Seattle Schools Community Forum

I will be taking a short break for a few days as my family will be happily attending the graduation of my youngest son from his university.  We are very proud that he was accepted to the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW to work on his Master's. I am disappointed to report that teacher Jesse Hagopian narrowly lost to Jonathan Knapp for president of the SEA .  The vote difference was 45 votes out of 1,342 cast.  About 54% of the SEA members voted which was apparently nearly twice what they have had in past elections.  There is to be a runoff for the treasurer's spot between Jennifer Matter (Knapp slate) and Dan Troccoli (Hagopian slate).   According to OSPI, Rainier Beach High School will continue to receive a federal grant to help improve academic outcomes. Ballard High School students won two awards for short films at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY).  Song for Anna by Lucy Harstrick, Isaiah Hoban-Halvorsen, Josh Vredevoogd...

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...

Roosevelt High School's Jazz Band placed third at this weekend's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC.  Congrats to all! Ballard High students in their video program won two major prizes at the Dominique Dunne Film Competition in Colorado Springs.  The competition only awards four prizes and the judges are a who's who in Hollywood  so this is huge honor for Ballard.  Good job!  Pinehurst K-8 is circulating a petition about their proposed relocation to Broadview-Thompson. From the petition: Pinehurst K-8 at Broadview-Thompson provides the district with a much-needed Option School in the northwest area.  As Pinehurst K-8 community members, we consider these requests to be reasonable for the success of the co-location: • That we retain our principal, administrative staff, and instructional staff to ensure stability for our entire community during the transition; for initial negotiations with Broadview-Thompson staff regarding scheduling...

Garfield and Roosevelt High School jazz bands are once again competing at the Essentially Ellington Festival in NYC.  This year they are webcasting the performances so you can see them for yourself.  Here's a link to SPS with the details.  Roosevelt came in second last year.  Good luck to all the performers and their band directors! Three community meetings with Board directors tomorrow - Carr, Martin-Morris and McLaren. Don't know if you saw this video of a high school student who challenges his teacher's teaching ability.  It's making the rounds and it's interesting viewing.  Both the teacher and student keep their cool but you are not certain if anyone is right. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms.   What's on your mind?

Director Carr has a Community meeting tomorrow from 8:30-10:00 am at Bethany Community Church (enter by playground). Director Martin-Morris has a Community meeting tomorrow from 9:30-11:30 am at Diva Espresso at 80th and Lake City Way. Congrats to Roosevelt, Eckstein and Hamilton for their showings at the Clark College Jazz Festival. Roosevelt was awarded the top honor, the Sweepstakes Trophy.  They also placed first in the AAA and AAAA divisions.  Hamilton was second and Eckstein third in the middle school jazz ensemble category.  There were also individual awards to all three schools plus Garfield . Seattle Public Schools dominance in jazz bands marches on (with apologies to actual marching bands). Forgot to mention but I did put up a acronyms list for education in the right-hand column of this blog.  I do state that it is not all-inclusive but if I left out any glaring SPS one, let me know. In the Friday Funny, which apparently is no joke, people ne...