That’s the clip we showed you last month with news that Chief Sealth International High School‘s Marching Band was back in the KZOK “Battle of the Bands” competition – the only Seattle school in the running. Today, band director Marcus Pimpleton is thanking everyone for the support that helped Sealth come in second (here’s the news on the KZOK website) – which brings a $5,000 prize! The competition included both public voting and expert judging. So what will the money go toward? we asked. Here’s the reply:

Right now the funds will just be sitting in our music ASB account until we determine which of our many priorities needs attention first. We have a few things we are hoping to fund this year – additional band uniforms and mallet percussion instruments are currently at the top of the list, but our jazz band is auditioning for the prestigious Essentially Ellington competition in New York. Our acceptance is a long shot but the students are working very hard and if they are accepted it is a possibility that we may have to delay acquiring more band uniforms and use funds to support that.

(UPDATED 7:42 PM FRIDAY: Added comment from Marty McLaren, who now represents West Seattle on the School Board)
ORIGINAL 10:10 AM REPORT: Just received from Seattle Public Schools – Dr. Susan Enfield says she doesn’t want to be permanently appointed to the job she’s been doing temporarily:

In March, when I was appointed Interim Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, the District was in crisis. I was tasked with assembling the very best team of professionals to help lead this District, create transparency, improve communication and restore trust between families, the community and Seattle Public Schools.

I am incredibly proud of the work our students, teachers, principals and staff have accomplished over the past 10 months. Seattle is fortunate to have such a team of dedicated educational professionals. The progress we have made is significant:

Seattle Public Schools students outperformed the state average in every tested subject in grades 3-8
Our four-year graduation rate is up from 67 percent to 73 percent in the last year
Our overall school performance is increasing, with 27 schools increasing their overall performance level during 2010-2011
Enrollment is on the rise
Our city passed yet another Families and Education levy that will provide essential supports to our students

While I am proud of what we have accomplished together, today I am announcing my decision to neither seek nor accept the permanent position of superintendent after my contract ends in June. This was not an easy decision for me to make given my commitment to Seattle and to our students.

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As you can hear Madison Middle School principal Henterson Carlisle say in that clip, pep rallies happen all the time for athletics, so why not for academics? His students gathered in the Madison gym on Thursday afternoon to cheer two major awards the school has won this year. We’ve reported one of them, the fourth consecutive School of Distinction award, given for academic improvement. That award is statewide; the other one is national – as announced last month, Madison won the Career Awareness and Exploration Award from the National Consortium for State Guidance Leadership. First time in 15 years a school here has won that award, said Mike Hubert from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who high-fived the Madison staffers involved in providing those services, led by Lauren Divina:

(added) Here’s the official school photo of Hubert with, from left, Linda Mundinger, Lauren Divina, and Claudia Whitaker-Greenway:

As for the School of Distinction Award, Carlisle said it’s a reason for everybody involved with the school to stand tall:

Madison was one of two West Seattle schools to receive that award this year, along with Alki Elementary.

Though a mostly final proposal isn’t expected until the January 4th Seattle School Board meeting, we do know now what Seattle Public Schools is suggesting for relieving the crowding at six elementary schools in West Seattle. Their proposal is in the PowerPoint presented last night at the board’s Committee of the Whole meeting (see it here). Pages 16 and 17 are the heart of what’s proposed here, broken out by middle-school “service area.” The booed-at-last-month’s-community-meeting (WSB coverage here) suggestions about splitting off kindergarten or 5th graders appear to have been scrapped. But reopening Boren (the former “junior high” at 5950 Delridge Way SW) as the temporary home of a STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) option elementary is on the list. Portables are suggested for Gatewood, Lafayette, Schmitz Park, and West Seattle elementaries, but not Arbor Heights and Roxhill. From the above-linked presentation:

We have a message out to West Seattle’s new school-board rep Marty McLaren, asking for comment. The official schedule calls for the final “short-term capacity management” plan – this is only the first phase, covering next school year – to be introduced at the January 4th school-board meeting, and then put to a vote two weeks later. (A longer-term plan, involving reopening/building more school/s, will be hashed out next year – and that’s when the district proposes figuring out where the new STEM elementary would be permanently located.)

