Support Racial Equity for Maple Elementary

Seattle Public Schools is planning to change the boundary for Maple Elementary School, to take effect in either 2019 or 2020. On November 20, 2013, the district approved a vast set of boundary changes across the city (as described in this 88-page document), with most taking effect the following school year, and others planned for later years. In recognition that the future Maple Elementary School boundary change may not be racially equitable, the Board unanimously passed an amendment to the 11/20/13 resolution to "reassess all boundary and feeder pattern plans for District 7” (Southeast Seattle) with racial diversity in mind.

The Maple change was originally supposed to take effect in 2020, but due to capacity issues at the school, the district is considering moving that change up to 2019. Therefore, the district and community are now doing the work to reassess the boundary in terms of racial equity. As such, the district has created an Alternate Plan for Maple Elementary. The below table compares the 2013 Plan with the Alternate Plan according to criteria of racial equity, English Language Learners equity, Special Education equity, the district's own guiding principles for boundaries, and other arguments raised by the community.

Neither impacted area wants to be displaced from Maple Elementary. However, as shown below, the Alternate Plan is the better plan in terms of racial equity, equity for students requiring special services, keeping children in walk zones, cost savings, minimizing displaced students overall, and upholding the district's own boundary criteria. Please email schoolboard@seattleschools.org and growthboundaries@seattleschools.org and let them know you support the more racially equitable Alternate Plan for Maple Elementary.

#	Plan Comparison Criteria	Better Plan	2013 Plan	Alternate Plan
1	Displacement of children	Alternate Plan	Displaces +8% more children	Displaces -8% fewer children
2	Displacement of black children	Alternate Plan	Displaces +40% more black children	Displaces -29% fewer black children
3	Displacement of Asian children	Alternate Plan	Displaces +21% more Asian children	Displaces -17% fewer Asian children
4	Displacement of Latino children	Alternate Plan	Displaces +9% more Latino children	Displaces -8% fewer Latino children
5	Displacement of multi-racial children	Alternate Plan	Displaces +20% more multi-racial children	Displaces -17% fewer multi-racial children
6	Displacement of children of color	Alternate Plan	Displaces +20% more children of color	Displaces -17% fewer children of color
7	Displacement of English Language Learners	Alternate Plan	Displaces +20% more English Language Learners	Displaces -17% fewer English Language Learners
8	Displacement of Special Education students	Alternate Plan	Displaces +17% more Special Education students	Displaces -14% fewer Special Education students
9	"Create boundaries that reflect equitable access to services and programs"	Alternate Plan	Displaces +20% more children requiring special services	Displaces -16% fewer children requiring special services
10	"Maximize walkability"	Alternate Plan	Displaces children from the walk zone	Does NOT displace children from the walk zone
11	"Enable cost-effective transportation standards"	Alternate Plan	Requires children who currently walk to be bussed	Does NOT require any new bussing
12	"Maintain key features of New Student Assignment Plan (e.g. opportunities for creating diversity within boundaries, choice, option schools, feeder patterns)"	Alternate Plan	Exacerbates racial segregation	Minimizes racial segregation
13	"Be mindful of fiscal impact (costs and savings)"	Alternate Plan	Requires new bussing	Does NOT require new bussing
14	"Ground decisions in data"	Alternate Plan	No data-based reasons for this plan	Better plan for all the data-based reasons above
15	"Minimize disruptions by aligning new boundaries with current attendance area boundaries when feasible."	Tie	Changes existing boundaries	Changes existing boundaries
16	"Be responsive to family input to the extent feasible"	2013 Plan	More families have submitted complaints, reflecting higher proportion of white families impacted	More impacted families are from disenfranchised groups, and have submitted fewer complaints
17	Alignment with expectations from 2013	Tie	2013 Board resolution unanimously called for a reassessment of SE boundaries with diversity in mind	2013 Board resolution unanimously called for a reassessment of SE boundaries with diversity in mind
18	Splits the neighborhood	Tie	Splits Mid Beacon Hill in jagged way, keeps Georgetown together	Splits Mid Beacon Hill in cleaner way, could easily be revised to keep Georgetown together at Van Asselt
19	Historical ties to Maple School	2013 Plan	Maple was originally located in Georgetown in the 1880s	Until Brown v. Board of Education, minority children could legally be segregated from white children; minority children will never have strong historical claims to schools that started white

Notes and source documents for criteria:

Criteria 1-8 (population inequities):

2013 Plan, with race, ethnicity, and special service numbers at the bottom of the page

Alternate Plan, with race, ethnicity, and special service numbers at the bottom of the page

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mvoRYczMRluKonx9T_iVJzt2HeFF2a6t8VTJlhbjd_4/edit?usp=sharing">Spreadsheet with the percentage calculations for criteria 1-8

Criteria 9-16 (District's "guiding principles" for boundaries):

List of guiding principles that the 2013 boundaries were supposed to follow.

District walk zone for Maple

District walk zone for Van Asselt

Criterion 17 (2013 decision)

Minutes from 11/20/13 meeting, including a unanimously passed amendment that the School Board must "collaborate with the diverse communities of District 7 to reassess all boundary and feeder pattern plans for District 7 for the five-year planning horizon, and review them annually with appropriate data and community input." (Note: District 7 is SE Seattle.)

Criterion 18 (how neighborhoods are split)

2013 Plan

Alternate Plan

Criterion 19 (Georgetown's historical claim to Maple School

History Link article about the history of Maple School

Medium article about segregation in Seattle schools and housing redlining (image in article shows Georgetown's relative whiteness compared to Beacon Hill)