West Seattle, Washington

27 Thursday

46℉

West Seattle schools 5654 results

Tickets on sale for West Seattle High School ‘Taste of the Arts’
March 11, 2013 3:44 pm
|    Comments Off on Tickets on sale for West Seattle High School ‘Taste of the Arts’
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS culture/arts

The West Seattle High School PTSA has just announced that tickets are on sale for the annual “Taste of the Arts” on April 5th. Here’s the announcement sent by Lisa Clark from the WSHS PTSA:

This annual event celebrates the art programs at WSHS; culinary, visual and performing. The evening starts with the culinary art students preparing and serving delicious appetizers as attendees view the visual art (Student photography, ceramics, painting, drawing, and wood shop) on display that has been judged by 4 local artists. The musicians and cast of the spring musical, “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” are present for a short time to mingle before the attendees are escorted to the high school theater for the evening’s 8:00 pm performance. Tickets are $20 advance, $25 at the door, and include appetizers, 2 beverages, and entrance to the spring musical.

The night starts with the tasting and arts viewing, 6-7 pm at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church Hall next to WSHS, and then moves on to the school theater for the spring musical at 8 pm. You can buy tickets right now online – just go here.

P.S. The students’ art will be judged by four well-known local artists: Twilight Artist Collective‘s new owners Tracy Cilona and Christine Heidel; RobRoy Chalmers; and Stephanie Hargrave.

Share This

West Seattle schools: Gatewood Elementary’s ‘Mad Hatter’ auction
March 9, 2013 12:28 pm
|      7 COMMENTS
 |   Gatewood | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(Photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)
Even before we got to the big room with the big party last night at The Hall at Fauntleroy – Gatewood Elementary‘s annual Bids for Kids auction, whose organizers invited us to stop by – the sight above brought us to a full stop: A tree hung with old-fashioned rabbit’s-foot keychains, popular trinkets in the ’60s-’70s. Worked perfectly with the sign, given that the theme was Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, which also meant it was no surprise to spot more than a few hats in the crowd:

Also in keeping with the theme – this Cheshire Cat cake from the “dessert dash,” donated by Melinda Pond:

(Photo by Doug Branch)
Student-made artworks were among the auction items – as was this teacher/student (among others) collaboration:

The card with the puppet theater explained that the Team Lake Union kindergarteners of Nancy Carney and Charlene Higuchi worked on designs and sock puppets for the theater, which was built by Carney’s husband. Congratulations to everybody at Gatewood, including auction chair Ava Barnes and the numerous volunteers it takes to put on this kind of event. (Got a fundraiser coming up at YOUR school? Please let us know!)

Share This

High-school sports: WSHS girls basketball celebrates historic season
March 8, 2013 5:58 am
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

As part of last night’s winter-sports banquet at West Seattle High School, the history-making girls’ basketball program took time to celebrate. We caught up with head coach Sonya Elliott – Metro League Coach of the Year and Star Times Coach of the Year – and her players and coaches:

Read More

Share This

High-school sports: Chief Sealth celebrates its winter season
March 8, 2013 3:18 am
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

Chief Sealth International High School athletic director Sam Reed usually ends each sports season with a detailed recap of the Sealth athletes, coaches, and others’ accomplishments. This morning, we’re presenting his latest recap along with photos taken by WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams at last night’s Sealth winter-sports banquet:

How quickly time flies. As I sat down to work on this season’s recap – something that has become one of my favorite parts of this job – I looked through my files to see that this is my 11th season recap over the past 4 years. And while this season didn’t bring State rankings, divisional championships, or the local media blitz that’s been associated with so many of our recent sports seasons, these recaps remind me what is special about high school athletics. 181 Seahawk student-athletes participated in a winter sport and they did so not because they were promised their name in the paper, a State title, or event recognition by their peers. Instead, they sweated through 14 weeks of practices and games because they valued the camaraderie of their teammates and the bond that comes out in competition.

No team bond might have been stronger this season than that of the swim team.

(Swim team head coach Les Holland)
Led by the ‘12-‘13 Metro League Coach of the Year Les Holland, the CSIHS swim team spent countless early morning hours in the pool, hours which paid off in a big way.

(Sealth swim-team members)
The Seahawks were represented at the 3A State level by junior Michael Stewart, who qualified in both the 100 and 200 freestyle, placing 17th in the state in the 100M. Senior captain Kelsey Hastings capped off an impressive swim career by leading the girls’ team to multiple regular season team wins. This season could well be a stepping stone toward future success, as 23 members of the team were either 9th or 10th graders this year.

