The community of teachers, parents, children and administrators who comprise and support Roxhill Elementary School came to a meeting Thursday May 3 to share their views about what the school needs, and to hear from School Board member Marty McLaren and Pegi McEvoy Superintendent of Operations for Seattle Public Schools. The issues they addressed, from the need for more capacity to how to what needs to be fixed or changed drew applause from the group of more than 50 people in attendance. There have been suggestions that Roxhill might close or merge with Arbor Heights Elementary. It was acknowledged during the meeting that Arbor Heights in in the worst physical condition of any school in the district. Another suggestion was that a new school might be built on the former Denny Middle School site. But both options are off the table at the moment. Principal Carmela Dellino said the meeting was really about capacity and what can be done to make Roxhill better.

The West Seattle Herald took a tour of the school the following day to record what the kids and others were reporting needed to be fixed and to illustrate what over crowding looks like.

Dellino began the meeting by asking, "How do we make our schools safe and big enough for all our students in a fair and equitable way?" Dellino explained that the idea for the meeting began as a reaction to potential merger/closure of Roxhill. "The parents and staff spoke very, very loudly about that," she said, "in two days we had 300 surveys returned (...) that said no."
It also provided a chance to say, "What about our building? What about our space and facility?"

Dellino described Roxhill as a "truly magical place and I feel incredibly honored to serve as the Principal here."

The meeting heard from students at the school who spoke about the crowded conditions but also about being injured on the "cheese grater" a perforated ramp (see slideshow) that leads to a portable classroom. The grid in the ramp, meant to provide traction, has sharp raised bumps that cut and draw blood when students fall.

Many of the teachers who spoke talked about the "sense of community at Roxhill" and the feeling that the school serves as an anchor for the area. One fourth grade teacher at Roxhill said, "I've never seen a school that individually cares about so many students (...) I feel like every student here has some kind of adult advocate." He went on to say, " I think where you can really judge (a school) is in the staff lounge. You can go to a lot of schools and you get a lot of corrosive talk. You get teachers who complain or whine (...) that's not the case here at Roxhill." As an example of the condition of the school however he mentioned that the heater in his classroom, despite attempts to fix it, "makes an awful banging sound. The chalkboards are not modern (...) the playground is pretty pathetic and in my short experience here it seems like Roxhill has gotten the short end of the stick compared to a lot of other schools." He said he was speaking on behalf of many of the non-English speaking students as well and said, "Our students need more."

Alison Pirtle, a 2nd Grade teacher said her students have been talking about needs. Her students listed these needs:

• Strong, shatterproof windows (they had a soccer ball break one)
• Bigger places or fields to play
• Quiet classrooms to learn
• More nurses at school
• More fire/earthquake drills
• Softer ground to play on
• Smoother ramps
• Taller fences to keep balls in
• More and cleaner bathrooms
• More playground and portables
• New ceilings
• New playground equipment
• More smoke detectors

Jill Wagner rose to talk about the fact that Roxhill does not provide before and after school child care. "When school starts at 9:35am and gets out at 3:30 pm (...) it's very stressful and expensive for families to find child care. I'd like to see a facility that can allow before and after school child care."

Jim Winquist rose to say that, "Roxhill is special. It's the people, it's the faculty, it's the students."

Cheryl Richmond said she moved here four years ago, "Because the schools in California are a mess." Her daughter was two years old and she chose to send her to Roxhill because she wanted her to, "have an opportunity to learn and be loved, to have an amazing staff and teachers and a Principal who cares about the kids."

Next year Transitional Kindergarden and some Special Education programs will not be part of Roxhill, essentially because there is no capacity at the school.

Theresa Pine, Roxhill 4th grade teacher spoke about her team of teachers and against the idea of the school being "disbanded" and about student safety citing two "shelters in place" within one week. Roxhill is adjacent to the Roxbury Street a busy arterial and near a casino and bowling alley. Pine would like to see the school relocated. "The kids are very aware of the safety concerns (...) It's not a safe place for kids."

A 2nd grade teacher spoke in praise of the academic achievement there saying, "We have made amazing gains. We've moved from a level 1 to a level 3 school."

