West Seattle, Washington
07 Sunday
We have been covering cancellations, changes, delays, closures (and some of what’s OPEN) in our main weather post – but this one needed a separate note too: The Design Review Board meeting that had been scheduled tonight at Madison Middle School for two projects, 4502 42nd SW and The Kenney‘s redevelopment, IS CANCELED per city planner Michael Dorcy. We will let you know when a new date is set.
(THIS WAS THE MORNING POST – CLICK HERE FOR AFTERNOON COVERAGE. From earlier: School closures so far (as of 11:20 am): Seattle Public Schools, Holy Rosary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Hope Lutheran, West Seattle Montessori, Holy Family in White Center, Seattle Lutheran High School, Westside School, West Seattle Christian Preschool, Shorewood Christian, elementaries in Highline Public Schools, South Seattle Community College, elementary on Vashon, all closed. School delays: Vashon middle and high schools, 2 hours late; Highline middle and high schools are 1 hour late)
Finally happened. We’re on live-update watch now. More shortly. No school changes yet; we’re watching schoolreport.org among other places.
5:29 AM UPDATE: Seattle Public Schools are CLOSED for the day. Meteorologist on the radio describes this as a “band of showers.” Driving is dangerous right now since this is fresh, buses too according to a comment that just came in. And we just had THUNDER AND LIGHTNING in Upper Fauntleroy. Holy Rosary School is closed. Our Lady of Guadalupe is closed. Vashon School District, 2 hours late. Highline Public Schools, 1 hour late. (Got a closure? E-mail us at editor@westseattleblog.com or call 206-293-6302)
5:47 AM UPDATE: Just heard a KING 5 producer on the phone on her station say she couldn’t get out of West Seattle via Delridge – undrivable at the moment – reportedly blocked by stuck buses. (We have the live bridge-cam up at the top of this post, also relisting school closures there too as they come in, as well as here in the continuing updates.) Another school delay: South Seattle Community College, 10 am start. Remember we have the bridge cam “live” pic (refresh for latest) atop this post; more West Seattle-relevant cams on our Traffic page. I-5 ramp on that page looks totally white.
5:56 AM UPDATE: Metro has updated its “adverse weather” page with bus routes that are on reroute. See the list here. It includes the 21, 22 (“not operating on 41st SW – ice” says the list), 23, 37, 53, 125, 128 (not entering the SSCC campus for those last two), and many others areawide.
6:03 AM UPDATE: Hope Lutheran School CLOSED for the day. Thanks to Chris for sending this photo of the buses in trouble on Delridge onramp to The Bridge:
West Seattle Montessori just called – CLOSED for the day, added to our running list at the TOP of this post (above the “live” bridge pic). Via Facebook (“friend” us at WS Blog), Talani at Stor-More Self-Storage (WSB sponsor) sends this photo of Avalon from Yancy (that’s the Tillicum Village HQ and gift shop in the background) and says it’s “solid white,” very treacherous:
Scanner says “it’s all turning to ice now … going to assume there will be accidents all over the place.” They can’t even get to accidents that are blocking or involve injuries, “we’re not going to car-in-the-ditch stuff” says dispatcher.
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That’s Molly Gras-Usry, one of two Cooper Elementary parents who spoke to the Seattle School Board Wednesday night during the public-comment period that started the board’s regular meeting. Tonight, Cooper has its own meeting with a district official (7 pm @ Cooper) – but Wednesday, it was a chance to address the board. The other parent to speak was Brittany Abbott, who hadn’t been on the speaker list but got the chance when an Arbor Heights Elementary parent yielded his spot. She too spoke about how, as the theme of the school’s anti-closure campaign goes, Cooper works:
One Arbor Heights parent did speak, April Bolding from the AH PTSA. Though AH is not currently on the list that’s being actively considered for closure, the two-plus-week scare jolted that school’s community into brainstorming ways they could help with the West Seattle South cluster’s capacity imbalance, and that’s what Bolding focused on:
In comments following our as-it-happened report on the board meeting, Paul Dieter pointed out other West Seattleites were there on behalf of another school that was under consideration as a candidate for closure or consolidation, The Center School, a nontraditional high school that leases space in the Center House at Seattle Center. One speaker said 17 percent of TCS students are from West Seattle. (That would be about 50; the school’s website says it has about 300 students.) That school, as it turned out, is involved in the only change that was revealed tonight regarding the proposed closure list — Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson said that changes involving high schools were off the table for now, for at least a year. (The Center School and Rainier Beach High School had been the only high schools mentioned in the process.) That was the only change she announced; other than that, what she announced last week (summary here) stands, including the proposal to close the Cooper “program,” disperse its students, and move Pathfinder K-8 into the Cooper building, closing the old Genesee Hill Elementary building where the alternative school’s long been housed.
