Nonprofit school in talks to use T.T. Minor Elementary
The boarded-up TT Minor Elementary School at 17th Avenue and Union Street could have a new tenant as early as this summer.
Seattle Times staff reporter
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
T.T. Minor Elementary, seen in 2005, was closed last year as part of Seattle Public Schools budget cuts. It now may become home to an independent program for students with dyslexia and other language-related problems.
The boarded-up T.T. Minor Elementary School in Seattle's Central Area could have a new tenant as early as this summer.
The Seattle School District is in talks with Hamlin Robinson, an independent, nonprofit school in South Seattle that serves first- through eighth-graders with dyslexia and other language-related problems, to lease the shuttered building at 17th Avenue and Union Street.
T.T. Minor closed after the 2008-2009 school year as part of districtwide cuts. In December, the district announced it would accept proposals to lease seven school buildings, one of which was T.T. Minor. It's not for sale, though. District officials say they may need it to meet future enrollment demands.
"(T.T. Minor) was really of interest to us, and it looks like a building we can move into pretty quickly," said Jeanne Turner, head of Hamlin Robinson.
She said officials are hoping to grow their school, which now has about 120 students, into a destination center for people of all ages struggling with reading and writing.
Such a move, if approved by the School Board, would narrow the competition for the Martin Luther King Jr