West Seattle, Washington
16 Wednesday
The West Seattle High School Wildcats took both ends of the West Seattle Holiday Basketball Classic on their home court Saturday night, with the varsity girls defeating Seattle Lutheran High School 55-26 and the boys pulling off a 42-32 win. In both games, West Seattle used a run-and-gun offense with differing degrees of success. For summaries of, and clips, from, both games, read on!Read More
Really, there’s nothing like a ton of good news going into a weekend, especially before a holiday. Here’s more. Earlier we reported the success of Lafayette Elementary‘s food drive for the White Center Food Bank. Now we have a report from Sanislo Elementary, which also wrapped up a food drive today – Lisa K shared the photos and the report below this next pic:
WOW! The Sanislo community once again demonstrated their tremendous generosity during our annual winter food drive. Our 300 students blew away our goal of 1000 lbs of nonperishable food, toiletries and cleaning supplies with donations totaling 2912 pounds! In full disclosure, one of our truly big-hearted dads once again donated hundreds of pounds of food to help his son’s class win the class competition. However, even without his amazing generosity, our kids still topped a ton (!!) of donations. There were more than enough donations this year to provide for our own school families needing extra help AND to share with the greater community through the food bank. Given the current economy and the fact that approximately half our students qualify for free or reduced meals, this is certainly an example of the kids’ and teachers’ care for one another.
Representatives from Mr. Apostol’s 5th grade class accepted the trophy as this year’s winners, and their class leads off the initial engraved plate on our new plaque that will commemorate each year’s “Annual Sanislo Food Drive Superstars.” Mrs. Goethe’s kindergarten class and Mr. Simmons’ 4th graders (woo hoo FIRE MONKEYS!) also deserve mention for their efforts. Since the entire school did such a great job showing us just what outstanding citizens they are, EVERY class won ice cream. Congratulations to you all!
All the best,
Lisa K. for the Sanislo PTA
We’re just back from Lafayette Elementary School in Admiral, where White Center Food Bank executive director Rick Jump and volunteer Beth Grieser came to pick up a huge donation of food gathered by Lafayette students. We’ll add photos of the handoff later; first, here are a few of the student heroes with the massive pile of food (in a photo taken by Lafayette leadership this morning), and the story told by school administrators:
For the second year in a row, the Lafayette Elementary community used some friendly competition to amass donations for the school’s annual food drive. The charitable event was fueled by a contest to see which class could collect the most items and donations by teacher were tracked on a bulletin board in the front lobby. Over the next couple of weeks, the collected food almost overtook the school’s front lobby.
All of the classes participated, but two classes led the competition: Ms. Rollins’ class collected the most items (525) and Mr. Beal’s class (497) came in second place. Mrs. Bell’s kindergarten class sorted their 297 items alphabetically so that the collection effort also became a learning opportunity. Over 3,300 items total were collected school-wide, which is up dramatically from 2,100 last year. Today the White Center Food Bank team (came) to start transporting all of the collected food down to their facility in White Center.
Lafayette’s student council sponsors two community service projects a year–one in winter and one in spring. We would like to thank the Lafayette’s student council leaders for putting together the food drive, faculty/staff for keeping students motivated and to all the generous Lafayette families who donated food.
Congratulations to all the generous youngsters and their families, and to everyone in West Seattle who’s reached out so generously to make sure fewer people will be in need. We published a story earlier today about the WC Food Bank as the holiday approaches and how you can help – read it here; and our earlier story about the West Seattle Food Bank can be seen here.
