementary School Principal, Susan McCloskey, likes the proposed changes.  “I like the idea of parents knowing where their kids are going to go to school.  This will really simplify the process.”  In addition she says, ”I love the fact that if you’re in BFD right now, you get grandfathered in until you graduate from 5th grade.  Siblings are the issue.” 

Other concerns have been raised that the boundaries could impact the socioeconomic and racial diversity in schools, as well as have an effect on class size.  Principal McCloskey adds, “The only thing I’m worried about is I don’t want to lose that diversity, because right now we have two buses coming from the South end and the Central area.  I don’t know how that will shake out when the whole plan gets in place.  We’ll have to see.”

There are several public meetings scheduled where communities can discuss and comment on the student assignment plan.  The next meeting in our area is on October 14 at Ballard High School from 6:30-8:30pm.  A complete list of meetings can be found here. 

The School Board will vote on the proposed boundaries on November 18.  If approved, the changes will take effect for students entering kindergarten, 6th grade and 9th grade in the 2010-2011 school year. 

Let us know if you’re affected by these changes in the comments below…