Also at the meeting: District watchdog Chris Jackins of West Seattle – who speaks at almost every meeting – again implored the district not to close any schools; district financial boss Don Kennedy recapped his recent budget report, again saying the district may wind up $37 million in the red, depending on what’s in the governor’s budget for education (she announces her budget this afternoon); chief academic officer Carla Santorno explained the “design team” concept that has come up more and more often (including in the superintendent’s radio appearance Tuesday) as the plan for helping students and staffers transition to new schools once the closure plan is finalized – the jargonistic bullet points are in this PDF of her presentation
The last section of the “superintendent’s report” was a long and fine-print-laden presentation by researcher Brad Bernatek. He is crunching numbers on “functional capacity” — which means how many students a school can REALLY hold, not just how many it should THEORETICALLY be able to hold — in a study that started just last month. Some asked at the time, shouldn’t that study have been done before district leadership started declaring some schools underenrolled and some overenrolled? Meantime, Bernatek said the data will all be ready by January 13th, leading board member Harium Martin-Morris to point out – that’s a week AFTER the final recommendations are to come out, how are we supposed to make the decision without the data? Dr. Goodloe-Johnson said there would be lots of time (16 days, to be precise, before the final vote; 9 days before the final public hearing). Again, the entire presentation can be read here.
WHAT’S NEXT: The district-organized meeting at Cooper at 7 pm tonight (listed on this page along with all other remaining community hearings); the announcement of “final recommendations” on January 6; School Board meetings Jan. 7 and 21; final public hearing (for the entire plan as it stands then) January 22; special board meeting to vote on the plan, January 29. Public comment is still being accepted by e-mail at capacity@seattleschools.org and schoolboard@seattleschools.org.
When you hear the phrase “holiday magic,” it’s usually in conjunction with some warm and fuzzy representation of sugarplums, lights, faux snow, and so on. But this Saturday morning at 11 am at the Admiral Theater — which along with presenting sponsor Metropolitan Market is advertising on WSB to get the word out — it’s Holiday Magic and Wonder with professional magician Steffan Soule (photo above) – here’s more info from The Admiral:
The show will connect all ages to genuine astonishment and even Old St. Nick is rumored to magically appear on-stage! Steffan promises; fluttering white doves will appear and disappear, an audience member will be suspended in mid-air, and other magical and mystical feats that will leave families gasping in disbelief.
Specially priced at $6.00 a ticket, the show will also benefit the West Seattle Helpline, which is looking to replenish their school supplies for their Students in Need Program. Executive Director Anna Fern is asking for basic supplies for elementary, middle and high school students such as pencils, notebook paper, crayons, colored pencils for map drawings, scissors, glue and pens. Backpacks are also much needed. After the magic show, there will be a photo opportunity for kids where parents can bring their own cameras to take pictures of their children with Santa for a suggested $1.00 donation, which will also go to the Helpline.
What a fun and inexpensive way to share the magic of the holidays with your whole family. There will be a dollar discount on each ticket with groups over 20. Group tickets must be purchased at the theater.
Online, tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/48103. Tickets also are on sale at the Admiral Theater.
Soule is a seasoned children’s performer as well as an excellent entertainer of adult and corporate audiences. He performed a program of magic and music for children with The Seattle Symphony and has created educational and environmental magic shows that tour the country. He is also a favorite in school educational assemblies and supplies special arts programs to colleges, high schools as well as elementary schools.
