Sunday, November 3, 2013

Meany School renovations

(Timeline for the rebuilding of Meany school will presumably be impacted by the refusal of the  present users of The Horace Mann School, to which Nova will return once it is renovated, to vacate the building, as they had agreed).

Seattle Schools will be extensively renovating the Meany Middle School building to open it as a new Middle School for 850 students in (?) 2017. The building presently houses two programs.  Nova alternative high school is due to return to its original home, the Horace Mann building in the Central Area, when the building is renovated and the sharing issues with the present residents are resolved (see Central District News for information). The World School will move to the TT Minor Building in the Central District.

The Schools website (http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/meany-middle-school/
details what we know about the plans. Several neighbors applied to join the School Design Advisory Team and will report to us on what they learnt.

BTW the Schools website initially contained references to their plans for the play field and parking lot. My correspondence with Parks (see below) confirmed that both are in fact Parks property


Some links to Capitol Hill Seattle blog articles, with the (few) details we have of what's being planned:

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/10/school-notes-ugly-hazing-incident-at-garfield-pushback-on-meany-busing-plan/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/09/proposed-capitol-hill-elementary-school-border-shifts-address-more-kids-new-middle-school-in-2017/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/09/schools-says-with-community-issues-sorted-out-14-2m-plan-moving-forward-to-re-open-hill-middle-school/

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2013/02/talk-with-kay-smith-blum-about-plans-for-meany-school-modernization/


Dear Director Williams,

The Meany School building, immediately adjacent to Miller Community Center and Playfield, will be renovated and rebuilt to house a new, large (850 student) middle school.

Neighborhood outreach efforts for the planning are starting soon, and I write for clarification on several points.

1) Is the Parks Department actively involved in the planning process? If so, can we get the name of the Parks Department staff member involved?

2) The school website (http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/meany-middle-school/ ) contains this statement:

"
  • Site work including playfield renovation, installation of new building signage and energy-efficient lighting, and resurfacing and restriping of the parking lot.
Questions:  

a) is Parks aware of and  involved in those renovations?

b) Is the playfield Parks or School property? (I suspect it's Parks)

c) Is the parking lot Parks or School property?  Our understanding had always been that it was Parks property, but was used during the school day by school staff (by common assent), a use which has worked well over the years.

We would appreciate speedy answers to these issues, as the public involvement process starts very soon.

Many thanks,

Andrew Taylor
Andrew,
Good to see you are on continuing your involvement in these issues and being ever vigilant !
I have talked to the School District’s Project manager Vincent Gonzales and he will see to it that the relevant web site regarding the Meaning Middle School is corrected to delete reference to both playfield renovation and the parking lot, both of which as you note are in fact owned by the Parks and Recreation Department.

In response to your other question:


1)      Is the Parks Department actively involved in the planning process? If so, can we get the name of the Parks Department staff member involved?

While we are not actively involved yet there have been several brief conversations with the School District. I plan to attend at least the first meeting School Design Advisory Committee and as I understand it Trevor Gregg and Thomas Hargrave  from the community center will be on the committee.



Donald M. Harris
Manager, Property and Acquisition Services
Planning & Development Division
Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation
800 Maynard Avenue South, 4th floor
Seattle, WA 98134-1336
Ph 206 684 8018

Fax 206 233 7038 

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