Where will the new K-5 STEM at Boren eventually find a permanent home? While a recent school-board briefing suggested the district is looking at the former EC Hughes Elementary – now home to Westside School, which is seeking to buy its own site in Arbor Heights – the STEM community has its own ideas, and plans to discuss them at their PTSA meeting next Tuesday night (January 15), 7 pm in the Boren cafeteria. The district’s executive director of southwest region schools, Carmela Dellino, will be there, as will West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren. The STEM PTSA site has more info, here.

Looking for a preschool – or expecting to be in the market for one soon? More than a dozen local preschools are expected to be part of next Monday’s fourth annual West Seattle Preschool Fair, presented by the WS Preschool Association. Its president Renée Metty of The Cove School tells WSB there’s still room to includelocal preschools who aren’t already signed up. Most of those on the list so far are half-day programs, she says, but a few offer before- and after-school care. Tomorrow is the deadline for schools to sign up – e-mail info@westseattlepreschoolassociation.com or call 206-923-2683. As for prospective families – it will be free to attend the fair, and children are welcome, according to Metty. It will be open 5:30 to 7:30 pm on Monday (January 14th) at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, 3050 California SW (just south of West Seattle High School).

(Math teacher Gary Lai with students; photo courtesy Denny International Middle School)
Classes resume tomorrow at Seattle Public Schools campuses, including Denny International Middle School, whose administration shares this report of another Winter Break Academy in the books:

Wednesday, January 2nd through Friday, January 4th Denny International Middle School held its annual Winter Break Academy. Teachers, students, staff, and volunteers spent three days engaged in skill building work in math and literacy. The camp had 68 Dolphin scholars attend.

Denny teachers and staff showed great teamwork, flexibility, and effort as they worked with our students to practice skills in math, reading, and writing. Students practiced math equations and word problems, assessed their reading skills, analyzed different genres of text, and honed their critical thinking skills.

Denny ended the week with 62 scholars being eligible for the field trip to Skate King for having exceptional attendance during the camp. Students worked hard during the week in order to demonstrate their skill level and growth in math and literacy. Denny would like to thank all staff members, volunteers, Community In Schools, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and volunteers for making this a successful academy for our scholars.

SIDE NOTE: While the just-concluded winter break was two weeks as usual, mid-winter break is different for Seattle Public Schools starting this year: It’s a 4 1/2-day break instead of the previous full week; students will get out three hours early on Thursday, February 14th, be off Friday through Monday, then return on Tuesday, February 19th.

We’re reminded that besides “eat, drink, and be merry,” another good holiday exhortation is: Read! Kids from Gatewood Elementary got in that spirit with a brisk stroll to a Morgan Junction coffee shop on Friday; principal Rhonda Claytor shared the photo and report:

Students from Gina Frazzini’s class at Gatewood Elementary had a reading celebration at Starbucks (Friday). The students walked to Starbucks to enjoy a book and a hot cocoa. It was a great way to start a great book for the Winter Break! Thank you, Starbucks!

Yet another reminder – we’ve compiled holiday hours (Christmas Eve/Day and New Year’s Eve/Day) for coffee shops around West Seattle (and a couple in White Center), in case you’re looking for a place to read – or just to get your favorite beverage – see the list here.

(WSB photo of Shauna Heath making an entrance aboard a fire engine at Lafayette’s first assembly of the year)
Seattle Public Schools just announced that another elementary principal from West Seattle is being promoted to management downtown – this time Lafayette Elementary‘s newest principal Shauna Heath, after just a few months. Here is what was sent to Lafayette families late today:

>Dear Lafayette Elementary community:

Today I’m announcing a leadership change at Lafayette. Your principal, Shauna Heath, has been appointed Executive Director for Curriculum and Instruction. In her new role, Ms. Heath will oversee Early Learning, College and Career Readiness and core content areas.

I know Lafayette staff and families went through a principal search process last summer, and I understand it is a hardship to have a leadership change mid-year. But we need Ms. Heath’s leadership to help all of our nearly 50,000 students. Congratulations to Ms. Heath, and I know she will be missed at Lafayette.

