West Seattle, Washington
15 Friday
Thanks to Eddie for the photo and word that painting is under way on The Junction’s highest-profile mural in a long time. A mural has always been in the plan for the south-facing wall of The Lofts At The Junction (4535 44th SW), but the design wasn’t done until long after the project went through Design Review and started construction. After Eddie shared the tip this afternoon, we went over and hollered up at the artist to ask what’s in store – not knowing at the time that it’s Jesse Link, last featured here when he painted a mural on The Shack coffee house in Luna Park a month and a half ago. This afternoon, via that ground-to-bucket exchange, he told us the mural will feature a heron and a tugboat.
(WSB photo from Saturday)
The 18-year-old arrested in connection with last Saturday’s house fire on 31st Place SW is now charged with second-degree arson. Ezekiel M. Hoskins was arrested blocks away from the scene of the fire, less than two hours later. Charging documents include the same details we reported the day of his bail hearing, that his girlfriend said they had argued earlier in the day and that he had threatened to set the house on fire. Police say he told them he was smoking in the house that afternoon and that his discarded cigarettes might have ignited the fire, but he denied deliberately setting it; court documents say he was seen walking away from the house before an explosion that preceded the fire. While his girlfriend was quoted as telling investigators that Hoskins lived in the house, which had belonged to a relative, charging papers say he told police he had been living elsewhere with his aunt, but that they were unable to verify it. Also, while we couldn’t find a criminal record for him in previous checks, the court documents say that as a juvenile, Hoskins had two robbery convictions in the past two years. Before SFD cleared Saturday’s fire scene, a firefighter suffered a hand injury and had to be taken to the hospital. Damage to the house and its contents is estimated at $105,000; Hoskins remains in the King County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
(NEWEST UPDATE: Adding fifth school, West Seattle ES)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Seattle Public Schools says “approximately 25 teachers are being pulled from” schools around the city now that it has actual enrollment counts for the start of this school year, with overall district enrollment up, but not as much as expected.
At least five elementary schools in West Seattle are affected, according to what we have found out so far from information that includes, in two cases, letters sent by principals and forwarded by parents, some of whom are furious.
The district checks enrollment in early October every year and decides whether schools have appropriate staffing levels. Last year at this time, you might recall, Gatewood Elementary was told it would lose a teacher, and raised more than $66,000 in a frantic fundraising campaign to keep the position, one week after getting the initial word.
We asked district spokesperson Stacy Howard for a list of the schools affected this year; she told us that’s not available, but also added that no teachers are being laid off – just being moved.
Since there’s no list, all we know so far is what we have learned from parents – letters sent by the principals of (updated) Schmitz Park, Alki, Roxhill, and West Seattle ES, plus information from the PTA president of Highland Park.
SCHMITZ PARK ELEMENTARY: Losing one teaching position, according to e-mail that principal Gerrit Kischner sent last night to the school’s first-grade parents. More than a dozen parents have forwarded it to us.
He began, “Every year, the Seattle School District reevaluates enrollment on October 1st and makes budget adjustments accordingly. I am writing tonight to share some very unfortunate news: because of significant shifts in enrollment District-wide, Schmitz Park has lost funding for one of our first grade classrooms.” That means, he went on to write, that one class will be “collapsed” with its students reassigned to the remaining four 1st-grade classrooms. He had notified that class’s families directly, but added that “we know that the impact of this staffing reduction will be felt throughout the first grade cohort and across the school. Schmitz Park is not alone. In fact, enrollment is lower than projections by over 600 students districtwide (although we have grown overall in our total enrollment), and approximately 25 elementary schools (nearly half) will be losing one and, in some cases, more than two teachers. This news comes as much as a surprise to us as it is for you, and I am very sorry to have to bring you this news. In fact, I maintain a glimmer of hope that this budget decision can be reversed, but at this point it is extremely important that we plan rapidly to ensure that students can make a smooth transition to their new classroom.”
Kischner’s letter also quoted Schmitz Park’s enrollment at 643, one above projection, but “a drop from the 663 students we had on our rolls at the end of August.” First grade is at 114, up from the 99 at which the cohort ended kindergarten. He also noted the district’s end-of-September headcount as 52,399, 411 students more than last year, but 675 below what was projected, citing “budget pressures at the District level” for leading to the loss of what was the last teacher hired there before the school year began. “Unless new information comes our way very soon, our plan is to introduce students to their new classrooms Friday afternoon, ahead of starting Monday in the new classrooms.”