For additional information on the 11 am Saturday (12/20) show, go to: steffansoule.com/admiral, or call 206-938-0785.
Yes, we know, ALL things are possible, including hot melted cheese falling from the sky, Elvis knocking on your door trying to sell you new windows, your next holiday card containing a winning ticket for Mega Millions. But really, the latest “forecast discussion” says city snow remains a possibility overnight, and also mentions the word “unsettled” in the same sentence as “Christmas Eve.” Be ready just for the heck of it; our neighbors with the long steep driveway already moved their cars up to level ground just in case.
Footnote: No area school changes announced so far. After today’s ultimately unnecessary closures, you can bet they are waiting till early morning for decisionmaking this time.
The other day, we got word from Hansen View Blockwatch (the neighborhood west of the Camp Long entrance) 
about car prowls, and linked their report to the WSB Crime Watch page since the main page here was completely caught up in weather coverage. Tonight, since weather woes are in a lull, we’re posting here that HVB has sent word of another car-prowling incident, two cars in the 5000 block of 36th (here’s a map; full report is on the HVB website).
We’re at district HQ for tonight’s school board meeting, where speakers during the public-comment period are scheduled to include people on behalf of Cooper Elementary, Pathfinder K-8, and Arbor Heights Elementary, the three West Seattle schools that have been involved in the closure proposals so far. Also, Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is scheduled to present an update on the process; that “update” at the meeting two weeks ago yielded the first official word that the possibility of closing the Cooper “program” was being studied. We’re not going to post minute-by-minute updates of this meeting, since you can watch live on TV (cable channel 23 26 per district staff), but we will post periodic notes about what happens, particularly once the superintendent presents her report.
6:02 PM UPDATE: Meeting has begun; Cheryl Chow is the only board member not here. Standing-room-only group like two weeks ago. (Added post-meeting: We took two photos of the room quickly between the Pledge of Allegiance and the public-comment period – directionally, as the board faces, we were sitting in the front row on the right, to get the seat next to the speakers’ podium for better video, and so had a straight-ahead view of that side, with an angled view of the left side of the room – first photo is right, second photo left.)
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Rain, wind, and rising mercury — nature’s great de-icers. That’s SW Sullivan looking east and uphill from California SW (map); compare that to this view from 25 hours earlier:
Since the weather situation SEEMS to be calming down, we will just keep this one post going for weather-related updates into the afternoon and evening – if by any chance anything snowy/icy does HAPPEN to erupt, we’ll change the plan, but for now we’re tapering down. More to come, as weather-related info arrives.
2:32 PM NOTE: Somebody asked in comments, so what happened to all that snow? As you likely snow, it hit hard in Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom counties. But in the latest forecast discussion (a new one should be out by 4 or so), National Weather Service forecasters are still fairly certain some is heading this way:
AFTER SUNSET…COLDER AIR ALOFT SPREADS IN AS TODAY’S WEATHER SYSTEM
MOVES SOUTH. THIS SHOULD BRING A CHANGEOVER BACK TO SNOW FOR EVERYONE. THE FOCUS OF CONCERN THIS EVENING WILL BE ON A BAND OF SNOW THAT FIRST DEVELOPS OVER THE NORTH SOUND EARLY THIS EVENING. MODELS POINT TO THIS FEATURE UNANIMOUSLY. HEAVY SNOWFALL AMOUNTS ARE LIKELY WITHIN THIS FEATURE…PARTICULARLY IN THE EVERETT AREA AND EAST ALONG THE HIGHWAY 2 CORRIDOR TO THE CASCADES. THIS BAND OF HEAVY SNOW WILL THEN SINK SOUTH INTO KING COUNTY BY LATE EVENING WITH MOST OF THE SEATTLE METRO AREA’S 1 TO 3 INCHES OF ACCUMULATION COMING BETWEEN 7 PM AND 1 AM.
Take it with a grain of, well, rock salt, if you wish, but that’s what they’re saying. Cliff Mass has posted an update too.
