Having sat dormant for several years, Fairmount Park Elementary at 3800 S.W. Findlay St. in West Seattle is on the verge of improvements and revitalization.

Seattle Public Schools plans to expand the existing structure “to allow a 2-story, 19,122 square foot, 10-classroom addition,” with a goal of holding up to 500 students. Two portable classrooms and a portion of the original building will be demolished in the process.

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development gave the project Land Use Application the “OK” on May 30 after evaluating environmental considerations. That decision is available for viewing at http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/LUIB/AttachmentProject3014192ID51923014192.p…

SPS has said they hope to have the expansion done in 2014, and the next question becomes … what will the school become?

The rumor mill has suggested Fairmount could become the new home for K-5 STEM option school students currently housed at the Boren building on Delridge, but the latest indication is that it may become a neighborhood elementary for children in the attendance area surrounding it.

In a meeting on May 29, SPS presented a number of potential plans to the school board concerning the future use of buildings, including some in West Seattle. The school board is still a ways out from making any final decisions, but SPS, according to slideshows from that meeting, is currently recommending “Fairmount Park become an attendance area school” and that the current Schmitz Park Elementary building become the permanent home for K-5 STEM (when Schmitz students and faculty are moved to a new school at the Genesee Hill site).

SPS’s presentation from that meeting is available at http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/…