Seattle Schools Community Forum

Wonderful celebration of cultures at Chief Sealth International High School - these photos make this event look like it was a fantastic one.  All photos by Leda Costa for the West Seattle Blog .

From the West Seattle blog; Two eighth-grader girls from Denny International Middle School say older boys/men “grabbed and pushed” them on Monday. That’s according to this letter just sent to Denny and Chief Sealth International High School families by Denny principal Jeff Clark (who shared it with WSB) and Sealth principal Aida Fraser-Hammer :

From the West Seattle Blog: Our area’s most-renowned music educator has announced he’s leaving for a new career direction, in another school district. Multiple award winner Marcus Pimpleton has told the Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School communities about his departure; he’s staying with the summertime Seattle Public Schools -wide All-City Band program, but otherwise, he is moving into a school-administration role in the Bellevue district.

Sometimes you cannot believe what you read.  Indeed that was my reaction to both Principal Clark's explanation of his not allowing any student who opted out of the SBAC to go to the school carnival last Friday.  Below is the explanation I received from SPS Communications, along with an e-mail that Director McLaren sent to him and my reply. Read my reply carefully because you will see why this  - is - wrong.  (bold mine) The 2015 My Best Performance Carnival at Denny International Middle School In addition to many special activities throughout the year, for the past ten years, Denny has hosted a carnival at the end of the state testing period for those scholars who have given their best performance. The scholars’ effort is tracked on a form called the “My Best Performance Rubric,” a copy of which is located in their student planners. The rubric includes categories such as: ·         positive attitude · ...

Update :  another Denny parent let me know there was no separate Denny opt-out form.  What appears to have happened is that only students who took the SBAC  and completed a "Denny Way"form got to go the school carnival.  The form was given ONLY to students who took the SBAC. So for the students who didn't take the SBAC, they were "empowering" students by having them write "appeals" to go to the carnival.   I don't know how many students who opted out got to attend the carnival  based on appeal. end of update A Denny parent let me know that their opt-out info from Denny had a tiny notation at the bottom about if a student opts out of the SBAC, he/she might not get to do some activities. That apparently has now taken the form of the principal, Jeff Clark, not allowing students who opted-out to attend a school festival that was held last Friday. I'm thinking some people would find that punitive and unfair but that's just me. I...

The Times is reporting that the City will be installing speed cameras at five more school zones this summer.  They are Roxhill Elementary (WS), Dearborn Park Elementary (Beacon Hill), Bailey-Gatzert Elementary (Central) and Eckstein Middle (NE).  They will be used starting Sep. 2nd.  For the first 30 days, you'll get a warning and then the ticket is $189.  They will be used one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon most of the time. The Times is also reporting that the Bellingham School district is installing a panic button in every school office in their district using a grant from OSPI.   (As I previously reported, SPS also received money from this grant but I am unsure what it will be used for in our district.) The UW's Computer Science and Engineering Department recently honored 57 teachers in our region for being "Inspirational" teachers.  They include Assegid Derseh from Chief Sealth International High School and John Boucher f...

From the West Seattle Blog : "12:51 PM: We just checked out a report that Chief Sealth International High School students were asked to “shelter in place” – and here’s what Seattle Police spokesperson Det. Mark Jamieson tells us: There was a report of “somebody with a weapon at Roxhill Park area – someone on the walking path that ends at the bus stop on SW Barton, and 10 males in a group, allegedly somebody had a shotgun. The group was looking at the gun, not brandishing it or anything, somebody called it in,” and police responded. They reportedly have found who they were looking for. No shots were reported fired, no one hurt; police say Roxhill Elementary also was in “shelter in place” mode. It appears this incident is wrapping up but that’s all the information we have for now – we’ll be checking back later about possible arrest(s). 1:14 PM: Our crew circled back around to Sealth a few minutes ago and confirmed the “shelter in place” has been lifted. Sam...

A reader with background in planning and with much knowledge/background on the district and facilities offers these thoughts on what may be coming for high schools and growth.   ( Gray areas are my thoughts as we go along and the rest is the reader's.) To understand: coming up fast is the possibility of very overcrowded high schools.  Not 5, 10 years out but probably three years.  But a three-year plan may be all that is possible at this point especially since the needs/growth is very different for each region of the district. And guess what?  Nearly out of inventory.  Where will everyone go?  Will the district go to shifts (and they have done this in the past)?  Portables?  The reader's basic thoughts: get this out to the Seattle legislators.  We need help. get high school on the table now.  High schools are high stakes for students and parents. fix the worst of the BEX mistakes.  There were many but all of the stuf...

