(WSB cameraphone photo of the crowd just before public comment began)
Though it was not an agenda item, the just-announced co-locating of K-5 STEM and Middle College High School at Boren generated discussion, and a promise, at last night’s Seattle School Board meeting.

After half a dozen people voiced concern during the public-comment period, three board members did too, including West Seattle’s Marty McLaren, who promised a “public discussion” on the issue.

Ahead, more of the discussion, plus a budget item that might – or might not – relate to K-5 STEM’s eventual permanent home:Read More

Two dozen West Seattle High School 2012-2013 cheerleaders spent the day mentoring almost four dozen younger students during their Mini Cheer Camp a week and a half ago – and Bev Corey is sharing photos and a recap:

A great time was had by all the 47 campers from Holy Rosary, Lafayette, Schmitz Park, Alki, Gatewood, Sanislo, Arbor Heights, Hope Lutheran, Westside, and Our Lady of Guadalupe (schools), as they spent an afternoon with 24 WSHS cheerleaders learning cheers, stunts, and dances, making crafts, and enjoying getting to know each other.

The campers will perform as honorary cheerleaders at an upcoming home football game this fall. The West Seattle Cheerleaders want to thank all the campers who attended and can’t wait to see you all again at the Mini Cheer Camp Reunion later this summer.

Back on June 8th, we reported West Seattle High School would receive a six-figure annual grant from the city Families and Education Levy – and now we know another West Seattle school will, too: Roxhill Elementary. Principal Carmela Dellino shared an announcement this morning with details of what they’ll be able to do with $2.1 million over the next 7 years – read on:Read More

Tomorrow afternoon, when South Seattle Community College‘s 2012 commencement ceremony at Benaroya Hall honors 930 degree/certificate recipients, that banner will be carried on behalf of 32 of them – those who have earned the four-year Bachelor of Applied Science in Hospitality Management degree. (The pineapple, we’re told, is an international symbol of hospitality.) Tonight, the banner was displayed at Salty’s on Alki, during a commencement-eve celebration.

Faculty joined the grads-to-be – below, interim vice president for instruction Donna Miller-Parker, Professional Technical Education executive dean Dr. Malcolm Grothe, and SSCC president Gary Oertli:

According to an SSCC news release about tomorrow’s ceremony, you will recognize the Hospitality Management bachelor’s-degree grads because they’ll be in black caps and gowns with brown stoles. Other new “graduate recognitions” listed in a college news release include red/white/blue cords to be worn by the 41 students who are military veterans, green stoles to be worn by associate-degree recipients with Asian/Pacific Islander emphasis, Kente cloth to be worn by student leaders from Student Life and Diversity & Retention, and black/red cords to be worn by TRiO graduates.

For those with a stake in Middle College High School having to leave South Seattle Community College after 17 years, and being given a temporary new spot at the Boren Building campus on Delridge – also the temporary home of the new K-5 STEM at Boren elementary – it’s been a busy weekend. We broke the news on Friday and discussions have ensued both in WSB comments and on the K-5 STEM Yahoo! group, as well as in the MCHS community, among other places. We followed up today with SSCC president Gary Oertli, and while we have a few other people to contact, we are publishing the first draft of our followup because the district has just shared the letter it sent to K-5 STEM families, both announcing the campus-sharing and seeking to alleviate concerns about how much contact there might be between the two schools’ populations:Read More

A couple times during Saturday evening’s West Seattle High School graduation ceremony at Memorial Stadium, the rain came down … but that didn’t keep the caps from eventually going up:

The ceremony program listed 237 graduates; here’s our video of everyone in the opening processional:

Before everything got under way, some of the adult participants paused to reflect – from left, school board director Marty McLaren, WSHS principal Ruth Medsker, and interim superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield:

The program didn’t list valedictorian(s)/salutatorian(s), but 29 students were listed as National Honor Society members, with grade-point averages from 3.2 to 4.0 as well as participation in activities such as meetings and community-service events.

