West Seattle, Washington
29 Friday
Two updates from Seattle Lutheran High School:
GOODBYE: We managed to photograph the cake for posterity before the RSVP’d crowd of 300-plus all showed up for the retirement reception celebrating Shirley Vradenburgh‘s 32 years at the school:
The Friday night celebration packed the gym where just one week earlier she and other members of the school staff and community had gathered for the graduation of Seattle Lutheran’s Class of 2012 (WSB coverage here). As an enduring tribute to her SLHS work, the Shirley Vradenburgh Scholarship was endowed at this year’s school auction.
HELLO: We learned this week that the school has announced its new principal. Dave Meyer is coming to Seattle Lutheran from Concordia Lutheran School in northeast Seattle. His appointment was announced in a letter to the SLHS school community, in which Meyer was described as “bring(ing) contagious enthusiasm overflowing with vision and a great passion for academic excellence” as well as “a renewed vitality, direction and energy to the school …” He’ll start work over the summer.
On this night when the West Seattle Relay for Life teams are walking all night to raise cancer-fighting funds – they have kindred spirits at Arbor Heights Elementary. Barb Glascock shares photos and news from Thursday’s bake sale:
Arbor Heights Elementary School’s 5th graders hosted a bake sale to raise cancer-research funds for Seattle Children’s Hospital. The bake sale was held during the school’s annual Field Day, and, with the help of all of the children, staff and visiting adults buying treats, the kids raised over $500! It was also “Crazy Hair” day. A check will be delivered to Children’s Hospital next week.
Thanks to Bev Corey – who edits West Seattle High School‘s comprehensive weekly newsletter “Westside Weekly” – for sharing the news that WSHS head baseball coach Velko Vitalich has been honored as the 2012 High School Varsity Coach of the Year by the Northwest Baseball Umpires Association:
The members of the Northwest Baseball Umpires Association recognize Coach Vitalich for his outstanding contributions to the lessons he imparts to his West Seattle High School team and students. Coach Vitalich exemplifies the extension of the classroom to our athletic fields by his consistent and exceptional portrayal of the highest ideals. The West Seattle High School teams and students all benefit from their participation in the opportunities to experience competition, leadership, honor, respect, confidence, teamwork, focus, discipline, humility, pride and determination.
President : Rich Johnson
Director: John Philbeck
Last month, the WSHS varsity team made it all the way to the state tournament. Congrats to the coach for this honor!
(4:41 PM UPDATE: New info added at end of story, from West Seattle’s school-board rep and from the district)
9:38 AM, FIRST REPORT: According to an announcement just made by Seattle Public Schools, the new elementary school will not be the only program housed on the Louisa Boren Building campus at 5950 Delridge Way SW this fall. We reported earlier this week on the impending departure of the alternative Middle College High School – with 70 students enrolled this year – from the South Seattle Community College campus. Now the district has just announced its new location will be portables at Boren, where it hopes the MCHS students may help “mentor” students at the new K-5 STEM at Boren. Here’s the letter that the district’s executive director of West Seattle schools, Aurora Lora, has just sent to Middle College students’ families:Read More
Yet more good news to report today about West Seattle students’ achievements. This came in late last night from Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark:
Congratulations to the Denny Dolphin Math Olympiad team on their first-place finish! Each spring, Seattle Public Schools hosts a Math Olympiad competition with teams representing all of the middle schools and K-8s from across the city. (Thursday), our scholars won the overall first-place award – congratulations to them and their advisor Mr. Lai! Go, Dolphins!
One week from today is the final day of classes for Seattle Public Schools – and last night was our area’s final high-school concert of the year. West Seattle High School‘s musicians took the stage in the WSHS Theater. We have two clips from the concert – above, the band’s rendition of a Green Day song; below, the orchestra’s version of a Coldplay hit:
After teaching at Schmitz Park Elementary for 22 years, Kiki Watson is retiring. The school community wasn’t about to let her go without a celebration, so she was in the spotlight this afternoon. In our photo, she’s holding her big retirement gift: Custom glass the PTA purchased from local artist Bradly Burzynski (a former Schmitz Park dad)! She also received the gift of warm words from families of students and colleagues past and present.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: When this school year began, we covered the first meetings of both the West Seattle High School and Chief Sealth International High School PTSAs; now that it’s ending, we are circling back to cover their final meetings. Here’s our WSHS PTSA report from last week; ahead, our report on Sealth’s final meeting, Tuesday night.)
(Incoming and outgoing CSIHS PTSA presidents: Ted Reed, Amy Daly-Donovan)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Not only did the final Chief Sealth International High School PTSA meeting of 2011-2012 look back and ahead, it also included a presentation of information that no one in attendance could ever have hoped to use – what teens need to know about the law.
