The new school attendance boundary maps released by the School District last week have sparked a lot of questions from the community, especially for Queen Anne, a neighborhood without enough schools to house all of its students. One major controversy has been the zoning of Queen Anne and Magnolia students to Ballard High School, while many Ballard students are slated to go to Ingraham. The new boundary maps also necessitate the reopening of several Seattle schools, including Old Hay at 411 Boston Street, which for ten years was the location of the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (SBOC) until it was moved to Capitol Hill in September.

The School District plans to renovate and reopen Old Hay as an “option school” to help ease overcrowding and meet enrollment projections for the Queen Anne and Magnolia neighborhoods. For the 2010-2011 school year, students in the program will be bused to Lincoln High School, and Old Hay would reopen on Queen Anne as a K-5 Montessori school in fall 2011.

Successful Schools in Action, an educational non-profit organization on Queen Anne that encompasses six schools on the hill and in Magnolia, will be hosting two collaborative community meetings to discuss program options for Old Hay’s new K-5 programs, and a new name for the school. The two meetings will be held on:

Wednesday, October 21 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Coe Elementary Cafeteria, located at 2424 7th Ave. W. and Thursday, October 29 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Catharine Blaine Elementary Library, located at 2550 34th Ave. W.

SSIA, which provides resources, tutoring and math programs for diverse groups of students citywide, received a $5,000 grant from Bank of America this summer for their work. According to the organization, Old Hay as an option school will “offer unique programs that are all-city draws, with attendance preference given to a small, local geographic area.”

“The District has proposed this school become a Montessori K-5 school, but they are asking for our feedback,” they wrote in an invitation to the community. “This is our opportunity to work together and provide input to the district on our newest neighborhood school.”