We photographed the new fencing, lock, and signage at closed Genesee Hill Elementary‘s southeast field, after multiple tips from WSB’ers. They wondered if it had to do with the field’s popularity as an unofficial off-leash dog park. No, says Diane Taguba with Seattle Public Schools, who answered our inquiry:

The fence at Genesee Hill recently repaired and secured was not due to the “dog park” use, but to prevent additional vandalism that was happening to the building. To maintain building security, we do not intend to reopen the gates anytime soon. To also note, it is district policy that dogs are not allowed on district property without proper authorization.

Genesee Hill has been closed since Pathfinder K-8 moved out in summer of 2009. It’s considered a possible site for building a new school or extensively renovating the old one as part of the BEX IV levy that will be finalized this year and sent to voters next year. (Three public meetings about that levy are set for next month, including one in West Seattle on April 5th.)

Seattle Public Schools students don’t have classes today because it’s a “Professional Development Day” for teachers – and if you ever wondered what that really meant, here’s one example. Chief Sealth International High School principal Chris Kinsey explains what’s happening at his school (and its neighbor) today:

Right now on the Denny/Sealth campus teachers from all current International schools (Sealth, Denny, Hamilton, John Stanford, Beacon Hill, Concord) and future International schools (Ingraham and McDonald) are all engaged in an International Education Symposium focusing on global competencies. Veronica Boix-Mansila from Harvard was the keynote speaker where she provided an overview of her book, Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World and provided a framework for teachers to analyze student work.

Teachers will spend the day looking at curriculum, projects, student work, and bouncing ideas off one another so they can better support the work being done in our International schools.

Side note: One of the projects that has underscored Sealth’s reputation for global awareness, World Water Week, is about to come around for its second year – events are running Tuesday through Friday, according to teacher Noah Zeichner; we’ll have a more detailed preview ahead, but for now, this webpage has a preview.

Earlier this week, we brought you news of two West Seattle teams making it into the finals of the Seattle Public Library’s Global Reading Challenge competition – Da Peeps from Arbor Heights Elementary and George’s Magician’s Treasure from Alki Elementary. Tonight, we have word that a fifth-grade team from Roxhill Elementary, The Stoehr SuperStars, is in the finals too. From Roxhill’s head teacher Christopher Robert:

Jade, Cory, Natavia, Jeremy, Viridiana, Pieran, and Sarah placed second in today’s semifinal to earn a spot in the finals in two weeks. (Graham Hill placed first in today’s semifinal to earn the other spot.) All seven are students in Kristie Stoehr’s class. Their classmate, Akira, served as a coach. Congrats to the team…and good luck in the finals!

(Christopher is not only Roxhill’s head teacher, but also Pieran’s dad!) Roxhill had a team in the 2011 finals, too. Like last year, the finals are downtown on March 27th (at the Central Library auditorium).

Lots of news about reading and books this week – and here’s more. Tonight, Sanislo Elementary invites you to its Literacy Night event – 6-7 pm, “Passport to the World,” with storytelling/reading in Russian, Mandarin, and Spanish. Then on Saturday, it’s the famous Sanislo Used Book Sale, benefiting the 4th graders’ annual overnight camping trip – 10 am-2 pm (March 17th). Sanislo is at 1812 SW Myrtle.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The decisions made during the first meeting of the newly announced Design Team for West Seattle’s new public school, K-5 STEM at Boren, were primarily logistical.

Wednesday night’s meeting at Seattle Public Schools‘ headquarters in SODO was mostly a getting-to-know-you and stage-setting event – the opening act of five-and-a-half intensive months of work to give birth to a new school.

“You are doing very important work,” declared Dr. Cathy Thompson, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning (and a West Seattleite), to the 14 (of 16) design-team members who assembled for the history-making session.

She also pronounced the new school “a viable entity … good to go,” saying 141 applications already had been counted as of Tuesday, and that more were expected as the district continued to process what it received during open enrollment, which ended Monday afternoon. They expect to “max out” at three kindergarten classes and two each for 1st through 5th grades.

Read More

After our report from an Arbor Heights parent about that school making it to the Global Reading Challenge‘s citywide finals, we heard from the Alki Elementary community:

Another West Seattle Elementary School has advanced to the All-City Finals of the Global Reading Challenge!! The team called George’s Magician’s Treasure from Alki scored 115 out of 120 points at Monday’s semi-finals at the downtown library. From left in the photo above: Marcus, Gracie, Alina, Georgia, Jaylin, Alex and Carl. Go West Seattle!!