Dellino spoke briefly about Roxhill being "at capacity" serving 390 students, with "four staff sharing a closet as an office. We have 7 portables on our site, and we also have a playground that has a nice swamp in the middle of it. (...) When I went to the Arbor Heights meeting there's no question that they need a new building. Their building is in worse physical shape than Roxhill. There's no question that Schmitz Park is way over capacity as well. But what I want to advocate about Roxhill is that we are also over capacity. (...) We have 125 bi-lingual students to be served and there is no classroom for them. It's not o.k.

Pegi McEvoy, SPS Operations Superintendent said that if the school board chose to build a new school on the former Denny site it would "absolutely" redraw school boundaries, but later added that the cost of such a project is in the neighborhood of $35 million, meaning it's an unlikely move in the near future. She spoke about the BEX IV process and boundary revisions, "hoping to minimize it."

McEvoy admitted the school board was wrong about the number of students they had projected they would need to serve which has meant a serious reassessment of how to meet the expanded need.

School Board director Marty McLaren inquired about parents with children in other West Seattle schools. Quite a few raised their hands.

Mclaren acknowledged that there are many schools in need of renovation, and that "all our schools are getting overcrowded." She explained that the former E.C. Hughes school on 34th, currently leased to the private Westside School would reopen as a Seattle Public School. "We are also going to reopen the Fairmount Park building (just off Fauntleroy) (...) The school district made some really bad predictions. We were wrong when we closed schools. (...) Then we have the STEM program at the Boren school site but we're not sure where that will end up. That will not be permanent building. It needs to be a temporary site. When we rebuild Arbor Heights it will probably move into the Boren building temporarily."

Mclaren pointed out that Schmitz Park is the "most overcrowded of any school in the district." More than half the students have their classes in portables and they only have one set of bathrooms. "We have really serious issues and we don't have a lot of money. What we do have is this great community."

She wanted to focus on Arbor Heights which is on the BEX IV levy proposal, "but it is not slated to be rebuilt until 2018," Mclaren said, with students moving to Boren in 2016. She added that Schmitz Park will have a whole new school built at the Genesee Hill site which is in the northwest area of West Seattle. That's scheduled, "fairly soon. Schmitz Park is scheduled to move in, in 2015. Fairmount Park will re-open in 2014. E.C. Hughes in 2015."

She explained, "The way our levy proposal works if we are able to pass it, and if the voters are willing to spend $700 million dollars to fix our schools and build more schools, the levy will last for 6 years and we will get $120 million each year so we can't do all of these repairs at once. So I'm asking what's fair?"

Mclaren opened up the floor to questions. Questions about Fairmount Park and E.C. Hughes came up regarding the STEM program and what Hughes would be used for. McEvoy fielded the question saying they are still designing the STEM program and that enrollment projections coming June 1 would help them know what kind of capacity to plan for at Hughes.

McEvoy and Mclaren said they would likely permit grandfathering permitting students to keep attending their existing school, should boundaries change.

An idea was suggested that Arbor Heights move to Roxhill, STEM stay at Boren and Roxhill move to Hughes while Arbor Heights is being built. Mclaren said she would look at the idea. McEvoy also said they would look into the potential.

The current school board plan is to construct a new school in South Lake Union, an idea that was met with some derision by those at the meeting since the enrollment predictions for that neighborhood are so difficult to make. "Our normal way of making projections is based on the number of live births in a particular zip code but the problem is they just rezoned everything."

An idea was suggested that a new school could be built larger, to serve 700 students but Mclaren and McEvoy said they have not had an architect or engineer look at the former Denny site to see if it is workable. McEvoy said later that around the state the norm for schools is from 600 to 1000 students.

While all this is being discussed, Roxhill needs help now. Dellino said it was difficult to even get parents to come in and paint, due to liability issues for the school district but she has hope. "We are one of those schools who has been selected to potentially receive a one day make over through Core Giving. It's not finalized and part of what's holding us up is that we need another space for an after school program. We don't have it, so we might not qualify." If they got it, it would mean painting all the portables outside, some murals, getting some classrooms painted, getting some real white boards (they use bathroom wall board now and must paint it from time to time), some landscaping and possibly some flower beds and remediation of the playground "swamp."

"For me this meeting was about the Roxhill community coming forward," said Dellino, " and really articulating how important this school is to them. And secondly we can have really high quality instruction going on, and we are, but our students deserve a building that is going to really maximize their instruction. I'd say that we don't have that right now."