As of this fall, Madison Middle School no longer will be the only Seattle Public Schools middle school without the Spectrum program for academically gifted students. That’s of great interest to Spectrum-qualified West Seattle students, many of which attend nearby Lafayette Elementary, where a meeting was held Tuesday night to try to answer families’ questions. Photojournalist Matt Durham was there and says about 100 parents heard from West Seattle’s school board rep Steve Sundquist (above) as well as Madison principal Henterson Carlisle (below).

Also at the meeting, the man who runs the district’s Advanced Learning programs, Dr. Robert Vaughan (seated in the background). Matt reports that parents were reminded that if they are interested in having their children attend Madison’s Spectrum program this fall, they must file enrollment paperwork making that choice, even if the students are currently in Spectrum at Lafayette or elsewhere. (That’s explained at the bottom of this page.) P.S. If you have an education topic to take up with Steve Sundquist, his next community-chat gathering is this morning (Wednesday), 11 am, at High Point Library.