Seattle Schools Launch Merger Talks as Enrollment Falls Below 50,000
Superintendent Ben Shuldiner initiated a months-long review process following the ratification of a new teacher contract and a drop in student numbers.
By Thiago Kovalenko ·
Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Ben Shuldiner opened formal discussions on merging district schools on Sunday. In a letter to parents, he stated that the district began these conversations after student enrollment dropped below 50,000. The announcement marks the start of a structured process to evaluate which campuses might be combined to improve facility use and class composition.
Shuldiner described the physical conditions at several locations as he toured the district. He noted that some students attend classes in buildings where bookcases serve as interior walls. At other sites, forced split-grade classrooms are common. He cited specific examples of low enrollment, including a K-8 school with fewer than 50 students and a K-5 school with fewer than 120 students. These conditions prompted the district to move forward with merger evaluations.
The review will take place over several months. Shuldiner will visit the staff and executive directors of all potentially impacted schools this week. Family meetings at proposed receiving schools will occur from November through mid-December. Following these meetings, a formal list of proposals will be presented to the Seattle School Board. Communities will then have a 60-day window for public hearings scheduled for January and February. The board plans to take possible action on the proposals in late February or early March.
The district waited to start these talks until it finalized a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Seattle Education Association. That contract was ratified in September. It sets staffing levels, class ratios, and wage increases for teachers ranging from 8.8% to 9.8% over three years. Paraeducators will receive wage increases of nearly 11% during the same period. Shuldiner said the district inherited a structural budget deficit and is operating with a shortage of funds after cutting roughly $50 million earlier this year.
Shuldiner pledged that families displaced by any approved closure will receive priority during open enrollment. The district will also extend the transfer application window until one week after the board makes a final decision. He did not release a specific list of schools currently under consideration for mergers or closures. The full newsletter containing the superintendent's comments is available on the Seattle Public Schools website.
"I don’t want students to spend one more year in a building where bookcases serve as walls, if we don’t have to," Shuldiner wrote. "I don’t want students to spend one more year in a sixth-seventh-eighth grade split if we don’t have to. I don’t want teachers to be the only teacher in the grade if we don’t have to. I don’t want to accept large class sizes if we don’t have to. So, the conversation around school mergers begins."