But first:
PRINCIPAL’S FIRST-EVER YEAR-END UPDATE: First-year principal Chris Kinsey said he believes Sealth is “on the tipping point of going from good to great … in the coming years we are going to transform what it means to be an urban high school.” A crowded one, at that – enrollment for next year is now projected at 1342, a hundred more than the start of last year, and four portable classrooms will be arriving before next year begins. (9th-grade language arts and history teachers will work in them, according to Kinsey.)
Thanks to Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark for sharing photos from Wednesday night’s third and final spring concert by musicians from Denny and adjacent Chief Sealth International High School. (Above, the Denny Beginning and Junior Band.) He declared the well-attended performance “a resounding success”:
The Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School Band concert was a resounding success this evening! I was very impressed by the 6th graders all the way up to the graduating seniors. Music is thriving at Denny and Sealth. Thank you to Mr. Pimpleton and all of our families–congratulations to all of our scholars!
Three more photos, ahead!Read More
There are actually three public high schools in West Seattle – though one is much smaller than the two you could probably name off the top of your head. It is Middle College High School, based at South Seattle Community College for 15 years, but about to move. Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Teresa Wippel explains that “the college recently informed us that they received two large grants and need to re-occupy the space currently used by Middle College students” – who currently number 70.
Tonight, during their monthly meeting, the 34th District Democrats will be asked to consider a resolution asking SSCC and SPS to work it out for another year. Supporters also have spoken about the situation at school-board meetings; the resolution expresses concern that the program stay in this area, rather than moving to a possible spot east of downtown.
But SPS appears to have found a new home for the school, and it’s in what Wippel describes only as “South Seattle.” She tells WSB, “We have been looking for a new South Seattle location, and will be announcing a move to a new facility in the next few days, after we have had an opportunity to make final arrangements and notify our Middle College families.” She says they’re not expecting any changes to the curriculum for the program, described as “a college prep and dropout prevention program aimed at students who have the ability to go to college but because of life circumstances don’t always see a postsecondary education as an option.” Supporters say that’s been an advantage of having MCHS based at SSCC – the potential to move right into college at a familiar location.
(Photo courtesy SSCC)
Remember our story last week about the Schumacher Racing hydroplane getting paint and refinishing work courtesy of the Automotive Technology program at South Seattle Community College? It’s almost done and tomorrow, you are invited to the event “launching” the hydro. Just in from SSCC:
The public is invited to the “launch” of the No. 37 hydroplane owned by legendary Billy Schumacher as it departs the South Seattle Community College campus at 2 pm, Thursday, June 14. It will be the first time the boat’s 2012 racing season colors and sponsor graphics will be revealed. Owner Billy Schumacher, former driver, will be on hand.
The boat has been housed at the college while Automotive Collision Repair students have given it a complete make-over, including stripping the old paint, and applying the new color and clear coat. At the same time, Heavy Duty Diesel and Automotive Technology students have performed major maintenance on the truck that will tow the No. 37 across the US during the racing season.
The boat is owned by legendary Billy Schumacher (“Billy the Kid”), the former unlimited champion driver who won 17 races from 1967-1976, and is perhaps best known for his unprecedented string of wins with the Miss Bardahl team. Schumacher Racing has paid a shop fee and materials costs for the student project.
The newly-painted and refinished boat will carry the South Seattle Community College name and logo on its side as it competes throughout the U.S. and in Qatar this season.
The automotive program is just south of the north parking lot on campus, accessible from the north entrance at 6000 16th SW on Puget Ridge.
At left is Lafayette Elementary‘s incoming principal Shauna Heath, with assistant principal Karmen Nordhougen. We photographed them toward the start of tonight’s meet-and-greet event for Heath. It was her first official chance to mingle with the school’s community since her hiring was announced three weeks ago (three months after current principal Jo Lute-Ervin had announced she wasn’t coming back for a second year). As Heath told WSB during a followup interview, she is an Admiral resident, looking forward to biking to work, after two years of commuting to Kent to lead an elementary school there. Her letter to the Lafayette community, looking ahead, is in the newest PTA newsletter (viewable as a PDF, here).
Got room? A quick announcement:
Pathfinder K-8 School continues to seek host families for 5th grade students from Chengdu China. The students will arrive on July 3rd and depart on July 14th. During weekdays students will attend a special program at Pathfinder School. Evenings and weekends are free for you to explore our culture with your Chinese students. Students come with their own spending money, insurance and a thirst for American experiences. Please contact Lisa Clayton, lclayton@seattleschools.org, ASAP if you are interested.
