Seattle Schools OKs proposal that could close 20 elementary schools

The Seattle School Board unanimously approved a proposal Wednesday that could eventually close more than a quarter of the district’s nearly 70 elementary schools. 

The move, which could force thousands of students to switch schools in the 2025-26 school year, is aimed at curbing the district’s more than $100 million annual budget gap.

The district is hoping to dig itself out of a deficit caused by years of spending more money than it took in: Federal COVID relief dollars have dried up, the district has lost more than 4,000 students since pre-pandemic years, and a three-year teachers union contract inked in 2022 was projected to cost the district about $231 million over its term and add $94 million to the deficit. 

The district’s superintendent, Brent Jones, asked the board on Wednesday for permission to start drafting a school closure plan. Jones and his staff are expected to draw up a preliminary list of about 20 schools that could be shuttered or consolidated.

Such school closures would be by far the largest in Seattle in recent history.

Savings generally come from reducing spending on staff. Unless the district plans staff layoffs, it’s unlikely to see huge savings from closing individual schools. Last year, for example, 59.8% of the district’s budget went toward teaching activities. An additional 13.2% went toward teacher support.

District officials say they plan to discuss possible job cuts with union-represented employees. Some staff could transfer to schools that remain open, while others could replace workers who are retiring or leaving the district. The district would also save money on building and other maintenance costs.

The board could consider that preliminary plan and an analysis of its effects next month. It could hold a vote on a final list of affected schools in the fall, after the public has had a chance to weigh in, though the timeline isn’t set in stone.

The district anticipates looking at each school’s current and 10-year enrollment projection, the age and condition of the buildings, academic offerings and equity, district officials said. Officials say they will also examine the distances between schools and safety issues, such as traffic near schools.

The district is using about 65% of the space at its elementary school sites to educate about 23,000 K-5 students, Jones said. At some schools, seats sit empty. Twenty-nine of the district’s elementary schools have fewer than 300 students.

It’s also spending more per student in elementary schools with low enrollment. For example, the district’s per-pupil spending at schools with 200 students or fewer is about 15% higher than the average elementary school across the district, Fred Podesta, the chief operations officer at Seattle Public Schools, said at Wednesday’s meeting. Spending is about 10% lower than the average across the system in schools with 400 students or more, Podesta said.

“That’s where we are seeing the most challenge in terms of enrollment,” Jones said. “That’s where we’re also not utilizing our space and our services in the most efficient manner.” 

There are mixed feelings about closing schools across membership of the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents 6,000 staff members working in the district’s schools, including classroom teachers.

“It’s clear Dr. Jones recognizes there’s going to be a lot of scrutiny of whatever he proposes,” Jennifer Matter, the union’s president, who stood in the crowd with more than a dozen other members, said after the vote. “I know he is professionally and personally invested in doing this right. You can hear that it’s on his mind and heart.”

Matter said the union hasn’t taken a formal position on school closures — mostly because there are a lot of unanswered questions. She said the union posed a number of questions to the district about Jones’ proposed plan, including whether closing schools would alleviate or worsen student-teacher ratios, and how racial equity would be factored into decision-making.

But it’s safe to say that many working in schools are anxious.

“My daughter loves going to her small community school. And I know it won’t always be that way,” said Uti Hawkins, the union’s former vice president. Even “being one of the most informed people in my community — I’m not sure where we’re going.”

Cutting costs

The school closure proposal is part of a larger multiyear effort to put the district on firmer financial and academic footing. 

Seattle is among many districts contemplating closing schools as education systems across the country confront the end of COVID federal aid and declining enrollment, which is the largest determining factor in the amount of taxpayer funds school districts receive from their state governments.

Enrollment had been declining in some cities before the pandemic, but the federal funds gave districts room to delay difficult budget decisions.

“It would have been really hard for districts to close schools while they were trying to get people to come back,” said Marguerite Roza, a Seattle-based researcher and the director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, which focuses on school finance. 

“They just could not have done it all at the same time. That delay probably had some important utility in the sense that [districts] could do the reopening separately from this other discussion. Now, the problem is, it’s happening all at once.”

Although the school closures aren’t expected to take effect until fall 2025, the district is also wrestling with how to shed $105 million from next school year’s estimated $1.1 billion budget.

To close its budget gap, the district is cutting staff in the central administrative office and reducing school budgets by about $5.7 million. Student-to-teacher ratios will also increase in its secondary schools from 30:1 to 31:1. 

SPS is also planning to borrow $32 million from its reserves and about $35 million from its capital fund, which is primarily used to pay for building construction, maintenance and other infrastructure. The district must repay the loan with interest by June 2026. 

The board voted unanimously to approve the loan Wednesday. Officials say they’re hoping lawmakers offer more money next legislative session to help with these loan repayments. Without legislative help, “repayment of the loan will require further reductions in expenditures at SPS,” district officials said Wednesday.

In December, the district projected that the 2025-26 budget hole would be even bigger than in the upcoming school year: about $129 million. Closing schools — which could save the district an estimated $50 million to $75 million — is one of the proposals to close that gap. 

Jones said the proposal is in line with a plan to create “a system of well-resourced schools” — the term the district uses to describe schools that have what students need to succeed. The idea was developed from a districtwide survey and a series of meetings last year with staff, parents, students and community members. Well-resourced schools are envisioned to include social-emotional support for students, safe buildings, inclusive learning spaces, predictable budgets, multiple teachers in each grade and staff for art, music and physical education.

Jones estimated that schools with 468 students can have an adequate number of staff to support students, including three to four teachers per grade, nurses two days per week, three special education intensive service classrooms, a counselor or social worker, and full-time teachers for art, music and physical education.

While the vision for well-resourced schools includes possible closures and consolidations in elementary schools, it might look different in middle and high schools and is unlikely to include consolidation, Podesta said.

Fears about the district’s budget woes have for months led to confusion and speculation about what might be on the chopping block. 

In February, students and parents at Interagency Queen Anne, a small recovery high school, worried that the school was among those the district planned to close.

They mounted an online petition to keep the school open, prompting the district to clarify that it had no plans to close the school.

The district has said it will hold meetings with the school communities that could be affected. After the board receives the recommendations, the public will have 30 days to provide input.

State law requires that districts hold public hearings during the 90-day period before a final decision is made to close a school. The law also requires a separate hearing for each affected school site.

A final recommendation and vote is expected in the fall.

School Board President Liza Rankin urged participation and said it would be premature to assume a school will close just because it has fewer than 300 students.

“It’s not a judgment or assessment of any individual school or performance or the students that go there. It’s a matter of our students being spread across too many buildings for the number of students we have.”

Erin MacDougall, one of the leaders of All Together for Seattle Schools, a local advocacy group with about 150 people on its distribution list, has asked the district to detail the alternatives it explored before settling on closing schools.

“Show us the thought process that went into why they chose those schools,” MacDougall said.

MacDougall is also concerned that the preliminary list of affected schools will be released near the end of the school year when parents are getting ready for end-of-year rituals and summer vacations or may not be physically in the city to attend the meetings and engage in the process.

Roza said districts that are contemplating closing schools should be transparent with their communities about their finances. The district’s plan to borrow from its capital fund, for instance, is an “alarm bell,” she said.

“I don’t think there’s a way that avoids anybody feeling upset, because no one likes to have their school close,” Roza said.