Cometa Playschool students and teachers are excited to take the challenge and participate in the 100th day of school food donation for the West Seattle Food Bank. In the past we have organized food drives during the holiday season for Northwest Harvest, and we are thrilled this time we will be supporting our local food bank.
The 100th day of school is February 20th. Anybody else joined/joining? Let us know!
Back on Monday, Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Marcia Ingerslevshared the news that her class was collecting 100 items for the West Seattle Food Bank in honor of the upcoming 100th day of the school year – and challenged any and all other elementary classrooms in WS to join them. Today, we have word that Alki Elementary has accepted the challenge – fourth-grade teacher Anna Coghill sends word that notes will go home with students on Monday (there are no classes in the district tomorrow) to tell families that EVERY Alki classroom is hoping to collect 100 cans (or other non-perishable food items) by February 20th! (Anybody else? Let us know!)
Congratulations to the West Seattle High School girls-varsity basketball team and coach Sonya Elliott for clinching the regular-season division title by beating Eastside Catholic at home Wednesday night, 50-39. They’re playoff-bound after wrapping up the regular season Friday night at Bishop Blanchet.
The Seattle School Board will vote tonight on next year’s “capacity management” changes, delayed a week to await new enrollment projections for next school year. As first pointed out Wednesday on the Seattle Schools Community Forum website, those numbers are available now, in advance of the meeting. You can see the full citywide list here. Looking at projections for West Seattle schools, the only significant changes are projected for K-5 STEM at Boren (up to 327 from the current 268), West Seattle Elementary (up to 452 from 399), Gatewood Elementary (up to 506 from 461), and Schmitz Park Elementary (projected to become West Seattle’s most populous public elementary, to 596 from 536 in the 2013-14 school year).
Tonight’s meeting, by the way, is at 5 pm at district HQ in SODO; here’s the agenda.
Last year right about now, K-5 STEM at Boren – aka West Seattle STEM Elementary – was in the formative stages, and people who decided to enroll for this school year did so on a leap of faith. This year, it’s reality, and you can visit before deciding whether to enroll your child(ren). Tomorrow night’s the biggest event of enrollment season, an open house 6:30-7:30 pm at the school, 5950 Delridge Way. Four tours for parents/guardians are also set next month, as listed on this flyer.
One high-school varsity game on the peninsula last night – Chief Sealth International High School‘s boys beat the visitors from Bainbridge, 63-55. Here are the stats as published by our partners at The Seattle Times. Tonight, the Bainbridge girls visit their Sealth counterparts, JV at 5:15 pm and varsity game at 7; the Seahawks boys and girls wrap up their regular season by hosting Seattle Prep this Friday night.
A potential playoff preview Monday night at West Seattle High School, as the girls-varsity basketball team faced Seattle Prep, with both teams leading their divisions in Metro League play. The Wildcats controlled the board for most of the first half, but Prep’s aggressive full-court press kicked in just before halftime, and eventually brought that team a 55-31 win, WSHS’s first loss in almost two weeks. Here are the stats, as published by our partners at The Seattle Times. Their regular season ends with a home game against Eastside Catholic on Wednesday and a road game against Bishop Blanchet Friday.
Here’s a challenge for you – a good one – and we’d dare say that you don’t have to be part of an elementary classroom to help out with this:
The Students of Room 16 at Arbor Heights Elementary are celebrating the 100th day of school by collecting 100 food items for the West Seattle Food Bank. We challenge all elementary classrooms in West Seattle elementary schools to collect 100 cans as well.
While we have the food in our classroom we will learn to read the labels. We will count the food and track our progress using tally marks and links on a paper chain. We will also sort the cans by size, weight, and food group.
We will be learning important reading and math skills while helping our community.
Last year our class donated more than 200 items of food for the food bank.
Please help us reach or exceed our goal.
Marcia Ingerslev
Proud teacher in Room 16
The West Seattle Food Bank and White Center Food Bank (whose service area includes part of West Seattle) both appreciate your donations any time – food or cash – click on their names in this line to get to their info-laden websites.
(Photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
At South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) on Saturday night, the sold-out Gifts From The Earth gala made history – raising a record $185,000, reports communications director Kevin Maloney, thanks to everything from the beautifully set tables, to impeccably prepared/presented feasts …
… to generous partygoers/donors/auction bidders and sponsors …
The weekend after this year’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service – one service project continued today at Denny International Middle School: A three-level stairwell mural celebrating where the students have come from, and where they’re going. On the first level – the 6th graders’ floor – a reminder to never forget your roots:
On the second level, the 7th graders’ floor, a work in progress honoring the scholars as they take shape and grow up:
And on the third level, the 8th graders’ floor, the art parallels their growth as they get ready to take flight (to the left of the totem pole, we’re told, the Space Needle will be depicted):
According to Seattle Public Schools, MLK Day of Service work at Denny, with other beautification projects as well as the mural, included district/school personnel and CityYear team members, as well as volunteers from Starbucks.
The week ahead is busy, too – the Saints are on the road against Chief Leschi on Tuesday, then back home Thursday to play Auburn Adventist Academy (SLHS alumni get free admission that night).
(From SPS administration, from left: Lucy Morello, Bob Boesche, Pegi McEvoy)
As ballots for the February 12 election, with two Seattle Public Schools levies totaling more than $1 billion, start arriving in mailboxes, a lineup of district officials came to Arbor Heights Elementary this morning to make the case to the media (turnout included four TV crews). They spoke in AH’s Room 19, in front of an old-fashioned blackboard. (Added: Unedited video of the briefing)
And there was news about Arbor Heights itself, which had been planned in the BEX IV levy to open a rebuilt school in 2018 (a year earlier than the once-tentatively planned 2019), replacing an aged, dilapidated facility with numerous problems: District officials confirmed what we heard at, and reported from, the West Seattle HS PTSA meeting last week – that SPS is taking steps to be able to move up the rebuild two years, to a 2016 completion.
More on that coming up – but first – the pitch for BEX IV and the operations levy:
(Photo courtesy Josh Sutton from the West Seattle/Fauntleroy Y)
When Mayor McGinn announced the recipients of the city’s summer-learning grants from the Families and Education Levy, multiple West Seattle recipients were on the list, and hundreds of local students will benefit. For one, the YMCA (WSB sponsor) plans a 9th-grade-transition program at Chief Sealth International High School and two other Seattle high schools. For two, Sealth’s neighbor Denny International Middle School received a grant too – principal Jeff Clark(in the photo above, second from left, with the mayor and Seattle Public Schools/Seattle Parks reps) shares details:
I am thrilled to announce that Denny International Middle School has been awarded a City of Seattle Summer Learning grant to increase the number of our scholars participating in our Westside Scholars Summer School program. Next summer, we will be able to serve 220 students entering grades 6th through 8th. The summer learning grant award of $73,363 will be focused on incoming sixth graders and will be augmented by other City of Seattle Families and Education Innovation Middle School funds to provide an exciting and rigorous program with core academics and enrichment activities during the six week program.
And North Delridge-headquartered Southwest Youth and Family Services also received a grant for a Young Writers’ Workshop in its education center. The official announcement was made Wednesday in Northgate; see the city news release here.
(Live view from the west-facing WS Bridge camera; see other cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
If you drive or ride on Avalon Way, remember that as reported here yesterday, the new stoplight at SW Genesee is in action. Only other traffic alert is the week’s final night of a scheduled southbound 99 closure between Battery St. Tunnel and the West Seattle Bridge for SODO overpass work, 10 pm tonight till 5 am tomorrow (and then one more week of Monday through Thursday nights). Be safe!
At the Chief Sealth International High School gym Wednesday night, it was the second night for the friendly rivals from West Seattle High School to visit – this time, for girls’ basketball. Above are Sealth and WSHS’s head coaches, Katie Jo Maris and Sonya Elliott respectively. Unlike the boys-varsity game the night before, the Wildcats went home with the win this time – 51-35.
Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark is sharing the letter sent to his school’s families, following up on the Sunday and Tuesday Roxhill Park robberies reported here earlier this afternoon, and he says the district will have a letter for more families tomorrow:
As a result of Denny International Middle School students being the victims of recent crimes in the Roxhill Park area, we are contacting all families to remind them of safety-related recommendations for walking to and from school. Recommendations include walking with other students and heading directly home.