5:10 PM UPDATE: Back on commute watch. Very windy now. Still above freezing. We’ll be heading to Sodo shortly for tonight’s School Board meeting (though weather-related updates will also continue here) so we’ll see the commute route in the opposite direction, if anything’s awry along the way. So far all the road bulletins from the state are focusing on the north Sound, where as mentioned earlier, they got smacked this time. The afternoon metro-area forecast includes:
TONIGHT…SNOW SHOWERS…MIXED WITH RAIN SHOWERS EARLY THIS EVENING. SNOW ACCUMULATION 1 TO 3 INCHES. LOWS IN THE MID 20S TO LOWER 30S. SOUTHWEST WIND 10 TO 15 MPH.
THURSDAY…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. AN ADDITIONAL INCH OR SO OF ACCUMULATION POSSIBLE THROUGH MID MORNING. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S. SOUTHWEST WIND TO 10 MPH.
THURSDAY NIGHT…MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS. LOWS 16 TO 23. NORTHWEST WIND TO 10 MPH.
5:50 PM UPDATE: Smooth sailing from West Seattle to Sodo. Haven’t seen people drive that fast in … days. Radio forecasters still saying … well … the city might see a flake, or two, or more. Post a comment if you see one! Here’s where it IS snowing — Las Vegas (photos here) — most Las Vegas airport traffic is being shut down, according to one infostream we’re watching.
In the first four days following the announcement of two “hybrid scenarios” for “replacing” the Alaskan Way Viaduct‘s Central Waterfront “mile in the middle” section, we brought you four expanded reactions/commentaries (all archived here with the rest of our Viaduct coverage). The one that drew the most criticism — in posted comments, anyway — came from West Seattle-residing (entire-city-representing) City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen (read it here). Wondering what he thought about that reaction, and/or why his Viaduct view is what it is? You don’t have to wonder – you can talk to him yourself. According to a note from his office (and he himself has posted this in a comment), “he would like to meet with anyone who would like to discuss this issue in person this Saturday morning. Tom will be at Uptown Espresso, 4301 SW Edmunds (California & Edmunds; here’s a map) between 8:30 – 10:30 am this Saturday, December 20th. He would welcome the opportunity to meet informally to hear people’s comments and recommendations on the viaduct and to exchange views on this important issue or any other Seattle issue of concern.”
Just mentioned this in our ongoing weather-related-coverage post, but wanted to note it separately too, since hundreds of families around West Seattle are affected by the ongoing school-closure process (WSB coverage archived here): We have just reconfirmed with Seattle Public Schools that, even though schools are closed districtwide today, tonight’s School Board meeting, 6 pm at district HQ in Sodo with a closure-process update on the agenda, IS STILL HAPPENING AS SCHEDULED. But district spokesperson Patti Spencer does advise checking the district website (here’s the School Board page) IF weather conditions change significantly later (and we will of course bring you word of any changes here).
Tomorrow night, the Southwest Design Review Board is scheduled to meet at the Madison Middle School library, with two projects to review, including the $150 million redevelopment proposal for The Kenney in Fauntleroy. Design proposals are often made available online before DRB meetings, and we wanted to let you know that the presentation The Kenney will make tomorrow night has just been posted. See it here; it’s shorter than most of these “packets” — six pages, showing five possible configurations of the project – one that The Kenney showed as its “preferred alternative” at the October 23 meeting (WSB coverage here), one that would be “code compliant” (not requiring zoning changes or other “departures”), one that is self-explanatorily titled the “Saving Seaview Alternative” (that’s the historic Kenney building with the cupola), one called the “L3 Perimeter Alternative Plan” (subtitled as “permitting better transition to adjacent single-family structures,” and finally the “December 18 preferred plan” (shown above; tallest structure would be 5 stories, west-east wing in the middle of the campus). Again, you can get a closer look at that, and all five versions, here. The Kenney is on tomorrow night’s agenda at 8 pm, following a 6:30 pm review for 4502 42nd SW (as reported here, with links to the previous review as well as the new presentation). Here’s a map to Madison MS. And you can see all WSB coverage of The Kenney’s redevelopment plan (dating back to our first in-depth preview four months ago) archived here.
