More Seattle Schools facing closure

The Seattle Times reports:

Seattle schools Superintendent Raj Manhas today will recommend three or four more schools for closure.

Not sure whether your neighborhood school is on the list?

That, district officials say, was the idea: avoid worrying the community and creating controversy. When district staff members met with representatives of elementary and alternative schools that may be added to the 2007-08 closure list, they told the participants: "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

They borrowed from the Las Vegas tourism slogan to remind principals, parents and teachers handpicked to attend the meetings not to discuss them with anyone. That means most parents and teachers at the schools under consideration don't know they're on the shortlist.

The district staff scheduled — then canceled — a series of communitywide meetings to collect input.

Other areas of the country that are losing children age population will face the same sort of process.