This information from the letter was attributed to the district:
Annually, at the beginning of the school year, Seattle Public Schools undergoes a staffing adjustment process to monitor enrollment at every school and to adjust staffing levels relative to actual student enrollment. Staffing adjustment decisions are made to match student needs with limited staff resources. In this process, adjustments are made in staff levels at schools to reflect the number of students actually enrolled in a program, grade and school, as opposed to forecasted/ projected enrollments. While our enrollment projections are historically very accurate at the district level, a wide range of factors can influence the final number of students enrolled at a grade, program and school level.
Once receiving student enrollment counts for each school, the district then reevaluates staffing across schools, making adjustments up and down based on each school’s enrollment. Please know that our best efforts are being made to assess all factors for staffing adjustment decisions at all schools. Staffing adjustment recommendations are developed by a team composed of members from Budget, Human Resources, Enrollment Planning, School Operations, Capital Planning, Special Education, Advanced Learning and English Language Learning departments, who use current enrollment numbers in determining staffing adjustments.
Additionally, Enrollment Planning also takes into account other factors in staffing allocations, including projected changes, expected attrition, historical trends in enrollment for each school as well as unique factors affecting each schools’ enrollment. Each school is carefully reviewed for any factors which could impact the classroom.
A change.org petition has been started by parent Rachel Lazar – see it here. She also shared her initial reaction: “What kind of screwed-up educational system gets kids back to school two weeks late after a strike, lets them settle into their classes, then decides to cut a beloved 1st grade teacher because their counts were off and cram her students into the other classrooms, letting them hit nearly 30? Add to that a school who has been forced to expand its boundaries again this year BEFORE our new facility opens, leaving it bursting at the seams. Oh, and do this all in 48-hours time so there is little time to work through it with the kids, and no time to try and address or fight it. This makes absolutely no sense to me and I’m fired up. Our kids deserve better. This phenomenal teacher deserves better. How the hell do we fix this mess our school system is in in Seattle!?!”
ALKI ELEMENTARY: Scheduled for a 1.5-position cut, according to the letter, forwarded to us by multiple parents, sent by principal Shannon Hobbs-Beckley to her school’s community. She began, “Earlier this week, I was informed by Seattle Public Schools that we are one of several schools that will experience a staffing adjustment based upon our current school enrollment. Last year, our adjustment resulted in adding staff to our school. This year, our adjustment results in a reduction of staff to our school. … This is not an easy adjustment to make, by any means. And some questions remain unanswered, so I consider this letter the first communication about the changes we are about to embark upon.” She quoted the same district information that Kischner’s letter did, and said that with Alki Elementary having “lower enrollment than projected,” its budget was cut “by 1.5 full time teaching positions (1.0 from a general education classroom and .5 from the specialists of PE/Multi-Arts/Technology).” She went on to write that the staff was still “determining all of the impacts of this change” and thinking they might be able to cover the half-position specialist reduction, but, “What we are still working through is the 1.0 reduction from a general education classroom.”
Parent Nikki Eisenhut, who has three children at Alki, shared her letter of concern with WSB; it talks about her children’s experience at the school and concludes, “These teachers have worked hard to create a safe, inspiring learning community in the last month. I cannot support a ‘staffing adjustment’ that is going to interrupt these communities. I do not see the benefit of interrupting student learning to create larger classes and less support for the students who need it the most. I want you to know that the ‘1.5 FTE’ that you will take from Alki is removing a human being and impacting countless students. It will create larger class sizes and interrupt learning. I know that at Alki, we will weather the change, our students are resilient, our teachers are inspiring and our leader is our foundation. These staffing changes are unjust and our community is strong and resilient.”
(2nd update, 3:40 pm) ROXHILL AND HIGHLAND PARK: Thanks to the Roxhill Elementary who scanned the hard-copy letter sent home by principal Sahnica Washington; she quotes much of the district explanation excerpted above, before saying her school has “experienced lower enrollment than expected” and therefore has had its budget cut by 3.7 teachers: “As a result of the loss of teachers, we will be consolidating classrooms.”
