West Seattle, Washington
03 Sunday
Thanks to David Hutchinson for that sunset view from Don Armeni. Next, thanks to Eric Baer for gathering and sending photos from the Pathfinder K-8 “Rethinking Thanksgiving” event last night, a potluck attended by more than 200 members of the school community, and their invited guests, members of the Duwamish Tribe, welcomed with the kindergarten classes’ “famous tree dance and song”:
(Pathfinder photos by Alexander Cooley)
Teachers of the 2nd and 3rd grades gifted a button blanket to the Duwamish — whose longtime elected chair, the Honorable Cecile Hansen, is at right — for their new longhouse in West Seattle (which is to be dedicated soon). Each classroom has a clan animal represented on the blanket – Spider, Frog, and Owl:
As we’ll see at a meeting less than one hour away, the proposal to basically vaporize what is now known as Arbor Heights Elementary – except for its building – is wrenching for that close-knit school community. But the school community that district management wants to move into that building, Pathfinder K-8, isn’t exactly throwing a party. The years-old Pathfinder building dilemma (shown above, the portables they repainted this summer) has thrust them into myriad difficult situations. Knowing that, and knowing how hard they too have worked on their school community, we asked: “What’s your position about the new proposal?” starting even as unofficial word leaked out before Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s formal presentation a week ago tonight. They thought a while before crafting this statement, and we wanted to bring it to you in its entirety, sent to us by Pathfinder PTSA leadership:
The question has been repeatedly asked: “What does Pathfinder K-8 think of the preliminary recommendation to move its program into the Arbor Heights Elementary building?”
This is a tough question to answer. The Pathfinder K-8 community is extremely grateful that in these challenging times the District supports keeping our program open and intact. This is clearly the most important thing to us. That stated, the community is more than disheartened, once again, to be put in the position where advocating for our program directly puts other schools and programs at risk.
Pathfinder K-8 is a vital part of public education in West Seattle. It is the only Alternative School and only K-8 in the region. It provides an important and necessary option for the many non-traditional learners in our community as well as a unique, quality education for families and kids seeking a more exploratory and holistic public education experience.
For the last 4 years we have surveyed prospective parents during enrollment tours to discover their thoughts about what we offer. Overwhelmingly, the majority of survey respondents rate our programs, curriculum, and teachers highly and rate our building very low. Our facility poses a large obstacle for families to overcome when choosing Pathfinder K-8 for their children. In a building with a sound structure that is appropriate for our program, our ability to better serve all of West Seattle increases dramatically.
As a bit of history, Pathfinder K-8 has now been on the receiving end of 5 preliminary recommendations, in the last four years, to move our program to a different building. This comes after a district-mandated change from a K-5 to a K-8 school in 1999, with little additional funding to provide for an upgrade in facilities. Our upper grades, 6th through 8th, have been in portables ever since. Despite this challenging situation, the staff and community persevered and today we have strong and cherished upper grades.
There is a detailed timeline and background information on Pathfinder’s facilities issues available on our website (here’s that link). Please take a look at it so you can understand the situation in detail. Suffice it to say that Pathfinder K-8 has a history of receiving preliminary recommendations that are reasonable for its program and address its facility issue, but come with the heavy burden of causing pain to other parts of our shared community. It has always been an extremely difficult, painful and energy-draining situation to be placed in. It is also true in the last 4 years that reasonable preliminary recommendations have turned into less desirable final recommendations that our community could not support.
Last spring and summer, questioning that a suitable building for our program would be found, built or otherwise manifested and, not willing to wait for another BEX levy, the Pathfinder K-8 community rolled up its sleeves to do what it could for its kids and community. Volunteers spent over 1,000 hours in 5 months, weekends and summer break with brushes and ladders, painting its 6 double portables. Thousands of dollars of paint and supplies were donated by the community. The staff hand-painted a new sign for the portables and the eighth grade students began the work of reclaiming planting beds.
So, what is Pathfinder K-8’s response to the recommendation that our program move into the Arbor Heights building? We struggle with what it should be. We ask the community to understand how difficult it is to answer this. In light of our past experience, how can we ensure the safety and integrity of our program, defend the need for high quality schools for all children in West Seattle, and still meet the goals and constraints set forth by the Seattle School District?While there are certainly many possibilities, the ones that meet everyone’s needs are not as easy to find. The School Board has indicated that they are interested in hearing ideas and creative approaches, as are we. It is unfortunate that, due to the current state of our School District, none of the likely scenarios are easy or painless for any of the schools involved. Still, we are committed to enduring this process and working through the appropriate channels to find resolution.
