Media cameras barred from Seattle Public Schools meeting on school closure plan

- After months of back and forth about school closures , Seattle Public Schools is moving forward with its consolidation plan.

District leaders held a meeting Thursday night for families to talk about the closures, but many were left unsatisfied with unanswered questions.

Parents at Sacajawea Elementary say they're stressed after it was announced the school will close in the 2025-26 school year, some worried about equity for special needs students.

"It feels like our children don't matter," said Ashley Carlson, parent of two children at Sacajawea Elementary.

Ashley Carlson is taking the closure personally, knowing it will impact both of her children.

"We got three days notice, and many of us didn't know until today that the school board would actually be here, so I don't think we were accurately represented," Carlson said.

Both of her kids are involved in a special education program.

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Under the consolidation proposal presented Thursday night, Carlson's kids would transfer to John Rogers.

Swati Shree, another parent of a child at Sacajawea, says her family would be impacted as well.

"We've only been at the school for a couple years, but it is really nice to be able to go to school down the street," said Shree.

A staffing plan was presented for the potential consolidation of schools at receiving school, John Rogers. It showed the information below:

Other reasons for Sacajawea Elementary's closure include:

Carlson told district officials she felt disrespected because there was no plan for support staff.

"They have several slides about how staffing is going to go and how many gen education teachers there are going to be...there is no information about speech therapists and occupational therapists," said Carlson.

Also Thursday, well-resourced school officer Marni Campbell told FOX 13 Seattle crews they were not allowed to record the meeting, because there would be families there.

When FOX 13 requested more information from the district, we were sent the statement below.

"We are not allowing cameras in the building because they might be distracting to families. The SPS team made it clear to your team that's here tonight that reporters can be in the building, but cameras are not allowed," wrote Sophia Charchuk, SPS Communications Specialist.

When asked what Carlson thought about the statement, she said, "I'm not surprised."

She feels that this is something the community needs to know about. FOX 13 asked if school officials had been transparent about the process.

Carlson responded, "Absolutely not, we've heard nothing outside of this first meeting where they are telling us our school is going to close."

Some parents were frustrated, feeling that they didn't have enough time to ask questions in the hour-long meeting because district leaders spoke for at least half of it.

Parents also say they didn't receive a notice about the meeting until just days before it happened.

Meanwhile, district officials said they were planning to come back to the school, but parents again openly expressed frustration, as there was no date given for that meeting.

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