First – the teachers. Seattle Public Schools (where winter break starts after classes let out an hour early today) announced 57 teachers in the district have just received Board Certification – explained here – including these teachers from West Seattle-area schools:
Alki Elementary
Kristine McChesneyArbor Heights Elementary
Susan CrookeConcord International
Tom Ly
Linda Martinez
Kathryn SperlingGatewood Elementary
Darren RaduHighland Park Elementary
Laura DrakeMadison Middle
Kathleen Myers
Karen NixonPathfinder K-8 @ Cooper
Ami PendleyRoxhill Elementary
Jenny Dew
Teresa KleinSanislo Elementary
Carolyn Autenrieth
Second … congratulations to Morgan Junction-based Alki Tours, which sent word it’s received the 2009 Best of Business Award in the Sightseeing tour companies category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA). The accompanying news release says, “The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognizes the top 5% of small businesses throughout the country. … The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based off information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports.” This time of year, Alki Tours is best known for its Leavenworth Snow Train excursions.
We told you yesterday about the urgent need for toy donations at High Point Community Center, to fulfill the holiday wishes of families who were left empty-handed when a toy-drive delivery for distribution this past Monday didn’t come through. Among those who have stepped up to the plate, students from Westside School – Rebecca Hall from HPCC sent that photo with this update:
Westside School hosted a toy drive and brought all of the toys and dropped them off at High Point CC this morning.
We’re awaiting a progress report on how far donations have gotten toward the request for 400 toys, for kids 3-18; HPCC says you can drop off donations through Saturday afternoon – their hours and location are here. Meantime, word of other local kids doing good deeds:
From Jeanne Merritt at Madison Middle School, that photo and report on results of a recent food drive:
Madison Middle School’s students showed a great spirit of generosity with their recent food drive. Science teachers arranged a competition between all the science classes. Alisha Taylor’s class, the winners, brought in over 700 pounds of food. All in all students gathered 1800 pounds of food! (School nurse Sami Hoag weighed it all.) The food was distributed to Madison families in 41 Thanksgiving food baskets.
Last night, we published an update on what West Seattle Food Bank needs for the holiday; coming up in the next few hours, our update on how you can help White Center Food Bank. (Lots of additional ideas for how to help, including Giving Trees and donation drives, can be found on the West Seattle Holidays page.)
2 more event reminders have arrived since our earlier item about today/tonight highlights. First, the West Seattle Democratic Women are lunching today, with guests including two of the local leaders who remain finalists for West Seattle’s open King County Council seat after the long no-decision night the other night (here’s our play-by-play if you missed it):
The West Seattle Democratic Women are having their annual fundraiser/auction at the West Seattle Golf Course today at 11:30. Come on down if you are in the area. Lunch is $10, but you can just come and hang out with us if you like. We have some great auction items and Sen. Joe McDermott and Rep. Sharon Nelson will be attending.
Here’s a map to the golf course. Meantime, Lynn sends word of the Chief Sealth HS winter concert – happening outside WS:
Due to lack of a performance space at Boren, Chief Sealth High School Music Department will be presenting their winter concert tonight at Mercer Middle School Auditorium (1600 S. Columbian Way) at 7PM. Admission is free and following groups will be performing.
Jazz Band
Concert Band
String Orchestra
Mariachi band
Intermediate and Honor Choirs
Men’s Vocal Ensemble
Here’s a map to Mercer Middle School. Also today/tonight, some holiday-shopping special events – more on those next.
ADDED 11:07 AM: Since the Ryan Cox arrest will be atop the home page here for a while, here are a few of the shopping notes we wanted to share: First, tonight 5-9 pm, longtime WSB sponsor Click! Design That Fits in the Admiral District is having its “Wrap It Up” party, 5-9 pm, with 15 percent off purchases over $100. (While you’re in the Admiral area, check out the other local businesses that have joined Click! in sponsoring WSB this season to encourage you to “Shop Local” in their district too – they’re listed on this page, with a map and even coupons [yet more coupons here].) On Alki, Coastal Boutique is having a sale event noon-7 pm today with 40 percent savings. And looking ahead to this weekend, six Junction businesses have joined forces to offer free “stocking stuffers” with purchases, including WSB sponsor Brunette Mix – another participant, Clementine, has the full list here.