The link detailing Pathfinder’s history also is new (here it is again); we had inquired about that as well, wondering how long they had been in this “temporary” building. A week from tonight, 6:45 pm December 9th, the Pathfinder community plans to meet and talk about the relocation proposal; a week after that, 6:30 pm December 16th, the district will have its legally mandated public hearing at the Pathfinder building (Genesee Hill). But before all that, the School Board meets downtown tomorrow night for the first time since the special meeting last week, 6 pm, district HQ in Sodo.
Following up on our live updates from last night’s 4-hour-plus School Board session where school closures and changes were officially proposed, here are the toplines/bottom lines on West Seattle effects, and what happens next:
-Ex-Genesee Hill Elementary building (map; photo right) proposed for closure
–Pathfinder K-8 proposed to move out of Genesee Hill, into Arbor Heights Elementary building (map; photo above)
-Arbor Heights Elementary would cease to exist as a “program”
-Arbor Heights’ current “regular” students would be dispersed among other West Seattle South cluster elementary schools (list)
-Arbor Heights’ current “special-ed” students would stay and become part of the Pathfinder K-8 “program”
-West Seattle students in the Advanced Placement Program (APP) would be assigned to Hawthorne Elementary (map), tabbed as one of two new homes for APP elementary students, who till now have all been housed together at Lowell (that building is to close) – this affects more than 50 West Seattle students (thanks to Molly for forwarding district documents that show how many West Seattle students from each “reference area” attend schools outside their “area,” including Lowell – here’s the WS north version, here’s the WS south version)
DETAILED INFO
All the presentations from the Tuesday night meeting are linked from this page (look under the Nov. 25 meeting header); for supplementary info, here’s Genesee Hill building history and Arbor Heights building history; Arbor Heights has set up a Save Arbor Heights site; before last night’s meeting, we published some background on the last round of school closure proposals, meetings, protests., etc.
NEXT STEPS
HOW TO COMMENT ON THE PROPOSALS: Various options all detailed here (including an e-mail announcement list you can sign up for)
TODAY: West Seattle’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist invites one and all to his monthly coffee chat at Coffee to a Tea with Sugar this morning, 9 am, in The Junction (map).
NEXT WEEK: First School Board meeting post-announcements, 6 pm Wednesday @ district HQ
AFTER THAT: The timeline remains the same as the one the district outlined previously:
□ December 4 – Community Meeting, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., John Stanford Center, 2445 3rd Avenue South
□ December 6 – Community Meeting, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Way
□ December 15, 16, 18 –Public hearings at buildings proposed for closure
□ Tuesday, January 6 –Final recommendation announced by Superintendent
□ Wednesday, January 7 –Board meeting: Capacity management motion introduced
□ Wednesday, January 21 –Board meeting
□ Thursday, January 22 –Final public hearing
□ Thursday, January 29 –Special board meeting (final vote)
Note that the 12/15-12/18 hearings will be at the BUILDINGS proposed for closure – so Genesee Hill will get one, though Arbor Heights, as a PROGRAM proposed for closure, apparently will not. The dates for those hearings are not yet set – we will publish that information as soon as it’s available.
Looking ahead to the official announcement of the school-closure (and probably, consolidation, moving, etc.) plan at 6 pm tonight (district HQ in Sodo), some background: It’s been two years since the previous closure process hit its low point, an ugly ruckus during a board meeting in October 2006. Before that, the most controversial West Seattle aspect of the fall 2006 proposal was a plan for Pathfinder K-8 to move out of the ex-Genesee Hill Elementary and “merge” into the Cooper Elementary building in Pigeon Point; Roxhill Elementary was also proposed for closure; earlier in the process, there had been an even-more controversial proposal to move Pathfinder to Boren (where Chief Sealth is temporarily headquartered now). When all was said and done some weeks later, Pathfinder and Cooper kept their status quos — even though all agree the Genesee Hill building is in sorry shape — and ultimately, the Fairmount Park Elementary building was closed, with that school’s “program” merging into the underenrolled then-High Point Elementary, since renamed West Seattle Elementary. We’re heading out shortly to district HQ and will start up the “live” post once we’re settled in there. Another place to watch in addition to WSB is the always-excellent Seattle Public Schools Community blog (which started up during the 2006 closures process, at saveseattleschools.blogspot.com).
Two of your West Seattle neighbors have e-mailed to let you know what happened when burglars targeted them – one in Arbor Heights, one on Genesee Hill. Sometimes, the Crime Watch reader reports we get are simple and emotionless, but not these two:Read More
Out of the WSB inbox, from Karen:
I wanted to report that our car was broken into overnight near the corner of 46th and Genesee (map). They took the change, emergency road kit and tire chains. This is the 6th time that car has been broken into at that location over the past few years. Nothing of much value has every been stolen but it is a nuisance and, just like tagging, increases if left unchecked. I would remind everyone to report any crime no matter how small. It allows the police to track activity and will increase patrols in effected areas.