(this coverage concluded around 1 pm; click here to go to Wednesday afternoon weather coverage)
The 4 am forecast puts a Winter Weather Advisory into effect until 10 am tomorrow. Who — and where — will see the first flakes? Till they fall, here are some hopefully helpful links:
SchoolReport.org (for Seattle Public Schools status, among others, including Highline and Vashon)
WSB Traffic page with additional cameras/links relevant to West Seattle commuters
City info on snow/ice routes/procedures (including link to plowed-routes map)
County info on snow/ice routes/procedures (including Metro reroutes)
Metro “adverse weather” service status
King County road alerts
Latest forecast
WSDOT trouble spots via Twitter
Washington State Ferries “service bulletins”
Live 911 log for Seattle fire/medic calls
Holy Rosary sent e-mail to say that their school is open and on time.
West Seattle Montessori is open and on time with the possibility of an early dismissal if it starts snowing.
West Seattle Christian Preschool is closed.
The Tilden School is open and on time.
9:12 AM UPDATE: In case you’re at work outside West Seattle now and wondering – no flakes yet. Up north – different story; just saw a snow total report go by on TV – one spot in Skagit County has already had half a foot. Meantime, SDOT has sent an update with a reminder that, as we reported yesterday, you can call in about an iced-over non-arterial:
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) proactively positioned crews around the city this morning, with light snow forecast, ready to respond to snow and ice on major arterial streets if needed. During the day, many crews will proceed with normal street maintenance activities while continuing to carefully monitor roadway conditions. Heavier snowfall is forecast for late this afternoon. A full contingent of crews and snow/ice equipment will be deployed in the field in advance of the evening commute.
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By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
40 speakers, 3 schools, 2 school board members. Those are the numbers from last night’s school-closure public hearing at the Genesee Hill Elementary building that Pathfinder K-8 has called home for almost 15 years. And numbers were the reason the hearing had to happen at all – a $24 million-$37 million budget shortfall faced by Seattle Public Schools, with $3.6 million a year potentially to be saved by shuttering school buildings including the long-deteriorating Genesee Hill. The district’s been proposing closing it for years — without also closing the Pathfinder “program” — so the issue has been, and remains, where does Pathfinder go?
As mentioned over the past couple days, Monday trash (etc.) pickups in West Seattle were postponed because of the icy neighborhood streets – and Seattle Public Utilities said they’d try again today, but if they didn’t make it, just bring everything in till next week. We sent SPU’s Andy Ryan a note earlier asking for an official verdict, and just received this answer:
West Seattle customers that have not been collected by now should bring their containers in. Next Monday, the City will collect all three waste streams – garbage, yard waste, recycle. Customers can set out double their usual waste.
Just in from Tony, and scanner traffic confirms the search:
… SPD currently have containment around the 7700-7800 block of Highland Parkway SW. It appears that there was another robbery in the area. Scanner traffic from the police seems to indicate that the same suspects in several robberies may be involved in this one also. From what I heard the call came out at just before 6:30 for an armed robbery in front of 7789 Highland Parkway. The police arrived very soon after and set up containment to keep the suspects within a specific geographic area. They are described as two males late teens early twenties wearing white bandanas over their face and hoodie type sweatshirts. One of the males had a shot gun. There were a couple of witnesses to the incident and have provided directions lasted traveled. There does not appear to be a car involved. An SPD K9 unit is responding from the north end of Seattle and expects to be on the scene in the next few minutes. It is likely the road closures will be in effect for a little while. At this time I would suggest that people in the area remain inside and make sure their doors are locked.
