By reporter Steven Smalley
Boarded up and overgrown, Magnolia Elementary School on 28th Avenue was closed by the Seattle School Board 10 years ago. Now Magnolia Voice readers write to ask, what’s happening to our school on the hill? In a letter dated 2005, community advocate Elizabeth Campbell asked the school board various questions – Can the community find a use for the school? Will Magnolia Elementary continue to slowly deteriorate into a useless heap? What will happen to this once great facility? Magnolia Voice followed up seven years later and asked Campbell what she thinks today about the state of our moth-balled school with the great big view.
Here are some of her frank assessments edited for this story: “It (Magnolia Elementary) should have been something the community could access. The school district has a history of not managing its assets very well and this is one example of it. They have this thing called, ‘Deferred Maintenance’ where you waste the asset by not taking care of it. You have maintenance by attrition…you don’t have to take care of it anymore because it’s beyond being able to retrieve it.” Campbell continued, “It gets boarded up like this is, and it gets somewhat vandalized – it goes to seed…the grounds do. Also they lose their occupancy permit with the city and then the school will come back and say, ‘Well, we can’t use it because it’s substandard,’ and that it’s either earthquake substandard, or it has asbestos, or it has lead. They should save some of these buildings which are really the district’s legacy,” she said. “The district is obligated to be a steward of the public’s property, and these schools are public property.’” When asked what she would say directly to the Seattle School District if she could, Campbell stated, “You have a covenant with the people who came before you. People in the past have paid their hard earned money to create this facility…there’s no sense of obligation to the public’s assets.”
In response to Campbell’s criticism, a spokesman for Seattle Public Schools sent an email to Magnolia Voice. It says in part, “There has not been a capacity need to open an elementary school in Magnolia in recent years. It [Magnolia Elementary] is being held (and not sold) pending possible future use. Reopening the school would require a major renovation at a substantial cost to bring the building up to current city codes and modern educational needs.” He goes on to write, “…There is no graffiti on the building at this time, but our maintenance team would make it a priority to clean it up when/if it does happen.”
This reporter notes that since Campbell’s 2005 letter complaining of the open nature of the play area in the rear of the school, it is now completely fenced with no access to it except through a locked gate,
MV readers- please let us know what you think!
The idea that Magnolia (and Queen Anne) does not have a capacity issue at the elementary school level is a complete lie. They are putting in 3 portable classrooms on the school grounds of John Hay next year because the school is so oversubscribed. Let’s not even talk about the fact that QA and Magnolia (two neighborhoods with a combined population of about 50K) has no dedicated public high school.
It saddens me to read this. With all the young families I see moving to Magnolia and the resources of QA and Magnolia residents I would hope that the schools could reflect the high hopes of those parents. When I moved to Washington my kids were in junior high and the top ten choices of quality schools, whether public or private were indeed in Bellevue, where I chose to rent to give my kids the best educational advantages I could to fulfill their dreams. (Those statistics were provided to me by Washington State). I own in Magnolia now because I find it an ideal neighborhood with my children now established in their fields, but agree with everyone who feels strongly that Magnolia children deserve the best environment and resources to compete on a global playing field for quality jobs in the sciences, information technology, etc.
not to mention, jamming these kids into ballard and other schools is displacing students who actually live in these neighborhoods.
one step across 85th? nope, no ballard high for you! but a kid from waaaay over in QA or magnolia? ok, you’re in…
queen anne had a high school – its condos now! how strange.
What we could really use is a good private school in our neighborhood.
What we could really use is a good private school in our neighborhood.
You’re kidding, right? There is a private school. If you don’t like it, move to Bellevue.
I need to be educated on this. What is the private school. When I was raising my children to be ready for medical school and doctorates, which is what they wanted and attained, of course I didn’t consider a religious option for a private school. I went public, but I am curious what quality private school there is in Magnolia that is college prep quality.
Not kidding. When we looked, the closest I could find was Seattle Country Day, and they serve a very limited population. Most of the private schools are a 20+ minute drive away.
And the point is that we don’t WANT to move to Bellevue. We want good schools in our own wonderful neighborhood. SSD isn’t providing them, that’s for sure.
Ms. Campbell is right. The district slowed way down on maintenance to its opened buildings in the late ’70s and never have come back up despite reopening schools and building new ones.
Any homeowner knows that if you do not keep up your house, it will decline. A small problem becomes a big problem.
As for the district saying it costs too much to reopen, I can only say there are several instances where the district said that one year and a few years later, they open buildings. They spent more than $50M to reopen five buildings.
Ms. Campbell is right about the responsibility the district has to taxpayers for the buildings they entrust to the district. It’s sad to think that we spend upwards of $100M for some high schools and we won’t be maintaining them either.
