Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS: In an effort to encourage parents to beat the last-minute rush to get their students enrolled for school, Seattle Public Schools is sponsoring an Enrollment and Back-to-School Give-Away event from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28. Families enrolling at this time will receive free sack packs and school supplies donated by the Office Depot Foundation, on a first-come, first-served basis. “It takes time to complete the enrollment paperwork, and the lines in our lobby increase as we get closer to the first day of school,” said Brandon Holst, services manager at the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (JSCEE). “We hope that this special event will encourage families to enroll earlier so that their students will have school assignments before the first day of school.” The enrollment event is scheduled for the day before the JSCEE building will be closed due to a district-mandated unpaid furlough day for all employees. The Wednesday, Aug. 29 fur...

The Whittier Elementary PTA has put forth a petition to the Board to ask them to not add an additional kindergarten class next year (which would take away their long-time child-care program. From PhinneyWood.com Members of Whittier Elementary School ’s PTA plan to attend Wednesday night’s Seattle School Board meeting to oppose a proposal to add a fourth kindergarten class next year. Whittier, which is at 13th Avenue NW and NW 75th Street in Ballard, currently has three kindergarten classes of 23 students each. The letter from PTA Co-Presidents Lisa Melenyzer and April Brown states that 80 percent of this year’s kindergarteners live within the school’s attendance area, and that there was no waitlist for kindergarten at Whittier this year. The two say that there is room within the current three classes to add any anticipated population growth in the next few years. In the letter from the PTA: Please note that we are not suggesting that kids in the attendance area wh...

Franklin High School Kicks Off Centennial Year on Friday, Sept. 30th Franklin High School turns 100 years old in 2012, and one of Seattle’s oldest high schools will kick off a year-long centennial celebration in the gym Friday afternoon. The event will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the school’s newly-renovated gym and a proclamation by King County Councilmember (and Franklin alumnus) Larry Gossett, who has declared Sept. 30 Franklin High Day in King County. The proclamation will also recognize the school’s significant improvements in student test scores and college acceptance rates. Principal Jennifer Wiley predicts that other big-name Franklin athlete alums, along with Seattle School District leaders who are also Franklin graduates, will be in attendance. Officials of the National Achievement Scholarship Corporation named three students from SPS as Semifinalists in the 48th annual National Achievement Scholarship Program. These academically pr...