(Editor’s note: School Board member Steve Sundquist has another community meeting this morning, 10 am at Delridge Library)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“We all know the line has to be drawn somewhere, but — right across the street?”
So asked one of the 25+ people who crowded into Roxhill Elementary School‘s library Tuesday night to try to find out from Seattle School Board member Steve Sundquist why the Roxhill attendance area in the new Student Assignment Plan has one headscratcher:
When the West Seattle lines were redrawn, for the maps that were finalized with few amendments last month, the western boundary of Roxhill’s attendance area moved several blocks east, and now goes down the middle of 30th SW .. yards from where the school sits on the east side of that street (note the school icon next to the boundary line in the map section shown above).
News to share about some young West Seattleites on the move, in more ways than one:
First, West Seattle state-champion runner Maddie Meyers (left) was the only girl from our state in the Foot Locker National Cross-Country Championships last weekend in San Diego; she finished 23rd, with the third-highest time for a 10th grader (she attends The Northwest School). We have reported on some of Maddie’s achievements before (here and here). She qualified for nationals by finishing 7th at the West Regionals a week earlier. Also from the fleet-of-foot department, Jo Bader shares a photo and news from last weekend’s Girls On The Run event at Seward Park, with West Seattle girls participating:
Girls on the Run of Puget Sound is a non-profit organization whose mission is to use the power of running to educate and prepare girls for a lifetime of self-respect and healthy living. GOTRPS operates an after-school prevention program for 3rd through 5th grade girls throughout Puget Sound, including two programs in West Seattle at Hiawatha and Pathfinder.
Girls from the West Seattle GOTR programs participated this past Saturday in the GOTR 5K at Seward Park. The event is the graduation 5K for our 10-week fall program participants. It is also a fundraiser for the GOTRPS organization and attracts lots of supporters. The program is run by volunteer coaches who were all on hand to cheer on our girls to the finish line. It was a chilly, but very fun day.
Congratulations to all of the girls who completed the program and their very first 5K! Their coaches are very proud of them.
Girls on the Run of Puget Sound
www.girlsrun.org
Jo says there’ll be a spring program at the same locations, and they’ll be looking for coaches: “It is really fun and very rewarding!”
Next, from Madison Middle School teacher Jeanne Merritt, a recap of the school’s Winter Concert a few nights ago:
Madison Middle School’s annual Winter Concert took place Thursday evening under the leadership of music teacher Clark Bathum.
The beautiful music performed by 170 students was inspiring.
The program began with the jazz band performing Fat Cat and featuring piano, sax and trombone soloists. Then they played a lively Cuban piece featuring a guitar soloist. Another band group played music showcasing percussionists. The program finished with a full orchestra performing four selections from the Nutcracker Suite.
The Madison orchestra is co-taught by string specialist Mike Watson, and the Latin jazz band is taught after school by local salsa musician Fred Hoadley. He also arranges all the Latin music.
Madison’s music students are accustomed to excellence. Last year they won many awards at the Music in the Parks Festival in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho: First place jazz band, first place string orchestra, Esprit de Corps award (musicianship and gracious conduct), and soloist award (eighth consecutive year).
Bravo!
Thanks to Jeanne – we appreciate news from West Seattle schools (photos are great too) – editor@westseattleblog.com. Last but not least, as The Nutcracker continues at Pacific Northwest Ballet, we have the company’s list of West Seattle-area youth who are in the cast. Read on:Read More
After the holidays, it’s time for many families to start making major decisions – if they haven’t already – about school for fall 2010-2011. With that in mind, a West Seattle Preschool Fair is being organized, and they’re inviting preschools to participate – here’s the official invite:
Build visibility in the West Seattle community for your preschool program!
West Seattle Preschool Fair
February 22, 2010
5:30 – 8:30pm
Location: TBA
Featuring the Families Read Workshop by Page Ahead: Children’s Literacy Program from 6 – 7:30pmIn the Families Read Workshop, parents learn methods to develop their child’s literacy skills. This interactive workshop includes a model read-aloud and a hands-on activity. Parents receive literary resources and a free children’s book.
