Kathleen's Story

My daughter wanted to attend the high school closest to her home, Ballard High School. We parents knew many students would want to  enroll in this school because it was brand new. We also knew, since there is no high school in the Magnolia and Queen Anne area, the students in these communities would be competing for seats in 9th grade with the communities surrounding Ballard High School.

In February I faxed and mailed a letter to Superintendent Olchefske, addressing my concerns about space availability at Ballard. I asked him how he was going to deal with the angry parents if their children did not get assigned to Ballard. I received no response. On March 15th, I represented a group of middle school parents from McClure and Blaine, when I spoke at a Seattle School Board meeting. I spoke of our concerns about our children being assigned to Ballard High School.

After the meeting a group of parents approached John Vachierry, head of school assignments, who assured us that our children should be able to get into Ballard. We waited until April to receive our children's school assignments in the mail. The day finally came. My daughter did not get her first choice of Ballard. My daughter did not receive her 2nd choice of Roosevelt or her third choice of Nathan Hale. She received her 4th choice of Franklin. Eventually I had my daughter transferred to Ingraham because it has an orchestra program; Franklin doesn't.

Ingraham will be over an hour school bus ride each way.  At the time of the assignments, the only Queen Anne and Magnolia 8th graders who were assigned to Ballard were minority
students or students who lived on the very north end of Magnolia. Only 7.5% of Students from Blaine School who are white were assigned to their first choice school. Most did not receive their 2^nd or 3^rd choices either. The average throughout the district for first choice in high school assignments was over 80%. It is clear that we were really treated unfairly.

Immediately following the receipt of the letters, parents began meeting once a week to discuss options. We attended and spoke at every school board meeting. We begged and pleaded and some of us cried to "let our children into Ballard."  We sent letters, we emailed, and we pleaded for a swap for Franklin and Ballard students. Many minority students who live around Franklin were not assigned to their first choice school, Franklin. They were assigned to
Ballard. A swap would have meant that both minority and white students would get their first choice schools. The school board voted this proposal down.

The school board finally let 25 additional students into each of the 5 popular schools, leaving hundreds still on wait lists. That only let a few Magnolia and Queen Anne students into
Ballard. Finally, exasperated by no other movement on the waitlist, and lack of concern from the School Board a group of parents, of which I am one, got together to discuss a lawsuit. We searched and found a local law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, to represent us pro-bono, in our complaint against the Seattle School Board.

Our attorneys delivered a letter of demand in late June, asking that the racial tiebreaker be dropped when assigning students to Seattle High Schools, because it is illegal. The School Board responded by indicating that they felt they were in full compliance with existing laws.  This group of parents, now a Non-profit corporation called PICS (Parents Involved in Community Schools), authorized their attorneys to sue the Seattle School Board.

After volunteering hundreds of hours over 9 years in many capacities such as PTA
President, field-trip driver, volunteer music teacher, coordinator of the wiring project, auction coordinator, bake sales and room mother, and a great supporter of the school levy campaign, I felt absolutely betrayed that my child was denied access to three schools because of her race and the community where she resided.

The Seattle School Board, by their lack of action has indicated to the Magnolia and Queen Anne taxpayers that we are not deserving of fairness in the high school assignment process. They have disregarded the educational needs of our children. All the high schools are not the same. Some are clearly superior to others in test scores, students who go on to college etc. These figures are available on the Seattle Public School website. The fault lies with the Seattle School District. Poor vision and leadership, and lack of support for the existing staff in the less popular schools are the hallmark of this current school board.

John Stanford told us that forced busing was over! I believe access to the school closest to a student's home is paramount to parental involvement. Parental involvement is the key to
excellent schools.