January 9 Community Meeting and Ft. Lawton Update

Please Join US at the City's Fort Lawton Community Meeting: A community Meeting is scheduled on January 9, 5:45-7:45 at Magnolia United Church Of Christ 3555 W McGraw St, Seattle, Washington 98199 I have specifically asked them to address how the School District will fit into the redevelopment as it is unclear, how everything moves forward. If you have further questions, you can contact us at FLSTEAMcom@gmail.com, or website FTLSchool.org I also can clear up some information on the school district using land at Fort Lawton. 1) the school district must work with the city as the master redeveloper if they wish to be included for land per US DEPT of Education guidelines 2) In November 2017 a Memorandum of Understanding was created between the City and SPS which states that if all goes forward with the EIS, 6 acres of Fort Lawton (the proposed soccer fields at the south end of the land) will be designated for SPS to control- They will still have to apply to the US DOE for the land and they will get it at 70% discount. SPS will develop and utilize the soccer fields until which time they have enough money to build educational infrastructure at this site-- it could be an elementary or k-8 on this size of land, and likely a capacity relieving school may be required within a few years, or it could be utilized as day-use environmental education center that serves the entire district as many schools cannot afford to go to Islandwood on Bainbridge. This process will take years 3) the school land will not displace any of the City's proposed housing 4) SPS having ownership of 6 acres is not specifically on the Draft EIS. I actually don't understand why, but it will move forward as is, and the arrangements of SPS will, in my opinion, be honored in good faith as the Memorandum of Understanding was a very significant moment between the city and district. 5) it is imperative that we realize that any new construction, up-zoning or other densification of our neighborhoods will further strain our schools which are already at max capacity-- even with the opening of Magnolia Elementary in 2019, as long as SPS keeps Magnolia and Queen Anne as one cluster. FYI, I ran the numbers, and McClure Middle school will have between 300-400 students over operational capacity within just a few years! In order to make the numbers work there, it would require a 40% attrition rate... ARE YOU GOING TO BE THE ONE WHO HAS TO MOVE OR TO LEAVE PUBLIC EDUCATION? If you care about this, I suggest that you become involved in local conversations with the school district and our City Council TODAY. This is not just a school district problem, this is our whole CITY's problem. For the life of me I don't understand, but why this world-class city and hotbed of innovation can't have the most superb public education system in the country. Last night I gave a presentation to the League of Women Voters about cross-agency collaboration for the success of Seattle public schools and at this meeting and at recent events lately, I know there are a LOT of good people out there working on this. So many more things I have to say regarding the benefits of Cross-Agency Collaboration in our city to save our schools and allow families to remain in Seattle... but until then, the more we talk about it and demand that our elected officials talk about this and strategize for the future, the more this city's youngest citizen's education will become a part of this city's collective conscience.