Lake Washington School Board continues with pattern of blunders | Letter
Published 11:42 am Friday, February 6, 2015
Overcrowding in the schools of the Lake Washington School District is a part of the many repercussions of a twice failed 2014 bond proposal. Solutions agreed upon by the Lake Washington School Board (LWSB) at the Jan. 26 meeting have furthered the folly.
I find it ironic that educators today go to extreme lengths to teach students how to spot bullying characteristics before they can cause any harm, yet the LWSB’s new strategy revolves around picking on a part of the community that is least likely to defend itself.
On Dec. 2, re-boundry scenarios were unveiled for the public schools in the Kirkland, Redmond and (parts of) Sammamish region. I empathized with the families of the 44 children who were informed that they wouldn’t be continuing at the Lakeview Elementary School in Kirkland in the fall of 2015. I rallied around the irate voices of the affluent Yarrow Bay parents as they promised to “lawyer up.” I rooted for them as they vowed that their children were not to be relocated. While, clearly, something transpired in the month that followed to allow them to win this difficult fight, I was angered to hear that the cowardly new solution is to usher out the special-needs boys and girls who also call Lakeview Elementary their home.
While my three children are not a part of the special-needs program at Lakeview Elementary, I think it’s disgraceful that the LWSB’s new strategy is to put special-needs kids in the cross hairs. The stress of relocation is more likely to have harmful effects on a special-needs child than anyone else. For children on the autism spectrum, a regular routine provides a vital comfort level that is now to be callously disrupted. Perhaps, the LWSB theorizes that they’ve now found the parents who are too consumed and exhausted in their everyday lives to take on yet another battle. It should be incumbent upon a school board to try to lessen these families day to day hardships as opposed to increasing them.
Moreover, it is a steady stream of LWSB blunders that have put the district in this predicament. Asking voters for over three quarters of a billion dollars in extra tax money on the February 2014 ballot was far-fetched and egregious. Adding to the “sticker shock” was the lack of any effort to explain or communicate to Eastside residents why it was necessary to request so large a dollar figure. The LWSB’s lack of communication with the public, in turn, seemed arrogant and aloof. It basically came down to: “here’s what we need, trust us.” And while I still voted “yes” to the bond proposal, I don’t begrudge anyone who scoffed at what was ultimately deemed a fiscally irresponsible and poorly communicated event.
Now, a year later, classroom sizes are getting larger, playgrounds are without room to play and school buses are so over capacity that students are literally sitting in the aisles.
Oh, and the bullies you were warned to steer clear of just may be the five members of the LWSB who have unfortunately been making one bad decision after another.
Rob Tepper, Kirkland