MYSTERY HELICOPTER: Received more than a few notes about this earlier this evening (thank you!) but couldn’t find anything obvious via scanner or in person. Anybody who can solve the mystery of what a chopper was doing over eastern West Seattle – Triangle, Fairmount, possibly Pigeon Point – in the 7 pm hour, please share. (10:16 pm: Nancy e-mails to say that from past experience, it might have been a chopper covering sports at WS Stadium; not WSHS football since they were at Ingraham — 33 to 6 win for the Wildcats, by the way, congrats, and they’re in Game of the Week running for next week! – but schedules reveal Seattle Prep played O’Dea tonight at WS Stadium.)
DOOR-TO-DOOR ALERT: This quick note from Todd in the California/Charlestown (map) area:
Just a note to alert the area that those pushy magazine salespeople (who ignore or can’t read ‘no soliciting’ signs) are at work on the Admiral / Gen. Hill line.
ONE MORE NOTE: Just got word from Carol Viger that the West Seattle High School Grad Night fundraiser car wash planned for tomorrow is off. We’ll let you know when it’s rescheduled.
If anyone has info that this is a legitimate door-to-door survey, it would be nice to hear … otherwise we would agree with Karma, who sent us the report, that the line of questioning is potentially unsettling:Read More
Five days after we first told you about the poisoning of Coco the dog in her 47th/Genesee yard (map), owner Kate now reports Coco’s “back to normal.” She also has received an update on the case from Seattle Animal Shelter investigator Katherine Rich, regarding the reports of other area poisonings, and wanted to share what Rich e-mailed her, excerpted as follows:
I personally have taken 4 calls reporting poisonings in West Seattle. I know the dispatcher has also taken several calls. So far most of the reports pertain to fairly old cases (3-5 years old) and will be hard to follow up on. We are however questioning everyone that calls in and doing our best to follow up with what information is given. I am also waiting on some vet records in these older cases to see what the notes hold.
Kate says SAS is still interested in hearing from anyone else in West Seattle whose dog was poisoned – Rich’s number is 206.386.7387.
That’s Coco the dog, wearing bandages where she needed IV treatment for medications and fluids after an apparent poisoning right in her own yard in the 47th/Genesee vicinity (here’s a map). We first heard from Coco’s owner Kate K very early this morning, and then a followup after they visited the vet – she’s also put up flyers to get the word out (we just got e-mail about one of them) – here’s her story:Read More
The portables at Pathfinder K-8 on Genesee Hill used to look like this:
Then after a big painting party a few months ago, most of them had a more colorful facade, as you can see in the background of this photo:
But there’s still work to do, and Eric Baer sends work that volunteers including a corps from Seattle Works will be getting the job done at Pathfinder 10 am-2 pm today. Since we’re walking in the parade to pay tribute to local volunteers, hats off to them and everybody else who makes West Seattle a spectacular place to live.
Never mind the clouds and mist and drizzle, Pathfinder K-8 students were out walking laps this morning on their Genesee Hill campus to show support for PE teacher Lou Cutler (left) as he celebrates his birthday the same way he does every year – doing those laps to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps grant wishes for kids with life-threatening illnesses. He does one lap for every year he’s been alive – that’s 57 this year, about 10 miles! This year’s run is also a tribute to 9-year-old Maddy Murakami, a West Seattle girl who died in April; Pathfinder PTSA co-president Eric Baer says, “Lou worked with her and managed to get her wish granted – she wanted to meet Ashley of High School Musical.” We’ll share the results of today’s walk – past editions have raised thousands of dollars for Make-A-Wish — when we get the word from Pathfinder.
(photo by Akemi Hart)
That’s Princess-Nyosha McWilliams, a Pathfinder K-8 eighth grader (and future Chief Sealth High School student) wearing a special city-provided jacket that’s part of a big honor she just won – here’s the full story, sent by Eric Baer, co-president of the Pathfinder PTSA:Read More
Daily through June 23, you can visit The Mount to see its annual Intergenerational Art Show, with works on display (and offered for sale) in the first-floor hallway. The artists are not only the kids of The Mount’s Intergenerational Learning Center, but also some of the facility’s residents too. Meantime, students at two West Seattle schools showed off their artistic talents last night — we’ve got a few photos ahead:Read More
Thanks to those who’ve texted us in the past few minutes about a big police presence with roadblocks just west of The Junction – described by one text as Genesee between 45th and 49th and Alaska, by another as 47th to 51st between Hudson and Juneau. We’re monitoring to see if we can figure out what it’s all about – sounds like some sort of search under way; no medic calls in the area so doesn’t appear to be anything that left someone hurt, or worse, at this point. 11:49 PM NOTE: Still no details on this … if we don’t get any tonight, we’ll let you know when we are able to find out from the precinct what it was about.