3rd year head coach Katie Jo Maris felt confident about the girls basketball team’s odds heading into this past summer.

Read More

Share This

Open enrollment ending; one last round of school tours today
March 7, 2013 4:17 am
|    Comments Off on Open enrollment ending; one last round of school tours today
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Tomorrow (Friday) is the final day of “open enrollment” for Seattle Public Schools, and this morning there are two more pre-deadline tours – Arbor Heights Elementary from 9:15 to 10:15 (3701 SW 104th), Alki Elementary from 9:30 to 10:45 (3010 59th SW).

Share This

Gatewood Elementary decks the halls as Bids for Kids nears
March 7, 2013 2:04 am
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   Gatewood | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Thanks to Gatewood Elementary parent Jennifer Dempsey for a peek inside the school, where the halls are decked in a theme that carries through to a big event Friday night:

The students, teachers, and staff of Gatewood Elementary are celebrating Alice in Wonderland week in preparation of the annual Bids for Kids auction this Friday. Under the fabulous direction of art teacher Rachel Moreau, each class not only created fun Alice-themed decor to decorate our hallways, but also produced an original piece of art to help raise money for our school. The students are dressing up as their favorite characters on the day that they have art class, and the class with the most participation will win a tea party.

P.S. Some of the art projects that will be auctioned off are shown in the photos.

Like these:

If you’re going – the full auction catalog can be previewed online.

Share This

Happening now: College Night open house at SSCC
March 6, 2013 6:16 pm
|      1 COMMENT
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(SSCC photos by Glenn Gauthier)
As previewed in our West Seattle Wednesday roundup – the annual “College Night” open house is under way till 7:30 pm at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) – a chance “for prospective students to explore the programs the school has to offer, meet with faculty, staff, and current students who are on hand to answer questions,” as communications director Kevin Maloney explains it.

Never been to SSCC? It’s at 6000 16th SW on Puget Ridge.

Share This

Hey, Matt Damon! Chief Sealth International High School pledges to join your strike – and invites you here
March 3, 2013 10:27 am
|      14 COMMENTS
 |   Health | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Actor Matt Damon says he’s on strike – and with the video you can watch above, Chief Sealth International High School students say they’re ready to join him. Haven’t heard about his strike? Watch *his* video:

With that recent “news conference,” Damon and his water.org did his best to make sure you know that 2.5 billion people don’t have access to something you likely take for granted – toilets.

Since Damon is looking ahead to World Water Day on March 22nd, and Chief Sealth is too – with their third annual World Water Week full of lessons and events March 18-22 – they’re thinking their suggestion that he come here should be an irresistible invitation, says social-studies teacher and WWW ringleader Noah Zeichner. Especially given their specific focus – sanitation and wastewater. So they’ve submitted their video to his strikewithme.org website, and sent photos like this one and this one to the #strikewithme feed he launched via Instagram. They hope he will come to Sealth to share the stage with Jack Sim, the activist nicknamed “Mr. Toilet,” who is coming all the way from Singapore to be the keynoter for WWW at Sealth (you are invited too), 7 pm March 19th at the school auditorium, admission free.

As Sim points out in this short video profile of Sim, it’s a taboo topic – and that’s killing people, as taboos too often do. So he talks about toilets, and the Sealth students are doing the same, as is Matt Damon. Will he take them up on their invitation? Stay tuned!

(P.S. A fundraiser continues, to help foot the bill for World Water Week costs and the 9th-grade WEST Project – check it out here.)

Share This

The holiday gifts that keep giving: Holy Rosary Tree Lot donations presented
March 1, 2013 1:16 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

One final round of holiday giving, last night at Holy Rosary School – the Parents Club presented three local nonprofits with checks for donations from last year’s Holy Rosary Tree Lot. More than $2,000 each went to the West Seattle Food Bank (represented by Fran Yeatts) and the Salvation Army’s family shelter Hickman House (represented by Janet Sanders) as well as the West Seattle Helpline. The Tree Lot is an all-volunteer operation that traditionally gives a share of the proceeds to community charities.

Last night’s Parents Club meeting also included a discussion of LEGO Robotics:

The school’s annual auction, this year with the Kentucky Derby as its theme, is coming up April 20th.