But they need Magnolia because as they reopen other buildings, it may be one of the few left to serve as an emergency building in case some crisis occurs like a fire or an earthquake.
If the school district isn’t going to use the building, why not sell it to be converted into condo’s or apartments? Like Queen Anne
I realize that running a school system the size of Seattle’s isn’t easy. At the same time there is talk of a $1B (yes, billion) levy request from the school district in the near future (like next year). I just shake my head because they don’t seem to have a handle on finances.
Since this school has been closed so long, is it even worth the expenditures to open it again? Not only are we talking about deferred maintenance, but new costs as I expect there would have to be seismic upgrades, handicap ramps built, etc. (add your repairs here), as well.
Perhaps the School Board could ask just how much it would cost to reopen the building. Then, depending on the answer, there could be a decision to keep or to sell.
Holding on for the sake of holding on makes little sense.
I am a grandma now, but when my two children went to Magnolia Grade School in the 1970’s the PTA raised the money and built that stucture on the playground for the kids !!! Then the “wonderful” school board closed
the school in favor of Busing our kids across town to Dearborne Park and that was the last of Magnolia Grade School for our area kids. The choice they gave us was to close the school, such a waste of money on Busing all those years.
I’m beginning to wonder if it is because Magnolia had done something wrong in the past that the school department is purposely ignoring Magnolias needs for better schools.
A little bit I wonder if this could be the result of the way Magnolia sees itself as an island within the city. I remember petitioners going door to door fighting a retirement center up by the water tank, then someone personally funding lawyers to fight construction of houses up there on land a builder had bought just like anyone else. The city had approved affordable housing there as part of a high density development ideal. Pretty much every issue results in a meeting in Magnolia to see if Magnolia is “OK” with it (cruise boats being moored too close, etc etc.). Being proud of our neighborhood cuts both ways. I wonder if the city figures we aren’t going to cooperate on anything so the heck with us. If there is anyone out there who knows this is absolutely false, please inform. On the subject of the schools, I was never a fan of homeschooling, but if I had to choose between the public schools in the Magnolia area and private religious schools with at best lukewarm academic standards (aside from the other things one has to accept that come with that package) I don’t know which I’d choose today.
Couple of things. The city approved “Cluster Housing” not affordable housing for old school property near the water tower. Affordable housing was never on the table, nor was a retirement center. Cluster housing is a land use code that allows a builder to build on smaller lots based on a few charateristics of the land. http://www.clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~scripts/nph-brs.exe?d=CODE&s1=23.44.024.snum.&Sect5=CODE1&Sect6=HITOFF&l=20&p=1&u=/~public/code1.htm&r=1&f=G
The neigborhood paid for an attorney to fight the cluster housing request from the builder because the proposal did not fit into the neighborhood, nor dit it meet the requirements of the cluster housing ordinance. The propety now has 3 unsold homes on it, and and 36 lots that look like they will be undeveloped for a very long time.
The retirement center preceded the water tower project by a few years. You seem satisfied that the neighborhood’s several year fight against small lot houses near (once) million dollar houses pushed things out for the developer into the recession. I think you’d agree that the relationship between the city and developers might be tighter than between the city and you or me. Do you see how this MIGHT influence the city’s perception of Magnolia?
CIVIC FAIL.
i really wish they’d turn it into artist/studio/practice spaces. i’d happily drop $1000 a month for a classroom-sized space to set up shop in.
Fantastic idea. I teach art at the U and various places around Seattle (with rent about a third of that). Though I already have a full studio , something like that would help many artists/creative performers in the area by creating a hub for the public to view work/take classes/relax (I guess I am thinking New York now), but anyway, yes, go for it!.
This is a great idea. Artists present in the Village at coffee shops and frequenting businesses would be a welcome lift. Seattle Public Schools, are you listening?
Out of curiosity I went online and rechecked the status of high schools in Washington state. Nothing has changed since my kids were in junior high 10 years ago…only schools in Bellevue/Mercer Island/Bainbridge were on the national list of high quality schools. As was true when my kids were in junior high, Garfield also figured in, so you can’t just say median income rules all. What is the reason? You could say that in King County the needs of students at White Center are just as valid as those of Magnolia and neither should be given priority in funding. In my research of families with school age kids now, nothing as changed as well…whether families like buying in Bellevue or not, they know that to get a quality education that is where you have to live. If any of you who are following this blog have school age kids, how do you propose to have your kids compete with the Hindi/Chinese/Arabic speaking superbly educated individuals your children will be competing with in the workplace? Congratulating ourselves on our sweet little neighborhood with its substandard public and private schools reminds me of someone who posted on another issue saying “its all about location, location, location.” What does buying in Magnolia buy for its children?
