Parents and community members said they've felt excluded from the public input process of a $125 million Seattle Public Schools capital project that will move Denny Middle School to the Chief Sealth High School campus.

Dozens showed up at the Southwest Community Center last week to voice their opinion and learn more about the plan, which Seattle voters approved this past February under a $490 million capital bond that will pay for replacement and renovation of seven schools.

Since then, plans have moved forward to combine the two schools onto one campus, but residents said not enough has been done to gather their input.

One parent said the district was treating the public like "children," and only cared about their opinion when it comes time to vote for a levies and bonds.

"You can't just bulldoze through the community and tell us it's a done deal when you didn't involve us in the first place," she said.

School administrators admitted they could have done more to involve the community.

John Boyd, principal of Chief Sealth High, apologized to the crowd and promised there would be several more community meetings.

"We feel like we didn't do enough outreach to the community and we acknowledge that and apologize for that," Boyd said.

He encouraged residents to get involved in the design process of the new campus and offer ideas about what to do with the current Denny site. The school will be demolished after a new facility is built.

"The Denny-Sealth campus is going forward," Boyd said. "We really want to make something that everyone feels proud about."

Although the schools will share a physical campus and some facilities, they will not be combining, said Jeff Clark, Denny's principal.

The preliminary design has the new Denny rebuilt facing north with its own entrance on Southwest Kenyon Street. Chief Sealth would continue to face south on Southwest Thistle.

The current Denny site will probably become more school athletic fields that are also open to the public, but the district is still seeking community input, said Don Gilmore, the district's capital project manager.

The schools will interface through a galleria that will serve as a "conduit" to facilities, such as gyms, cafeterias, language labs and counseling offices, said Gilmore.

Six gymnasiums are planned for the new campus, more than any other Seattle Public school, and a 1,000-seat auditorium, the largest in the district. The schools are predicting a combined total of about 1,600 students at the new campus.

Sealth students would be moved to a temporary home at the Louisa Boren interim site in fall 2008, when major renovations would start on Sealth in conjunction with development of the new Denny facility. Denny students would stay in the old school until the new one is built.

The principals touted the educational benefits a shared campus could offer.

The proximity of the schools would allow for increased curriculum alignment as well as cross-age tutoring and mentoring, said Clark.

With shared facilities, the schools could offer expanded music, world language, art and vocational programs, along with transitions to high school programs. Familiarity with the high school could help ease the tough move from middle to high school when many students drop out, the principals said.

But parents had concerns about the emotional and physical safety of the students with a shared, but separate, campus.

One woman said she was "appalled" by the idea.

"I'm insulted that you think I want my middle schooler on the same campus with high schoolers," she said. "I don't have faith that you'll be able to keep them all separate. I feel like we don't have a voice if we even want this to happen."

Clark said it would in no way be like a college campus, where students are free to mingle.

"If I didn't think this was safe we would not be doing this," he said. "I do not compromise safety. We have taken every effort to design the campus in a way that is highly supervised and structured."

Someone else spoke up about disconcertment over the project among the majority of staff, teachers and security personnel at both schools.

Clark said most of his staff view the change as a "celebration," but Boyd said that out of a little more than half of his staff that participated in a vote, 75 percent were opposed to the idea.

"A lot of people are against it..." Boyd said. "But if I didn't think it was the best thing then I would have vehemently opposed it."

A parent of two said though she understood people's concerns, she's "encouraged and impressed" with results at other schools that have shared campus models.

"We have to put ourselves on the line once in a while," she said.

Another major concern: The project is moving too fast.

One Sealth employee gave an impassioned speech and suggested both schools get rebuilt where they stand.

"We all want schools to have state-of-the-art facilities, but no other community has been told they must share facilities for that to happen," he said. "This is changing our whole community. We need to slow down."

West Seattle's outgoing School Board member, Irene Stewart, said the project was moving quickly due to severe escalation in construction costs. Rebuilding both schools separately would have cost upward of $200 million.

Even $125 million, the largest voter approved capital project in the history of Seattle Schools, was "pushing it," Stewart said.

Since north West Seattle has had its share of renovations with the new Madison Middle School and West Seattle High, Stewart saw a combined campus as the best chance to get major improvements to schools in south West Seattle now.

She encouraged people to join the school design team comprised of parents, staff, students and Bassetti Architects, the same firm that designed Madison and West Seattle High.

"This seemed like a win-win for the schools," Stewart said. "It got the job done to have an investment here that the community deserves."

To get involved call design team project manager Robert Evans, 254-7989, or Eleanor Trainor, Seattle Schools Capital Projects Community Liaison, 252-0655.