When Seattle Public Schools announced the date for Thursday night’s West Seattle meeting on their “interim capacity-management plan” – the next round of proposals for solving school overcrowding (see them here) – local families pointed out that conflicted with several local schools’ open houses, curriculum nights, and other special events. Too late to reschedule, apparently – though district official Tom Redman said these meetings were set up in August (the dates weren’t publicly announced till a few weeks ago) – but in case you wanted to be there and couldn’t, we recorded it all on video, and that’s what you will see above.

As for the highlights of what happened: Opening the meeting at Madison Middle School, assistant superintendent for operations Pegi McEvoy described the presentation as a “draft” plan likely to undergo changes in an “iterative” process. Other staff members said that West Seattle has the most growth anticipated in elementary-student population over the next 4 years, which their plan is meant to address … a plan that comes just two years after a school (Genesee Hill) was closed.

The district’s suggestion of adding room for more than 1,000 kids by reopening Boren (5950 Delridge) next year and possibly Hughes (7740 34th SW) later – reported here on Thursday morning – was unpopular with meeting attendees from north West Seattle.

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At tonight’s community meeting in West Seattle about Seattle Public Schools “capacity management” – mostly dealing with overcrowded schools – you are likely to hear about the possibilities that the district is already circulating, to deal with overflowing elementaries on the peninsula. And they include this tentative proposal for West Seattle: Reopen Boren on Delridge (originally a junior high) and “possibly reopen” Hughes in Sunrise Heights (originally an elementary), to handle a projected surplus of up to 1,100 elementary-age students in the next several years.

That might be something of a surprise to those who thought the former Fairmount Park Elementary, closed four years ago, was the most likely building to be reopened. Boren is in its second year of emptiness, after most recently serving as Chief Sealth International High School‘s temporary home for two years, through June 2010; Hughes is in its second year as the leased, renovated home of independent Westside School (WSB sponsor). We contacted West Seattle’s school board rep (and board president) Steve Sundquist for some context, and have also just spoken with administrators at Westside – read on:Read More

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Busy year ahead at West Seattle High School – and some accomplishments already.

That was the bottom line of Tuesday night’s first general meeting of the WSHS PTSA, with more than 30 people in attendance, including, true to the name, parents, teachers, and students.

Administrators too, like second-year principal Ruth Medsker and assistant principal Michael Kelly.

“It feels a lot nicer to be starting the second year and have some systems in place,” Medsker said, declaring that the new school year had opened “smoothly” – thanks in part to the Link Crew program deployed for ninth-graders and upperclassmen mentors (here’s our September story about it). “The ninth graders this year are much more confident, no really ‘lost’ kids, they started the year off well.”

As of Tuesday night, WSHS had 998 students enrolled, according to Medsker. She said that’s even more than the total number of potential high-school students in its “collection area”; Chief Sealth (which had 1247 students as of a week earlier) has a “collection area” potential-student population twice the size of the one available to WSHS. Medsker said they recruited students from outside their region. Activities are booming too – a freshman football team has been added and some of the clubs are “huge.”

She and Kelly noted two numbers have dwindled to almost nothing, and that’s a point of pride too – the number of “kids under the influence at school” was 1, compared to 46 the first month of last year; “violent confrontations” among students have virtually evaporated this year. Medsker also offered praise to her staff, which she says “really does want to engage and do hard work.”

“It feels good,” observed Kelly.

“It does feel good,” Medsker agreed. Her next “coffee chat” for interested parents, by the way, will be November 20th, and they will discuss results of the WSHS “climate survey.”

Many more time-specific events were announced during the meeting:Read More

Just announced by Seattle Public Schools: After two years at Alki Elementary, its principal Clover Codd is taking a new job as director of the district’s Teacher Incentive Fund. Award-winning Denny International Middle School assistant principal Chanda Oatis (right) will become interim principal at Alki in about two weeks. The district is sending a letter home to families; read on for its full text – PLUS, ADDED 7:18 PM TUESDAY – Denny principal Jeff Clark sends word that teacher Artise Burton will be promoted to interim Assistant Principal for Literacy, the position Oatis holds; he too has sent home a letter to families, and it’s added beneath the letter to Alki families:Read More

On Monday morning, West Seattle will again be the backdrop for another citywide-initiative announcement. This time, Mayor McGinn and Seattle Public Schools interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield will be at the new Denny International Middle School to announce “Be Here, Get There,” described as an effort to “incentivize kids to get to school and remind them that every day in school matters.” The announcement is scheduled for 11:30 am. (It’s part of a national campaign, as this MSNBC.com story – spotlighting schools including Chief Sealth International High School – points out.)

