A top goal of Seattle Public Schools' new plan for assigning students to schools is predictability, but for a group of families caught in the transition between the old rules and the new, the change will mean more of the old uncertainty.
The affected families are those with children already in elementary school and younger ones still at home. They want their younger children to be able to attend the same school as their older siblings — something that was virtually guaranteed under the old rules and will be guaranteed again once the new assignment plan is fully in place in 2015.
But despite an intense and often emotional campaign by many of those families — which included rallies, petitions and months of e-mails — it looks like a vote tonight by the Seattle School Board may not go their way.
"It looks like the sibling grandfathering movement is dead with the district," Stephanie Pickett, a leader in a parent group called Keep Our Kids Together, wrote after members of the group spoke with several School Board members over the weekend.
It's unclear how many families may be affected; district staff won't provide