Off the peninsula, today’s biggest event was the culmination of the Seattle Maritime Festival – not just the tugboat races, but also a wide variety of maritime-related displays and contests at Pier 66. Among them, the “Quick and Dirty Boatbuilding” competition, with Chief Sealth International High School physics students in the fray. West Seattle resident Joe Follansbee shared the photo after covering the Maritime Festival for Fyddeye (of which he’s editor). Their task was previewed in the CSIHS Daily Bulletin: “Hannah Hodges, Stephanie Patterson and John Paul Altamirano will be participating in the ‘Quick and Dirty Boat Building Contest’ at the Seattle Maritime Festival. These students have $100 and three hours to build a boat that floats and race it through a course on Elliott Bay.” (We’ll be checking to see how they did!)

Perfect day to dance, shout, jump for joy outside – just ask the students of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School, who kicked off their annual Jog-A-Thon fundraiser with a choreographed routine to the Black-Eyed Peas‘ song “I Gotta Feeling.” (That’s Jill Pagano of the Nia Divas, leading the dance.) Afterward, K-3 students took the first hour-plus, 4th-8th graders followed; the official Jog-A-Thon page on the OLG website explained not only the event but featured video links to the routine, so everyone could learn it! (P.S. Q13 FOX TV news carried it live during their morning newscast.)

As first reported here March 28, independent Westside School is moving into the old EC Hughes building in Sunrise Heights this fall – and the move is REALLY official now that the Seattle School Board has given its final approval to the lease, with a vote at last night’s board meeting. According to school district documents (read them here), it’s a 10-year lease, starting at $45,000 a year for the first three years – with Westside responsible for operation and maintenance costs (aside from major systems); the district expects to save about $50,000 a year for Hughes and each of two other buildings elsewhere in the city that it’s now going to lease out. The district also had requested proposals for two of its other “closed” facilities in West Seattle, Genesee Hill and Fairmount Park elementaries, but nobody submitted a proposal; Westside, which has been housed in a former Highline Public Schools facility, was the only entity to seek a lease for Hughes. They’re planning to open in their new home this fall.

Thanks to tech instructor Roni Ayalla from the Seattle YMCA for sharing the link to that video, along with the news that the West Seattle High School senior who’s featured, Rey Martinez, created the design that won the “Be the Change” T-shirt contest put on by PugetSoundOff.org and One Soul Revolution. OSR will print and sell Rey’s design; he also won an iPod.

We stopped by West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor) to check out the plant sale, continuing till 2 pm, and wound up with a photo of the bake sale! (Added later – a peek inside their greenhouse:)

Also just picked up another event we didn’t know about till it turned up on Twitter – today is Free Comic Book Day nationwide, and Arcane Comics in West Seattle is among the participants.

For the second time in three days, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson is visiting West Seattle to join in an event with high-profile visitors. The other day, it was the Confucius Institute Education Center opening ceremonies at Denny International Middle School (WSB coverage here), and today, she’s at Chief Sealth High School – pictured above with Sealth principal John Boyd – for a special assembly introducing the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz‘s “Peer-to-Peer” jazz education program. The jazz legend’s son, Thelonious Monk Jr., is here, along with a musical delegation including a team described in the official announcement as “six exceptionally gifted high school jazz students from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.” After the assembly, which is continuing till noon, the visitors will join in an afternoon of workshops for Sealth musicians. ADDED: Our video is from Monk’s stirring pep talk as the event began- talking about how jazz is quintessential Americana – representing so many important values, including teamwork:

(Our first report on the Confucius Institute celebration, with more video/photos, is here)

First-grader Delaney Blanford‘s English and Mandarin greeting embodied what the Confucius Institute Education Center opening ceremony at Denny International Middle School was all about: Giving more students in our state the chance to learn Mandarin. She was preceded by Beacon Hill International School classmate Nat Beaumon (that’s Confucius Institute HQ director Madame Xu Lin and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn in the background):

Their participation as student emcees fits right in with the mission of the Seattle Public Schools international schools – with Chief Sealth International High School the latest to win that designation, and prominently participating in today’s ceremony; the center and its language programs will be based for now on the Denny campus, but will move to the Sealth/Denny campus a few blocks east on SW Thistle this fall. That’s why a parade/procession traversed those blocks as today’s ceremony ended:

At the end of our video, that’s Denny principal Jeff Clark, resplendent in the bright-blue suit he often wears when his Denny Dolphins are in the spotlight. At the start of the video, the Lion Dancers (doubling as break dancers) were from Franklin High School, the marching musicians from Denny and Sealth (both directed by Marcus Pimpleton). Clark and Chief Sealth principal John Boyd both spoke at their future new campus – the Denny principal, exchanging gifts with the Confucius Institute’s leader Madame Xu Lin:

Boyd will be hosting the center starting this fall, since his students move into their renovated school this September, while the new Denny won’t be occupied till 2011.