We moved from the San Francisco – Bay Area a couple of years ago with 2 small kids. The first one will be attending Lawton in the fall. Without having our kids attend these schools yet, what we’ve seen so far is that Magnolia/Queen Anne schools are definitely better on average than our experience of the Bay Area.
Could they be better? Yes! Are we looking forward to our sons attending Lawton? Yes!
Would we like to have a more local high school? Yes.
Interestingly, I don’t think revitalizing the school on 28th has anything to do with the quality of education.
The school district is sitting on land worth millions. Waiting and crossing their fingers isn’t a strategy or a solution. A quick look at the dilapidated property west of and above the beautiful park suggests it could be worth a baseline of $11 million based on the KingCo value of similarly sized neighboring parcels, just the land, that is. With the 360 degree views, and location next to the park, it’s worth way more. With a backlog of $500 million in district wide deferred maintenance and needs to refurbish/expand schools (none of which are in Magnolia), this is wasting taxpayer money. Even Magnolia’s own Blaine Elementary is encountering crowding. Very irresponsible. Moreover, Seattle Police officers have shared plenty off-the-record comments of frustration (about the districts casual nature) to us concerned neighbors in having to patrol this building, pulling vagrants out from time to time instead of doing more important things for the public. The district has no money toward keeping it up, really, except for a couple of guys with a lawn mower and a weed wacker. It’s crumbling and is an embarrassment. Something needs to be done. Either renovate it for something good for people to fully use it, or sell it and lets move on for the neighborhood and the schools. How do we get the Seattle School District to listen to our community?
Because of the asbestos that is undoubtably there, the demo cost for a builder who might buy the property isn’t minimal. In fact, given the economy, I don’t think builders will actually be lining up for the place. The condos in Queen Anne that were made from the school there aren’t selling. The school system has bigger cares than our neighborhood blight, unfortunately. Someday they will sell it. Until then, lets work for better schools in other ways. Money is always the issue, and getting the School District to listen to us would mean they had money to spend if they did. Our problems have to be solved from within the community.
Maybe they’d listen to this. A neighbor working in a neighboring school district made an interesting observation. She stated how school teachers often have a hard time finding decent, affordable living space within the Seattle city limits. Why not convert it to be available only to SPS teachers as apartments or sell to them as condos? They would be great as cool, retro loft spaces. And who better than to have in our neighborhood than teachers. It could do wonders to help attract and retain teachers, giving them options to live in city, with great views and a great neighborhood. Yes, this will cost money, but the building gets used, and they help improve the quality of working in SPS.
I really think thats a fine suggestion, Brad, in better times. The issue is that to get the building into condition to occupy would take over a million in demo and millions to build. The school district would have to sell the land to a company willing to pay these costs and invest in building there and then want to make a profit. A million dollar view in other times would sell million dollar units, which is the impetus a builder would have to pay the “11 million” land cost. To make the living or loft units affordable it would mean that somehow the project would have to be subsidized, a position the school district is not in right now… they are in the business of tending to schools. In other times perhaps it would be an easier land sale, but look at the townhouses built in the village. Originally offering for a million and a half, now at a hugely less price and not selling all that well. The builder has to pay interest on the loans they borrow to build those things and keep paying for all the years they just stand there unsold… or just eat the loss if he had the cash up front. Builders buy cheap land unless they are going to profit from expensive land. The land in Ballard is cheaper so you see building there. Plus the area supports the projects. That is why it is a conundrum in my opinion. Who would want to fight neighbors who don’t want apartments there given Magnolia’s record of fighting building projects? I would like to be wrong.
Having moved into the neighborhood several years ago, I was curious as to why such a beautiful building was sitting atop the hill and being unused.
I know Magnolia already has a community center, but I think with the views and the scenery, converting the building into an event center (think weddings/receptions/prom/etc.) would be a great idea.
Our discussion has pivoted around the idea that the school is an asset of the school system. If the building could be renovated for a reasonable cost and since it was paid for with taxpayer money, well then the school district should use the building as a school or liquidate it and use the proceeds in a way that benefits everyone in the school district, not just Magnolia. Since it is falling apart and the school district isn’t making any moves to renovate it one must think they are holding it until a time when it could be sold or a renovation is affordable. I fully admit I don’t read their minds, but whether we might like the idea of an art colony, event center, or teacher condos, it remains that taxpayers everywhere in the district have paid for that building to be used as a school or if sold, for the proceeds to be for the benefit of everyone…not just individuals within commuting distance or living in Magnolia. Unless someone else stepped up and paid for that renovation we are looking at a school district which is struggling with overcrowding, teacher salaries, etc on the budget they have and which they say is insufficient for any other “ventures” like renovations. That is why I personally think they will hold onto it in its present condition until the economy makes sense for it to sell.