Seattle Press on Line - Queen Anne and Magnolia Work Towards New High School

Queen Anne and Magnolia Work Towards New High School

Sep 06, 2000 -- Early this June, Magnolia and Queen Anne parents and educators formed the Magnolia-Queen Anne Public High School Task Force to urge the Seattle School District to create a small high school of about 600 students in their neighborhood. The group has 25 active committee members with an executive committee consisting of parents of kids in Coe, Hay, McClure, Ingraham and Lowell schools.

The group was formed in response to the fact that only 30 percent of Magnolia and Queen Anne students got their first-choice high school for this coming school year. Despite being promised by the District last year that Ballard would be the reference school for Magnolia and Queen Anne, a very large number of Magnolia and Queen Anne students were turned away from Ballard this year. Instead, most of these students were assigned to Ingraham, an undersubscribed school that is near the city limits at Northeast 145th Street.

The group's educator core has designed a curriculum and has chosen Chuck Chinn, former principal at Ballard High School, as its administrator. The site selection committee has assessed all existing School District properties in Magnolia and Queen Anne and soon will be looking at non-District properties, acting on instructions from Superintendent Olchefske to "think out of the box" and look for any property that could work for a small high school. The group's budget committee is at work on budget projections for building and operation. The group would like to open in 2001 or 2002; Superintendent Olchefske has indicated that 2002 could work.

The task force has a website, www.orgsites.com/wa/mqahs. Since June 16, they have been surveying parents in Magnolia and Queen Anne and have received about 500 responses so far, with almost 100 percent in support of a new school. For more information, call Task Force member Lindsay Brown at 284-5361.

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!


Helen Sweeney	Apr 19, 2001	Seattle, WA 98109	exec. asst.
Bravo......for neighborhood schools re-emerging. Nothing could be more important for the Queen Anne/Magnolia districts. How can I help?