Today was graduation day for our area’s two biggest high schools – both at Memorial Stadium downtown – and the first to take the field was Chief Sealth International High School, at 1 pm. Here’s our video of all the seniors walking in:

The program lists 221 graduates this year. The ceremony ran a bit shorter than planned because, according to Sealth staff, the buses didn’t show up to bring the band over. But the weather stayed dry, and all else went well:

Afterward, the traditional staff receiving line for the graduates:

But before that – a flash mob-style dance!

As denoted in the program for today’s ceremony, 2012 valedictorians are Brian Griffith, Stephanie Hernandez, and Logan Smith; salutatorian, Graham Henry. It was Chris Kinsey‘s first commencement as Chief Sealth principal:

Chief Sealth is the newer of West Seattle’s two standalone public high schools, having opened in 1957.

Two updates from Seattle Lutheran High School:

GOODBYE: We managed to photograph the cake for posterity before the RSVP’d crowd of 300-plus all showed up for the retirement reception celebrating Shirley Vradenburgh‘s 32 years at the school:

The Friday night celebration packed the gym where just one week earlier she and other members of the school staff and community had gathered for the graduation of Seattle Lutheran’s Class of 2012 (WSB coverage here). As an enduring tribute to her SLHS work, the Shirley Vradenburgh Scholarship was endowed at this year’s school auction.

HELLO: We learned this week that the school has announced its new principal. Dave Meyer is coming to Seattle Lutheran from Concordia Lutheran School in northeast Seattle. His appointment was announced in a letter to the SLHS school community, in which Meyer was described as “bring(ing) contagious enthusiasm overflowing with vision and a great passion for academic excellence” as well as “a renewed vitality, direction and energy to the school …” He’ll start work over the summer.

(4:41 PM UPDATE: New info added at end of story, from West Seattle’s school-board rep and from the district)

9:38 AM, FIRST REPORT: According to an announcement just made by Seattle Public Schools, the new elementary school will not be the only program housed on the Louisa Boren Building campus at 5950 Delridge Way SW this fall. We reported earlier this week on the impending departure of the alternative Middle College High School – with 70 students enrolled this year – from the South Seattle Community College campus. Now the district has just announced its new location will be portables at Boren, where it hopes the MCHS students may help “mentor” students at the new K-5 STEM at Boren. Here’s the letter that the district’s executive director of West Seattle schools, Aurora Lora, has just sent to Middle College students’ families:Read More

Yet more good news to report today about West Seattle students’ achievements. This came in late last night from Denny International Middle School principal Jeff Clark:

Congratulations to the Denny Dolphin Math Olympiad team on their first-place finish! Each spring, Seattle Public Schools hosts a Math Olympiad competition with teams representing all of the middle schools and K-8s from across the city. (Thursday), our scholars won the overall first-place award – congratulations to them and their advisor Mr. Lai! Go, Dolphins!

One week from today is the final day of classes for Seattle Public Schools – and last night was our area’s final high-school concert of the year. West Seattle High School‘s musicians took the stage in the WSHS Theater. We have two clips from the concert – above, the band’s rendition of a Green Day song; below, the orchestra’s version of a Coldplay hit:

(EDITOR’S NOTE: When this school year began, we covered the first meetings of both the West Seattle High School and Chief Sealth International High School PTSAs; now that it’s ending, we are circling back to cover their final meetings. Here’s our WSHS PTSA report from last week; ahead, our report on Sealth’s final meeting, Tuesday night.)

(Incoming and outgoing CSIHS PTSA presidents: Ted Reed, Amy Daly-Donovan)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Not only did the final Chief Sealth International High School PTSA meeting of 2011-2012 look back and ahead, it also included a presentation of information that no one in attendance could ever have hoped to use – what teens need to know about the law.

But first:

PRINCIPAL’S FIRST-EVER YEAR-END UPDATE: First-year principal Chris Kinsey said he believes Sealth is “on the tipping point of going from good to great … in the coming years we are going to transform what it means to be an urban high school.” A crowded one, at that – enrollment for next year is now projected at 1342, a hundred more than the start of last year, and four portable classrooms will be arriving before next year begins. (9th-grade language arts and history teachers will work in them, according to Kinsey.)

Read More

There are actually three public high schools in West Seattle – though one is much smaller than the two you could probably name off the top of your head. It is Middle College High School, based at South Seattle Community College for 15 years, but about to move. Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Teresa Wippel explains that “the college recently informed us that they received two large grants and need to re-occupy the space currently used by Middle College students” – who currently number 70.

