(Photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
The husband of Governor Chris Gregoire was in West Seattle today for a literacy program at Roxhill Elementary School, reading “Duck for President“ to Roxhill scholars and donating books as part of a Reading Is Fundamental initiative involving governors’ spouses.

Mike Gregoire has always asked to be called “First Mike” instead of “First Gentleman” – and he’ll only have that title a little while longer, since his wife is not running for re-election. But “First Mike” pointed out that they have another big change ahead in their lives – their first grandchild is about to be born (as noted by our partners at The Seattle Times back in June). P.S. You’ll see in his bio that he’s the son of a public-school teacher.

Now that it’s November – it’s time for Denny International Middle School‘s biggest fundraiser of the year – Read-A-Thon Month. According to an announcement from the Denny PTSA, “Students will be setting individualized goals with their literacy teachers and then asking for pledges of money for accomplishing those goals. The PTSA’s goal this year is $9,000 and to have 450 students participate. There are prizes for students who accomplish their reading goals and for those who receive a minimum donation of $10. If the community would like to donate to this great cause but doesn’t have a student at Denny please feel free to contact one of the co-chairs and we’ll get you connected to a student who might need a sponsor.” Co-chairs are Nicole Sipila and Karen Vegors; contact info is on the Read-A-Thon page of the Denny website. Looking ahead to holiday shopping, Barnes & Noble will have a Denny book fair week in December – kickoff event on December 14th, part of the proceeds from 12/14-12/21 will benefit Denny.

Two memorable events at Chief Sealth International High School on Tuesday – one that relates to the “international” part of its name:

(Photo courtesy Noah Zeichner; subsequent 4 are by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Students in Noah Zeichner‘s social-studies classes got to meet 18 of their counterparts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, visiting as part of a youth-leadership program sponsored by a division of the U.S. State Department. (Interestingly, while they were at Sealth, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was visiting Bosnia.) Along with the Seattle stop, the visitors also are going to the state Capitol in Olympia – and to the “other Washington” as well.

This is the first of their three weeks in the U.S. Teacher Zeichner, by the way, had a Sealth alum on hand to help – Kylee Schmuck had been to Bosnia, we’re told, and was able to do some interpreting:

While all that was going on, so was an event of national import, hinted at in the T-shirt Zeichner wore: Throughout the day, Sealth students spent time in the library, casting their votes by computer in a national “mock election”:

They are among about a million students nationwide voting between October 22nd and November 1st, using what’s described as “a state-of-the art online voting system” in a program sponsored by the Youth Leadership Initiative, a national civic-education program based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Election results are supposed to be available next Monday – one day before the “real” U.S. election; nationwide, students voted in U.S. House and Senate and governor races as well as the presidential contest.

Today, Lafayette Elementary second-grade teacher Dano Beal takes his Room 26 second-graders to Camp Long for their annual “Spider Safari and Feast,” a tradition for almost 20 years. On Monday, he was already in the spirit, dressed as a spider (above), while the entirety of Lafayette’s second grade – four classrooms – enjoyed their 15th annual “Spider and Creepy Crawly Tea.” In teacher Kayleen Diaz‘s class, we found students masquerading as amphibians:

And there was even amphibian – OK, frog, to be precise – bread:

Teachers Michael Fletcher and Sheila McBeth presided over a fun day too. This wasn’t just a one-day event, but rather a culmination of work that involved, according to Mr. Beal, “researching all sorts of creepy critters” as well as reports and more than 60 displays – all of the latter made of fruits and vegetables!

(Vicki Schmitz Block speaks to board on behalf of Schmitz Family – see 4:24 pm below)
ORIGINAL REPORT, 4:04 PM: We’re at Seattle Public Schools headquarters in SODO as the School Board starts an hourlong public-comment session on the two levies it plans to send to voters next February – including the BEX (“building excellence”) levy to raise money for construction/renovation/improvement projects. Right now, it includes plans to renovate/expand and reopen Fairmount Park Elementary in 2014; to build a new Schmitz Park Elementary on the old Genesee Hill campus, opening in 2015; and to build a new Arbor Heights Elementary to open in 2018. Most West Seattle discussion has centered on trying to get the timeline for AH moved up, as the school is in bad shape; in the past week, West Seattle’s pioneer Schmitz family, which donated the current SP Elementary site to the district, has voiced opposition to the possibility that building might be closed when the new GH school opens, though they do support a new school at GH.