Two West Seattle elementary schools have achievements to share. First, from Roxhill:

Young adults in service to help kids – that’s the fundamental mission of City Year, which operates in several West Seattle schools (among many other places). And a recent event involving Roxhill’s City Year team stretched beyond those involved, raising global awareness. Team leader Hollis Hernandez shares the photos and this report:

On December 1st, the City Year team at Roxhill Elementary School celebrated the end of a school-wide Hunger Awareness Month Campaign with the school’s first Empty Bowls Banquet. All students and families were invited to share a humble meal of soup and bread out of student-decorated bowls and to hear students’ amazing essays on how to combat hunger around the world. It was a powerful and inspiring evening that could only have been possible with the generous donations from Endolyne Joe’s, Ivar’s, Target, and Great Harvest Bread.

Students were excited to get up onstage to read their essays – short and sweet, like this one from a girl named Faith:

Get food for the kids! Parents feed their kids but, some parents want to get more food for their kids because they don’t have enough food. If this happens all the kids will grow. The village will grow stronger with the help a community. The community will grow stronger if all the nations unite. Together we can help change the world to change ourselves.

Now, from Lafayette Elementary , an update on students getting involved with technology – not just to use it, but to strategize and compete: We have an update on a big day for the school’s new LaSER (Lafayette Science, Engineering, Robotics) club!

From Matt Jensen:

Robotics teams from Lafayette’s LaSER club had a great showing at the 26-team South Seattle FLL robot tournament on Saturday. The Mystic Mindstormers and Lego Minds, mixed teams of 2nd and 3rd graders, were the youngest teams there and outscored a number of older teams. The girls’ team, the Go-Go Bots, scored well and won a Core Values Award for Gracious Professionalism.

(Photos courtesy Seattle Public Schools)
After the official swearing-in ceremony this afternoon – Puget Ridge resident and retired teacher Marty McLaren is now the District 6 (West Seattle and vicinity) representative on the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors. That’s Diann Shope (left) administering the oath. Also sworn in for four-year terms today, new board member Sharon Peaslee and returnees Harium Martin-Morris and Sherry Carr. Here’s the full board afterward:

Final election results were certified yesterday (see the four school-board races’ results here). We profiled McLaren in this story published last Sunday.

(Photo courtesy Westside School)
Field trips come in all sizes. This one for Westside School (WSB sponsor) was pretty big, providing students a chance to follow in explorers Lewis and Clark‘s foosteps:

Recently, twenty 5th-grade Westside School middle-school students went on an overnight field trip to Fort Clatsop, in Astoria Oregon, to enhance their understanding of Lewis and Clark’s Corps. of Discovery. Their social studies unit focused on the Louisiana Purchase and Thomas Jefferson’s desire to explore a water route to the Pacific.

After leaving school at 8 am on Thursday and arriving in Astoria by lunchtime, students visited the fort and completed a tour and research session. Later that evening, the group took a stroll on the beach and experienced the sun setting, over the Pacific Ocean. Teacher Glyn Jenkins observed two of his students sitting on a log with their eyes closed. He was curious and asked about their thoughts. “We are listening to the waves, wind, and bird sounds, just like Lewis & Clark must have,” they said, and closed their eyes again and smiled. Later the 5th graders conducted a group reflection activity, where they explained what they appreciated most about the Lewis and Clark expedition. On Friday morning, the trip continued to the Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment, where the students completed a fact finding mission, which provided information for a play that they wrote, upon returning to school. The play will be performed at the end of the winter term.

Families interested in Westside are invited to an “Information Night” tomorrow (6-7:30 pm Thursday 12/1) for students entering 5th, 6th, and 7th grade next school year. Besides Q/A time, students will participate in an interactive activity to demonstrate Westside’s experiential curriculum. (7740 34th Ave SW); if you have questions, you’re welcome to contact Westside’s Director of Admission David Bergler at davidb@westsideschool.org or (206) 932-2511.