Tonight, during their monthly meeting, the 34th District Democrats will be asked to consider a resolution asking SSCC and SPS to work it out for another year. Supporters also have spoken about the situation at school-board meetings; the resolution expresses concern that the program stay in this area, rather than moving to a possible spot east of downtown.

But SPS appears to have found a new home for the school, and it’s in what Wippel describes only as “South Seattle.” She tells WSB, “We have been looking for a new South Seattle location, and will be announcing a move to a new facility in the next few days, after we have had an opportunity to make final arrangements and notify our Middle College families.” She says they’re not expecting any changes to the curriculum for the program, described as “a college prep and dropout prevention program aimed at students who have the ability to go to college but because of life circumstances don’t always see a postsecondary education as an option.” Supporters say that’s been an advantage of having MCHS based at SSCC – the potential to move right into college at a familiar location.

At left is Lafayette Elementary‘s incoming principal Shauna Heath, with assistant principal Karmen Nordhougen. We photographed them toward the start of tonight’s meet-and-greet event for Heath. It was her first official chance to mingle with the school’s community since her hiring was announced three weeks ago (three months after current principal Jo Lute-Ervin had announced she wasn’t coming back for a second year). As Heath told WSB during a followup interview, she is an Admiral resident, looking forward to biking to work, after two years of commuting to Kent to lead an elementary school there. Her letter to the Lafayette community, looking ahead, is in the newest PTA newsletter (viewable as a PDF, here).

As the plan for West Seattle’s new public school K-5 STEM at Boren continues to take shape, its Design Team is meeting to discuss details big and small. One potentially big item came up at the May 29th meeting: Principal Dr. Shannon McKinney‘s suggestion that the school should require uniforms, or have a uniform-like dress code. (Our coverage of that meeting reports the rationale, as well as the opinions voiced that night.) Though no decision was made at that meeting, as planned, the discussion continued at the most recent meeting this week – and Design Team member Robin Graham tells us the team decided to support the recommendation:

With understanding and appreciation of the community’s thoughts on both sides, the design team supports Dr. McKinney with our vision that STEM is a place kids should know they are doing something very important – this is their uniform for learning.

The uniform will go far to increase safety, reduce distractions; communicate to the students, staff, and the community that we are serious about learning at K-5 STEM; increase equality between sexes; reduce teasing between boys and girls; enable teachers to truly “see” the student as a student; encourage students to see beyond external attributes and get to know his/her classmates on the basis of who they are; along with many other reasons.

The uniform to be decided upon will not be something akin to “ties for the boys and only skirts for the girls.” On the contrary, students will be able to wear khaki-colored pants, shorts and/or skirts of appropriate length, along with initially, perhaps a navy blue polo shirt. After the student body and staff have together chosen school colors, a mascot and a name, then more choices will be added to the uniform. All the logistics and the support to families are details that will be addressed.

The Design Team, which includes community, school, and district representatives, is scheduled to meet again at 6:15 pm June 21st at Madison Middle School‘s library. The school’s PTA is in formation, too, and its charter membership meeting is set for 6:30 pm June 27th at the West Seattle (Admiral) branch of the Seattle Public Library (2306 42nd SW). Meantime, the Yahoo! discussion group for enrolled and interested families continues going strong – find it here.

Excitement and maybe a few nerves were evident – as you’d expect! – as the Seattle Lutheran High School Class of 2012 entered the school’s Menashe Family Gymnasium for their graduation ceremony last night. The 43 seniors comprise the school’s 32nd graduating class; Keegan White was this year’s valedictorian; Valerie Reid, the salutatorian. 15 of this year’s graduates qualified for the National Honor Society; this night also represented a milestone for their NHS advisor (among her many other roles), Shirley Vradenburgh, photographed pre-ceremony with SLHS principal Mark Henderson:

She is retiring after 32 years during which, as the school newsletter noted, she has “worked with every student who has graduated from SLHS.” A celebration is planned next week, but on this night, the spotlight was on the students moving to the next phase of their lives. Congratulations to them all!