From Principal Jeff Clark at Denny Middle School: This afternoon at 11:30 we had a small fire in a garbage can in a 2nd floor bathroom. The resulting smoke caused the evacuation alarm to sound. As we were clearing the smoke, the evacuation alarm sounded several more times. Today is an early-release day for Seattle Public Schools — all students were released as planned at 12:10. All students and staff are fine — there is no resulting damage to the building. Tomorrow will be a regular school day. All of our students did an outstanding job during our evacuation procedures.  First we have an Eckstein student (who apparently was trying to do Parkour - on a roof?)who falls through a skylight on the roof. Today, it's a bathroom garbage can fire at Denny. (And apparently it was the girls bathroom.)  And,  it was quite a lot of smoke in the halls.  One commenter at the West Seattle Blog says there looked like a lot of damage AND there's video camera right outside the b...

Good news from SPS: Four teams from Franklin High School’s Academy of Finance Social Entrepreneurs and Chief Sealth International’s Academy of Finance International Social Entrepreneurs won top prizes June 6 at the Youth Venture Spring Community Showcase in Seattle. Ballard High students in the Video Production Program have received eight nominations in four categories from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the Northwest High School Awards of Excellence. This makes the seventh year in a row that Ballard High School video producers have been nominated. Last year they received seven nominations and won the categories of Long Form, Fiction and Photographer/Editor. Nova student Hailey Spencer won a National Silver Medal for a science fiction/fantasy story at the regional Scholastic Art and Writing Awards competition.  She will move onto the national competition.  She also won two regional writing awards.  There were also regional ...

From the Times about the West Seattle robberies of Denny students : S eattle police believe they may have caught at least one teen connected to the armed muggings and beatings of West Seattle middle-schoolers earlier this week. When officers approached a dozen teens hanging out around 4 p.m. today near Roxhill Park, where the armed robberies took place, several of them took off running. Officers chased after them and caught eight, all between 14 and 18 years of age. One 18-year-old was arrested and booked into King County Jail because of a gun and box of ammo in a car he’d been driving. The seven other teens were released, but police say they’re continuing to examine any links between them and recent robberies in the area. The Stranger Slog is reporting that Salmon Bay K-8 has dropped out of the MAP boycott.   They surmised, (and I believe rightly so) that their middle school could lose funding via the Families and Education levy for their middle school activities....

City Year, one of my favorite groups that helps SPS students, has two ed-related job openings that I thought I would pass on. CITY YEAR: CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION DEVELOPMENT MANAGER.   We need an all-star development manager to drive City Year’s corporate and foundation development strategy – someone who is highly detail and goal oriented, has excellent writing skills, super personable and runs towards a challenge.  Job description link is here: http://www.cityyear.org/CityYear/Jobs/Seattle/Corporate_and_Foundation_Manager.aspx DIPLOMAS NOW: SCHOOL BASED TRANSFORMATION FACILITATOR.  The Diplomas Now Collaborative at Denny Middle School needs a transformation facilitator responsible for effective staff leadership and organizational, instructional, and curricular changes within the school that result in an improved climate and culture.  The STF works closely with City Year, Communities in Schools and Denny MS.  The link to the position is he...

Listening to speaker after speaker talk about the Indian Heritage Middle College program, I thought, "Well, add them to the list that includes Special Ed, Nova, and World School."  What do these programs have in common?   They get moved around as though they were furniture.   Each and every one of them deserves a permanent home. I spoke to Sarah Kelly, one of the speakers, and asked her about someone in their community doing a guest post about the history of their program.  (I was surprised to learn that Pathfinder K-8 used to be a feeder school for the program.)  One thing I told her was that once we had a history - one that is written by those who know it - it would be here for a long time.  The district may purge some history from its website but at least here it would have a home.  I'm hoping I will get that guest post within a couple of weeks. Also, there is an issue over the feeder patterns in West Seattle from middle to high sch...

 Update: a great story from the Times about the Ballard valedictorian this year.   Mikael Perla got diagnosed with leukemia in the middle of his freshman year.   He spent two grueling years fighting it off (with steroids causing him to have diabetes).   He could have taken time off to fight but he continued his studies.  Don't mistake Perla's persistence for arrogance. He credits his top grades to hard work and teachers who tutored him. He doesn't mention that he practically taught himself the language and math of chemistry from textbooks in bed, that he turned in every homework assignment, that he came in after school to do labs when he would be less likely to catch germs from classmates, reluctantly accepting his mom as his lab partner. Mikael Perla will attend the University of Washington in the fall after completing a summer program in engineering. He's considering a career in medicine. Good luck, Mikael - you have lots ...

