(Photos courtesy Brenda Hatley)

By Hayden Yu Andersen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Dozens of youth robotics teams from elementary and middle schools across the district gathered on December 6 at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School for this year’s FIRST Lego League qualifier. By the end of the day, three teams from West Seattle – Madison Middle School, Lafayette Elementary School, and Alki Elementary School – emerged triumphant, with their sights set on the next round of the tournament.

Of the schools who competed that day, nine were from West Seattle, including Genesee Hill Elementary, Fairmount Park Elementary, Gatewood Elementary, Arbor Heights Elementary, West Seattle Elementary, and the aforementioned teams that are moving up to the next round.

A local parent tipped us about the students’ achievement, so we set out to get details. We spoke with Brenda Hatley, a coach for Madison Middle School, the only West Seattle middle-school team to advance to the next round, and she says the turnout at the qualifiers was impressive. Hatley first became a coach for her son’s 4th-grade team and was one of the founding parents for Lafayette Elementary’s Lego Robotics team.

She says the program, which pairs engineering with LEGO, coding, and real-world projects, is a fantastic program for students who are less interested in athletics but still want to capture the excitement of a pep rally.

“It’s not a sports team, but they’re still getting so hyped up. The kids were cheering for each other, and the pressure was there; coaching through that was an incredible experience,” Hatley said.

Madison’s team, the Madbots, will play their next match on December 26th, at a to-be-determined location. The teams that do well this month will move on to the city-wide competition in Downtown Seattle, before moving to the regionals at Washington State University, and beyond to the international finals. Regardless of how they perform, Hatley says she and the other parents are planning to travel with their team to the city-wide and regional competitions.

“I’m really proud of the team,” Hatley said. “Last year, the fifth graders didn’t move on, and we had lower expectations; we just went in to learn more and get better. This year, we get to move on and see what the next level looks like.”

(WSB file photo)

One week ago tonight, we published local parent Arin‘s plea for Seattle Public Schools to hurry up and announce graduation dates, since a conflict with the FIFA World Cup Seattle games seemed in the cards. The district has finalized the schedule – on June 17, Chief Sealth IHS at 5 pm at McCaw Hall, followed by West Seattle HS at 8 pm, same date/site – and the conflict remains. Arin says there’s one more thing families and others need to be aware of: “SPS sent the dates last Friday but failed to mention in their email that graduations at McCaw Hall (CSIHS and WS) will have a limited number of tickets. They won’t tell us how many tickets each graduating student gets …” and, Arin adds, the “limited tickets” note was only included on a social-media post. McCaw Hall is described online as having a capacity of just under 3,000, about a quarter of the now-demolished Memorial Stadium, and less than Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex, where the local schools held commencement ceremonies as recently as 2022.

Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Local school families, parents, students and education advocates gathered on Thursday night at Denny International Middle School (2601 SW Kenyon) to learn and share ideas about positive impacts made possible by the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise (FEPP) levy, which Seattle voters approved for renewal/expansion in the November election. 

The 6-year $1.3 billion levy was overwhelmingly approved by 80% of voters (the highest margin in the 35-year history of Seattle education levies) and is now in “implementation planning” mode through next summer (the Seattle City Council will vote on the plan in June 2026), followed by “year one” implementation beginning in fall 2026 and running through 2032. For more details, see this PDF fact sheet about the levy renewal and the “Every Child Ready” initiative (announced in April).

Organizers on Thursday night expressed gratitude to voters and described the levy as “the biggest education levy in the history of the city and the state,” noting that Seattle is the only city in Washington that provides this type of supplemental funding for the local public school system.

Back in June, we reported about mayor Bruce Harrell (who is in office until the end of this year, before incoming mayor Katie Wilson takes office) signing the bill to send the FEPP levy (aka Proposition 1) to the November ballot. As we reported when Harrell proposed the levy in April, it’s projected to cost the median-assessed-value Seattle homeowner $654 each year. The expiring 2018 version of the levy was described as costing the median-value homeowner $249 each year. Later in June, the City Council considered the FEPP levy proposal and voted to approve the ballot measure, which was then approved by voters in November.

