West Seattle, Washington
05 Friday
Big meeting tomorrow (Monday) night in West Seattle for those with something to say about Seattle Public Schools‘ BEX 4 levy before it’s finalized and sent to voters. Tomorrow may be the last public meeting here, since the School Board is scheduled to approve the levy’s language in November, though the election is not until February. We reported on the most recent version when it was announced to district families September 11th, then followed up with more details from the 
School Board “work session” the next day.
The Arbor Heights Elementary community (left) is particularly concerned about BEX 4 because, while their dilapidated school is still scheduled for a $45 million rebuild, the newest version of the levy plan pushes it back another year to completion and opening in fall 2019. As this grid shows, West Seattle’s two other major projects would be done first – a $20 million addition/upgrade plan for the five-years-closed Fairmount Park Elementary so it could open in fall 2014, and a $38 million rebuild of overcrowded Schmitz Park Elementary on the three-years-closed Genesee Hill campus, to open in fall 2015. The Arbor Heights PTSA is putting out a call for support at tomorrow night’s meeting:
Arbor Heights Elementary needs to be rebuilt ASAP – we cannot wait!
This can’t happen without our community/neighborhood support. Please tell your neighbors as well. …
Please wear yellow to show support.
The meeting is at 6:30 pm at Madison Middle School, 45th/Spokane. Here’s a preview of the PowerPoint (first shown at a meeting elsewhere in the city last week); other background material is linked here. The agenda for the meeting, and how comment will be taken, is shown here; if you can’t go but want to e-mail thoughts about the levy plan, capacity@seattleschools.org is the address.
SIDE NOTE: The day after this meeting, on Tuesday 9/25, West Seattle’s school board rep Marty McLaren has her first informal community-conversation meeting of the new school year, 1:15-3:15 pm at Delridge Library.
(Photos by Nick Adams for WSB)
At halftime, when WSB contributing photojournalist Nick Adams photographed Chief Sealth International High School head football coach Luther Carr III talking to the team (top photo), they were down 25-0, at Bishop Blanchet. In the second half, they scored two touchdowns, but those weren’t enough.
Blanchet had another high-scoring half, and secured the win, 52-12. Ahead, more scenes from the game:
Read More
Homecoming today for Seattle Lutheran High School, and while the football team lost the game, it was a fun afternoon just the same:
Pregame barbecue tailgating in the West Seattle Stadium parking lot, of course. In the stadium, homecoming royalty was driven around the track in golf carts – here’s homecoming queen Maddy Jones:
(See everybody in the homecoming court, later in this story.) Then, there was the winning homecoming “float,” lampooning the latest warning that the world would end this year:
The “floats” were audio/visual carts lent to the students to decorate; the seniors’ “post-apocalyptic class” float won a vote and therefore came to the game – the others were to be on display at the homecoming dance. Now on to the game –
Game details, homecoming court members, and three cheerleaders celebrating a big achievement while hoping for community help – all ahead!Read More
(Photos by Nick Adams for WSB. Here, #5 Diandre Jackson fist-bumps #88 Brennan Newquist after a TD)
Another big-scoring game for the West Seattle High School Wildcats on Friday night, running the score to 51-0 before visiting Cleveland managed one TD to make the final score 51-6. From WSHS band members’ pre-game rendition of the national anthem …
… to the late-game action …
… WSHS never looked back. Ahead, 11 more photos by Nick Adams for WSB, and game toplines:
The first of this fall’s three homecoming football games in our area is tomorrow afternoon at West Seattle Stadium, as the Seattle Lutheran High School Saints host the Concrete High School Lions (from eastern Skagit County), 1:30 pm. SLHS fans asked us to remind you today – “Wear white to support the Saints!”
“I see something remarkable happening at Sanislo Elementary School,” librarian Craig Seasholes told us via e-mail. Yesterday, he continued, 
“I unloaded 12 more boxes of books to give to teachers’ classroom libraries and students for home reading donated by recently retired, former Sanislo teacher Mary Nine.” (Added – Craig’s photo of Mary, at left) “This brings a total of something like … 1200 books she’s made available at the start of this school year.” Then today, we dropped by during when Joan Abrevaya of the Friends of Seattle Public Library brought “a donation of another 300 high-quality fiction titles for teachers to add to their classroom collections.” Seasholes is in our photo, above, with her – and boxes of books. This isn’t the first gift from them, either, he says: “Last June the Friends of SPL and discoverbooks.com donated 3000 books in time for Sanislo students’ summer reading.” And they’re grateful, he says, for the gifts! Books are a very big deal at Sanislo, which always has big participation in the Global Reading Challenge, among other initiatives.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“Absolutely amazing” is how Chief Sealth International High School‘s second-year principal Chris Kinsey described the school year’s start, speaking last night to the Sealth PTSA, which is led by new president Ted Reed.
