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.

 Update: I stayed about an hour (of the hour and a half allotted for the Work Session).  It was mostly a complete waste of time for all involved.  (I'll check and see if anything definitive finally came out but I doubt it.) Here's the upshot - later start times for secondary schools is NOT going to happen for next school year, 2014-15.  It will likely not happen for 2015-16.  The issue is that no staff person can give any real idea of how much time it would take for all this "research and community engagement" they believe to be necessary.  It is clear staff does not want to do this.  I do not believe they think it worth the time and effort (Banda's early statement notwithstanding that no one disputes the merits of changing bell times).  I'm not even sure they believe there are good academic outcomes to be had.  Now, Mr. Wright was once again quite diplomatic and careful to state that it is not that they DON'T want to do this but th...

The Vikings took the 3A state championship for the second year in a row over Lakeside.  It is the second back-to-back championship in a decade for RBHS.   They won in overtime 62-59. With the new IB program coming on-line this fall, RBHS is poised to be a changed school over the next several years.  School pride comes in all shapes and sizes. The Lady Eagles won 45-43 against Seattle Prep.  Cleveland has won this title for the second time in four years.  Congrats to both these great teams! Update: a little odd.  Seattle Times doesn't have this on their digital headlines under Sports.  A Husky game, a Mariner game but two Seattle high schools win state championships against private schools and it's no big thing.  Nice job there, Times.

What is the standing of women and girls in the world today?  It's hard to know. On the one hand, we now have more women in Congress than ever before.  There are now 20 women in the Senate (although as The Stranger points out, that's a group that has been around for 200 years and yet it has taken this long).  New Hampshire state government seems to be an all-woman squad at this point.  Many European countries have long had female leaders. Yet, throughout the world, rape is still a harsh and terrible tool used against women and girls.  The young woman in India who died from her injuries (and I had wondered why that was until I read that a metal rod had been used and torn her internal organs apart) has now caused women in India to say enough.   But will it be enough when you still have men who say "don't wear dresses and don't go out after dark?" Now what has been happening in the U.S.  Well, there's this from Congress via The Atlantic: AWA, which...

I heard from some parents this great news - Ingraham  High school is receiving "RISE UP" funds from ESPN to refinish their gym floor, renovate the bleachers and renovate the weight and locker rooms.    Ingraham is one of four high schools selected by ESPN.  There will be a story on Ingraham on ESPN in the fall after the improvements are made.  From the ESPN story: Currently players can’t take postgame showers because there is no hot water. The weight room is filled with weights from the “1970’s ‘Let’s Get Physical’ videos,” as co-host Chris Spielman put it. Football co-head coach Gene O’Hara said that Ingraham is the “laughing stock” when opposing teams visit their facilities. “When you look around here, you walk into a time warp in 1959 when the school was built. Same lockers, same everything,” Floe said. “This is an opportunity to upgrade the facilities to meet the needs of today’s athlete.” And why Ingraham? Several banners line the windo...

Athletics at Garfield hasn't been going very well this year. First there was an investigation into the football coaches playing ineligible players and the outcomes from that.  Now comes word via a Seattle Times story that the Athletic Director, Jim Valiere, has been fired after a long investigation. From the Times: The action was taken because of "inappropriate and unprofessional behavior" and "violation of district policies," according to an April 11 termination letter to Valiere from Susan Enfield, Seattle Public Schools interim superintendent. The letter was obtained by The Seattle Times under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition to being blamed for allowing ineligible student-athletes to play, the letter said Valiere misused district funds, disregarded policy and provided grades students didn't earn. The investigation also alleged that Valiere misled the KingCo Conference and Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (W...

When we last left Pay for K in November, the district hadn't been able to figure out what money had come in or even who was supposed to be paying.   At a later Audit and Finance Committee meeting, it appeared more under control but the handout still didn't explain if they had fully implemented it and were receiving all the money due to the district. On the heels of that comes another snafu, this time with Pay for Play which is for students who want to participate in competitive athletics in high school.  (This is not for PE or intramural sports.)   The old fee was $50 for the first sport and $25 for the second sport (with a cap at $75 for 3+ sports).  The Board approved raising the fee for this year.   I believe that the new fee was $100 for the first sport and $30 for the second (again, with a cap at $130 for 3+).  (Still checking on this because the new website has old data and no one answers at the School Board office but it was raised.) All st...

From the Seattle Times news about Garfield Athletics and a story about UW admissions.