As the plan for West Seattle’s new public school K-5 STEM at Boren continues to take shape, its Design Team is meeting to discuss details big and small. One potentially big item came up at the May 29th meeting: Principal Dr. Shannon McKinney‘s suggestion that the school should require uniforms, or have a uniform-like dress code. (Our coverage of that meeting reports the rationale, as well as the opinions voiced that night.) Though no decision was made at that meeting, as planned, the discussion continued at the most recent meeting this week – and Design Team member Robin Graham tells us the team decided to support the recommendation:
With understanding and appreciation of the community’s thoughts on both sides, the design team supports Dr. McKinney with our vision that STEM is a place kids should know they are doing something very important – this is their uniform for learning.
The uniform will go far to increase safety, reduce distractions; communicate to the students, staff, and the community that we are serious about learning at K-5 STEM; increase equality between sexes; reduce teasing between boys and girls; enable teachers to truly “see” the student as a student; encourage students to see beyond external attributes and get to know his/her classmates on the basis of who they are; along with many other reasons.
The uniform to be decided upon will not be something akin to “ties for the boys and only skirts for the girls.” On the contrary, students will be able to wear khaki-colored pants, shorts and/or skirts of appropriate length, along with initially, perhaps a navy blue polo shirt. After the student body and staff have together chosen school colors, a mascot and a name, then more choices will be added to the uniform. All the logistics and the support to families are details that will be addressed.
The Design Team, which includes community, school, and district representatives, is scheduled to meet again at 6:15 pm June 21st at Madison Middle School‘s library. The school’s PTA is in formation, too, and its charter membership meeting is set for 6:30 pm June 27th at the West Seattle (Admiral) branch of the Seattle Public Library (2306 42nd SW). Meantime, the Yahoo! discussion group for enrolled and interested families continues going strong – find it here.
Excitement and maybe a few nerves were evident – as you’d expect! – as the Seattle Lutheran High School Class of 2012 entered the school’s Menashe Family Gymnasium for their graduation ceremony last night. The 43 seniors comprise the school’s 32nd graduating class; Keegan White was this year’s valedictorian; Valerie Reid, the salutatorian. 15 of this year’s graduates qualified for the National Honor Society; this night also represented a milestone for their NHS advisor (among her many other roles), Shirley Vradenburgh, photographed pre-ceremony with SLHS principal Mark Henderson:
She is retiring after 32 years during which, as the school newsletter noted, she has “worked with every student who has graduated from SLHS.” A celebration is planned next week, but on this night, the spotlight was on the students moving to the next phase of their lives. Congratulations to them all!
Madison Middle School‘s Senior Orchestra performed together one last time Thursday night at the school’s second concert of the week, and our first clip begins with music director Clark Bathum‘s explanation preceding Rimsky-Korsakov‘s “Capriccio Espagnol.” (The music begins about a minute and a quarter in.) The concert also featured the Junior Orchestra, Combined Orchestra, and the Jazz Band, which is in our next clip with one of the numbers from their division-winning performance at a recent music festival:
Our coverage from Tuesday night’s concert is here.
Gatewood Elementary principal Rhonda Claytor shared the photo, explaining:
This is a picture of Gatewood Elementary teacher Dana Bogel and fifth-grade student Claire Palmer-Paige, at Camp Warm Beach in Stanwood, conquering the wall challenge. Our 4th and 5th grade students have been at camp since Wednesday and many have challenged themselves to climb the wall, ride horses and row canoes for the first time in their lives. Additionally, they do many cooperative challenges and work together in groups. They also seem to enjoy the food and swimming pool!
Checking out the Gatewood website, we noted other special offerings – including four days this summer that the school library will be open for summer-reading checkout.
West Seattle High School is in celebration mode this afternoon. Principal Ruth Medsker just announced they’ve won a major grant from the city Families and Education Levy:
West Seattle High School was awarded one of five high school Levy grants! We will be receiving $350,000 per year for the next seven years! It was an extremely competitive process and we are very proud of our grant, and the continuing work we will be doing to support students. The funds are from the City Levy. Below is a snapshot of how we will be spending the funds:
*Full time Academic Intervention Specialists to case manage the academic success of all 9th graders teaching 1 Focus class, coordinate University Tutors, manage Mandatory After School Study Halls and Saturday Schools, monitors daily individual student academic progress, collaborates with teachers, participates in AIS and 9th grade team meetings, tracks progress toward meeting Levy Target goals, attends Levy meetings, calls 9th grade families, refers identified students to SIT, collaborates with feeder middle schools for early intervention, coordinates 9th grade MAP testing.
