By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Some parents spend years wondering whether or not their kids will get in to their first-choice college. Doug Boyd, a resident of Lake City's Cedar Park neighborhood, is worried about getting his oldest child into middle school.

Boyd and his wife, Dana, have two daughters who currently attend John Rogers Elementary in Meadowbrook. One is a fourth grader while the second is in kindergarten. Like other parents who like in the northern-most Seattle neighborhoods, Boyd is afraid that when his girls enter sixth grade they won't get into the middle school closest to home, Eckstein, located at 3003 NE 75th St. Eckstein had the longest waiting list of any middle school in the city, according to a Seattle Times article published in May.

Instead, the Boyds fear that they will be assigned to Hamilton Middle School in Wallingford, which they view as a less desirable school, in part, because it is an hour away by bus.

According to the Times article, Hamilton was one of six middle schools in the city that failed to attract enough applicants to fill their freshman classes for this fall. Doug Boyd, who said he would rather send their kids to a school in Shoreline rather than Hamilton, criticized Hamilton for being an old building that is small and dark. Opened in 1927, Hamilton is the oldest junior high school in the nation west of the Mississippi. It was converted to a middle school (grades 6-8 as opposed to 7-9) in 1972.

Boyd and other parents in the greater Lake City area think they may have come up with what would be a preferable solution for them: reopen the old Jane Addams Middle School, located at 11051 34th Ave. NE, currently the home of Summit, a public K-12 alternative school, the Civic Light Opera, a community theater, and Pinehurst Childcare Center.

The biggest problem for greater Lake City area families is distance, say the Boyds. Those who live at the far north end of the City have no middle schools nearby, while those who live further south have several to chose from.

Even though the Boyds live closer to Eckstein than any other Seattle middle school, kids who live closer to Eckstein than the Boyds do have priority when it comes to school assignment, even if they in turn live closer to another middle school such as Hamilton. Eckstein is extremely popular and not only has over 1,200 kids enrolled but also has a waiting list.

"We need a middle school where we feel we have a first choice," Boyd said.

The Boyds are not the first parents to grapple with this problem. Pat Starkovich, also a Cedar Park resident and a mother of twin, sixth grade boys, said that after being denied spots at Eckstein she chose to send her children to a school in the Shoreline School district which is only a short car ride way. Enough neighborhood parents followed suit that they now have a regular car pool going. Starkovich said her kids are doing well despite the fact that Shoreline keeps sixth graders in elementary school, meaning that her boys didn't get to advance to middle school this year like their friends did. Unfortunately, her kids will have to reapply to the Shoreline School District on a yearly basis.

Starkovich said that when families like hers send their kids to school outside the City, the Seattle school district is also a loser.

"(These parents) are the involved, active parents," Starkovich said. "When we go we take our money and our energy with us."

For all these reasons Doug Boyd thinks Jane Addams, which closed in 1984, should be reopened.

Of course, the Jane Addams building currently has both students and tenants. Boyd suggested that Summit could be moved to the old Wilson Pacific Middle School building in the Licton Springs neighborhood. As for the Jane Addams building's other tenants, Boyd said the School District should make kids a higher priority.

"Who's your customer? Civic Light Opera or the children of Seattle?" Boyd said.

Jennifer Wiley, principal of Summit, said the alternative school, which has 620 students, has strong tries with its current neighborhood and would not like to leave, especially for a school facility like Wilson Pacific, which is divided into several buildings.

"(Separate buildings) would split up our community," Wiley said of Summit's students and faculty.

Alma Badten, box office manager with Civic Light Opera, said she also opposes the idea of converting Jane Addams back into a middle school, even though she doesn't think it would necessarily force the theater company to relocate.

Wiley added that Summit has recently begun to consider expanding its middle school program so that more children could be admitted.

Of course, it is ultimately the Seattle School District that must decide how best to address the parents' concerns.

Lynn Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the School District, said that Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Olchefske hadn't ruled out the possibility of reopening Jane Addams as a middle school but added that "it's an option that would involve considerable disruption and cost."

Steinberg also pointed out that while Eckstein is popular now, no one knows if that popularity will shift to another school in a few years. Hamilton, for example, instituted a special foreign language/international program last year in an attempt to boost enrollment. However, that plan has not yet proven successful.

Meanwhile, Boyd said he thinks the population of children in the greater Lake City area is likely to get bigger, explaining that when he moved to the neighborhood 10 years ago their were four kids living nearby. Now, Boyd said, there are 12 at the bus stop in the morning.

For more information call Doug Boyd at 367-1215 or the Seattle School District at 252-0010. (