And so it begins

Today’s the day that Seattle Public Schools, and most local private schools, welcome everyone back after a too-short summer (aren’t they always?). Highlights from our online tour of WS public schools:

CHIEF SEALTH HS: It’s the last year before students are scheduled to move temporarily to Boren on Delridge before the Sealth-Denny construction project begins next summer.

WEST SEATTLE HS: Westsiders have a new assistant principal, Jenni Maughan-MacDonald, and Bruce Bivins starts his first year as permanent principal.

SOUTH LAKE HS AT HUGHES: Last year before moving back into a new building.

PATHFINDER K-8: A really nice, admirably comprehensive website.

DENNY MIDDLE SCHOOL: Gotta love the “Big 5.”

MADISON MIDDLE SCHOOL: Nice namesake quote.

ARBOR HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY: 13 years ago, it became one of the first few elementary schools to start a website. (You can see how it evolved over the years in a tour starting from this page.)

ALKI ELEMENTARY: There’s a new principal this year, Joanne Hill.

COOPER ELEMENTARY: Student websites!

GATEWOOD ELEMENTARY: Making progress on the Operation Imagination playground-renovation project.

LAFAYETTE ELEMENTARY: Big progress on their playground project too, which broke ground just as last school year ended. So far, according to a note we got recently from Curtis LaPierre: Irrigated grass playfield, new wall-ball area & new basketball hoops.

HIGHLAND PARK ELEMENTARY: Photo gallery of the back-to-school barbecue 2 weeks ago.

ROXHILL ELEMENTARY: Cathy Thompson is the new principal.

SANISLO ELEMENTARY: A new principal here too — Debbie Nelsen.

SCHMITZ PARK ELEMENTARY: Just got a shoutout in the Seattle Public Schools (unofficial) Blog for its 87% mark in the writing WASL, described as “one of the highest scores in the city.”

WEST SEATTLE ELEMENTARY: How could we forget? New name – the building is the former High Point Elementary; students from the now-closed Fairmount Park Elementary have merged into this school building.

Good luck to everyone in ’07-’08 — and if anything happens at your school that you want everyone in WS to know about (or if you need help from outside the school community), please let us know so we can help get the word out.

Pam September 5, 2007 (6:49 am)

Summer was not too short, at least not in regards to being out of school.
When will the schools switch over to year round school schedule? The months off in summer are antiquated and lose precious time at the beginning of every year to ‘refresh’ stuff from the previous year…

cruiser September 5, 2007 (10:36 am)

Yeah, to hell with all those childhood memories made during the summer months. Lets keep the little tikes in school all year and then we can have a nation of brains who don’t know how what it is to have fun:)

ML September 5, 2007 (10:48 am)

Hear, Hear Crusier. Isn’t slogging year round for the rest of one’s life enough?
There’ll be no year round school for this family.
Precious time, indeed.

Jan September 5, 2007 (10:54 am)

well, whichever way the school year goes, I’ll relate what’s happened in my neighborhood today. I live 1/2 block north of Hiawatha playfield right behind Admiral Safeway. The neighborhood has been inundated with teenagers from the high school since 9:30am this morning…going down the alley, going to Safeway, yelling, screaming, many “F” bombs, etc., etc. This wi9ll not be the only day it happens, just the first of many. We have been graced with graffiti on the back of our apt. building, car prowls, garbage left under the carport at the back of the building, jay-walking (defying you to hit them, not even paying attention to drivers, because , of course, they’re more important). Geez, I sound like my parents – lol. My daughter is only 27 years old, so it wasn’t that long ago that she graduated from Westside, but, I’m starting to believe more and more in the concept of “closed campus”. Annoying on a daily basis is an understatement. I realize that, as with everything, I shouldn’t generalize, but…chiclhood memories? fun? how about education, which is everything if we’re going to have a decent future for this world.

Ok…rant over :)

Chris September 5, 2007 (11:30 am)

I wanted to mention to all West Seattle and Vashon drivers to please, please slow down in school zones. My daughter attends Lafayette and I regularly see cars going down California well in excess of 35 MPH.