Schools or Childcare Agencies interested in requesting a registration form, please contact:
Tana Dorsey
206. 465.3501
mlk.vista@soundchildcare.orgRegister by Dec. 31st to reserve your table.
All fees cover the operational cost of the event and are not for profit.
Limited tables available; registration based on first come, first serve.Parents interested in attending, mark your calendar and look for more announcements to come. This event is free for the community.
Though the maps have been announced, families still have many questions about Seattle Public Schools‘ new Student Assignment Plan – focusing on “neighborhood schools” – and there are two opportunities in the next 24 hours for you to get answers from West Seattle’s school board rep Steve Sundquist. Thanks to Westwood Neighborhood Council‘s Donn DeVore for sending word that Sundquist will be at a meeting at Roxhill Elementary at 5 today (the Roxhill office says that meeting’s open to the public and it’s scheduled for the school library); and from the WSB Events calendar, he has another of his community chats tomorrow morning, 10 am, at Delridge Library.
We promised more high-school sports coverage this year, and brought you fairly comprehensive coverage of the high-school football season. Now it’s basketball time, and we’ll be covering many of the games West Seattle’s three high schools play, starting with Seattle Lutheran High School‘s doubleheader in West Seattle Saturday night – read on for the story and video:Read More
(Photo added Saturday morning, shared by Stephanie; that’s School Board rep Steve Sundquist at left, Gatewood principal Rhonda Claytor at right)
That’s how Karen‘s son described it; she and Stephanie, both proud Gatewood Elementary School parents, e-mailed tonight to share the news that the school received its Apple Award $25,000 check today (at least, the ceremonial “big” version). The award was announced back in September; it was given to schools for making major educational progress, and they’ll be able to choose a construction project to spend it on. (We’ll check with Gatewood administration next week to see if they’ve earmarked it yet.)
Just out of the WSB inbox — WSB’ers stepped up to help with this type of judging before, and those who participated reported having a great time (here’s the report we published in May):
* Michelle Sloan, the DECA Club Adviser at West Seattle High School, is searching for judges for Automotive Marketing competition at the DECA Regional Competitions on Tuesday, January 12th, at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, 9 am – 4 pm.
* Anyone with ANY Marketing experience will be great!
* We will need the names of any “possibles” (ASAP), as we’d like to have our final list organized before the holidays (no one wants to commit to anything the first week in January!)
DECA Marketing Regional Competition
* Tuesday, January 12, 2010
* 9 am – 1 pm
* Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WABenefits of participating?
* Supporting the DECA Marketing students at WSHS and the region!
* Free lunch!
* Free coffee!
* Networking with hundreds of other DECA judges from the state of Washington!Thank you so much for your help!
Interested judges may contact Michelle Sloan, masloan@seattleschools.org, or mmtonkin@seattleschools.org, for more information!
Thanks to the folks at DKA, building the new Denny Middle School and renovating Chief Sealth High School, for the latest aerial photo of the site – compare to this one from three months ago:
In the latest construction update, they say Sealth work is continuing on “insulation, doors, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and fire sprinklers” and wall-framing, while structural-steel deliveries continue for the new Denny – they’ve already completed putting up the steel for the new Denny gym as well as the Galleria that both schools will share. Sealth is scheduled to move back this fall after 2 years at the Boren interim location; we’re checking on the latest timetable for Denny occupancy. Here’s the official project-information site.
If you’re with a group that can use student volunteers, here’s a chance to find them:
Chief Sealth High School will be hosting a Service Learning Fair for non-profit organizations that offer Service Learning opportunities to high school youth, 14-21 years of age, on Monday, December 7, 9:00 – 11:00 AM. (Service Learning is volunteer work with learning and reflection.) Non-profit organizations that want to participate are invited to contact Chris Syrjala, Career Specialist, Chief Sealth High School cmsyrjala@seattleschools.org, 252-8635 by Thursday, December 3.