Congratulations to the readers! Anyone else from WS in the finals? Let us know!

Tomorrow night, the newly announced Design Team for the new K-5 STEM at Boren school will meet for the first time. Tonight, the school’s first principal visited West Seattle – she is still on the job as a principal in Tucson – to meet families and other community members. In our photo, principal-to-be Dr. Shannon McKinney is in the center with, at left, West Seattle’s School Board rep Marty McLaren and, at right, the district’s executive director of West Seattle-area schools, Aurora Lora. Dr. McKinney is expected to move up here next month to start work getting ready to launch the new school; we hope tomorrow’s meeting will include information about how many families applied for admission to the new school during the open-enrollment period that ended just yesterday.

Two weeks ago, we stopped by Arbor Heights Elementary School as students battled it out in the Global Reading Challenge school finals. Today, the winning team, a group of 5th graders calling themselves Da Peeps, went downtown for the semifinals – and after scoring 110 out of 120 points, according to an AH parent volunteer, advanced to the all-city finals! (7 pm March 22nd) From left in the photo above (also courtesy of the parent volunteer) are Chase, Dylan, Stone, Siobhan, Ayden, Steph, and Ruby.

As promised, Seattle Public Schools has announced its design team for the new school it’s opening in West Seattle this fall, K-5 STEM at Boren. They’ve also confirmed that the team – whose job will be to start working out details for the new school’s operations – will have its first meeting 6 pm this Wednesday; that meeting will be at district HQ in SODO. We asked the district today who was on the team, and here’s what we received:Read More

A little time out of the classroom can go a long way. Seattle Lutheran High School students and staff got the chance to test that on Wednesday – including the freshmen in our photos, taken at Camp Long. SLHS’s Bil Hood explained that it was “CHIP Day,” focusing on the school’s “core values – Confidence, Hope, Integrity, Passion.” The first value was taken on by the freshmen, on a field trip to work through the park’s new Challenge Course. In part, as Hood explaied it, the Challenge Course was meant to “enable participants to grow at both the team and individual levels, exploring confidence, risk, leadership, communication, problem-solving, and coaching.” Collaboration was a big lesson for the “low” portion of the course, including this balancing challenge:

Other activities scheduled included sophomores pursuing “Hope,” by spending time working at the homeless encampment that calls itself “Nickelsville,” while juniors explored “Integrity” with an “honesty test” of sorts (which is being kept under wraps till its results are in, which will take days), and seniors explored “Passion” through one-on-one conversations with people over 60, about their life experiences.

(Photo courtesy SSCC)
Landscape/Horticulture is just part of a long list of studies you can pursue at South Seattle Community College in West Seattle – which is throwing open the doors to prospective students, families, community members, etc., tomorrow night, 5:30 pm-7:30 pm, during its annual College Night. If you come to SSCC’s Brockey Center (on the south side of the campus at 6000 16th SW), you can find out about starting a degree there, finishing a degree there, getting a 2- or 4-year degree there, or joining one of its training programs. They’ll also have information about getting money for school. Parking is free, admission is free, and refreshments are promised too. Want to know more? Find it here.

Five years ago, Seattle Public Schools went to voters with the Building Excellence (BEX) III levy, which included money to build a new Denny International Middle School on the campus of Chief Sealth International High School, renovated as part of the project. After the vote, some community members complained they weren’t really aware that an unprecedented shared campus would be created as a result of the levy.

We can’t speak for what led up to that levy, since WSB wasn’t a news service then – but we CAN tell you that the next BEX levy (IV) is being planned now, and here’s your chance to speak up loud and clear about what you think should (and, maybe, should not) be part of it: The district has just announced three meetings to “share information and ask for feedback about options for possible building-construction projects to be included” in the levy, which goes to voters next February. One is in West Seattle: 6:30 pm April 5th, at Denny (whose old site, now an open field, might be used to build a new school, if that winds up in the levy).

As West Seattle’s school-auction season continues – here’s an invitation from Explorer West Middle School (WSB sponsor):

We are excited to announce the upcoming Explorer West Middle School auction ‘Rising Stars’ on Friday, March 23, 2012 at The Hall at Fauntleroy, 5:30 pm. This year’s theme celebrates the development of future leaders among our students and the evening will feature red carpet, old school Hollywood glamour and guaranteed fun. To learn more about the event and Explorer West, visit www.explorer-west.org. Tickets are available by contacting Debbie Ehri, Business Manager: debbie@explorer-west.org. Come find out what the Explorer West community is about!