Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS Communications: Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of two Seattle Public Schools students included in the second group of winners in the annual National Merit Scholarship Program. The National Merit $2,500 Scholarship winners are: • Anthony L. Bencivengo from Nathan Hale High School, whose probable career field is playwriting; and •  Tara I. Martin-Chen from Garfield High School, who listed her likely career field as international relations. Several SPS high school theater groups have been nominated for theater awards from the 5th Avenue Theatre to be given out on June 9th at Benaroya Hall.  Congratulations to Ballard High, Ingraham High, Franklin High and Nathan Hale High.   What's on your mind?

From SPS: Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that two Seattle Public Schools students – Tara N. Conley , The Center School; and Derek B. Gasaway , Garfield High School – are among the winners for college-sponsored scholarships.  South Lake High School teacher Web Hutchins received the state’s top honor for civic education - the Civic Educator of the Year award. Hutchins was nominated for the award by State Representative Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle). Hutchins’ Civics for All Initiative  is under consideration by the School District and has been introduced in Olympia, as well as to teachers and civic leaders in Seattle. Cuauhtemoc (Moc) Escobedo , band director at Eckstein Middle School , has been announced as a quarterfinalist for the first-ever Music Educator Award presented jointly by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation .   Escobedo is an award-winning band director for Eckstein – leading students in nu...

From SPS, 23 of our high school students have placed as Semifinalists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Corporation competition.    Garfield had 13 students and led the field.  Roosevelt had two as did Ingraham, Hale/Ballard/Center each had one and there was one student from the "Cascade Parent Partnership Program." Good work to all these students! One Board community meeting tomorrow with Director Martin-Morris at Diva Espresso at 80th and Lake City Way from 9:30-11:30 am.  Heads up - the first of Superintendent Banda's community meetings is Monday the 17th at Mercer Middle School from 6-7:30 p.m.  There's also one on Tuesday the 18th at RBHS at the same time as the Monday event. There is a School Board meeting next Wednesday the 19th but the agenda is not yet available.  Sign-ups to speak start Monday morning at 8 am (either boardagenda@seattlesschools.org or 252-0040 to leave a message).  This might be a good time to pressure Banda o...

This Sunday's column by Danny Westneat of the Times is spot on.   He explains how he wasn't really going to talk about the special 3-person Spanish class set up for basketball star, Tony Wroten, and 2 others.  It was especially niccceeee because Garfield is the most jampacked, overcrowded high school in Seattle. I figured there wasn't much I could add about the sway sports holds in schools and society that wasn't summed up best by that one tweet. But as he says, last week the class cuts started at Garfield. "At Garfield, budget cuts are being translated to cuts in Advanced Placement courses and other classes, including the cancellation of AP Calculus BC, reductions in sections of AP Chemistry, and AP Spanish ," read a bulletin from a parents' group. (italics his) Translation: After finding the wherewithal to gin up a three-person Spanish class so the star player can remain eligible to play ball in college, the school now is cutting back on...

The latest story in the long-running saga that is the Athletics Department at Garfield continues on at the Times. I'm not going to review all the latest details because I think this is absolutely ridiculous and why we in the U.S. and in our high schools and colleges allow TOO MUCH emphasis on sports.  I  absolutely believe sports helps keep many kids interested in school and focused (don't get a good grade, no participation).  But time and again we see "star" athletes protected.  That the Athletic Director and possibly the principal were jumping through hoops to protect this player is wrong.  Someone is NOT telling the truth. That Garfield was severely overcrowded and yet somehow there was room for a 3-person class with a sub teacher is disgraceful and there is NO excuse for it in these hard fiscal times. I'm sure the student will sail into UW and be a big basketball star and still can't string two sentence of basic Spanish together.  This is not w...