If you’ve been to the Alki Masonic Center in The Junction, chances are it was for a meeting or party – Sound Transit has had “open houses” about West Seattle light rail there; the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle has had its holiday-season pancake breakfasts there; just last week the Center for Active Living (formerly Senior Center) announced its new name there … the events are countless.

But they aren’t the building’s main purpose. It’s home to Alki Masonic Lodge 152, a 118-year-old chapter of a centuries-old fraternity. For decades, its members have engaged in community service too – including the annual School Awards Night in Support of Our Public School System last night.

(Photos by Rick McGann. Above, L to R, Martin Monk, Delton Johnson, Tom Christie)

The lodge and its parent organization believe strongly in public education, so every year these awards are given to accomplished junior-year students from Chief Sealth International High School and West Seattle High School. The Masons are “very proud” of being able to provide this support, said Martin Monk, who emceed the event. Before the awards were presented, the lodge’s current leader, Worshipful Master Delton Johnson, expressed hope that the students would “build on what’s good in the world and foster change in what you think can be better.” He quoted Malcolm X: “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Agreed Tom Christie, another lodge member who spoke: “Education is a lifelong process – there’s always something new to learn.”

The awards are a collaboration between the schools and the lodge – they ask administrators to nominate potential recipients. Here are the Chief Sealth students honored last night:

Charlotte Lindow
Hannah Mueller
Heran Andermariam
Sadie Ransom
Vinh Le-Truong
Eleanor Kamin (not present)
Allison Ohta (not present)

And the WSHS honorees:

Edie Branner
Ellen Rikhof
Danna Martinez
Nina Soleil Abdus-Salaam
Jhana Saboe Hutchinson
Fiona Tesfamariam
Afra Mizra
Souljah Tyson (not present)

Each honored student receives a certificate and a “monetary gift,” their hosts explained. Then the Top Students were announced – from WSHS, Edie Branner – whose interest in international affairs was noted – and Ellen Rikhof, who plans to pursue studies in marine biology, and from CSIHS, Charlotte Lindow and Alison Ohta (unable to accept in person). The Top Student winners were invited to speak, and all three who were there offered words of gratitude to their families and educators. Both schools were invited to send faculty; for WSHS, counselor Erica Nguyen and assistant principal Ron Knight were there. Knight accepted the perpetual plaque that displays the name of each year’s top two:

Today at CSIHS, principal Ray Morales was given the Sealth plaque:

(Photo courtesy Michelle Riggen-Ransom)

At last night’s event, photo ops followed the presentation, along with a pizza dinner downstairs in the big room where so many organizations have their events. And the students also went home with warm words from the Masons – Johnson called them “changemakers”; Christie observed, “I think the world is in good hands.”

(WSB photo, past-and-future Alki Elementary site earlier this week)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“We’re frustrated that the school’s not being built, and that our voices are not being heard.”

That’s how Eva Chappell explains the letter-writing campaign she and Stefie Deeds have organized in support of the Alki Elementary rebuild/expansion, so far delayed almost a full year because of appeals filed over zoning exceptions involving parking.

Chappell and Deeds are both parents of Alki Elementary kindergarteners. The old school closed after the 2022-2023 school year and has been demolished, with other site preparation under way, but no construction until the latest appeal is resolved. Right now, it’s set to go before a city hearing examiner right after Memorial Day.

A bit of backstory if you’re just tuning in: Seattle Public Schools sought nine zoning exceptions (“departures”) for the rebuild/expansion. The city granted them. Nearby residents appealed. A hearing examiner denied the appeals on all but one point – the plan for no on-site parking (following zoning rules would require 48). The district went to court to try to overturn the ruling but was unsuccessful. Finally it submitted a new plan with 15 parking spots. The city approved that. A different set of nearby residents appealed in March. And that’s the subject of the upcoming hearing.

Meantime, Alki Elementary students and staff are wrapping up the first of at least three years in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary, which is so small, Chappell and Deeds say, some of the classes – third- through fifth-graders – are in portables.

But what they’re most concerned about is that parents like them have no voice in the process that’s extended their children’s stay in temporary quarters. In a conversation with WSB earlier this week, they explained that many Alki parents don’t even know what’s going on with the project – they “have no clue that it’s being held up,” Deeds says. “Nobody thought this was going to happen.” She’s an eight-year Alki resident who was excited about being able to send her child to a neighborhood school – but now for at least three years, they’re not within walking distance. “Alki really deserves a walkable school.”

She contends that appellants are wrong to contend that the new, larger school will pose a traffic nightmare because everybody drives, saying that in fact, many parents they’ve spoken with say they’ll be walking, as will her child.

