H.F. Hunt Middle School a photo by Gexydaf on Flickr.

A little while back I had photographed each of the schools that Tacoma has on the list to potentially close. They included Franklin, Lyon, Roosevelt, Stanley, McKinley, Wainwright, Geiger and Foss. While not written in stone, the general plan now is to close McKinley, Wainwright and Franklin. Another proposal has been made to move the middle school Montessori program now housed at Bryant and the fledgling K-5 Montessori program at Geiger to the vacant Hunt Middle School Buillding. The timing on the move is unclear, but either 2011 or 2012. Thus, the now vacant Hunt Middle School would be the new site of the K-8 Geiger Montessori Program.  There is talk of building a new building for Geiger Montessori, but again the timing is uncertain.  The K-5 students currently at the Bryant Building would move to Franklin. The Franklin students would have the option of attending their current school and receiving a Montessori education, or attending an alternate neighborhood school, most likely Stanley or DeLong. Of course, that tentative plan might all change!

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/03/10/1579446/tacoma-district-leans-toward-closing.html

It was in the early spring 2010 that the Tacoma School District decided to close H.F. Hunt Middle School because of federal rules targeting schools that perform poorly on state tests. At the time of closure, Hunt had 346 students and had been following the International Baccalaureate, or IB, model. Their mascot was the Scottie and their colors were green, white and gold. The IB program was switched to Giaudrone in the Fall of 2010.

The school building was constructed in 1958 and was named after Henry F. Hunt, a Tacoma educator for 34 years. At its height, the student population was well over 1,000 students.