He also walked in the parade/procession, with West Seattle’s school board rep Steve Sundquist (photo right) also accompanying Madame Xu Lin:

The distinguished visitor from China had a short time earlier unveiled a plaque, with Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson:

And she heard students sing the Chinese folk song “Mo Li Hua“:

The student emcees joined them:

But what this ultimately comes down to, is back in the classroom – where the visiting delegation began their short stay in West Seattle, watching students practice writing Chinese – in this case, the word for “harmony”:

Along with Madame Xu Lin, four other representatives from the headquarters of the Confucius Institute – a nonprofit affiliated with the Chinese government (explained further on this University of Washington website) – attended the ceremonies, as did representatives from the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco. They got a whirlwind hard-hat tour of the Denny/Sealth site before they left (here’s our report on the one we took with Sealth students a few weeks ago).

Denny International Middle School in Westwood is abuzz with excitement right now – in two languages – Mandarin and English. Dignitaries from China are part of a high-powered delegation visiting the school right now to celebrate the launch of the Confucius Institute language program – to be based here at Denny until the new Denny/Sealth campus is open a few blocks east. The visit began with a classroom tour (photo above) and is now moving on to a big assembly, with students from Denny, Chief Sealth International High School, and Beacon Hill International Elementary, as well as dignitaries galore (including state schools Superintendent Randy Dorn). This will conclude with processions, including a lion dance, from Denny to the new Denny-Sealth campus in a little more than an hour, and as we mentioned earlier today, that means SW Thistle will be briefly closed in the area. “A very historic day for the state, city, and Seattle Public Schools,” as Karen Kodama, SPS international education administrator, has just proclaimed this to be. More to come! ADDED 3:16 PM: We’ve got lots of photos and video to put in a second report, but while we work on that, here are the Denny and Sealth musicians playing short version of both the China and USA national anthems at the new Sealth/Denny campus as the event ended:

ADDED 4:54 PM: And here are two of Christopher Boffoli‘s photos: First, from the start of the procession down SW Thistle from Denny to the new Sealth/Denny campus – lion dancer/break dancers from Franklin HS, followed by Denny/Sealth musicians – video of the parade will be in our second report:

From the auditorium event, Madame Xu Lin, who leads the Confucius Institute from its headquarters in China, with Superintendent Dorn:

She told the Denny audience this is the first middle-school-based Confucius Institute she has visited on the occasion of its grand opening.

Story, photos and video by Jonathan Stumpf
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

That’s Chris Ballew, aka Caspar Babypants, and his band performing a selection of tunes culled from his three albums, including the audience favorite and anthemic singalong “Little Broken Truck,” at a sold-out benefit concert this morning for the South Seattle Community College Parent Cooperative Preschools scholarship fund.

While today he spends more time playing to legions of adoring kids (and parents), Ballew – now a West Seattleite – came to fame as front man for Presidents of the United States of America, post-grunge, modern-rock darlings of Seattle during the mid-1990s.

The sold-out concert at the Jerry Brockey Center on the SSCC campus attracted more than 550 people — each paying a $5 cover.

All proceeds directly benefited the Mary E. Phillips Scholarship Fund that provides tuition assistance to co-op students. Over the past year, the fund awarded $9,700 to families in need. Co-op Parent Education Instructor Judy Hall tells WSB that scholarship requests have increased over the past year because of the economy.

The SSCC Cooperative Preschools have five sites around West Seattle, listed here; the program is explained here.

Thanks to Jay Kelly for sending the link to the video he just posted on YouTube, with highlights of another event we featured in the West Seattle Weekend Lineup, the West Seattle High School talent show – multiple performers, less than five minutes! The show was held at the WSHS Theater last night. (Anyone else with clips? We’d be happy to add links, and school news of all kinds is always welcome – westseattleblog.com/contact) ADDED 11:53 PM SUNDAY: Marie sent us a note pointing out this link to three boys’ cover of “Baby,” crowd singalong and all. ADDED 1:28 PM MONDAY: The winners were Vicious Puppies Crew – and ArtsCorps directs us to this clip from their winning performance:

More than a year after Dr. Jill Wakefield was promoted from the South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) presidency to the role of chancellor for the entire Seattle community-college system, there are now three finalists to succeed her at SSCC – including the man who holds the job in the interim. The finalists’ official campus visits will start next week. Read on for the official announcement:Read More

Holy Rosary School shared that photo, explaining that Dave Dupuy of Jefferson Square Safeway is one of two local Safeway store managers receiving special presentations from students recently; he and Admiral Safeway‘s Amy Hill got posters and certificates in honor of their contributions to the school through the eScrip program. The announcement from Holy Rosary explains, “eScrip contributes to our operating budget which helps keep tuition affordable for all families, compensates our faculty and staff at a just and equitable salary, and continuously improves the learning opportunities for our students.” Last year, the program – which donates a portion of the monthly grocery purchases by each registered participant – brought almost $5,000 to Holy Rosary. Other local schools participate too – you can see the list and support a local school by going to escrip.com.