So they’re hoping their voices of support can make a difference; more than 200 letters have been sent already via their online campaign. District officials including our area’s School Board director Gina Topp are the designated recipients.

They’re stressing that their intent isn’t “to diss anyone” – not even those who’ve been fighting the rebuild; they want to “regain a sense of community, in raising awareness.” They hope to “sit down together” with school neighbors as well as with other school families and staff, to discuss the school-related traffic concerns.

But first – they want to see the project back on track.

WHAT’S NEXT: The appeal hearing is scheduled to start at 9 am Tuesday, May 28, in the Hearing Examiner’s hearing room in the Seattle Municipal Tower downtown (700 5th Avenue). If a second day is needed, that’s scheduled for Thursday, May 30.

When announcing that its plan for possible school closures/consolidations was getting closer, Seattle Public Schools said it would have a series of community meetings in May/June. Now the list of dates/times is out, including Saturday, June 1, 10:30 am at Chief Sealth International High School (2600 SW Thistle). As reported after the SPS board’s latest meeting, they’re only considering closing elementary schools to create “a system of well-resourced schools,” but that could mean 20 closures citywide. The district is offering this form for RSVPs and questions. Exactly what they’ll present isn’t clear, as the specific list of possible closures/consolidations isn’t expected to be given to the board before June 10th.

Independent elementary Tilden School (WSB sponsor) is planning a party – here’s the invitation!

The Tilden School board of directors will be hosting Tilden’s FIRST-ever fundraiser on May 31st. We’re calling this Tilden PROM (Past and Present Remembering Our Magic). All Tilden alumni, current families, incoming families and friends of Tilden (18 and over) are welcome. It’ll be held at Kenyon Hall from 7-10 PM with food, drinks, live music, a short program, and catching up. Tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/tildenprom

Another school fundraiser is welcoming wider community participation this week. Here’s the announcement we were asked to share with you:

The annual Move-a-Thon at Louisa Boren STEM K-8 is happening THIS WEEK May 9 & 10! We invite the community to support our STEM students by making donations to a specific grade on the move-a-thon page (under “classes”) or through our general donation page.

All STEM students get to participate in the Move-a-Thon during their regular PE class. Activity stations such as four-square, volleyball or dance party will be set up in the gym, and students will rotate through the stations during PE class.

The Move-a-Thon is a fundraiser that helps pay for library books, school and classroom supplies, staff appreciation, and much more to support our school.

Many months into Seattle Public Schools‘ march toward seemingly inevitable school closures/consolidations to close a budget hole, a few things were clarified at tonight’s School Board meeting. For one, they’re only talking about elementary schools, so the plan that Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones is working on might be more accurately titled “A System of Well-Resourced Elementary Schools.” For two, while they insist there’s no specific list yet, the likelihood is that about 20 of the district’s 70 elementaries will be proposed for closure/consolidation:

But the district’s chief operating officer Fred Podesta insisted, “We weren’t looking for 20 schools to close, we’re looking for 50 schools to keep open.” They also outlined how a “well-resourced school” would be staffed – about 500 students, with full-time art, music, and PE teachers (though not full-time nurses):

The well-resourced schools plan – minus a specific list of schools – was discussed with board members after they moved down to tables with district managers; they voted unanimously at the meeting’s end to accept the plan outline, which was not, it was stressed, an “approval.” First, lots of questions; West Seattle/South Park board director Gina Topp, for example, asked Dr. Jones how he came to decide that closures/consolidations was the way to go. “A smaller footprint is going to allow us to do more things,” he replied. Other board directors asked hypotheticals regarding criteria for choosing which schools would be proposed for changes; the replies seemed to indicate that enrollment size will be the major driver.

Wondering about local elementaries’ sizes? West Seattle/South Park has 11 SPS elementaries – we’ve listed them with the enrollment projections for next year as noted in this budgeting document:

Alki (currently at the former Schmitz Park Elementary building, awaiting its appeal-delayed rebuild/expansion) – 267
Arbor Heights (rebuilt and expanded in the past decade) – 450
Concord International – 264
Fairmount Park (closed in the ’00s, reopened and expanded in the ’10s) – 366
Gatewood – 402
Genesee Hill (rebuilt and expanded in the past decade) – 439
Highland Park – 238
Lafayette – 494
Roxhill at EC Hughes (renovated six years ago) – 240
Sanislo – 164
West Seattle (recently expanded) – 330

So what’s next? Meetings:

We’ll publish the list of community meeting dates and places as soon as it’s made public. Meantime, Dr. Jones spoke repeatedly of bringing a detailed closure/consolidation proposal to the board “sometime next month,” no specific date yet. See tonight’s slide deck in full here. Again, this would be a plan to start in the 2025-2026 school year, NOT next school year.