On Wednesday evening, the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) held a meeting for parents of students in the full-time Quest program at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Kirkland.

This meeting was held after parents started a petition on April 29 in response to the district relocating the program to Redmond and Henry David Thoreau elementary schools.

Parents received the news of the move in an email that was sent to them on April 15.

The petition was for a transitional exit for Quest families and was delivered to Director of Accelerated Programs Dan Phelan, district Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce and the LWSD Board of Directors.

The petition had reached 61 signatures as of Thursday.

“We are disappointed that we were not included in the decision-making process and in the poor way it was communicated,” the petition states. “This decision is disruptive to our families and creates undue hardship moving us around like chess pieces.”

Petition supporters hope to have current Quest students stay at Franklin until they move to middle school and have incoming Quest students be diverted to new schools.

Phelan sent an email to affected parents on May 5, scheduling the meeting to discuss the move in person.

“I want to begin by acknowledging the surprise and disappointment this caused you,” Phelan said in the email. “I also want to recognize the deep loyalties you have for Franklin, and assure you that plans are already underway to make your child’s transition to the new school a smooth and welcoming one.”

Jennifer Jarta, principal at Redmond elementary, said her school hosted an informational meeting last week, which was very well attended. In addition, they gave the incoming families tickets to the school’s annual International Night event that followed.

“It was lots of fun and we felt it was a great way for these families to get to know Redmond El,” Jarta said.

A similar meeting was held at Thoreau to welcome families to that school.

Despite these meetings, parents were still unsatisfied with how LWSD approached the situation and had many questions.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Phelan said if he were in the parents’ place, he would be just as upset as they were and apologized for notifying parents about the change by email at the end of the day on a Friday.

Wednesday’s meeting was an opportunity for parents and district administrators to meet face to face to discuss how and why the latter came to this decision.

“This is a lot to ask,” ​Matt Manobianco, associate superintendent for LWSD, aknowledged at the meeting.

He explained that the program move was due to a rise in enrollment and a lack of classroom space at Franklin.

In addition to the general growth in enrollment throughout the district, Phelan said next year, the school will be going from needing 17 to 20 classrooms as a result of the shift to all-day kindergarten, which will now be state funded. The state is also funding smaller classroom sizes for K-3 grades. Despite this additional funding, the money does not cover extra building space.

“You’re sitting here today, feeling the effects,” Phelan said to parents Wednesday evening.

Manobianco said moving the Quest program — which is for the most “highly capable students” in the district and is “designed to meet the needs of students who have been identified as having exceptional cognitive and academic ability” with an accelerated curriculum, according to the LWSD website — was one of the more difficult decisions they have had to make.

At the meeting, Phelan explained to the parents that in looking for a school that could house the students, there were no schools that could handle the four Quest classes, which is why they had to split the classes between Redmond and Thoreau — the only schools that had the space to handle additional Quest classes.

In addition to administrators explaining to parents how they came to their decision to move the program, parents also had the opportunity to ask questions and share their concerns about the move.

One father asked why the district can’t just reboundary neighborhoods to keep families at Franklin.

Manobianco said they couldn’t do this because that would be disrupting even more families and schools.

Other parents were concerned about the transition process their children will go through in moving schools and wanted to know what the district is doing to help with that.

Phelan told them that meetings have been held with teachers from the schools involved in the move.

To help with the transition, some parents requested the Franklin students be kept together in the same classroom at their new school. Two mothers who were from Thoreau were also at the meeting and requested the same as they and their children were told they would move through the program with the same group of students, as well.

In response, Manobianco said while he is not in charge of classroom assignments, he will talk to school principals and teachers —who are in charge of classroom assignments — and let them know about the parents’ request.

While the Franklin families would be the most affected by the change as they would be the ones to make the physical move, the mothers from Thoreau said the district should have notified the Quest families at their school and at Redmond as they would be affected, as well.

Another big concern among the parents was logistics when it comes to transportation and after-school care. Parents wanted to know where buses would be picking up their children, travel times and whether their children could take a bus to a school that would be more convenient for the family.

Manobianco acknowledged this and told everyone they would be meeting with the district’s transportation department to discuss the topic. He also said he understands the shift is more of a burden on the parents than it is on the students as the former are the ones who have to figure out transportation, child care and more.

“We do take this very seriously,” he said. “It’s children. These (decisions) are bigger than Excel sheets.”

Reporter John William Howard contributed to this report.