The gate swung open at noon, though the final touches are still in progress, for the Holy Rosary School Christmas Tree Lot behind Admiral Safeway (map). Through December 20th, it’s open 9 am-9 pm Saturdays and Sundays, 3 pm-9 pm Mondays-Fridays. Holy Rosary’s official announcement notes, “As in years past, 15% of the proceeds support local charities including the West Seattle Food Bank, West Seattle Helpline and Hickman House of West Seattle.” For your full range of options, we’ve listed all the local treesellers we know of on the WSB West Seattle Holidays page, plus a link to U-Cut tree info (outside the area), which came up in the WSB Forums. Plus lots of new listings for other holiday events – tree lightings, Santa, Hometown Holidays in The Junction (co-sponsored by WSB), concerts, plays, bazaars, more – have been added too. (Click “Holidays” in the tabs atop any WSB page, any time.)
Seattle Public Schools management hasn’t issued a formal announcement of this yet — but since they did promise after last week’s five-and-a-half-hour School Board meeting that the final attendance-area maps would be online this week sometime, we checked again tonight, and they ARE now published online. From this page, you can either click the big pink medallion to get a form where entering your address will bring up your official attendance-area schools (Sat. note – if you have trouble with that, go here instead), or you can follow this link to an index page where you can look at the maps for individual schools. Next step for the board/district – “implementation,” which includes working out transition details, including “sibling grandfathering” and possible rule changes, such as West Seattle school-board member Steve Sundquist‘s suggestion that families at three WS elementary schools might be given the option to either track to Denny/Sealth or Madison/WSHS. Here’s a new timeline for how that will all roll out.
No special place for media to shoot the Macy’s Holiday Parade downtown, so we just picked a spot – and got lucky: The Chief Sealth High School–Denny International Middle School combined marching bands, directed by Marcus Pimpleton, stopped right in front of us for an entire Christmas medley (and a few dance moves). According to e-mail forwarded to us last night by Denny principal Jeff Clark, the two bands only had three combined rehearsals – but as you can see in the video (and as evidenced by the crowd reaction), they rocked the parade – take three minutes and have a look/listen. Another West Seattleite was in the parade – the last parade for Greg Nickels as Seattle Mayor; we’ll add that clip when it’s done. (Update: Here’s the link.) Downtown tonight, it’s the Macy’s star lighting and fireworks – if you can’t be there, our friends at KING5 say they’ll be showing it live, as well as a special edition of Evening Magazine at 7 co-hosted by West Seattleite Jim Dever (pictured here covering this morning’s parade).
Thanks to Matt Weiner, teacher candidate at Sanislo Elementary, for sharing photos from a fun event there last week, along with the story:
On Thursday, November 19th, Sanislo Elementary School held its annual Family Game Night. This year’s Game Night was organized by the four Teacher Candidates (formerly known as Student Teachers) from the University of Washington. This event draws together the school community to engage in a fun-filled evening of eating, good conversation, and of course playing games with one another. There were a wide variety of games being played, from old classics like Booby-trap and Scrabble to more contemporary games like Harry Potter chess and a fishing game based on the movie, Cars. This year, other activities were incorporated into the evening, including face painting, guessing game jars, a bake sale to support the fourth grade trip in the spring, and even a large walk on chess game.
Here’s the pic of that:
Matt continues:
Even on a rainy Seattle evening there was an estimated crowd of 150 people. This evening was even more successful with all the help of the volunteers and wonderful donations to additionally support the dinner option of pizza and prizes for the guessing game jars. This event continues to be a sought after evening of bringing together the community in a fun and interactive way.
(That gives us the opportunity to plug future Family Board Game Afternoons at Southwest Branch Library – more info here.) And at Madison Middle School, high-flying fun today:
Thanks to Ed for sharing that photo from the Ride and Glide BMX bicycle demo at Madison today. They’re the same riders who showed their stuff at West Seattle Christian in late August (WSB coverage here).
