When Seattle parent Lynn Miller was deciding on a school for her older child almost 20 years ago, she chose Viewlands Elementary in North Seattle, a small local public school with 200 students, over the much larger Broadview-Thomson Elementary.
Miller, a librarian, still feels stressed when she thinks back to when she attended countless meetings and rallies alongside many other parents in the fight to keep Viewlands open.
The school was a real success story in the area of autism inclusion. Its teachers and administrators all had training in inclusion practices. Still, the fight to keep Viewlands open was lost. In 2007, it became one of 11 Seattle Public Schools buildings closed due to low district enrollment.
Four years later, five of those schools, including Viewlands, were returned to service due to an unanticipated surge in population. By that time, the Viewlands staff and administrators, who Miller says focused “on making the student population a more caring place,” had moved on. The close-reopen flip-flop left families frustrated.
“Viewlands was fulfilling my wish for my kids’ education,” she added. “And it was very multicultural.”
She adds that events like Viewland’s “Monday Morning Meeting” helped unify students, staff, and parents.
Miller was troubled by how the district decided which schools to close in 2007. Even today, Miller believes she and the Viewlands community made an excellent case for keeping an outstanding school open. She remembers the disillusionment in the school community that followed.
“If I could prevent other students from our experience,” she says, “it would almost be worth having had that experience.”
Read more:
The future of SPS: Big changes are coming
Big changes coming to SPS: Effects of Inequity
Changing schools: Lessons from military moves
How to help public schools: Call, write, vote
Big changes coming to SPS: I walk with public schools
Big changes coming to SPS: Closures are ‘a BAND-AID’
Big changes coming to SPS: Keeping her faith in public schools
