By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Though its famed hilltop high school closed in June 1981, Queen Anne is still blessed with a good selection of public and private schools, as well as Seattle Pacific University.

The university, founded in 1891 by the Free Methodist Church, has been a source of pride and occasional friction for its neighbors. With an enrollment of 3,400 students, the university is a dominate influence on the north side of the hill.

Not too far from SPU is one of the most acclaimed and costly private schools: Seattle Country Day. The school is strictly for gifted students. To be accepted, students must take and score high on a standardized IQ test.

Their parents must pass a test of a different sort: Tuition runs about $8,200 a year. That is more than twice the cost of tuition for in-state students attending the University of Washington.

Queen Anne also has two highly regarded public elementary schools, Coe and Hay, plus McClure Middle School. In 1994-95 McClure ranked near the bottom of all public middle schools in terms of cumulative grade-point averages.

A fourth public school, New Options Middle School, is an alternative school that emphasizes experiential learning techniques. The goal is to accommodate the individuality of the child. Its test scores are above national averages.

All the public schools are racially integrated, a reflection of the demographic changes on the hill and within the school district. It was not always that way.

Former state Rep. Jesse Wineberry was among the first black students to be bused to Queen Anne in the 1960s.

Wineberry recalls the day in April 1968 when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was slain. As his bus rolled by Garfield High on its way to Queen Anne, the black students saw the school flag flying at half staff.

Yet when they got to Queen Anne, McClure's flag was not lowered. The black students were told the school flag was only lowered for dead U.S. presidents.

By lunch time, Wineberry says, the black students revolted. They marched out of the cafeteria and lowered the flag themselves, which earned some of them, including Wineberry, suspensions.

"We existed in two different worlds when it came to the death of a slain civil rights leader," Wineberry says.

Wineberry was one of a dozen black students to graduate from Queen Anne High in 1973. Looking back, Wineberry says, there were instances of "ignorance, misunderstandings and a degree of racism." Yet the experience was largely a positive one for black and white students, he says.

Continued:

• Hill has lots that's new, but some wonder, is it improved?
• The charm of the hill is hard to ignore
• Development boom has recast the future
• Queen Anne still has room for small shopkeepers