Issue #2: The urgent need for additional elementary capacity in West Seattle. Possible Solution A: Two new elementary schools eventually located at Fairmount Park and at the Denny site. The programs will meet at the Boren site until the buildings are ready. I, personally, think this is the best path. Possible Solution B: Two new elementary schools eventually located at Fairmount Park or Genesee Hill or E.C. Hughes or the Denny site. The programs will meet at the Boren site until the buildings are ready. I, personally, think this is the best path. Important variations: The two new schools in West Seattle may not necessarily be attendance area schools. They could be option schools and they could host a variety of programs including Spectrum, language immersion, Montessori, an alternative pedagogy, or a conventional pedagogy. I, personally, think it would be best if both of the new schools used option enrollment and had language immersion and Spectrum in one building and Montes...

From the district website: Ed Lee, a 1970 graduate of Franklin High School , won San Francisco's mayoral race Nov. 8, becoming the city’s first elected mayor of Chinese descent, as well as the first Asian-American elected to the office. Lee was born in 1952 in the Beacon Hill neighborhood and attended Beacon Hill Elementary and Asa Mercer Middle School. Seattle Sounders FC presents America SCORES Seattle’s 9th Annual Poetry Slam! on Friday, November 18th. The Poetry Slam!, the culminating event of the SCORES Fall Season curriculum - The Power of Poetry, will feature more than 160 elementary school students from Seattle’s underserved neighborhoods performing their own original works of poetry. For many of our children, reciting their original poetry on a public stage is the first time in their lives they have been publicly celebrated for their accomplishments. The event will feature poets from Bailey Gatzert, Dunlap, Highland Park, Maple and Roxhill Elementary Schools.   Town Ha...

Tuesday, September 20th @ 7:30 pm the 43rd Legislative District Democrats will be voting on endorsements , including three School Board seats. The 43rd LD meets at University Heights Community Center, 5031 University Way NE  Wednesday, September 21 Community Meeting with Director Sundquist , from 11 am to 12:30 p.m. at the Delridge Library, 5423 Delridge Way SW Presentation by PASS (the principals' association) to the School Board on goals for this school year, from 5:30 -5:45 p.m. at headquarters (right before the School Board meeting) School Board meeting, 6-9 p.m.  Agenda is fairly short so it shouldn't be three hours.   There are some facilities acceptance items, approval of the High Point Promise Neighborhood application (which seems like a good deal as the money, $455,472 is "in-kind" from existing grant dollars and is for services at West Seattle Elementary and Denny Middle School), the postponed Conditional Certification for two TFA teachers, in...

 Tuesday, Sept. 6th West Seattle Elementary starts school Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Denny Int'l Middle School from 1- 2 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Mtg. (Audit) f rom 4-6 p.m.  This meeting's agenda reflects topics on the audit response to both the performance audit of capital and the RSBDP (better known as Pottergate).  Perhaps this means the King County Prosecutor has something to report from their investigation.  There's a report from the new Internal Auditor, Anthony Medina.  Not wasting any time, there will be discussion of the Series 5000 policies of the Board policies which look like they cover HR.  Also, a discussion of audits other than those done by the SAO or Internal Auditor - interesting. Wednesday, Sept. 7th First Day of school for SPS  (fyi, the Superintendent will be visiting the new Lowell at Lincoln school from about 9-10 am .  She will also be having lunch at RBHS at noon.) School Board meeting from 6-9 p.m. ...

Good news from The Road Map Project.  One of their efforts is to make sure that as many eligible students as possible sign up for the College Bound Scholarships .  Looks like it paid off as a record 91% of eligible students signed up (as compared with 74% lat year).  Thank you to everyone who reminded a kid or their PTA. The scholarship will cover students who pledge to graduate from high school, demonstrate good citizenship and seek admission to a college. The area covered includes South Seattle, Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Renton, and Tukwila.  Tukwila signs up 100% of all eligible students while Auburn climbed from 38% to 67%.  Over 3900 student signed-up.  The Seattle schools covered are Secondary BOC, Merce, Aki Kurose, Orca, South Shore, Washington and Denny.  Secondary BOC, Mercer, and Aki Kurose enrolled 100% of their eligible students.  South Seattle schools overall went from 91% to 95%.

Breaking news from our friends at the West Seattle Blog : long-time Chief Sealth Principal John Boyd is leaving SPS for the Highline School District as a district administrator.  From the blog: He is announcing his resignation with a letter today (read it at the end of this story). Boyd also spoke with West Seattle Blog, and told us: “I had three main goals when I came to Sealth – improve the image of the school, recruit neighborhood kids – make it a place where people in the community felt like they could send their kids – and to improve academic achievement. I feel good about making progress in all those areas.”  Sealth’s enrollment is skyrocketing, too, “going from 800 students to more than 1,100, and (next year) close to 1,200, with the second-highest wait list behind Garfield,” Boyd notes. To help with the transition, he says, he will stay on at Sealth “as long as Susan (Enfield, interim SPS superintendent) needs me. … It’s really important that there’s ...