During a meeting at Ballard High School Oct. 14 more than 100 parents crowded into the library to let the Seattle School Board hear their reactions to plans that would draw new school boundaries.

School Board members said the plan will simplify the process for families and also save the district considerable money. But residents did not seem convinced.

Many of the complaints came from Ballard residents living north of Northwest 85th Street, an area that would feed students into Ingraham High School under the proposed plan.

“Whenever you make a change, some people like it and some don’t, and that’s what’s going on tonight,” said Tracy Libros, enrollment and planning manager for Seattle Public Schools.

Following a “small group discussion” during which school board officials asked community members to talk about the plan’s merits and drawbacks, parents stepped up to the microphone to voice their concerns.

A majority of their complaints concerned the high school boundary, which parents said divided the community while at the same time forcing children into longer and more dangerous commutes to Ingraham High School.

“It’s just not safe on a Metro bus to get to Ingraham,” one woman said.

She cited Aurora Avenue North as a major safety impediment directly in-between her home and Ingraham.

Others mentioned proximity as a sticking point; many local residents complained that Ingraham High School is just too far away.

Paul Steenstra, parent of two children at Whitman Middle School, said his children would go to Ingraham High School under the new boundaries, which he estimated was triple the distance from his home to Ballard High School.

“My kids can walk to Ballard High School,” he said.

On a similar note, parents accused the School Board of essentially dividing and thus weakening the Ballard community by placing the Ingraham-Ballard boundary at Northwest 85th Street.

“Why are Queen Anne and Magnolia allowed to attend a high school as an intact neighborhood, but Ballard is not?" asked one attendee.

Another even jokingly suggested the Queen Anne and Magnolia neighborhood children should bus over to Ingraham because Ballard residents should not have to pay the price for the closure of Queen Anne High School.

“Everybody on Queen Anne and Magnolia have heaved a sigh of relief,” said Chris Jackins, coordinator of the Seattle Committee to Save Schools and parent of Ballard High School graduates

On a smaller scale, many also asked whether each of their children might end up going to different schools under the new plan. The school district plan does allow for grandfathering—meaning a student can finish their time at a school they are already attending—and it allows for sibling attendance at a school to factor in as a “tiebreaker” when another sibling applies to that school.

Parents, however, raised a skeptical eyebrow to the board’s claim that they would do their best to address the concern after they have solidified the boundaries.

When it came time to highlight the plan’s positive points, some pointed out that the new plan gave predictability to the assignment system. Residents also remained essentially quiet about the changes to the elementary and middle school assignment systems that the board presented that evening.

“We also like the font of the presentation,” one man said, sparking laughter from the crowd.

At the end of the night, the attending School Board members promised to hear more input from citizens before they move forward with solidifying the boundaries next month. They also noted that next time their maps would be updated; parents and board members alike had used error-ridden maps during the meeting.

For some, the message was clear.

“What the district ought to do is back off on the whole thing,” Jackins said. “They should stop the whole thing.”