By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Photos by DIWAS Photography

For most public elementary schools, having a strong parent-teacher association is a crucial goal. However, the available PTA funding often varies widely between schools. One grassroots West Seattle group has been working hard to change that.

The West Seattle Public School Equity Fund (WSPSEF) celebrated its third year earlier this summer with a community event (pictured above and below) at West Seattle Elementary, and the group has also released its new 2024 Impact Report online, declaring, “We have strengthened all our schools and increased opportunities for all our students …” 

 
The WSPSEF group was founded in 2021 by Andrea Dimond, Kristen Corning Bedford and Shannon Woodard with a focus on “fundshifting” – working to equitably distribute community contributions to narrow the gap so that well-funded school PTAs don’t keep getting richer while less-funded schools struggle. (see our WSB coverage of the group’s progress as of the summer of 2022)

For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, Kristen Corning Bedford said that WSPSEF expects to be able to distribute about $51,000 in PTA funds to Sanislo, Roxhill, Highland Park, Concord, and West Seattle. PTA funding was approved by schools during their June meetings, and is expected to be delivered early in the school year (by October at the latest).

In its first year (2022-23) the group distributed $20,917, and in 2023-24 WSPSEF distributed $49,566. To put this in a per-student perspective, each recipient school received $36 for each student for the most recent school year.

According to the WSPSEF website, the group’s goal is “To create an equitable resource of PTA funding for our West Seattle public gradeschools (including K-8).”

The West Seattle Public School Equity Fund operates simply: a portion of the PTA budgets from well-resourced public elementary (and K-8) West Seattle schools is contributed to a shared fund, which is managed by parent and/or staff advisers from each of the participating schools. The funds are then distributed annually to historically under-resourced public elementary (and K-8) West Seattle schools.

The group was launched after its founders discovered that when examining the area’s “redlining” map from the 1930s (see it here), the highest percentage of students from low-income families (which are now Title I schools), are in the “redlined” areas.  The group hopes to disrupt these historical inequities by bringing West Seattle’s neighborhoods and school communities together.

The group’s current fiscal sponsor is the Alliance for Education, and all financial contributions and distributions are managed by their staff and board (see their Fiscal Services page for details). In the group’s first year, their founding fiscal sponsor was the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA). 

Corning Bedford said that one of the most impactful changes she’s witnessed is the creation of new partnerships and friendships between PTAs, which leads to more sharing of knowledge and resources.

“This increases the internal capacity to meet individual student needs day to day, while creating bold leadership to advocate for an equitable education for all of our kids,” she added. “We know that the public school landscape and our neighborhoods and the needs of our students are always changing, but our goal remains to sustain the momentum of this community allyship.”

According to Corning Bedford, some additional key points about the program are:

Seattle Public Schools and many local independent/parochial schools don’t start classes until after Labor Day. For one local school, however, this is back-to-school week. Classes start Wednesday (August 14) at Summit Atlas, the middle/high school in Arbor Heights that’s West Seattle’s first and only charter school. (Last day of the school year is earlier, too – that’ll be Friday, June 6, 2025.) After Summit Atlas, the next school to start classes will be Holy Family Bilingual Catholic School, on August 28.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Since Seattle Public Schools superintendent Dr. Brent Jones decided not to go public with an expected list of school closures/consolidations until September, it’s become a summer of waiting, and dreading, for many involved with the district – staff, students, families. One SPS employee in attendance at School Board Director Gina Topp‘s monthly community-conversation meeting, seeing coworkers and students at summer school, described it as “waiting for a giant hammer to fall.”

Anticipation of, and concern about, what’ll be in the proposal dominated Topp’s meeting, held online a week ago (she switches up formats, locations, days, and dayparts in hopes of increasing accessibility). The director herself, in her first year on the board, representing a district including West Seattle and most of South Park, repeatedly described herself as “disappointed” in the delay, particularly because it will result in a condensed public process between the time the announcement is made and the time the board will have to vote on any closures to take effect in the ’25-’26 school year.

Topp started the meeting with a few updates, including the board’s recent vote to finalize the budget for next school year.

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(Rendering of new Alki Elementary entrance on north side of school)

As we reported July 1, a deputy city hearing examiner has ruled against area residents’ appeal of the Alki Elementary rebuild‘s zoning exception for parking. That means the city’s decision to approve a zoning exception for the 15-space redesign – 33 spaces less than what zoning requires – is affirmed. The appellants’ only potential avenue to challenge that would be via taking it to court within three weeks of the decision. So will they? We inquired immediately after the ruling, and have finally heard back from Steve Cuddy, an Alki resident and lawyer who led the appeal by Friends for a Safe Alki Community. Cuddy tells WSB, “I do not personally plan to appeal the Alki Elementary case further. It is possible that others in our ‘Friends’ group may decide to appeal to Court, but so far no one has, and I would be surprised if anyone does.” If no challenge emerges, that clears the way for the city to finalize the permits for the project to build a larger new Alki Elementary on the same site (3010 59th SW) where the original school was demolished a year ago. (The old school’s capacity was 371; the new school is designed for 500, plus two preschool classrooms estimated to potentially hold 40.)

