Your December 2001 headline article asked the question "Should Jane Addams reopen as a middle school?" A sympathetic portrayal was painted of the dilemma of Doug Boyd and other Lake City area parents and children who have middle school overcrowding and busing issues.

 These same parents think an eviction and takeover of another Seattle public school currently residing in the Jane Addams Building, Summit K-12, would solve their problems.

 Nowhere was it mentioned that many families have chosen to live in Lake City solely due to the huge advantage of being able to keep their kids in this small and effective neighborhood school for their entire primary and secondary education. Summit is a model of educating the "whole person" in a supportive and caring environment where everyone knows each other's first name, student and staff alike.

 For over 25 years, I have seen first hand the extraordinary results of this integrative model of education. My daughter graduated from Summit when it was initially created on Summit Avenue on Seattle's First Hill. My stepson graduated from the present facility at Jane Addams. And now, his son and daughter, my grandchildren, are finding great scholastic success as well as personal development at this unique school.

 Rather than change the Jane Addams facility into another "factory" school, perhaps Seattle School Administrators should be examining this true model of a neighborhood school from K-12, with an eye to changing all Seattle to this kind of system while relieving the taxpayers of the bulk of the huge expenses of school busing. Imagine - children actually walking to their neighborhood school!

 As far as the solution proposed by Mr. Boyd and his friends, would they also recommend that an invasion of Canada would solve population pressures in the U.S.?

 - JAY MOORE, Lake City