The event on Thursday, held in the “galleria” area that Denny shares with Chief Sealth International High School, was the third of four public meetings about FEPP that were organized by the Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL), whose director Dr. Dwane Chappelle welcomed attendees:   

Two members of the Seattle City Council were in attendance at Denny on Thursday night and were also invited to give opening remarks. First up was District 1’s own Rob Saka: 

As well as Maritza Rivera from District 4 (northeast Seattle) who serves as chair of the council’s Libraries, Education & Neighborhoods Committee and worked closely with Harrell as part of the select committee for the FEPP levy: 

The evening’s emcee was longtime local educator and advocate Manuela Slye, who is also a member of the levy oversight committee:

Also in attendance was Seattle School Board member Vivian Song, who formerly served on the levy oversight committee and said she welcomed the opportunity to listen and learn from the community:

After the opening remarks and overviews of the levy, attendees divided into discussion groups to dive deeper into the three key areas that the levy funding is intended to support in 2026-2032. Per the DEEL website and information sheets, these three areas (and their respective “share” of the levy funding) are: 

• Ready to Start: ($658M) High-quality preschool for three- and four-year olds, with free tuition for low- and middle- income families, child care co-pay support, supports for families with children prenatal to age three, and direct payments to childcare workers.  
• Ready to Learn: ($510M) Free expanded learning supports for Seattle youth including school-day, afterschool, and summer academic, enrichment, and mentorship programs; funding for five new School Based Health Centers bringing the total citywide to 34; and expanded school safety and student mental health services.  
• Ready to Launch: ($84M) Tuition-free college at Seattle Colleges accessible for all Seattle public high school graduates through the Seattle Promise program, supported transfer pathway to University of Washington-Seattle, and scholarships to grow a diverse workforce in high-demand careers such as education, trades, and the public sector. 

Attendees interested in these topics on Thursday gathered for about 45 minutes of discussion, then shared notes back with the larger group, which we’ll summarize below.

The Ready to Start group talked about issues and opportunities for our youngest scholars:  

The group shared family and provider experiences with childcare programs and after-school programs including CCAP (Child Care Assistance Program) and preschool. Some families said they felt they had access to the financial support they need for childcare, but improvements are needed to expand subsidies for middle income families who may not qualify yet and are cost burdened; need to “broaden access overall. Also discussed was the idea of earlier workforce opportunities for high school students to support the child-care workforce by assisting experienced adults, and overall to help providers get certified to offer childcare and preschool services.

Family priorities when choosing child care and thinking about key logistics included:

• Core priorities across ages: Quality, trust in providers, cultural and linguistic match (especially for infant and toddler care), reliability, and safety.
• School-age priorities: After-school programs that actively engage students in learning.
• Logistics and flexibility: Need for flexible hours (including before-school and after-school care, sometimes as early as 5 AM), and provision of food and transportation where needed.

The largest discussion group on Thursday night was Ready to Learn, focusing on K-12 experiences and needs:

Participants talked about the need to support students and families both academically and with a “whole-child” approach, to ensure that needs are met, including:

• Academic and enrichment support: After school and outside-of-school enrichment that boosts academics, offers hands-on learning, culturally relevant programming outside the school-day curriculum, and opportunities for youth to learn new skills and try new things.
• Whole-child mental health: Holistic mental health that is integrated into daily school experiences and other activities, not solely reliant on youth seeking standalone services. Doing this right requires a range of caring adults who build relationships to reach and re-engage youth.
• Meeting community needs and family engagement: Services reflecting whole-community needs, including workforce support and multi-generational involvement (including grandparents and older extended family. Making this work requires explicit, clear invitations for parents and family members to be involved, treating parents as true partners in youth well-being and education.
• Community partnerships: Sustained, consistent partnerships bridging in-school and out-of-school supports to provide a stable set of adults ready to respond to academic, social learning, and other needs.  This also requires schools and partners that are connected to each other, and to youth and their families.

One of the participants in this group was Denny Middle School principal Mary Ingraham, who talked about the importance of “needs assessments” to identify ways that student and family support can have the most impact. 

The final group was Ready to Launch, focusing on preparation and paths to careers and college opportunities after high school:

The group included several high school students who shared their stories and experiences, as well as Councilmember Saka and Chief Sealth principal Hope Perry.

Insights and discussion points from the group included: 

• Financial assistance navigation and access: Desire for clearer support through applications and access to higher funding amounts, and to involve more people to make processes easier for youth.
• Program experiences that shape careers: Group members shared personal experiences and observations with program services (such as school-based health centers) influencing interests in a positive way, including driving artistic careers and sparking interest in fields like psychology (through working with a therapist).
• Exposure to careers and education pathways: Need for more exposure in schools to diverse careers and colleges to help youth identify their interests.
• Information access challenges: Limited, hard-to-find online information for scholarships, funding for business needs, and internships. One participant noted it is hard to identify the best opportunities online because “the internet is so big,” and others strongly agreed.
• Career exploration: More job shadow opportunities and real-world exposure to see what jobs look like “in the real world.”