That’s just one tiny cross-section of the HUGE volunteer cleanup/beautification work at Pathfinder K-8 on Genesee Hill (map) today … the amphitheater on the lower field, cleared from under a serious case of overgrowth. Even more impressive, a huge painting project splashing brighter colors onto the portables up on the main grounds … our video of that, unfortunately, did not survive a serious case of user error, but the Pathfinder folks promised us before/after photos for a followup. They had more than 100 volunteers on hand (including dozens from Seattle Works and West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist) and also were grateful for donations from local businesses (a Pathfinder parent gave them a shoutout in this thread in the WSB Forums). Pathfinder, you may recall, needs a better building but almost got moved to an arguably worse one in the recent round of school closures/consolidations; since no new building is likely any time soon, this was a case of the school community working to improve the livability of what they have.
More reader reports from folks who want to warn other West Seattleites, just in case, including one lying doorknocker just spotted. Read on:Read More
Somebody breathlessly called WSB HQ early this morning to report this sighting on the lawn @ Pathfinder K-8 along Genesee Hill. We’re not just all about fire trucks and teardowns; we love happy photos too, so we were glad to head out for a look. If we were a betting person, we would suspect it has something to do with the big event coming up Saturday (update: actually it’s for Teacher Appreciation Week), and the flamingos remind us we hadn’t published the latest news release from the fine folks @ Pathfinder about the event, some advance work done last weekend, and how you can be part of Saturday’s festivities:Read More
For the second time in less than 12 hours, a vehicle has hit a building in West Seattle. WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is out on the “heavy rescue” 911 call in the 4400 block of 55th SW (map) and texted us with the description “truck vs. house.” 1:05 AM UPDATE: Police on the scene tell Christopher nobody is hurt; the truck’s driver fled before fire/police arrived and will face a hit-run charge if/when found.
Noting that the Alki Ave paving wasn’t completed by last Friday as per the original city announcement (previous coverage here), we checked with SDOT to ask about both the new schedule and any other near-future West Seattle paving plans. Here’s what SDOT spokesperson Marybeth Turner replied:
The Alki paving was delayed due to the weather and an equipment breakdown last week. The new completion date is March 24, weather permitting.
The plan is to also pave the following two segments this year, depending on how far the available money stretches:
-SW Genesee St from 51st Ave SW to 47th Ave SW
-16th Ave SW from SW Findlay St to SW Brandon St
Looks like my fellow Fauntle-rut Way drivers and I are out of luck for now – but keep reporting individual potholes to 206/684-ROAD, or online by using the form here.
Just out of the WSB inbox:
Our car was just broken into in the last hour. We live by 53rd and Andover . Our friend’s car was also broken into several blocks away.
10:55 PM UPDATE: After talking with police, the reader also reports the dispatcher said the thieves appear to be “looking for ID info, car registrations and anything with your photo on it (like work ID’s). We only lost a CD and a video game … I think.”
That’s Pathfinder K-8 student Elizabeth Baer, photographed by Eric Baer as she presented her investigation “Slime Roll” during a previous edition of the annual Pathfinder Science Fair, which happens in the school cafeteria 6-7:30 pm tonight. Eric tells WSB, “Nearly 100 science projects will be shown by students, covering every field of science and technology from robotics to volcanology to botany. … Pathfinder School is one of only a handful of Seattle Public Schools that has a Science Fair open to elementary-aged students.” The event is sponsored and run by the PTSA at Pathfinder, which is a public alternative school on Genesee Hill (map). ADDED 9:30 AM: Thanks to GenHillOne for noting tonight also is Family Math Night and Science Fair at Denny Middle School — according to the Denny website, that event is 6:30-8:30 pm.
See the orange and blue on that map? It marks all the West Seattle streets where Seattle City Light crews will work over the next few months to clear tree branches from power lines. This was one of several maps shown at City Light’s open house at Hiawatha Community Center tonight. Only a trickle of turnout, but if you’re in the targeted area, City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen says you will get direct notification — City Light workers have already started going door-to-door to tell residents what’s going on and what they can expect to happen; if you’re not home when they stop by, they’ll leave an info-card hanging on your door. The “blue” area will be tackled first, starting within the next couple weeks (loosely described, this includes parts of Seaview, Morgan Junction, Genesee Hill, and most of Beach Drive); City Light managers say the work will last about two months before they move on to the areas on the map in orange. The only significant section stretching east of California Ave is south of Fairmount Park; one spur that travels almost all the way to the eastern edge of West Seattle is along Brandon. If you have a tree that’s within 10 feet of a power line, you will be offered the option of pruning (which in most cases will entail fairly dramatic branch removal) or taking out the tree entirely (and replacing it with something unlikely to grow into the line). And it’s all in the interest of preventing further power-outage catastrophes like what happened around West Seattle in the December 2006 windstorm; trees too close to power lines, City Light says, are the number one cause.
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