The principal’s assessment is in part thanks to the school’s continued enrollment growth. Kinsey said that as of right before the meeting, Sealth had 1,286 students enrolled – about 40 more than when he delivered the same report to the first meeting of last school year – but in a different context, “We were down to 800 a few years ago … this community has grown this school in a direction that’s pretty powerful.”
The enrollment also brings challenges. Sealth added portable classrooms this year, and announced last night that the assembly is finally complete; class sizes are still big (up to 35 students) and he said they’re waiting to find out how many additional teachers they will be able to hire, in addition to filling some openings they already had – including music, health, chemistry. The principal said he is advocating with this area’s executive director of schools Carmela Dellino to get some additional teaching resources.
Kinsey also had words of praise for the Link Crew upperclassmen-mentoring-freshmen program that Sealth is using as of this year (WSB coverage here); “We are off to an exciting start.”
Ahead, more reasons why he made that assessment – including college visits and after-school activities – as well as other information shared at the meeting:Read More
We know more today about what’s planned for Fairmount Park Elementary before Seattle Public Schools reopens the closed-since-2007 campus. Last week, it was explained at the school board’s work session about the BEX IV levy (WSB coverage here) that the district planned “an addition” at Fairmount Park, which in turn, administrators said, would eliminate the need to reopen the former Hughes Elementary, currently leased to independent Westside School (WSB sponsor). But we didn’t know the details until this week’s school-board meeting agenda. District documents show it is planned as an eight-classroom addition, and the board will be asked tomorrow night to approve almost a million dollars for its design. It is proposed as an addition to a contract Miller Hayashi Architects already had for design/engineering work to get the school in shape for reopening in the fall of 2014. The district has not said yet what kind of program it plans for the reopened school – regular neighborhood school or something else (such as permanent home of the K-5 STEM school just opened at Boren on Delridge).
Next Monday, the new school year starts at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) on Puget Ridge. Today, they’re celebrating receiving the “military-friendly school” designation again:
South Seattle Community College has been designated by G.I. Jobs magazine as a “Military Friendly School” for 2012 – 2013, the third year in a row.
G.I. Jobs polled more than 7,000 schools across the country to compile its “2013 Guide to Military Friendly Schools.” Criteria for making the list included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students, results in recruiting military and veteran students, and academic accreditations. The recognition honors the country’s colleges and universities for their work in welcoming military veterans and enhancing their student experience.
The honor ranks South in the top 15 percent of all colleges, universities and trade schools nationwide that are doing the most to embrace those who have served their country.
South was noted a good choice because of the college’s experienced staff and personal commitment to ensure that each and every veteran that comes to South has all the means necessary to complete his or her academic goals.
Here’s more info about SSCC’s Veterans Affairs department.
(Friday photo, courtesy John Hopkins)
If you drive along the 5900 block of Delridge Way SW in the morning or afternoon, remember, it’s a school zone again! Parents from K-5 STEM at Boren have been out with signs the past few school days, trying to make sure everyone knows. The challenge is that while 20 mph “school zone” signs have been up along that stretch for years, first, this is the first time in two years that the school’s been occupied, and second, because of the way the Boren building is laid out, you won’t necessarily see much activity along the street. Parents are hoping to convince SDOT to add flashing lights to the signage for extra reminders, but those requests usually take a while to work through the system.
Parade season’s not over yet, as the Denny International Middle School community knows! The first two photos from Saturday are courtesy of Denny principal Jeff Clark, who reports:
The Denny International Middle School scholars did a great job today celebrating Fiestas Patrias in the South Park parade. The band sounded terrific and the Dolphin pride was loud and clear. Thank you to all the students, families, and staff who joined in this fun and important community celebration!
It was a spectacular parade:
That photo is by contributing photojournalist Nick Adams, and we have 20 more of Nick’s photos – dancers, musicians, spectators, more – in a gallery published on our partner site The South Park News; see them here.
At West Seattle Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Seattle Lutheran High School‘s Bryce Morgan and Jake Lamb provided the Saints with an offensive one-two punch, but their A-game wasn’t enough to beat the Eastside Catholic junior varsity. Eastside rolled up a big early lead and hung on to finish with a 40-26 win. Eastside ran out 26 quick points in the first quarter, while Seattle Lutheran had only one touchdown in that quarter, scored by Bryce Morgan.
The Saints had a much-better second half, which saw Lamb lead the offense on the ground.
Lamb picked up a touchdown after Lutheran’s defense managed to contain Eastside on several drives. This was the last non-conference game; the Saints return to conference play against Concrete next Saturday at 1 pm, which is also the homecoming game.