More as we get it. Regarding those “several robberies” that happened earlier, there were two last Thursday night (discussed on WSB in the context of a helicopter sighting – here’s the post): one at Gas Depot on South Delridge, one at Lucky Seven in White Center; we had asked both investigating agencies to let us know if any surveillance photos were available to show, but hadn’t received any to date. 8:07 PM UPDATE: Per scanner, a K-9 officer lost the scent somewhere on 10th SW so some units have left that part of the scene. 9 PM NOTE: After that, the scanner traffic dwindled to nothing – so there’s no additional information; our original tipster relayed that officers left that area too. Not sure if we will get more information tonight but we will pursue it. WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: This robbery has appeared on the SPD Blotter website, but even less info than we had in this post; we’re checking directly with the Southwest Precinct for any additional details. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: The only additional detail that Lt. Steve Paulsen has is that the suspects are “possibly (2) Hispanic males teens/20’s.” He says “we have a lot of folks citywide working on this” and also working in tandem with King County Sheriff’s Office, since one of the stickups last Thursday was in White Center, but no arrests yet.
It’s the semi-calm before the next storm. This will be the post about what’s happening tonight – launching it here before your editor takes off for tonight’s school-closure hearing on Genesee Hill (see this post for district info on getting there safely) – but Team WSB will continue updating the weather situation throughout the night, and you are a HUGE part of the team; please continue to leave comments not just about road updates, but also what you’re seeing at stores, for example – anybody who’s NOT sold out of salt, say – or if it goes beyond a comment, please e-mail us (editor@westseattleblog.com).
6:53 PM UPDATE: Getting to Genesee Hill, no problem. But drivers are already starting to get (properly) cautious – very slow procession down the California hill through Gatewood toward Morgan Junction.
8:32 PM UPDATE: The National Weather Service’s presentation about upcoming systems, from a briefing today, is online if you want to take a look. Toplines – we may see anywhere from a trace to 5″ tomorrow. Maybe 2″ to 5″ tomorrow night. Sunday system may have more snow than whatever happens tomorrow. But of course, forecasting’s an art, not a science.
9:37 PM UPDATE: Tomorrow night’s Delridge District Council meeting has been canceled, per a note from Ron Angeles, with the expectation of worsening weather. And in fact, the new forecast discussion is out, with this outlook for the region:
PRECIPITATION WILL FIRST REACH THE AREA AROUND MIDNIGHT AND SPREAD SOUTHEAST ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON OVERNIGHT. BY MIDDAY WEDNESDAY THE ENTIRE FORECAST AREA SHOULD BE RECEIVING PRECIPITATION. PRECIPITATION WILL GRADUALLY TAPER OFF FROM NORTH TO SOUTH WEDNESDAY NIGHT AS THE SYSTEM MOVES OFF TO THE SOUTHEAST.
As for how much, they have all bets covered — a trace, to half a foot. So be ready for anything (or nothing). One thing for certain, though, it’s still subfreezing out there, so even so much as a drop of water out of those clouds, and it’s a snowflake. Just noticed while looking for weather radar, a record low was set for the second day in a row – 20, breaking the old record of 24 for this date.
10:30 PM NOTE: So far, the only school delays we’ve heard of for tomorrow are to the south – Highline Public Schools will start 2 hours late (as we posted in the afternoon updates) and Kennedy HS in Burien will start at 10:30. Everyone else seems to be waiting till early morning to decide – forecasters don’t seem to agree when we’ll get that next snow, so that seems to make as much sense as anything.
11:40 PM NOTE: SPU just sent the final word on those postponed trash pickups: Nothing more till next week. Bring ’em in. (A few more details in this separate post.)
Jeanne sent that picture with this:
What’s with this car? It has been stranded since Sunday night on the hill on 37th Ave SW (cross is Alaska) – Fairmount neighborhood. The sanding truck FINALLY came this AM to sand the road, but could only do 1/2 the hill because this car is still there. No one has come for it! Can the police tow it? Or move it at least to the side?!
It’s a blue Kia Spectra, License plate: (starts with 521).
With all the snow that is due to hit us again tomorrow, we need to get this car moved so the sanding truck can get to the rest of this hill! People are trying to navigate around it!
If you are the owner – please come claim your car. You can drive down the hill now!
From Bridgett Chandler, communications boss at Seattle Public Schools, about tonight’s big school-closure hearing at Genesee Hill Elementary/Pathfinder:
The state, county, and city officials who’ve been working on the future of the
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