Many of the other schools on your list are on major arterials where there are posted school zone limits of 20 MPH. None of you are that important that you can’t slow down for the few blocks as you pass schools during the morning commute.

ML September 5, 2007 (11:46 am)

See, learning doesn’t always take place in school!
Even blogs can be educational ;-)

Flowerpetal September 5, 2007 (12:19 pm)

The first weeks of school strike fear into me. There are parents driving their children (frantically!) to Denny Middle and Chief Sealth High who predictably run the stop sign at 29th and Trenton. I’m reminded of a mom in particular in a huge red Suburban full of kids who breezes through the stop sign crossing an already busy Trenton Ave. It’s miraculous that she has not struck another car or an arriving school bus. I’m holding my breath. Before she moved, one of my neighbors kept a small stack of blankets by her front door as her way of being prepared to administer some first-aid.
Who needs the “education” here?

cruiser September 5, 2007 (1:00 pm)

Jan,

Isn’t that what kids do?? They all think they’re going to live forever,right? Anyway didn’t you notice the high school before you moved in or did it just morph from a rose garden over night?

Jan September 5, 2007 (2:02 pm)

Cruiser, yes, I knew where it was…duh…my ex went there, my daughter went there. I didn’t know that we’re supposed to allow students cutting class to hang out behind our building eating junk, and drinking wine that they’ve stolen, until they throw up next to my car.Or when graffiti shows up on the building that I live in because kids are cutting class. The adage that kids will be kids doesn’t make it with me when these things happen. I don’t care where the school is. This is MY neighborhood, and I’m not here to make their life more comfortable. I respect people around me and their property, and I guess I expect the same of them. Too much to expect? Is that what you’re saying? Are you saying that no one should live near a school unless you’re prepared to put up with whatever?

Cruiser September 5, 2007 (6:21 pm)

Dear Jan,

Take a chill pill,relax.

Ok? Now,I don’t agree with what they may or may not be doing. Did you witness them steal wine? Did you ring the cops? Did you tell the store manager? Did you ring the cops about them cutting class? Did you tell the school? Did you take photos? If, yes well done!! If no then you are putting up with it!!

Jan September 5, 2007 (6:38 pm)

Yes, to all of the above, thank you(except seeing the STEAL the wine – we only saw the empties and the aftermath)…actually, we really nabbed one kid..dummy left some papers behind that had his name on it. I knew the principal..gave him a call. We also had police patrol the area behind the buildings here for a bit, but they have more important things to take care of, so it IS up to us to pay attention.

I realize that today was the first day, that it was registration, that there weren’t really any classes…but..annoying nonetheless.I am not the only one to notice it. Ask the workers at Safeway sometime…for a while they banned students, but they realized that they were losing quite a bit of money, so they caved. Now Safeway just announces that they want everyone at the front of the store when the kids start arriving around 10:40 in the morning..their lunch hour.(hmmm…lunch = cookies and pop – possibly the source of their “boisterousness”?)

I really have no problem with the kids coming to Safeway…I simply don’t shop there then. The noise? well, to each his own, I suppose – I find it annoying as they invide my neighborhood. The garbage they leave behind? not cool.

I don’t blame the school..to a point. I relaize that teenagers have a unique brand of brain damage…I had a teenager not that long ago. I do feel that some of the behavior might be from a lack of parental guidance..kinda hard to fix that.

So…I chilled..OK? :)

Cruiser September 5, 2007 (7:34 pm)

Good woman:) Now go open a nice bottle of red and think about all the silly things you did as a kid!!

No wine for me September 5, 2007 (7:58 pm)

I’m with Jan.

Jan September 5, 2007 (8:29 pm)

Cruiser…is it OK if I open a box of wine? hehe…the world was a different place when I was a kid…I’m not talking 7 year olds…I’m talking 14, 15 year olds…I’m gonna bring some of them to your house ;-)

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