We’re recording the session in its entirety but also will note West Seattle-related speakers as they come up. Twelve people are signed up – the session was scheduled for a minimum of 20. The final public-comment period will be at the November 7th board meeting, but that will be the same night as the board’s scheduled final vote. Board members are listening today but the district says they will not be commenting. More to come.

4:14 PM UPDATE: Five speakers so far, and none about West Seattle. Everyone who’s speaking signed up right before the meeting – unlike regular board meetings, there was no two-days-in-advance signup procedure.

4:21 PM: Longtime district watchdog Chris Jackins is the first to mention West Seattle BEX IV projects, saying he believes AH should be renovated immediately rather than replaced, and that he is against closing SP:

He is followed by someone talking about the proposed downtown school. Spokesperson for the Schmitz family, Vicki Schmitz Block, is scheduled to speak next.

4:24 PM: She thanks board members for replying to the letter sent several days ago and says it was a surprise to the family to hear there was a possibility SP might be closed, just as she guesses the board may be surprised to hear that some members of the Schmitz family are “still alive and living in West Seattle.” She says the family wants to keep it open in some form. She also notes that her father-in-law Dietrich Schmitz served on the board for 32 years, “a record that I don’t think has been broken.”

4:37 PM: The entire list of 14 speakers has been run through; no one else from West Seattle. They’re throwing the floor open, since the meeting technically has 23 more minutes.

4:50 PM: Six more impromptu speakers came forward, all talking about issues elsewhere in the district – including Rainier Beach High School students who said their school needs TLC even though it’s not addressed in this levy at all. At quarter till 5, the meeting recessed just in case anyone else came forward to speak – technically the floor’s open till 5. (Final note – nobody else turned up, and they moved on to an unrelated work session.)

WHAT’S NEXT: The board is scheduled to vote on BEX IV’s project list at its next regular meeting, November 7th. We may or may not see another revision between now and then. E-mail comments are still being taken at capacity@seattleschools.org. West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren – among those present for the comments today – has her next community-conversation meeting before then: 9:45 am October 31st at Concord International School in South Park.

For everyone with something to say about the Seattle Public Schools BEX IV levy before the project list is finalized at the School Board’s November 7th meeting – this Wednesday’s public-comment session may be pivotal. We contacted the district today to ask exactly how it’ll work, in case you’re thinking about attending and/or speaking. From district spokesperson Tom Redman:

The BEX IV Capital Levy public comment session (not a public hearing) will be held from 4:00-5:00 pm on Wednesday, October 24th in the John Stanford Center auditorium.

Those who wish to speak may sign up at the meeting: a sign-up sheet will be located on a table just inside the auditorium.

Each speaker has up to two minutes to provide his/her comments to the Board.

The Board is taking comments from 4:00-5:00 pm.

The Board will not be responding to comments provided.

At last week’s board meeting (WSB coverage here), School Board president Michael DeBell had said he expected at least 20 speakers to have a chance. In the meantime, capacity@seattleschools.org is the address you can use to e-mail comments on the plan, which currently includes, for West Seattle, an expanded/renovated Fairmount Park Elementary to reopen in 2014, rebuilt Schmitz Park Elementary to open in 2015 at the current (closed) Genesee Hill school site, and a rebuilt Arbor Heights Elementary to open in 2018 – a date that local public-school advocates want to see moved up.