South Seattle Community College is known for an ever-longer list of specialties … food, wine, horticulture, automotive technology, to name a few. The latter was in the spotlight today at a ceremony unveiling a sign in honor of its forthcoming Steve and Sharon Huling Automotive Center. This was a followup to the announcement last year that the Hulings would be the namesakes of the center, which is about to undergo an $18 million renovation, increasing to 45,590 square feet with 27 shop bays (up from the current 18), enabling an enrollment expansion. Dozens of dignitaries and students, from the Hulings and SSCC president Gary Oertli to a large contingent of the program’s faculty and students, participated in the ceremony. Here’s our video:

The Hulings have long been strong supporters of SSCC, with Steve Huling currently on its President’s Advisory Council. The couple shared a champagne toast with the president after the sign unveiling:

Given the family history in the automotive business (until 2007), the center is perfect synergy, especially since it will offer a “dealership environment” for students to work on vehicles. A few datapoints about the program at SSCC, as mentioned during today’s ceremony: Its faculty includes three full-time in automotive technology and one in collision repair, with more than 80 students; a six-quarter Associate of Applied Science degree is available in Auto Tech, as well as training certificates in various areas. It’s won a “Top 4 Automotive Schools” award, and they expect to be offering classes soon in alternative fuels. The future Steve and Sharon Huling-named center is on the north side of the main campus.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Monday night’s Seattle Public Schools “capacity-management” meeting at the Denny International Middle School Library provided a visual metaphor of the problem it was meant to address.

Every chair in the library was filled by the time the meeting began … and people just kept coming, requiring extras to be brought in, until the room was full, wall to wall.

Six elementary schools in West Seattle are perceived to have a “capacity-management” – overcrowding – problem so serious that something must be done before next year. A seventh school in the area – Chief Sealth International High School – is stuffed too, but while the district is only putting it on a “watch list” for now, its teachers are circulating a petition to get portables, which happen to be among the options proposed for the brimming elementary schools.

If you would like to see and hear the meeting for yourself, here’s our unedited hour-and-a-half video:

And/or, read more details ahead:Read More

Just announced and potentially of interest to local families as well as educators: Holy Family Parish School is hosting a forum on “dual language immersion,” 8 am-3 pm this Saturday, and principal Frank Cantwell says the public is invited; it’s not specifically about his school, but about this educational philosophy/method in general:

Seattle and Highline Public Schools have been operating immersion schools for a number of years, and have agreed to come and discuss their programs. In the afternoon, we will have a panel of experts who will answer questions on the subject. We are inviting the public to come and listen to the speakers. This is an opportunity to learn more about this new and exciting way to teach languages. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the principal of Holy Family, Frank Cantwell, at 206-767-6640.

Here’s a flyer with more information.

Perfect morning downtown for the annual Macy’s Holiday Parade; we checked it out to watch for West Seattle participants. Two were obvious – top video, it’s not a holiday parade without the Chief Sealth International High School Marching Band, directed by the award-winning Marcus Pimpleton; below, Salty’s on Alki team members with a few of the restaurant’s famous nutcrackers:

(If you were in the parade too, let us know in the comment section!) Kudos to everybody out in the early-morning chill to celebrate the holidays (including marching bands from as far away as Centralia, Sequim, and Canada …).

ADDED 3:28 PM: One more group we have on video – with strong West Seattle/White Center ties – Rat City Rollergirls:

Their next season opens at KeyArena on January 21.

55 families will have a happier Thanksgiving, thanks to students, staff, and parents at Madison Middle School. Students collected 1,100 pounds of canned food – more than half a ton! – in a science-department competition, and a staff/parents fundraising drive brought in $3,000 to buy turkey, vegetables, fruit, rice, milk, eggs, and other items.

That resulted in baskets for 45 Madison families and grocery-store gift cards for 10 more, while 25 Madison students sorted the cans and put together the baskets:

Thanks to Madison parent Anne for sharing the story, including school nurse Samara Hoag‘s summary: “We are happy to help our families have a nice holiday.” (P.S. West Seattle’s food banks can still use last-minute holiday help – more on that later this morning after we check in with them.)

Tonight, the Seattle School Board held another “work session” about capacity management – how to relieve school overcrowding now, and how to plan for the future. This is in preparation for another round of public meetings, including one here in West Seattle next Monday. The presentation assembled for the work session is already online. It includes the latest list of potential options for how current West Seattle elementary-school overcrowding could be relieved, the idea of reopening the former Hughes Elementary – leased and renovated a year ago by private Westside School (WSB sponsor)’s new home – is suddenly off the list; only the shuttered Boren Junior High and Fairmount Park Elementary are mentioned, the former as soon as next fall, the latter possibly by fall 2013 as a Science/Tech/Engineering/Math “option school.” The new document lays out what’s possible, school by school – including maybe even moving fifth graders from two crowded schools into the nearest middle school. More after the jump:Read More