Chief Sealth IHS students, teacher taking wood-shop class fight to School Board tomorrow

The students fighting to save the wood-shop class at Chief Sealth International High School are taking it to the School Board meeting tomorrow. We’ve heard conflicting reports of the class’s status since last we checked in with various involved parties; the students we first told you about on March 10th told us they planned to speak to the School Board, and tomorrow’s updated agenda shows they’ve secured spots in the public-comment period, which is prescheduled with advance signups. The public-comment list also includes wood-shop teacher Nan Johnson. The program itself is not on the agenda, but its fate is part of an ongoing budgeting process that eventually gets back to the district level. The public-comment period starts at 5:30 pm tomorrow (Wednesday, April 6th) at district HQ in SODO (3rd and Lander).

Lonnie April 5, 2016 (10:04 pm)

Anyone who went to public back in the days when there were these various industrial shops can attest to the real values they gained from these classes which ultimately led to full time employment in a skilled trade. Anyone who follows the current state of skilled trades today knows there is a nation wide shortage epidemic of true skilled tradesmen. There is a very real immediate need for these trade classes. This need has even been stated from some of our highest ranking Navy Admirals in the support of out national defense.

Jetcitymom April 6, 2016 (9:08 am)

ITA, Lonnie. My husband had auto body, auto shop, wood & metal shop at Ingraham high school and he had a great job at Boeing which enabled us to put our kids through college.

He also saves us a ton of money and time by being able to work on our house and vehicles.

Now people dont even know how to change their oil or replace a fan belt on the dryer.

WS Indians for life. April 6, 2016 (8:17 am)

As much as I don’t like Chief Sealth (True West Seattle Grad) to cut wood shop is just ridiculous. It was one of my favorite classes and I learned a lot in that class. In fact I was just doing a wood project this last week and using some of the skills I learned in wood shop. We are seeing kids losing more and more trade skills and before we know it we will have a generation of kid’s that can’t do things on there own.

Stan April 6, 2016 (11:21 am)

This is another reason SPS is failing our students. Why assume all students should fit in the same educational box?? We spend lots of time and money on this Honor’s Program, these Advanced Classes, etc. (which are great for those students who have that focus and perhaps will continue their education after high school) but what about those kids who may not be “interested” in education to that degree. I think there should be programs set up for those students who would like to learn trade skills and perhaps do internships so that they may be employable when they graduate. Why not allow them to feel the same excitement about learning that perhaps what we term a “booksmart” student would feel.

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