*Fund additional counseling services for our 9th graders to do the following; schedule all 9th graders in appropriate classes, hand schedules Focus students, plan 9th grade Parent Night, track 9th grade attendance, and creates attendance agreements for identified students, participate as a member of the Student Intervention Team, organizes parent/teacher conferences, implements the roll out of ConnectEdu to 9th graders and supplemental curriculum to support College and Career Readiness.
*A half-time Social Worker provided by community partner YMCA. The other half will be shared with our feeder Madison Middle School. He/she supports a caseload of 10-15 students; provides home visits, coordinates care and direct counseling, family parenting classes, screening to support academic success and improved attendance.
*Pay for community partner YMCA to have a full-time Senior Director of Education and Development on-site and integrated into the WSHS community. A $26,000 program budget to provide 2-4 in-school and 8-12 after school enrichment and/or service based activities. Responsible for tracking all 9th graders to ensure they are involved in a minimum of one extracurricular activity during the school year and removing barriers for participation that arise for some students. Priority enrollment for identified 9th graders in “Y” activities will be given.
*Pay for community partner University Tutors to place 15 plus content specific tutors at WSHS in math and science classes and to support Mandatory After School Study Hall and Saturday School.
*Pay for a .2 FTE Academic Interventionist to teach a focus class for re-classified 9th graders. We will use carry forward performance pay from 20011-12 to pay the $20,000 cost.
(Click for larger image; photo by WSB’s Patrick Sand)
Congratulations to Holy Rosary School‘s fifty-six 2012 8th graders, who posed just before their graduation tonight. Thanks to David for the tip – we’ll admit we haven’t historically tracked middle-school ceremonies as consistently as high schools, and spot-checking school calendars, we see we’ve already missed a few (plus, not all middle schools have ceremonies). But we DO have all the high-school (and beyond) dates:
SEATTLE LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL: Friday (June 8), 7:30 pm, school gym
CHIEF SEALTH INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL: June 16, 1 pm, Memorial Stadium
WEST SEATTLE HIGH SCHOOL: June 16, 5 pm, Memorial Stadium
MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL: June 18, 7 pm, Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College
Speaking of which, that’s West Seattle’s lone post-secondary school:
SOUTH SEATTLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE: June 19, 2:30 pm, Benaroya Hall
(Photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick Sand)
Walk through the Automotive Technology area on the north side of South Seattle Community College on Puget Ridge, and you’ll see students like those, hard at work – painting, fixing, building, inspecting, and more. But in the paint bay today, you won’t find a car – you’ll find a hydroplane!
And, as Automotive Collision Repair instructor Steve Ford was quick to point out during our visit, it’s no museum hydro – it’s the U-37 hydro that Schumacher Racing – owned by driving legend Billy Schumacher, who won 17 races in the ’60s and’70s – will bring to Seafair and other races this season. Right now, though, its refinishing and paint job comprise a final exam for his graduating seniors, one of three “teams” he set up (one of the other two teams did prep work like masking and sanding, pre-paint job, while the other worked on fabrication). Here’s everybody we found in the shop this morning – that’s instructor Steve, front and center:
So when you see that 14-foot-wide, 31-foot-long hydro at Seafair this August – where it’ll bear the SSCC name and logo – remember it’s got a little bit of West Seattle! (And yes, as the announcement sent by SSCC communications director Candace Oehler pointed out, the college is being paid for the work.)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
As this school year began, we checked in with both major local public high school’s PTSAs – and as the year ends, we’re circling back.
So on Tuesday night, we sat in on the West Seattle High School PTSA‘s last meeting of the year, eight months after covering its first meeting of the year.
The changing of the guard was among the major items of business – the full officer slate for 2012-2013 is at the end of this story. But the major discussions involved activities sponsored/presented by the PTSA, all successful in their own way, and yet with room for much more participation – particularly Grad Night, the all-night post-graduation party meant to provide both fun and safety.
Congratulations to the recipients of 2012-2013 scholarships announced by the West Seattle High School Alumni Association, whose Tom Friberg shares information about the recipients and the scholarships – seven new and five returning – for a total of $76,500. Read on for details of the scholarships awarded to, and the studies planned by, Christian Carpio, Raymond Carter, Gabriela Flores, Haily Hage, Lauren Jeglum, Tessa Jinneman, Karen Lowe, Nahn Nguyen, Arlene Orbino, Megan Ormsby, Randall Stefanovitch, and Michael Swanson:Read More
Led by music director Clark Bathum, that’s the Madison Middle School Senior Band performing Robert W. Smith‘s ‘Encanto,’ one of the selections from the school’s high-scoring recent trip to the Music in the Parks festival in Idaho. We recorded the video last night during the spring band concert, which also included the Junior Band:
On Thursday night – 7 pm in the Madison Commons – the school’s jazz band and orchestra perform their spring concert; free, and you’re invited.
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