Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Times had an article yesterday about the new head boys basketball coach at Hale and what looks to be a very competitive team - as in competitive at both the state and national level.  Hale is now ranked as 22nd in the nation.  Two of Hale's games this year will be televised nationally.  Sixty students tried out and 14 made the team. I had reported earlier this year that former NBA All-Star Brandon Roy was taking the head coaching job at Hale.  He receives $6,000 a year for his work, just like all the other SPS coaches.  Roy had wanted to coach at UW but chose to coach at Hale. Coach Roy appears to have made his presence at Hale known to top high school boys basketball prospects and got one of the most highly-sought after high school players in the country, Michael Porter, Jr., from Missouri.  Porter's brother, Jontay, is also playing on the team.

Scratch art by Ava Code-Williams Two SPS students were named Regional Award winners at the Regional High School Art Show that is sponsored by the Puget Sound Educational Service District.  Those students are Ava Code-Williams from Garfield and Huo Xian Wu from Franklin.   I love Code-Williams' haunting "You have your mother's eyes."  In a battle of the titans, the state boys basketball title went to Garfield who beat Rainier Beach High School, 64-51 last weekend.  Congrats to Garfield and a good effort by all.  (RBHS had beat Garfield for the Metro title but Garfield turned the tables on them in the state finals.) SPS was also awarded a 2014 Gold Star by Governor Inslee for getting students signed up for the College Bound Scholarship program.  SPS signed up 100% of eligible 8th graders.  Yesterday was the Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting.   I wasn't able to go but I know that Director Peters was going to try to get the SBA...

Last night's Board meeting saw the honoring of four (!) SPS basketball championship teams.  (My apologies to Garfield's boys basketball team - I managed to flub my photos of them.) Ballard High School Beavers -Special Olympics Unified Basketball Team Cleveland High School Lady Eagles- 3A State Champs Rainier Beach Vikings - 3A State Champions The Superintendent in a demonstration of how much a middle school student would have to carry w/o a locker. Later Start protesters before the meeting Ballard High Video by Will Erstad, Aurore Bouriot and Side Johnson about needing more sleep.

 Update: Congratulations to the Cleveland High School girls basketball team - now the 3A state champions !  They beat Bishop Blanchet High School, 54-45. Congratulations to Garfield High School's  boys basketball team for winning the 4A state title overland Richland, 68-59! Congratulations to Rainier Beach High School's boys basketball team for winning the 3A state title over Eastside Catholic, 47-45!  It is RBHS' third straight state title.   No other team in state history has won three titles in a row. End of update. All three Seattle schools won their basketball game last night and are playing in championship games today. Good job and best wishes to the Cleveland girls basketball team, the Rainier Beach HS boys basketball team and the Garfield boys basketball team! (The Garfield game went off without any incident from either side.  There had been concern about the issue of racially-charged tweets by a few ignorant Issaquah High students.)

From the Central District News : Three NBA stars, each Garfield High School alumni, are returning to the Central District to distribute school supplies to neighborhood students. The project is run by humanitarian organization World Vision. The participating players are Will Conroy , currently with the Minnesota Timberwolves; Tony Wroten, currently with the Memphis Grizzlies; and Brandon Roy , who played most of his career with the Portland Trailblazers and retired with the Minnesota Timberwolves after the 2012-13 season. Each player graduated from Garfield High School before going on to play for the University of Washington. The giveaway will take place at the Third Annual Back to School Backpack Giveaway & Community BBQ. Here, the players will distribute 600 backpacks of school supplies and 500 family food kits. Kids can get free hair cuts before school starts and snag an autograph with the players. The event will be held on Saturday, August 24, from noon to 3 ...

Wow and congratulations to the Rainier Beach High School boys varsity team that took the 3A State title March 3rd in Tacoma.   They beat Seattle Prep for the title.  And more good news, RBHS's high scorer, Marquis Davis, is just a junior.  A huge triumph for a little school that could.  Also to note, the Garfield boys team took 6th place in 4A, Cleveland girls took a 3rd place 3A trophy and the Franklin girls team took the 2nd place 3A trophy.

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...