Two updates this morning from West Seattle schools:

GATEWOOD IN THE WOODS: Gatewood Elementary principal Rhonda Claytor shares that photo, from before the weather turned cloudy – she says her school “is hosting its first 4th /5th Grade Fall Leadership Camp today at Lincoln Park. In the attached picture, the students are participating in a writing celebration, sharing their first piece of writing this fall with their classmates.”

MADISON READING PROGRAM NEEDS YOU! Not volunteer help – but rather, donations! Stacia the librarian explains:

Greetings, West Seattle community members! My name is Stacia Bell and I am the new librarian at Madison Middle School. I want to let you know about a great new reading program at Madison and how you can help. This year, we are starting up the Bulldogs Read program (modeled after Whitman Middle School’s successful Wildcats Read program), an incentive reading program with the goal being to get more and more kids reading for pleasure. The Bulldogs Read program is made up of 50 new books that students are challenged to read each year that are chosen because they are new publications, they are a diverse mix of books, and they were all nominated for some sort of literary award. Our hope is that each student and staff member at Madison will read at least one of the Bulldogs Read books and will, in the process, increase their love of reading and, in turn, their reading skills.

**Here is how you can help:

Each time a student completes a Bulldogs Read book, they are entered into a drawing for weekly small prizes and monthly grand prizes. I am looking for local businesses or donors who would like to partner with Madison by donating items for our weekly and monthly prize drawings. It could be gift certificates or actual prize items from your store/business. No donation is too small…or too large! You and/or your business would receive publicity on our school web site, you’d be featured on our photo wall of monthly winners, and you’d receive great thank you notes from our monthly winners. If you are a business owner and would be interested in finding out more about how you can support this reading program (or know a business owner that might be interested in donating something), please read the attached letter that explains the program in more detail. Please call (206.252.9152) or e-mail me, Stacia Bell (smbell@seattleschools.org), to discuss your possible donation. Thank you so much for considering partnering with Madison in this special program.

School news? Here’s how to share!

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Just as Seattle Public Schools gets ready to discuss its “capacity management” plan with district families, yet another school has hit capacity – and then some.

Speaking to his school’s PTSA for the first time, new Chief Sealth International High School interim principal Chris Kinsey said the school has 1,247 students (as of just before his appearance last night), while its estimated capacity is about 50 below that.

Because of the extra enrollment, Sealth is scheduled to get up to five more teachers, Kinsey said, but he has to figure out where they would work – since the classrooms are maxed out; he said it may mean teachers must give up their classrooms during prep time. And since now-adjacent Denny International Middle School has almost 800 students, Kinsey noted, the newly colocated campus is school-day home to more than 2,000 students.

His comments, and some Q/A, were part of a wide-ranging meeting on the Sealth side of the campus Galleria last night, as Kinsey revealed that he’s even been doing some teaching as part of his new job, because of the overflow.

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Will Seattle Public Schools reopen schools? Build new ones? Both? Just announced, three community meetings around the city to talk about “capacity management” – including one in West Seattle. From the announcement:

With enrollment trends indicating growth within Seattle Public Schools boundaries, the District implemented a task force of community volunteers and SPS staff, who collected and studied all available data relative to demographics and enrollment. Their work resulted in the decision to create and implement an Intermediate Term Capacity Management plan to cover the period of 2012-2016, prior to building schools as part of the Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) program.

That plan will be explained, and your feedback sought, 6:30-8 pm Thursday, October 6th, at Madison Middle School.

Two and a half weeks after a crowd converged on the new Denny International Middle School for its dedication, you have a chance to tour the school this morning during a community celebration. Guided tours will leave the Galleria – the distinctive structure linking Denny with the renovated Chief Sealth International High School next door – at 10:15, 10:45, and 11:15. Or, just drop by for a quick peek any time during the two-hour open-house event, 10 am-noon. (Remember that Denny’s entrance is on the north side of the campus, off SW Kenyon.)