First, one more pre-Thanksgiving food bank pitch. The West Seattle Food Bank is open till 3 pm today – one more hour – the White Center Food Bank (which serves part of southern WS too) is (THIS IS AN UPDATE) open till 7 pm. You’ve probably seen our pitches to help make sure your neighbors have a happy holiday. Here’s one we received from Rob:
Just wanted to let you know that I spoke to Audrey at the WC Food Bank last night and she said they still need large turkeys, dinner rolls and cranberry sauce. When I dropped off some cranberry sauce this morning they told me that had run out of it altogether.
I didn’t even know there was a WC Food Bank until I read your post mentioning the need for the turkeys and such. A bit embarrassing to say that since I live only about 25 blocks from it, but my point is that I didn’t know and your post made me aware of it. Here’s hoping it opens more people’s eyes.
The WC Food Bank is at 10829 8th SW; directions here. The WS Food Bank is at the southeast corner of 35th/Morgan. (3:01 PM NOTE: We went to WCFB to clarify when they’re open and what they need. Director Rick Jump says they’ve got what they need for holiday distributions and thanks everyone who’s helped. Our note: Both local food banks have a tremendous ongoing demand – donating $ to them online will give them the most buying power, as they have a lot of bulk deals.)
One more story of giving. It’s a tradition for Seattle Lutheran High School students – a day of giving right before the holiday. Today, they’ve been working on a variety of projects around West Seattle – including painting a mural in the nursery at neighboring Hope Lutheran Church/School:
Other groups of SLHS students did work including pulling invasives at Me-Kwa-Mooks and performing music for local elders. ADDED 2:16 PM: One other giving option we meant to mention – it’s among the “ongoing” listings on the WSB West Seattle Holidays page – as of today, there’s a Pet Giving Tree at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor):
Many other giving trees in West Seattle too – we’re continuing to add to the listings on the WS Holidays page – let us know if we’re missing any!
(December 2008 photo)
SNOW BRIEFING: Not sure you completely have a handle on what the city will do differently if snow falls again this winter? This morning at 10, the City Council gets a briefing on SDOT‘s newest snow-removal plan – you can watch live via Seattle Channel, online or cable 21.
FOOD BANKS: They’re running out of time to get your donations for pre-Thanksgiving distribution. West Seattle Food Bank is open to take donations 9 am-7 pm today (here’s their full holiday-week schedule); White Center Food Bank, 8:30 am-5 pm. Both need turkeys, too!
DELRIDGE PLAYFIELD IMPROVEMENTS: Second of two meetings tonight, 7:30 at Delridge Community Center, and the focus will be on reviewing the design and getting more input before the project approaches the work stage. Go here to see the design and review notes from the previous meeting last month.
REMINDER: No school for elementaries and K-8 schools in Seattle Public Schools all week; they have parent/teacher conferences Monday-Wednesday – then Thursday-Friday are offdays districtwide.
Update from Bil Hood at Seattle Lutheran High School:
Congratulations to the Seattle Lutheran Saints Girls Soccer Team on winning 3rd in state. They just beat LaConner 6-2. Ashley Shaw, Melissa Stein and Danya Van Trojen each won tournament sportsmanship awards.
Congratulations! We’ll be covering winter sports too – but your help’s vital – reports, photos, etc. always welcome at editor@westseattleblog.com (or Facebook, Twitter, text, phone, whatever’s convenient for you).
The arrival of the latest School Beat e-newsletter from Seattle Public Schools provides another reminder: This year for the first time, all elementary and K-8 schools in the district are closed for the entire Thanksgiving week — parent/teacher conferences Monday-Wednesday, holiday break Thursday-Friday. In School Beat, the district says, “The new schedule will be less disruptive to student learning while also providing greater consistency and predictability for families.”
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