Birgit McShane has been appointed interim principal. This is effective Jan. 7, and Ms. Heath will be available to ensure a smooth transition. Ms. McShane is a long-time educator and retired principal. She is a graduate of Seattle Public Schools and spent more than 30 years as an educator in the District – including serving as the principal at Graham Hill Elementary and Daniel Bagley Elementary — before retiring in 2006. She also recently served as interim principal at Leschi Elementary when the principal was on maternity leave.

We will move quickly to form a hiring committee. Carmela Dellino, Executive Director of Schools for West Seattle, will attend the Jan. 17 PTA meeting, along with our Human Resources staff, to gain parent input regarding desired qualities of their principal. We will also meet with Lafayette staff next month.

We will also draft and send out an electronic survey to gather additional input from families. We hope to post the position by Jan. 21. A team of staff and family members will interview candidates, with a first round of interviews completed by the end of February. Our goal is to have someone in place by the end of March.

I recognize that leadership change creates a distraction in the school. But I am confident the Lafayette staff will ensure strong teaching and learning continues during the next several months.

Sincerely,

José Banda

Lafayette is the second local elementary this year to see its principal moved up into district management; Carmela Dellino – mentioned in the memo above – became executive director of Southwest Region schools after serving as Roxhill’s principal until earlier this year. Heath’s predecessor at Lafayette, Jo Lute-Ervin, was there just one school year, as the successor to Virginia Turner, who had led the school for seven years before that. Lafayette is the most populous public elementary in West Seattle, with about 550 students at last count.

P.S. Thank you to the WSB’ers who forwarded this announcement to make sure we had seen it. Meantime, turns out the announcement about Heath is part of a larger districtwide leadership announcement – read on for the superintendent’s memo on that:Read More

6:03 PM: We’re at Seattle Public Schools headquarters right now, where the School Board is meeting for a “work session” on short-term capacity management (crowding relief) – proposals that could affect thousands of West Seattle students and their families (as well as their counterparts throughout the city). This is the formal presentation of the proposals we wrote about last night. These meetings aren’t broadcast, so we’re going to write about it live – when the West Seattle points come up, or citywide points relevant to WS – over the next hour and a half. The slide deck that’ll be shown to the board can be seen here.

Assistant superintendent Pegi McEvoy, leading off the meeting, says that the district has received more than 600 written comments; one of the slides from the presentation summarizes the most-frequent comments, including that Fairmount Park is preferred as a permanent home for K-5 STEM at Boren (the only specific West Seattle school mentioned in the summary of comments).

6:10 PM: The president of the FAC-MAC advisory committee has arrived just in time to explain its recommendations – including, regarding West Seattle issues, more portables for Schmitz Park (before the new BEX-IV-funded school can be built at Genesee Hill), opening Fairmount Park Elementary as a neighborhood school in fall 2014, considering housing K-5 STEM at EC Hughes “when available” (Westside School tells WSB late today that it’s expecting to stay through 2015-16 and has a commitment from the district that it can do so).

She says the Schmitz Park community indicated it would rather have more portables than split off kindergarten to another site (a possibility mentioned at the last work session, for SP and other crowded schools such as West Seattle Elementary).

(Note – extensive discussion is ensuing on the North Seattle recommendations from the committee; there are citywide writers here including Melissa Westbrook from the Seattle Schools Community Forum website who will summarize those points later – we’ll update as West Seattle-relevant discussion ensues.)

6:41 PM: Board members are now hearing about the potential financial impacts of various proposals. If a new “kindergarten center” is opened at Boren, for example, to house kindergartens from other schools, the “operational overhead” would be $322,000. Another issue is whether, as originally planned, interim school-bus transportation to “option schools” (such as West Seattle’s Pathfinder K-8) is ended for some students affected by the Student Assignment Plan implemented two years ago – district staff says ending it would be more expensive than continuing it, because it would increase enrollment at many students’ neighborhood schools, potentially leading to a need for more portables.

TO SEE THE REST OF OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE, CLICK AHEAD:Read More