Share This

College celebration: SSCC reception for Honor Roll students
February 27, 2013 11:43 pm
|    Comments Off on College celebration: SSCC reception for Honor Roll students
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

(SSCC photos by Glenn Gauthier)
Big party at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) on Tuesday afternoon – the Fall Quarter Honor Roll Reception, with students inviting family and friends to help them celebrate their achievement. SSCC faculty and other staff joined the party too – SSCC president Gary Oertli (below, center) was part of a receiving line congratulating students at the reception’s end:

For fall quarter, 161 students were on the President’s list, 743 students on the Dean’s list.

Share This

Meet the new neighbors: Westside School announces community meetings at future Arbor Heights site
February 26, 2013 11:02 am
|    Comments Off on Meet the new neighbors: Westside School announces community meetings at future Arbor Heights site
 |   Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

When we first reported in November that Westside School (WSB sponsor) is seeking to buy the Hillcrest Presbyterian Church site as its permanent home, Westside leadership promised to schedule a meeting with its prospective new neighbors in Arbor Heights. They now have plans for two. From a flyer that’s just been circulated in AH:

Westside School is planning to move to the Hillcrest Church facility in the Arbor Heights neighborhood, and we would like to share our vision and plans and hear your feedback.

Open House #1: Saturday, March 9th, 10 AM-11 AM, Hillcrest Church, 10404 34th Avenue SW [map]
Open House #2: Tuesday, March 12th, 7 PM-8 PM, Hillcrest Church, 10404 34th Avenue SW

You can see the flyer in its entirety here. Westside is in its third year of leasing the former EC Hughes Elementary campus in Sunrise Heights; Seattle Public Schools has not yet decided how to use that school after Westside vacates. Westside, meantime, has said it plans to renovate the church’s structures rather than demolish them.

Share This

Chief Sealth IHS gets post-Oscars visit from ‘Argo’ inspiration
February 25, 2013 9:05 pm
|      9 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

The day after “Argo” won the Oscar for Best Picture, one of the six “house guests” whose story it tells was in West Seattle, visiting Chief Sealth International High School, at the invitation of teacher Patrice De La Ossa, Ph.D., who shares photos and a report:

“Argo,” anyone? Mark Lijek, one of the real house guests from “Argo,” visited the IB World History Seniors at Chief Sealth International High School today for Q&A after viewing the film last week. Dr. De La Ossa reached out to Mark Lijek, who resides in Washington, and got lucky!

But today, so did her students. Mark met with the seniors and told his personal story, then answered questions from the curious seniors about his ordeal, his continued career in Foreign Services, and how he felt about the film, which just won Best Picture.

Mark Lijek and his wife Cora Amburn-Lijek live in the Skagit County city of Anacortes. Our partners at The Seattle Times told their story last fall, a few weeks after they were flown to the “Argo” premiere in Hollywood. In 1979, when they were embassy employees in Tehran at the time of the hostage crisis, the two were in their mid-20s and had been married four years.

Share This

Tablet to basket, Roxhill Elementary’s PE specialist teaching with tech
February 25, 2013 7:38 pm
|      11 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS & Sports

Photos by Nick Adams for WSB

Roxhill Elementary PE teacher Chellie LaFayette and her students are getting national attention for unique teaching/learning techniques, and a round of one-handed basketball today was part of it.

It takes practice, as Adam Mendoza learned:

A recent New York Times story pointed to Roxhill as a school where PE class had integrated other forms of learning – like computers, with an iPad helping demonstrate the throwing technique today:

Read More

Share This

Congratulations! Local students’ success at jazz festival
February 25, 2013 9:52 am
|    Comments Off on Congratulations! Local students’ success at jazz festival
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools | WS culture/arts

Dozens of young local musicians are back from a big weekend. Ethan Thomas from West Seattle High School‘s music department reports on achievements by students from 3 local schools:

The West Seattle High School, Chief Sealth International High School, and Denny Middle School Jazz Ensembles traveled together over the weekend to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho. The bands had an opportunity to perform and receive feedback from adjudicators, attend workshops and evening concerts by such internationally acclaimed musicians as Maceo Parker, Jeff Hamilton, Regina Carter, Take 6 and the Lionel Hampton Big Band. Three students from our group (Annabel Foucault from WSHS on bass, Cameron Nakatani from CSIHS and Ben Orlin from Denny IMS on trumpet) received honorable mention recognition for their performance. All three groups (WSHS under the direction of Ethan Thomas; CSIHS and Denny under the direction of Marcus Pimpleton) performed very well.

