Seattle Schools Community Forum

From United Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare is donating $50,000 to fund Food Lifeline’s mobile pantry food distributions. Half of the donation will provide gap funding for the Meals for Minds program for the 2016-2017 school year. Food Lifeline’s Meals for Minds program is a monthly in-school food bank for students at Seattle’s Northgate Elementary School, where 75 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. The Meals for Minds gives Northgate students and their families 22 pounds per student of food including fresh vegetables, milk and chicken.

Shout out to Northgate's Zac Stowell and the radio report on his classroom that aired on the Tavis Smiley show recently.  It's a great 9-minutes of a day in the life of Mr. Stowell's classroom. 

I visited Hawthorne earlier this year when they opened their Family Support room.  The Times has a story about the energy surging through this school from both parents and staff.  This is how a community retakes and rebuilds its neighborhood school. The story I was told was that a couple of neighborhood parents, when their kids were preschools, thought, "why wouldn't I go to my neighborhood school?" when neighbors tried to warn them off.  Undeterred, they enrolled their children and had potlucks and neighborhood gatherings to talk about how to support the school and what incredible diversity they would be giving their own children (not to mention being able to walk to school).  These are real parents making a real difference.  Their principal is totally supportive and works with all groups.  This is how you do it.  I am also aware of efforts at Northgate Elementary for parents in that neighborhood who want to have a neighborhood school and will...

I've been critical of Director Maier in the past and I still have some doubts. But I attended a recent meeting of the Haller Lake Community where Northgate Elementary was the topic. It was a pretty good turnout for a neighborhood meeting and people seemed eager to hear about how Northgate is doing. The principal, Stan Jaskot, new to SPS from Kent this year, was on hand. Also in attendance and presenting information were Director Maier and Lisa McFarlane from LEV. Mr. Jaskot is an enthused principal who seems to know the issues confronting his community and he has really jumped in with a lot of energy. Northgate is now 247 students and they expect about 15 more next year. Before the new SAP, it was heavily Latino but now has more students from Somalia. It is 80% free/reduced lunch. (I wish there were NO schools over 40% free and reduced lunch as it just makes for a bigger challenge but this is how those boundaries shape our schools.) But he had lots to say about Northgate: s...

A reader had asked about a Haller Lake Community Club meeting that referenced Northgate Elementary. I wrote to the President of the club and here's what he had to say about the meeting: The meeting will be on Thursday night, 7:00 refreshments and the meeting starts at 7:30. The Haller Lake Community Club is working with Northgate Elementary thru the Powerful Schools program to hire reading tutors and try to help Northgate get back on track. They have a great new Principal, Stan Jascot who will be at the meeting along with the school social worker (we did a Christmas gift program some adopted families) a representative of the Powerful Schools program, and Peter Maier from the School board. We are working on the web site. Please feel free to join us at the meeting. We are very excited about the positive changes at Northgate School. Shawn MacPherson President Haller Lake Community Club Community working for a better neighborhood school - great idea