We have contacted the Seattle Police Department and have learned that a detective has been assigned to these cases. If anyone sees any suspicious behavior on the part of anyone in our community, we encourage you to call 911. Also, as always, if any student has any problem on the way to or from school, please tell any staff member at school. Tomorrow, Seattle Public Schools central office will be sending home a letter to all families with children who attend schools in the area.
Sincerely,
Jeff Clark, Principal
Denny International Middle School
In advance of a media briefing next hour about Seattle Public Schools‘ response to concerns about the testing known as MAP (Measures of Academic Progress), and a rally by MAP opponents after that, Superintendent José Banda has just announced a testing task force. Read on for his open letter (and, ADDED 4:30 PM, another administration letter saying test-boycotting teachers face suspension):
A preferred “schematic design” was revealed last night for what is now going by the working title of the “new elementary school at Genesee Hill,” rather than “the new Schmitz Park Elementary at Genesee Hill,” according to project manager Janet Donelson.
The design was shown to about 20 community members in the Schmitz Park cafeteria, exactly three weeks before the February 12th election in which Seattle voters will decide whether to approve the Seattle Public Schools BEX (Building Excellence) IV levy that will generate the property-tax dollars for this $38 million project and others around the city.
As Donelson explained at the start of the meeting, the district provided some advance money to get the design work under way – since getting a new school open by fall 2015 would be impossible if they waited till after the election to start; a community advisory team has been working since last fall.
Ahead, four more views from last night’s presentation led by BLRB Architects, and what happens next:
The friendly cross-peninsula rivalry between our area’s two major public high schools is back on the court this week. Above, boys-basketball head coaches Keffrey Fazio of West Seattle HS and Colin Slingsby of Chief Sealth International HS, as their teams faced off Tuesday night in the Sealth gym, where the girls play tonight. In the boys-varsity game, the Seahawks topped the Wildcats 66-54, but it was closer than that much of the way:
Another development in the movement of some Seattle Public Schools‘ teachers expressing opposition to, or even declining to administer, the testing known as MAP: The district just announced that it will “host a media briefing with Superintendent José Banda and other district officials regarding the district’s Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing” at district HQ tomorrow afternoon. The announcement says he will be joined by three district officials – interim teaching/learning assistant superintendent Michael Tolley, research/evaluation manager Eric Anderson, and Teacher Incentive Fund project director Clover Codd (a former Alki Elementary principal, by the way). No word yet whether an announcement will be made or whether it’ll be a reiteration of what the superintendent has already said. This all started when Garfield High School teachers announced they would not give the tests; since then, other expressions of opposition have included letters sent by the teachers at Sanislo (WSB report here) and Schmitz Park (WSB report here) elementaries here in West Seattle.
That’s why it was on the WSHS PTSA‘s agenda for this month’s meeting, with two high-ranking district reps on hand – the Southwest Region Executive Director of Schools, Carmela Dellino, and the elected School Board director for West Seattle/South Park, Marty McLaren.
Neither was in her current position when district staffers and board members crafted and approved the Student Assignment Plan blamed for the current state of enrollment inequity – something the then-board was warned would happen – and did.
(Global Cities Education Network visitors in the Sealth library)
On this MLK Day holiday meant for contemplation of understanding, collaboration, and diversity, among other things, we have an update on one way that’s happening across borders, right here in West Seattle. Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark shares news of a delegation that visited Denny and adjacent Chief Sealth International High School last week as part of the Global Cities Education Network‘s meeting.
Clark explains, “The first GCEN meeting took place in Hong Kong on May 10-12, 2012, and included participating cities: Chicago, Denver, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Toronto. Participants identified several common, high-priority problems of practice and agreed to initially focus on two: the need to develop and sustain a high-quality teaching force, and the need to improve educational outcomes for low performing and linguistically and culturally diverse students.” He adds, ““We were very pleased to have the chance to welcome educators from around the globe to see the powerful things happening with our scholars at Denny International. The opportunity to network and discuss global educational issues is important and was insightful.” The visit report includes an observation from Sealth principal Chris Kinsey: “Chief Sealth International High School continues to open its doors to the world. Collaborating with international educators to create new opportunities for our students is a core element of who we are as an International School.” Here’s Sealth teacher Noah Zeichner, involved in many of their internationally focused initiatives (such as World Water Week), with a colleague from Hong Kong:
| 2 COMMENTS