The appeal was argued in a three-day hearing that we covered in the Hearing Examiner’s chambers downtown in May and June; we recapped the backstory here, with links to hearing coverage. The wheels were set in motion for this appeal when the same deputy examiner, Susan Drummond, ruled in favor of a different group’s appeal of the original plan, which had no offstreet parking (while dismissing that group’s appeals of several other zoning exceptions).

Cuddy’s response to our request for comment arrived in a long letter explaining the most recent challenge; you can read it in its entirety here. He cites what he considers “positive results” of the appeal, despite the outcome: “The members of our group who filed the first successful appeal gained 15 off-street parking spots, which will be available to more safely accommodate ADA and special needs students than the dangerous on-street parking for them that was originally proposed by the School District. -The second appeal forced the School District to finally admit that Alki Elementary’s past traffic and parking problems were serious, and that its previous traffic management arrangements at the school were inadequate and dangerous. As a consequence of that admission, for the second appeal, the District created a draft traffic management plan in advance of school construction. I do not believe this has ever happened before. The District’s draft traffic management plan has significant problems … but it is at least an advance start on what will be a difficult task.” He says “continued community involvement” will be vital as the project proceeds. If permits are granted soon, the school could open in fall 2026, by which time Alki will have spent three years in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary.

We won’t hear from Seattle Public Schools superintendent Dr. Brent Jones about possible school closures/consolidations until September. So what’s happening in the meantime? The School Board director for West Seattle and most of South Park, Gina Topp, is continuing to host community-conversation meetings, and just announced that her next one will be online, 6-7 pm Wednesday, July 17. Go here for the link you’ll use then (meeting ID 239 288 774 688). These conversations are drop-in events without a scripted agenda (here’s our report on Topp’s previous one) – bring your SPS-related question(s) and/or comment(s).

Summertime reunions continue! We received lthis announcement last night:

The West Seattle High School Class of 1958 has reserved time at the West Seattle Golf Course Monday, August 5th, for their annual Golf Tournament. All of the class of ’58 and friends of the class of 1958 are invited to participate.

All that are interested in the Tournament or the following lunch should contact Gary Tisdale or Bob Nuber as soon as possible to secure a spot. Entries must be received by July 24th.

Gary Tisdale: g.tisdale@comcast.com
Bob Nuber: bjnuber@icloud.com

(WSB photo, past and future Alki Elementary site)

As promised, deputy Hearing Examiner Susan Drummond has issued her ruling today on the second Alki Elementary rebuild appeal, a challenge to the city decision allowing less parking than zoning requires. This time, Drummond has dismissed the appeal. We recapped the backstory here; in short, Seattle Public Schools originally proposed building the new school with no parking, though zoning required 48; the city approved that, but in response to an appeal of that approval, Drummond told the district and city to revisit the parking situation. The district came up with a new plan for 15 spaces, the city approved that too, an appeal was filed, but Drummond’s ruling today says 15 spaces enough. Her decision concludes:

… The District substantiated that the anticipated parking demand can be accommodated on site with spillover parking on the street within 800 feet of the site, while still allowing adequate on-street parking capacity. The expert testimony supporting the approach was credible. The District’s experts arrived at similar if not the same conclusions and substantiated those conclusions. As District briefing noted, opposing testimony included irreconcilable or unsupportable conclusions, and did not meet the burden of proof required to reverse the Department’s decision. The School District and Department took the parking concerns seriously and balanced the issue against educational needs to ensure the code criteria were addressed. The Department’s decision approving the parking departure should be upheld.

The appellants now have three weeks to request judicial review of the decision. We’ll be asking if they intend to do that. Construction of the school – at the site where the old Alki Elementary was demolished after last school year – is still awaiting building permits that can’t be issued until the case is closed.