(Photos by Nick Adams for WSB)
Huge win for the West Seattle High School Wildcats varsity football team Friday night at Southwest Athletic Complex – 46-0 over the visiting Franklin Quakers – and a big night for #12, Joe Ylagan:
… though Franklin tried to stop him:
Eight more photos, with game notes, ahead:
Read More
If you like explosive, action-packed football, you wouldn’t have been disappointed if you had come early and stayed late Friday night at Chief Sealth International High School‘s road game against Rainier Beach HS. While RB scored on the opening kickoff and racked up 28 unanswered points by 30 seconds into the second quarter, the Seahawks made a go of battling back:
(TOPLINES: Current version of BEX IV levy proposal calls for new Schmitz Park @ Genesee Hill campus 2015, new Arbor Heights on current site 2019, add to and reopen Fairmount Park, NO reopening of EC Hughes, NO decision yet on K-5 STEM’s permanent location)
4:07 PM: As reported here yesterday afternoon, the newest list of projects proposed for the Seattle Public Schools BEX IV levy is out – and it includes some changes from previous West Seattle proposals. The School Board is getting more information right now at a work session at district HQ, and we’re there. We’ll update this story “live” as West Seattle-relevant information is discussed – so if you’re interested, open this story’s page (click the headline) and hit “refresh” every so often. The board and staff members’ microphones aren’t working but we’re listening as hard – and sitting as close – as we can!
READ ON FOR OUR AS-IT-HAPPENED COVERAGE:Read More
(WSB photo from then-Superintendent-to-be José Banda’s tour of Arbor Heights in May 2012)
This afternoon, Seattle Public Schools sent the district’s families and community an update on the newest proposal for what to send to voters in the BEX (“Building Excellence”) IV levy next February. To get right to the point, here are the three toplines for West Seattle:
Arbor Heights Elementary: Replace existing building with new/expanded facility by 2019
Fairmount Park: Open this existing building with necessary upgrades, add classrooms and a lunchroom by 2014
Schmitz Park: Replace existing Genesee Hill building with a new/expanded facility on the Genesee Hill site; relocate Schmitz Park to the new facility by 2015
The Arbor Heights community was unhappy with the previous plan (here’s our report from May) for a 2018 opening for a new school; now, it’s been pushed back another year.
Also of note: The former EC Hughes Elementary campus – currently leased to independent Westside School (WSB sponsor) – is not mentioned in the announcement (nor is it on the accompanying draft slide). We may not be able to confirm until tomorrow whether that means the prospect of reopening it as a public school is off the table.
Read on for the complete announcement sent districtwide, including the list of public meetings ahead (in West Seattle, the meeting’s at Madison Middle School at 6:30 pm September 24):Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Today is the start of the first full week of classes at Westside School (WSB sponsor) under the leadership of new head of school Kate Mulligan.
In honor of her previous home and school in Hawaii, Mulligan was feted on the last day of the traditionally short first week with an island-themed assembly, featuring Sunshine From Polynesia:
The faculty got into the act too:
By the time Westside’s students walked in last Wednesday, Mulligan already had been on the job for two months. We talked with her before the year began.
Seattle Lutheran High School‘s varsity football team had to travel about five hours for today’s game vs. Lake Roosevelt. We just got word they are coming home with a win, 19-6.
The Chief Sealth International High School Seahawks were on the road Friday night, but had a strong cheering section on hand for the game against Cleveland at Memorial Stadium downtown. Above, with the Sealth Cheerleaders, are Sealth’s first-ever Link Crew participants (explained in our story from two weeks ago) – the mentors in the red shirts accompanied some of their freshmen charges to the game, which saw Sealth beat Cleveland, 32-14. Ahead, highlights and toplines:
We’re working on separate stories, both with photos, for each of these games, but in case you hadn’t heard the scores yet: At Memorial Stadium downtown tonight, Chief Sealth over Cleveland, 32-14; at Southwest Athletic Complex, West Seattle lost to Seattle Prep, 32-12.
So Admiral-based Engine 29 pulls into the Lafayette Elementary schoolyard this afternoon:
No fire, but there was a sense of urgency. The entire school was out on the playground, watching the engine come to a stop:
Then a woman in a firefighter’s hat bounded out of the engine.
We knew the secret – it was actually Lafayette’s new principal Shauna Heath, who used the first assembly of the school year for a “dramatic entrance” to announce the year’s theme: “Lafayette is on fire!” (As in, burning for learning, etc.) She and some of her staff were also wearing T-shirts with another slogan – “Only the best is good enough.”
Hot day – apropos to the theme – so the kids (and staff!) weren’t kept out too long; they got a pep talk and then it was back to class.
Community groups, whether new or established, know how tough it is to find someplace affordable and available to have a meeting, particularly at night. New solution: The city and school district say they’re opening up public-school libraries citywide, for a low price per meeting. Read on!Read More
At Southwest Athletic Complex this afternoon, Chief Sealth International High School hosted West Seattle High School for an early-season girls-soccer match.
Sealth scored first; West Seattle answered quickly, and scored again in the second half. That was the final, 2-1. WSHS is now 1-0, Sealth 0-2. Both teams play again Tuesday – West Seattle hosts Cleveland, Sealth visits Rainier Beach.
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