Phantom Lake Elementary! Why are you 50% full?

(Psssssst! Its not)
Sent Feb 8.

Dear Bellevue School District,

I am floored by the district’s decision to consider closing Phantom Lake Elementary and would like to draw your attention to some oversights.

I’m sure if we excluded a large portion of your work from your efficiency, you might raise your hand. And yet, the district makes claims that this school has low operational efficiency, but does so by excluding its preschool, with which the elementary school shares facilities, and staffing, and through which it achieves operational efficiency, and far exceeds the state’s target school size of 400 students.

The district has claimed that PLE is at 50% capacity by excluding its preschool rooms.

The district claims: “Phantom Lake has had the lowest enrollment in the district in 9 of those 10 years and is forecasted to remain flat for the foreseeable future.”
Please correct this misinformation that is published here: https://bsd405.org/departments/finance/budget/planning-for-the-future-faq#faq8

Let me clarify the status of PLE for you:

• PLE ranks 1st in growth among the district’s elementary schools since 2019, and 3rd in growth since 2014
• PLE now (2023) ranks 6th by enrollment size among the district’s 18 schools considered for closure. It presently serves around 462 students.
• PLE *added* a class this year. Its 1st-grade GREW by 40% from 48 to 67, leaving the district scrambling for a new teacher at the start of the year — this while the district is concerned about increasing childlessness. It is one of the few schools whose overall enrollment has grown in the last year.
• PLE does a great job serving 30% low-income and 2/3 minority students, and yet still ranks in ~the top 20% in WA for student achievement. An astonishing success given its socio-economic disadvantages and the presence of a PAL’s program and high needs and special-ed students.

Hasn’t the district considered that if PLE hosted a few more low-income families, or even encouraged low-income parents to register their low-income status, it could *add* a new Title 1 school? Perhaps some careful additions to enrollment next year, and additional funding could be created.

I am sure that the district would like to continue to claim that it cares deeply about equity. But now at the first sign of stress it now instead rushes to close schools serving the disadvantaged so well and providing the benefits of an integrated community that choice schools, AP-focused schools, and language schools do not.

I feel sure, that the PLE administration and PLE parents must have already made the above points abundantly clear. Should bureaucratic deafness persist, I’m sure it will be followed by louder voices from our children, such is their nature, and feeling presently well served by their neighborhood school.

Warm regards,
- Stuart Reynolds, PhD. Bellevue parent.