Seattle Schools Community Forum

Roosevelt and Garfield jazz bands both made it into the Essentially Ellington competition in NYC...again.  Congrats to both programs. And because I love high school newspapers - news from the Rainier Beac h student newspaper, Viking Shield. I received a press release today from the district announcing that  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will visit Sanislo Elementary's  3 rd -5 th graders  tomorrow .   From the press release:

Popped into the City Club's One-Stop Ballot Stop this evening.  Not so many people but the mayoral debate was interesting.  One quick-fire question: " Do you think the Seattle School Board is doing a good job?"   Murray - yellow (waffle), McGinn (refused to answer - "I think they are doing the best they can at a hard job.  I don't want to put them down." , crowd (mostly yellows with a smattering of green - yes and red-no).  I had forgotten but City Club puts all the candidates for each type of election together so there was this uneasy line of Dale Estey, Peters, Blanford and Green.  Blanford and Green appeared to completely ignore each other (as did Dale Estey and Peters) while Dale Estey and Blanford appear to be pretty good buddies (so I guess that CASE - the Chamber of Commerce PAC - isn't wrong in calling them "a slate.") The Supreme Court has taken on case on affirmative action which involves a Michigan case using race for college ...

Wow, not one but two new playgrounds in our fair city.  One is at Maple Leaf, complete with zipline, and one is at Volunteer Park on Capital Hill.   In the world of film, the Seattle International Film Festival is underway.  As usual, they have Films4Families with a great selection for all.   Moon Man (German), Safety Last! (with Harold Lloyd from 1923) and Wolf Children (Japanese) all look like good picks.  Also, if you are planning your summer, TheFilmSchool , has some great offerings for adults and students.  Through a grant, the school has secured a number of large scholarships for HS Teachers to attend the upcoming summer session.  This is a great opportunity for any teachers interested in screenwriting and taking lessons learned back to their classrooms.  Details here:  http://thefilmschool.com/special-offer-for-washington-state-high-school-teacher/ Also… the school has a special summer camp for youth writers and ...

Executive Director Some readers have been doing some investigating and found a real puzzler:  how did Bree Dusseault get her job?  She doesn't meet the qualifications currently listed for someone to fill her old regional position: MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: Education: Master’s degree in education or closely related field Experience: Five (5) or more years of successful experience as a Principal, Supervisor or District Administrator Preferred Qualifications : Demonstrated experience across grade spans (Pre-K - 12) She has one year of experience as a principal of a small charter middle school that had only 50 students and 5 teachers.    She claims to have been Founding Principal of New Orleans Charter Middle School but checking, it looks like the school was founded in 1998.  It was a good school until Hurricane Katrina wiped it out.  She re-opened it in 2007 and left at the end of the school year.    She has had three years experience ...

Update : I managed to miss that the original source of this story was MyGreenLake.com and, as was pointed out, give credit where it is due (especially a blog!). My apologies. The Stranger Slog reports that on Jan. 13th after school was over that day, a child playing tag ran out into the street at Green Lake Elementary (where they don't have a totally fenced playground) and the child was hit by a car. Luckily the student was unhurt. The child was there without adult supervision. From the article: The blog said that Bowers admitted that the unfenced playground is "a huge safety concern," promising that fencing will go in "ASAP." "This is my biggest fear," Bowers told parents of the accident. The district said they had approved a request for the fence in December but it got held up for "parts." There was also mention that the lack of fencing could have been a decision that GL Elementary had been allowed to make. No one seems to kno...