Congratulations to all!

Share This

Something to say about Seattle Public Schools? Survey ends soon
February 24, 2013 11:53 am
|      4 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Seattle Public Schools‘ current five-year strategic plan “Excellence for All” expires this year, and the district is working on a new one. An online survey that’s part of the process is ending in a few days, and the district is asking feedback from everyone – “families, students, staff, and members of the community” included, according to a reminder recently sent. It’s a quick survey, the district promises, and it starts here. Find more background – and links to take the survey in more languages – here. This Wednesday (February 27th) is the deadline.

Share This

Schmitz Park Elementary hosts first West Seattle Chess Tournament
February 23, 2013 8:14 pm
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

The Schmitz Park Elementary gym hosted a tournament all day – but its standard equipment, the hoops and climbing wall, went unused: This was the first-ever West Seattle Chess Tournament, as announced here a month ago. All day long during the five-round tournament with students from around the city – not just SP – young players faced off (our photos were taken just before a round), then waited for their next opponents to be posted, while the room was set up again:

Parents took photos and judges kept watch.

As the day progressed, trophies awaited:

The tournament was presented by the educational Chess Mates Foundation, led by chess champion/International Master Georgi Orlov, whose organization is working on something that has people excited for next year, when for the first time, the Washington State Elementary Chess Championships will be held in Seattle in 2014 (a website is in the works here). That event’s project manager Ryan Schmierer talked with us on the sidelines of today’s event and told us it hasn’t been held in Seattle before because of venue size challenges – but it’s set now for the relatively new Seattle cruise terminal at Magnolia’s Smith Cove.

Share This

West Seattle schools: Arbor Heights’ Global Reading Challenge day
February 23, 2013 8:50 am
|      3 COMMENTS
 |   Arbor Heights | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Meet the 7 Pirate Pandas – from left, Max, Ethan, Jonathan, Marcel, Lucas, Max. They are the winning Global Reading Challenge team from Arbor Heights Elementary after competition on Friday afternoon. Ten teams of 4th and 5th graders started the afternoon, answered questions about the 10 books that had to be read by this year’s competitors — and the Pirate Pandas, all 4th graders in Ms. Boitano’s class (per a parent volunteer who shared info and the photo), emerged victorious. The GRC is a Seattle Public Library-led program, and seven West Seattle elementaries are among the contenders again this year. The semi-finals are at the downtown library the week of March 11th, and then the finalists face off there on March 26th.

Share This

‘100th day of school’ food drives: West Seattle Food Bank’s thanks, plus Schmitz Park, Alki, STEM results
February 22, 2013 12:33 pm
|      8 COMMENTS
 |   How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

We photographed that big pile of donated food this morning at the West Seattle Food Bank – just part of what’s been brought in as part of the “100th day of school” food drives at several local schools, with more on the way. Marveling at what the local schools accomplished so that WS Food Bank could help its clients, operations director Steven Curry told WSB, “This drive could provide us with the largest food buffer we have ever had at this time, (during the) usual lull in giving after the holidays. What a fantastic story on how something so simple communicated to a community, listening and caring, will serve so many people.”

He says the donated food in the photo is from Schmitz Park and Alki Elementaries – both of whom, in fact, sent in their reports overnight. First, from Schmitz Park, kindergarten teacher Mandy Cook reports:

Schmitz Park Elementary totaled in at 1,193 food items!!! The West Seattle Food bank had to come back and collect overflowing barrels 4 times! Staff and students had fun collecting, competing and tallying by classroom. Thanks again for the wonderful opportunity Arbor Heights. Count us in for next year!

And from Alki, fourth-grade teacher Anna Coghill reports:

Alki Elementary is happy to report we collected 1,319 items for the West Seattle Food Bank. Thank you for the inspiration Arbor Heights students and teachers. It was a great success.

That’s a reference, of course, to AH teacher Marcia Ingerslev and her class, which issued the original challenge to other schools/classes in the area. We reported their results (4 AH classes in all) here; Gatewood Elementary here: Holy Rosary School here; Cometa Playschool here. Still awaiting at least one more report. Congratulations to all!

ADDED 5:53 PM: Robin Graham from the West Seattle STEM PTA reports their donation is part of what you see in our photo from the food bank:

STEM dropped off our food Thursday afternoon … At least 200 items donated from the families at STEM. Thanks, Arbor Heights, for the great idea – we would love to do it again next year!

