Seattle Press on Line - Hamilton Won't Move into Lincoln, Barnhart Tells School Committee

Hamilton Won't Move into Lincoln, Barnhart Tells School Committee

School Board member Scott Barnhart breaks the news to the Lincoln Site Committee.

Jan 27, 1999 -- The Seattle School Board dashed the hopes of Wallingford residents who have been hoping to move Hamilton Middle School into the partly renovated Lincoln High School when Ballard High moves out of Lincoln into its new campus next fall.

Scott Barnhart, Seattle School Board member delivered the official pronouncement, but Greg Flood and others on the Lincoln Liaison Committee had seen it coming.

Barnhart told the Lincoln Liason Committee at a meeting January 12 that Lincoln will be used "for the next 10 0r 12 years" as an interim site for Roosevelt and Garfield students when those schools are rebuilt.

"We thought we had a commitment from the Board on moving Hamilton in after Ballard," said Greg Flood, a member of the Lincoln Liason Committee which had started planning to recycle the Lincoln building in the 1980's. "Many of us understood that the 1995 Bex school levy had funds earmarked for moving Hamilton into Lincoln. They told us at one point they had painted the interior with the Hamilton school colors when they did the renovations."

Barnhart said Hamilton was not actually budgeted, but was a contingency plan, "if there was money left over."

"We've looked at all the alternatives of where to put Garfield and Roosevelt during their rebuilding," Barnhart said. "We looked at other sites like Wilson, looked at double shifting, or building on the athletic fields, but none of them worked out. We're left with Lincoln."

Flood said the committee wasn't totally surprised by the news. "They let us know all along they didn't have a place to move Garfield and Roosevelt, and were still keeping an eye on Lincoln for that," he explained.

"Hamilton is still a weak link in the North side school chain," Flood said. "There's no usable gym, no assembly hall where all 750 students can gather at one time. We've been hoping to have a complete, improved K-12 path in this area to attract more users back into the system."

Other plans will have to be shelved too: The Wallingford Neighborhood Council had proposed building a playground on the parking lot; moving in a branch library, creating a community meeting space, and leasing part of the building to the Boys and Girls Club, which is seeking a new site in the neighborhood.

Barnhart said that Latona elementary will use part of Lincoln for the 1999-2000 school year, and Bryant and Stevens schools may temporarily move in after that. "We're not going to let it sit vacant," he pledged. He said the renovation of Lincoln's central core is complete, but the renovation of the North and South wings will cost over $14 million.

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