When Rebecca Fischer and her husband bought a house in Seattle, it was always with an eye on the schools.
“We went with Wedgwood, and I’m very happy with our decision,” said Fischer. “The idea that we’re making big life decisions, like real estate decisions, based on what we knew to be the school situation at the time, that’s always a gamble.”
Fischer’s daughter attends Wedgwood Elementary and is heading into second grade this fall. Her son has two more years of preschool before he enters the public school system.
However, Fischer has seen the district’s basic criteria publicly shared about how it will decide which 20 SPS elementary schools will be closed. Wedgwood meets some of the conditions that could mark the school for a shutdown: It’s an older building with a small student body.
But Fischer says there’s uncertainty, too: Wedgwood does pass the 300-student population mark, the number under which schools are at highest risk of closure (among other criteria).
“What I’ve loved about Wedgwood is the small size and the sense of community that comes along with that,” says Fischer. She notes that when she looked at other local schools, such as Thornton Creek, she noticed how vast the buildings seemed.
“I worried about my kid getting lost in the bigger school,” she said. “That choice is basically no longer mine to make.”
While the Wedgwood PTA has sent out feelers to families to see if they can get involved in efforts to save the school, Fischer feels she doesn’t have the “capacity” to join that effort.
“As two full-time working parents with young kids, it’s really hard to be engaged civically,” she said. She’s been unable to attend meetings but has reviewed a meeting transcript.
Fischer said she and her husband decided long ago that they are committed to having their children attend public school through high school. Fischer and her husband are both “products of public schools and not supportive of the charter school movement,” she said.
Fischer noted that even if they were interested in leaving SPS for a private school, the district still needs to provide more information for parents to act on. Further, like many parents, she is not convinced the closures will do much to address Seattle Public Schools’ longer-term financial issues.
“It’s not addressing the root cause, which is likely going to require some tax reform at the state level,” says Fischer. “This is a BAND-AID.”
Read more:
The future of SPS: Big changes are coming
Big changes coming to SPS: Effects of Inequity
Changing schools: Lessons from military moves