(County Assessor’s Office photo of Schmitz Park Elementary, undated)
On November 7th, the School Board is expected to approve the final wording for the BEX IV Levy to go to voters next February – and its current draft calls for building a new Schmitz Park Elementary on the old Genesee Hill School site, to open in 2015. District staffers have not presented a plan for what would subsequently happen to the current crowded Schmitz Park school, but last week, West Seattle’s board rep Marty McLaren said the namesake family had told her they were against closure of the school, which is on land donated by the family. Today, we received a copy of the letter that Schmitz family members have just sent to the board; you can see it here, and we have transcribed it below:

October 19, 2012

Seattle School Board
(mailing address)

Subject: Schmitz Park Elementary School Proposed Closure

*The Schmitz Family of West Seattle strongly opposes the proposed closure of Schmitz Park School, for reasons detailed below.

*The Schmitz Family of West Seattle strongly supports the “One Voice” recommendations developed by the coalition of West Seattle PTA leaders.

For the sum of one dollar ($1.00) and over 50 years ago, Dietrich Schmitz, Emma Schmitz Hartmann, Dr. Henry Schmitz and Ferdinand Schmitz II deeded to the Seattle School District seven-plus acres of land adjacent to Schmitz Park for a new Schmitz Park Elementary School. The intent of this generous “gift” was for there to be a public elementary school on that land in perpetuity – and the Schmitz family requests that this “gift” be honored and respected by you as today’s elected School Board members.

The letter continues after the jump:Read More

If you saw the fire and medic units responding to Lincoln Park this afternoon – Ari did, and e-mailed us to ask what happened – here’s what we have found out: During the high-school cross-country meet under way at the park this afternoon, three runners were “treated for overexertion,” according to Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore. He says all three are girls; one, 14, was taken to Children’s Hospital “as a precaution,” according to Moore, while the other two “were examined but did not need transport.” That’s all the information available so far.

(Photo courtesy Jen Boyer)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Though Wednesday night’s Seattle School Board meeting brought the official “introduction” of something close to the final draft of the BEX IV levy that’ll be sent to voters early next year, it was almost anticlimactic.

After months of advocacy for an ASAP rebuild, Arbor Heights Elementary brought another yellow-shirted contingent and rallied outside before the meeting, and had speakers during public-comment time, too.

One board member, Sharon Peaslee, asked the big question: “What would it take to move Arbor Heights forward on the levy?” referring to the fact the dilapidated school (see our tour report from this morning) is still toward the back of the pack on the timeline, now back to opening a new building in 2018, when not even its current kindergarteners will still be there.

But before we jump ahead to the details – a touching moment, with one participant wanting to say thanks. The list of public commenters is drawn up in the days before the meeting; they have 20 spots (extended tonight to 25) and you have to call or e-mail to get a spot. Priority is given to people who want to talk about something the board is voting on – so the people who wanted to speak about the board’s resolution to oppose charter-schools Initiative 1240 got many of the slots.

Second from last on the waiting list – which was as long as the guaranteed list – was Robin Graham, co-president of the K-5 STEM at Boren PTSA. Zero chance she would get to speak about their big issue – the fact no permanent home is designated for their school, which the district has taken to describing as a “program.”

During the public-comment period, “something just amazing happened,” as she put it in e-mail to us after the meeting – something for which Graham wanted to share this public thank-you:

Dear Arbor Heights Community,

I wanted to thank you for giving the STEM community the opportunity to speak at the Oct 17th School Board Meeting. The fact that you so gracefully ceded your spot to another parent so we could speak to the board speaks volumes about the amazing people you are. We were so disappointed to only have spots on the wait list, so this was truly a gift you gave our community.

We are so hopeful that your communities zealous advocacy on behalf of your children and families will pay off.

With hope, respect, and big props,
Robin Graham
Co-President K-5 STEM

We happened to be recording handheld video from the front row in the auditorium, as a scheduled AH speaker yielded to Graham, who voiced support for AH as well as advocating for STEM:

Earlier in the day, during our tour of Arbor Heights with 2 parents, principal Christy Collins, and school board president Michael DeBell, Arbor Heights community members made impassioned pleas too, as they did during the meeting. We will add the full official video once it’s archived online.

Otherwise, since no vote was taken Wednesday night – there was nothing for BEX-watchers to do but try to read between the lines of the questions that were asked and comments that were made.

Read More