(Rendering of new Alki Elementary entrance on north side of school)

Monday (July 1) is the day that Deputy Hearing Examiner Susan Drummond is expected to issue her ruling in the second appeal of a proposed zoning exception for the new Alki Elementary School. Thursday was the deadline she gave to the three parties in the case – the nearby residents who filed the appeal, Seattle Public Schools, and the city Department of Construction and Inspections – to file their closing statements, and all three did. You might recall that the only issue is whether SPS will be allowed to build the expanded new school with less parking than city zoning rules require. The rules require 48 spaces; the district originally sought to rebuild with no offstreet parking; a separate group of area residents appealed that and other zoning exceptions the city granted. Last August, Drummond ruled in their favor regarding the parking issue, ordering the district and city to go back to the drawing board on that. (Other exception appeals were either dismissed or settled.) The district subsequently revised the design to create 15 spaces on the southwest side of the campus; the city said OK, and then this appeal was filed.

The case was argued in a three-day hearing we covered in late May and early June (here’s our report on Day 1, our report on Day 2, and our report on Day 3), and now the ruling is awaited. The closing arguments are all in the case file – you can download and read the appellants’ argument here, the district’s argument here, and the city’s brief argument here.

Depending on what Drummond rules, a subsequent court challenge is possible; that was the first action the district took after the previous ruling, but a judge threw it out because it wasn’t a land-use decision, it was just an admonition to revisit the issue. Meantime, Alki Elementary spent the just-concluded school year in temporary quarters at the former Schmitz Park Elementary and will be there at least two more years. The school’s enrollment last year was ~271 (100 under the old Alki’s capacity), and the new school is planned for up to double that, counting two preschool classes expected also to be housed on the campus.

Thanks for the tips. Seattle Public Schools has decided to again delay the announcement of any specific schools planned for closure/consolidation. The topic is still on tomorrow night’s School Board agenda, but here’s what superintendent Dr. Brent Jones says will and won’t happen:

… While the rescheduled [board] meeting will occur on June 26, this Regular School Board Meeting will not include a proposed “school closure list.”

Instead, the presentation will focus on the criteria guiding our decisions, such as budget and enrollment data, building condition assessments, program considerations, and community input.

We’ve heard from our community. Families and staff want to understand our planning process and react to proposals. The end of the school year and summer is not an ideal time for community engagement. Over the summer, my team will work hard to evaluate and consider the feedback we have heard and refine the plan that will be presented to our board.

Reports will resume with our School Board and community in September. Our board will be voting on the well-resourced schools plan before winter break in December 2024.

We have received strong participation and valuable feedback during our community meetings. Our community cares deeply about our schools.

It is crucial to ensure any steps we take are in the best interest of our students and families. Therefore, we will take more time this summer to thoroughly consider your input before announcing school consolidations.

You can read the full update here (it follows an update on school-security concerns).

Today is the first weekday of summer break for thousands of local students. More than 50 West Seattle High School students will spend a large part of their summer studying outside the U.S. The report and photo are from WSHS teacher Meghan Schumacher, who is also Volunteer Site Coordinator for the program in which they’re participating:

This summer, 51 students from West Seattle High School will be studying abroad for 3-4 weeks with CIEE, the Council for International Educational Exchange, a nonprofit organization which coordinates high school and college international exchanges.

86% of these students are traveling with some kind of scholarship, either merit or need-based. West Seattle High School is a Global Navigator School with CIEE, which means that students at the school automatically qualify for at least $25,000 in scholarships toward program fees. This year, WSHS students earned $56,310 in scholarships. Students at West Seattle High have earned over $300,000 in scholarships since 2018, with 196 total students going abroad.

Students are participating in two types of programs. Language and Culture Programs involve studying French, Spanish, Italian, or Arabic in France, Spain, Argentina, Italy, or Morocco. Topic programs include art, creative writing, government, wildlife conservation, leadership and service, or engineering and innovation in Scotland, England, Portugal, Germany, Costa Rica, Botswana, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ghana, Australia, the Netherlands, or Czechia.

We very much appreciate the support of the teachers, parents and community members of these students, encouraging them to apply and to put their best foot forward. These students and their support networks are helping to make West Seattle a more globally minded community.

Looking at the week ahead, one of the biggest stories is expected to result from Wednesday’s Seattle Public Schools Board meeting – SPS superintendent Dr. Brent Jones is supposed to finally unveil his proposal to close elementary schools. Community meetings in the past month – including this one we covered in West Seattle – were intended to explain why district administrators feel that’s the only way to close a big part of the budget gap for the 2025-2026 school year and beyond. So far, the early version of the agenda gives no hint as to what exactly the superintendent will propose; it simply lists “Well-Resourced Schools Update” in the first hour, sometime between the 4:15 pm start of the meeting and the expected 5 pm start of public comment. (If you haven’t been following this, “a system of well-resourced schools” is what the district says it will have if it closes some elementaries – although K-8s are “on the table” too, reinforced by this FAQ.) Speaking of which – if you want to sign up to comment on the expected plan or anything else, signups start tomorrow morning at 8 am; the agenda explains how. The meeting will be held at district HQ in SODO (3rd/Lander) and shown live on SPS TV, via YouTube and cable.