And from Arbor Heights, Marcia Ingerslev shared a photo of her visit to the White Center Food Bank:

She explains in the comment section below – and expresses her pride at everyone’s contribution, too.

Share This

From the original ‘100th day of school’ food drive: 500+ items from Arbor Heights!
February 21, 2013 3:51 pm
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

As we’ve noted in previous coverage, the “100th day of school food drive challenge” originated at Arbor Heights Elementary – where teacher Marcia Ingerslev just shared photos and this report on what they collected for the West Seattle Food Bank:

We collected 501 items of food. Rooms 16 (Ingerslev), 12 (Salter), 10 (Fisk), and 24 (Kennewick) participated. Thank you to everyone who participated. We will have to do this again next year. Maybe we can benefit the White Center Food Bank.

Here are just some of the students who took part at AH:

Even if you/your school didn’t participate, you can help local food banks any time – there’s information about how to donate money and/or food on the websites of both – westseattlefoodbank.org and whitecenterfoodbank.org.

Share This

‘100th day of school’ food drive: Gatewood Elementary results
February 21, 2013 1:03 pm
|      5 COMMENTS
 |   How to help | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

More results from the “100th Day of School Food Drive Challenge” started by Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Marcia Ingerslev and picked up by several other schools/classes in West Seattle! Jennifer Dempsey shares the photo with this report:

Ms. Schwendeman’s first-grade class at Gatewood Elementary collected over 100 items for the food bank and will be taking a field trip to deliver them soon.

We’ve also published reports from Cometa Playschool (here) and Holy Rosary School (here). Anybody else! editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!

Share This

‘100th day of school’ food drive: Cometa Playschool’s results
February 20, 2013 1:07 pm
|      7 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

The photo is from Manuela Slye of Cometa Playschool, one of the local schools that responded to the “collect 100 food items by the 100th day of school” challenge from Arbor Heights Elementary teacher Marcia Ingerslev and her students. (First report was from Holy Rosary School, whose “100th day” arrived earlier. Anyone else with results to report today? Please let us know!)

Share This

West Seattle schools: From Madison to Microsoft, high-tech field trip
February 19, 2013 9:38 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle schools: From Madison to Microsoft, high-tech field trip
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Madison Middle School counselor Lauren Divina shares the photos with news of a recent high-tech field trip:

We had another group of girls on an IGNITE field trip to Microsoft on Feb. 8, this time doing ROBOTICS (Learning with Robotics) conducted by Technically Learning and IGNITE. They were taught how to build and program a robot and again introduced them to professional women with fulfilling careers in STEM fields. Technically Learning is a Seattle-based non-profit organization that enables teachers to inspire and engage students in science, technology, engineering and math.

We hope that activities like this allows students to realize that learning and school can be creative and fun.

Opportunities like this hopefully advances their science knowledge and that along with skills development, they may think more critically, make better life decisions through more informed choices, and work more creatively and collaboratively.

SIDE NOTE #1: Microsoft, by the way, was one of many companies represented at Madison’s recent Career Day (as was WSB!), where dozens of professionals came to the school to talk about what they do. It was a terrific morning, and we especially appreciated the chance to answer students’ insightful questions about West Seattle news and how we cover it.

SIDE NOTE #2: Madison’s evening open house/tour event for prospective families is coming up this Thursday, 6:30-8 pm.

Share This

West Seattle schools: Sanislo Elementary celebrates books
February 19, 2013 5:58 am
|      2 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Just before the 4 1/2-day midwinter break that ends today, Sanislo Elementary celebrated books and reading in a big way. Above, school librarian Craig Seasholes shows us books that were part of a donation from Westwood Village Barnes and Noble – given last Thursday by Sanislo students to their classmates as part of “International Book Giving Day.” It was also Global Reading Challenge day for teams of Sanislo 4th-5th graders:

Beatriz Pascual-Wallace from the South Park branch of the Seattle Public Library, which presents the “quiz bowl”-style GRC, presided as judge as teams answered questions about this year’s 10 books. Team names are among the fun aspects of the Global Reading Challenge – here are the Enchanted Flaming Shadow Pigs:

We’ll be checking today to see who won. Sanislo is one of seven West Seattle elementary schools participating in the Global Reading Challenge again this year, according to the list on the SPL website. The citywide semifinals are the week of March 11th, and the citywide final – always an exciting event in a packed auditorium at the Central Library downtown – is set for 7 pm March 26th.

Share This