Seattle Schools Community Forum

Reports of shots fired in the Ballard High neighborhood this morning led to a brief shelter in place at the school.  SPD investigated around the area and could find nothing.  I tried to find out if the shelter in place was at Salmon Bay as well but could not reach Communications for verification. In other big news in the district: Seattle’s music programs have won a lot of well-deserved awards, but a Grammy? It could happen. Beth Fortune , who teaches Orchestra and Eclectic Strings at Washington Middle School is one of only 25 semi-finalists nationwide for the 2015 Grammy Music Educator Award. She was selected from 7,000 applicants. Ten finalists will be announced in December, and the winner will be announced during Grammy week in February 2015. The nine finalists will each receive a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists also will receive matching grants. Google announced the winners of their Science Fair and they were three teenaged girls from ...

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...