As the evening at Denny wrapped up, organizers encouraged attendees to stay involved and stay in touch. DEEL also hosted meetings last week in Magnuson Park and Ballard, and are in Columbia City next week on December 16 (details here) to wrap up the 4-meeting series.

Also, if you’re interesting in diving deeper and getting involved with the levy oversight process, the team is now accepting applications for the levy oversight committee which will help with the implementation evaluation plan and review and advise on legislation and related work for the next levee. Applications can be submitted here. 

80 percent of Seattle voters said “yes” last month to Proposition 1, the six-year, $1.2 billion renewal/expansion of the Families, Education, Preschool, Promise levy. Now – how will the money be spent? We just got this announcement of a Thursday “community conversation” in West Seattle:

The Seattle Department of Education & Early Learning is hosting a series of community conversations, designed for families, youth, and community to learn about the planned Families, Education, Preschool, & Promise Levy (FEPP) investments in child care and education and share what matters most to them! We’d love to invite community members to join upcoming sessions:

Thursday, December 11, 5:30–7:30 PM
Denny International Middle School, 2601 SW Kenyon

This event will offer a brief overview of planned FEPP Levy investments in child care and education, along with time for community members to share their input. Free dinner, interpretation services, and children’s activities will be provided. Space is limited, so we encourage RSVPs: bit.ly/FEPPCommunityConversations

When we talked with Tilden School (4105 California SW; WSB sponsor) administrators earlier this year, they marveled that the kids are so excited to come to school in the morning, they run into the building. You can get a firsthand look at why, when Tilden holds its next open house this Saturday – here’s the announcement:

Tilden School will host its Fall Open House on Saturday, December 6, from 10:00 a.m.–noon. Families are invited to drop by anytime during the event to tour the campus, learn more about the school’s academic program and community, and meet faculty, administrators, current parents, and alumni.

Open Houses at Tilden provide families an opportunity to explore the school’s foundational academic principles and discover what makes this independent K–5 school unique!

Those unable to attend this weekend will have an additional opportunity to stop by our final Open House of the season on Saturday, January 10, 2026, from 10:00 a.m.–noon. To schedule a private tour, please reach out to the office.

There are select openings for grades 1-5! Applications are available online at tildenschool.org. For more information, contact Jennifer Trise at info@tildenschool.org.

(SPS-TV video of last night’s School Board meeting – superintendent contract vote is 2 hours, 4 minutes in)
New Seattle Public Schools superintendent Ben Shuldiner will start work February 1, 2026. That’s part of what’s in the contract approved by the SPS School Board last night, two weeks after the board announced the current Lansing, MI, superintendent was their lone finalist for the job. As first reported on the Save Seattle Schools website, Shuldiner’s starting salary will be $365,000, plus a $60,000 Tax-Sheltered Annuity contribution, and if he stays for four years, he would get a $40,000 retention bonus. This contract is actually for two and a half years; board president Gina Topp – who negotiated it along with board VP Shawn Briggs – says that’s the longest state law would allow, spanning all or part of three school years. Other contract details include reimbursement for up to $17,000 in moving expenses, and $1,000 a month for using his own car on district business. The contract was approved unanimously; you can read it here. (For comparison, now-ex-superintendent Dr. Brent Jones was reported to have a base salary just under $350,000 as of a year ago.)

SIDE NOTE: If you missed it, here’s our recent report on a conversation with the superintendent-to-be.

(Seattle Public Schools photo)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Seattle Public Schools‘ likely new superintendent is a fan of K-8 schools.

That’ll be welcome news for the West Seattleites involved with the two on the peninsula, Pathfinder K-8 on Pigeon Point and Louisa Boren STEM K-8 in Delridge, both of which have dealt with near-existential threats in recent years.

The district offered us a chance to talk with superintendent finalist Ben Shuldiner a few days after the board revealed that the current Lansing, MI, superintendent was their choice to lead SPS into the future. In our 25-minute online chat, we asked about a variety of issues with which SPS has grappled – some of which he faced in his current district, too.

INCREASING ENROLLMENT

He says public-school districts have to come to terms with the fact that while “30 or 40 years ago, they had a monopoly … now, there’s so much more choice.” But he says the ultimate way to solve the problem is “just do better at our jobs” – provide a better education. To increase enrollment in Lansing, Shuldiner says, “we made our schools better.”