Photo by Richard Figgins
Story by Jason Grotelueschen

Hope Lutheran School said goodbye on Friday, June 14, to the last class of 8th graders before the middle school moves north. The students were honored and celebrated during the school’s annual graduation ceremony, in front of a packed house of family and friends.

There were 15 graduates in the class, who will be moving on to high school in the fall.  According to principal Kristen Okabayashi, the highest number will attend West Seattle High School, followed closely by Kennedy Catholic High School. Besides those two schools, students are each going to a variety of schools including Seattle Prep, Raisbeck Aviation, Maritime and Holy Names. 

Co-valedictorians were Coco Alba and Tobi Kunkel, and the co-winners of the “Eagle Award” (voted on by classmates, for citizenship and character) were Tobi Kunkel and Isaac Valgora. 

This year’s class was the final group to graduate from the current Hope campus, because middle-school classes will be moving to the school’s new north campus at the former Seattle Lutheran High School building at 4100 SW Genesee, starting in Fall 2024 (WSB photos from Hope’s recent open house are here, and prospective families can contact the school here).

Another group of graduates is starting their next chapter today – the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) Class of 2024, part of last night’s shared Seattle Colleges ceremony. Here’s the SSC announcement:

South Seattle College celebrated the Class of 2024 on the evening of June 21 with a commencement ceremony at T-Mobile Park. The ceremony brought together graduates from South Seattle College, Seattle Central College, and North Seattle College – all part of the Seattle Colleges District. 

679 graduates from SSC were recognized for their achievement of earning a degree or certificate. 

(Photos courtesy South Seattle College)

SSC Acting President Sayumi Irey addressed graduates at the event, saying, “You are resilient, you are determined, you are amazing and here you are: a college graduate more than ready to write your next chapter and make your mark. Congratulations!”

Owen Heit was selected as SSC’s 2024 commencement speaker and graduated with an associate degree in pre-nursing with goals to serve as a pioneer for change in the health-care industry.

“Whether it is the exceptional professors, the eager staff seeking out passionate students, or the diverse and dedicated student body, there are many moving parts at South Seattle College that have brought us students to this day …” Heit said. “So, to every student here today preparing to cross this stage, congratulations on completing this crucial milestone in your life.”

81 SSC graduates were part of Seattle Promise, a college tuition and success program launched by Seattle Colleges, Seattle Public Schools and the City of Seattle that funds free tuition up to two years at any of the Seattle Colleges for all graduating seniors attending Seattle public high schools.

South’s 679 graduates collectively earned over 900 degrees and certificates (many students graduate with multiple certificates). Awards include bachelor of applied science degrees for those furthering their expertise and earning potential, college transfer degrees for those planning to attend a four-year university as their next step, career training degrees and certificates for those seeking immediate employment, and high school completion awards.

Of Seattle Colleges graduates this year, 40 percent are first-generation college students.

Summer classes at SSC start Monday – registration is still open.

By the time West Seattle High School‘s Class of 2024 tossed their caps in the air, the sun had set and the moon shone over Memorial Stadium downtown, following an hour-and-a-half ceremony launching more than 300 grads into the rest of their lives. ASB president Ruby Athan was the first of four student speakers; she spoke of learning to let things go, even as she also urged her classmates to take a moment to pause and appreciate who was surrounding them, one last time. Staff speaker Paul Savino provided comic relief, explaining, “If you can make somebody laugh, you got ’em … it’s a mutually disarming technique.” He and others made mention of the Class of 2024 entering high school in mid-pandemic. The first of two “Lessons of Life” student speakers, Ryan Whitney, talked about “the power of focus” and urged classmates to congratulate themselves because they “crushed high school.” Co-speaker Abdi Abdirahman declared, “We came as kittens and left as Wildcats!” Here’s our video of those first four speakers:

The class had nine valedictorians, and one spoke, Andy Hoff, also giving a nod to “the importance of focus,” specifically finding the “one thing that brings you fulfillment.”

The other eight valedictorians are Payson Gutt, Kamil Ignacio, Clay Kuran, Benjamin Lewis, Nina Lovre, Jackie Martin, Leah Morgan, and Sonya Purcell. After the speakers and a musical performance, WSHS principal Brian Vance presented the class to School Board director Gina Topp, who had joined him in the ceremony-opening processional:

The principal observed, “What a ride this has been,” and assured the new grads, “You’re ready for whatever lies ahead.”

ADDED: Here’s the district video of the WSHS ceremony: