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Public schools. Public promise.

SAVE SEATTLESCHOOLS.

Our position

  • Keep great public schools open. Schools anchor communities. Families need stability to plan years ahead. Closure threats weaken trust and push families away.
  • Closures won’t fix the budget. Other districts have lost students and funding to large-scale closures. Promised efficiencies haven’t fixed their budgets.
  • Make public schools work for everyone. Maintain academic excellence and support every learner. Keep families from every socioeconomic background invested.
The evidence

Invest in schools.
Then close them?

Seattle invested millions in schools it later named for closure. Keep that investment working for students and their communities.

$48M+

Documented capital costs

2016–25 projects · 8 of 22 schools · $48,456,037 documented

A minimum from recorded spending, paid contracts and final construction billings. The school list combines the two September 2024 alternatives. Closure lists

  1. Licton Springs K-8$29.5M

    Webster campus renovation and new gym · completed 2020 · Project details

  2. McGilvra Elementary$6.6M
  3. Broadview-Thomson K-8$5.2M
  4. Laurelhurst Elementary$2.1M
  5. Salmon Bay and Decatur seismic upgrades · shared contract$1.6M
  6. Decatur Elementary$1.3M
  7. Cedar Park Elementary$1.2M
  8. Catharine Blaine K-8$900K

Amounts cover different project scopes and reporting dates.

Exact amounts and source records

SPS records: Webster construction audit: final billings · 2019 capital annual report · Laurelhurst upgrades: final acceptance · Catharine Blaine seismic project: final acceptance · McGilvra 2015–18 package: final acceptance · McGilvra HVAC: final acceptance · Salmon Bay and Decatur seismic work: final acceptance

$23M+

Still investing in these schools

2026–27 annual allocations · 14 schools · $23,549,908

The latest adopted budget allocates capital funds to 14 schools on the 2024 lists. These are annual spending plans, separate from the historical costs above. SPS budget, pp. 185–187

Annual allocations by school

What goes into the number

We count documented costs on projects undertaken within 2016–2025. Each project is counted once. The joint Salmon Bay–Decatur contract is included once because both schools were named; shared contracts involving other schools are excluded.

Cedar Park’s 2014–15 renovation is outside this calculation because its costs have not been split by year. McGilvra contributes its two paid contracts. Licton Springs uses final construction billings in place of an older spending snapshot. Budgets, levy estimates and unpriced projects do not enter the cost total.

This is a documented minimum, not a complete ten-year expenditure ledger or a calculation of money lost through closure.