And he says they noticed a trend – parents loved the elementary schools, but were “fearful about the junior highs.” So, he says, “we created a bunch of K-8s” – and that led to less loss between elementary and middle school, because the students would be staying on in schools with which they and their families were already familiar.

But overall, he repeats, “You increase enrollment because people want to come to our schools.”

SPS has been criticized for not marketing itself much if at all. What’s his view on that? He says promotion is important, from talking to the media to advertising such as billboards. “Everybody else is doing it, so you have to.” And that promotion should surface the “great stories” that he believes are already happening, waiting to be told. Then, he said, you tout the results – “in Lansing, we raised grades (and a board member told the community) ‘send your kids back’ (to the district).”

SCHOOL SIZES?

We brought up the shot-down-not-long-ago proposal to close schools so that the district would focus on larger, “well-resourced” schools. Shuldiner says he appreciates the concept of schools having full support staff, but “each community and neighborhood is different,” and that has to be considered when evaluating a school. The focus has to be on “let’s do right by the children,” he emphasized.

WHAT’S IN HIS FIRST-100-DAYS PLAN?

Shuldiner created one during the interview process, so we asked what it starts with. First, he said, “gotta be in the community.” Rebuilding trust between the district and community is paramount, he indicated. He hopes to “visit every single school in the first 100 days … walk the halls with the principals, with the kids.” (We were curious how many layers of bureaucracy his district had between the principals and superintendent; apparently as many as there are in Seattle.) Also, “make some decisions quickly,” with a deep dig into the budget. He also mentioned he might even move to “take down some walls (in the administration) building” (he meant that literally).

TOO MUCH BUREAUCRACY?

Knowing that principals report to a middle-management layer rather than directly to the superintendent, we wondered what the structure is in Lansing. Similar, he replied, but that doesn’t stop the superintendent from getting out and talking directly to school staff (as mentioned above). Shuldiner says he enjoys those visits since “I’m a teacher first and foremost,” and was a principal too, considering those roles and his current one all to fall under the umbrella label “educator.”

SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS

The Seattle board halved its regular meeting schedule to monthly not long ago, so we asked him about the frequency of board meetings in Lansing: He said they met two or three times a month, and that the Lansing board had more members than the Seattle board. He said the board periodically has “informational study sessions,” something he’d like to bring to Seattle.

GIFTED PROGRAMS

SPS’s philosophy toward serving “highly capable” students hasn’t been consistent in recent years. So we asked Shuldiner about his views. He didn’t say much – voicing general support for “differentiating based on the needs of each child” – except to note that Lansing dramatically increased the rate of students passing AP exams. That, he said, was largely the result of “more AP classes, and we didn’t gatekeep who got into them.” That quickly segued into a topic we had planned to ask about anyway …

CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION

This is back in vogue, we noted, with “the trades” in some cases desperate for workers. Just outside Seattle, we noted, there are now public high schools dedicated to maritime and aviation. Shuldiner said his current district “created Lansing Technical High School,” and noted that Lansing had been “the home of trades” for so long. But counter to concerns that teaching the trades somehow diminished academics, he said he sees it as an “and” rather than an “or,” and also observed that basic subjects like math can be taught through hands-on learning as well as via abstract textbook problems. “Truth is, kids love learning hands-on.”

HOW TO EVALUATE HIM IN THE EARLY GOING?

Obviously, he said, results won’t be immediate – in terms of stats, at least – so what he hopes is that people will be able to evaluate him for transparency, for building trust, for listening, for staff feeling more supported, for “more vision and direction.”

That’s where we wrapped up. So what’s next? Assuming Shuldiner reaches a contract/salary agreement with the district, the board will vote on finalizing the hire. They said they’re hoping he’ll start “early next year.”

(WSB photos by Dave Gershgorn)

Volunteers and donors teamed up for a successful “Fill the Truck” donation drive at Lafayette Elementary this morning. Even the Lafayette Leopard showed up to provide support:

The Lafayette PTA organized this to help the West Seattle Food Bank and the increasing number of people relying on it – not just for food.

Lizzy from the PTA gave us some preliminary estimates of results from the three-hour drive:

21 crates of canned and boxed food
1500+ diapers
100+ grocery bags and packaged boxes of food
96 packs of ramen
11 bags of coats and winter clothes

She also wanted to stress “how grateful Lafayette is for everyone who showed up today! We had donations arrive by scooter, wagon, bike, and car.”

P.S. If you couldn’t make it to this donation drive, as noted previously, there’s a food drive tomorrow at Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds), 11 am-3 pm Sunday, and of course you can contribute financially to WSFB at any time here.