Earlier, after this story’s initial publication, we heard from Highland Park Elementary PTA president Holly Briscoe, who says that HPE is slated to lose one teacher: “The 4 kindergarten classes will be combined to create 3 classrooms and the kindergarten teacher will then be moved to another grade level and displacing the least senior teacher, and affecting upward of 90 students, or approximately a quarter of our total population.”
(added) WEST SEATTLE ES: Thanks to the parent who sent an image of the letter sent to some families, in which principal Vicki Sacco said a lower enrollment for first grade than expected had led to the loss of one teacher.
THURSDAY NIGHT P.S. Some of the concerned parents at Schmitz Park suggested we cover tonight’s Curriculum Night for the first- and second-grade families, and so we did. The cuts were a hot topic, to say the least. We will be writing a separate story about it for tomorrow morning. No revelations but some insight, and also a spirit of bringing together the wider West Seattle community to fight for the state to fix education funding.
Looking ahead to the rest of your Thursday, here are highlights from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar, starting with the biggest event of the day/night:
(Click image to see larger version of the map/venue list)
WEST SEATTLE ART WALK: It’s the second Thursday, which means Art Walk night, 6-9 pm. Every quarter the map/participant list changes, and this time around, more than 20 West Seattle venues are welcoming you to come see what’s on display. Highlights are on the official WS Art Walk website; this quarter’s participants include WSB sponsors Hotwire Online Coffeehouse (featuring Todd D. Martin; 4410 California SW), Emerald Water Anglers (42nd SW & SW Oregon), Click! Design That Fits (4540 California SW; featuring Deanna Baldi), a group show at Wallflower Custom Framing (4735 42nd SW), and South Seattle College (6000 16th SW), where the gallery show is “The Growing Visibility of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”
Also: At Windermere West Seattle (4526 California SW), artist Sheila Lengle is presenting her show “Prevail!” with 15 percent of tonight’s sales going to the fight against breast cancer – Sheila herself is a survivor. Windermere’s Kim Tingley will match the amount raised tonight.
Also happening today/tonight:
PATHFINDER K-8 PLAYGROUND GRAND OPENING: 3:30 pm, the community-built playground welcomes community members to visit to celebrate its grand opening! (1901 SW Genesee)
COMMUNITY ORCHARD OF WEST SEATTLE: Fall shifts the time and tasks for the weekly work party at the orchard, which you’ll find at the north end of the South Seattle College campus, 4-6 pm, all welcome! Details in our calendar listing. (6000 16th SW)
FREE GARDENING CLASS: At West Seattle Nursery, you’re invited to learn how to “Make Your Bed,” a free gardening class with Jeannine James, 5-6 pm. (California SW & SW Brandon)
SECOND THURSDAY OUT! Starts at 6 pm at the Senior Center of West Seattle – details in our calendar listing. (California SW & SW Oregon)
CHIEF SEALTH IHS OPEN HOUSE: Dinner 5:30-6 pm, open house 6-8 pm for Chief Sealth International High School families, who “will have the opportunity to follow your child’s schedule, meet their teachers, and get general information from administration and staff.” P.S. If you’re going, bring donations for the CSIHS Clothing Closet! (2600 SW Thistle)
ROXHILL ELEMENTARY OPEN HOUSE: 5:30-7:30 pm, for current Roxhill families. (9430 30th SW)
WINE TASTING AND MUSIC: 7-9 pm at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) – details in our calendar listing. (5612 California SW)
OF COURSE THERE’S MORE – please take a minute to see our complete calendar for everything that’s up today/tonight/beyond.
(2014 WSB photo: Harvest Festival activity @ Westside School [sponsor] booth)
Halloween season is closer than you think – the big day/night is three weeks from Saturday – and the biggest event in West Seattle is even sooner, two weeks from this Sunday. That of course would be the West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival on Sunday, October 25th, 10 am-2 pm, featuring the chili-cookoff tasting at 11 am, the big costume parade at 11:30 am, and business trick-or-treating at noon. Even before all that, the fun starts right at 10 with “harvest-themed activities” throughout The Junction, as well as the Farmers’ Market in the middle of the street (its permanent home, inspired by the success of its previous in-the-street incarnations during the festival). There’s still room for a few more community groups and businesses to be part of the heart of the festival by offering activities – please go to this page on the West Seattle Junction Association‘s website ASAP for an application. (WSB is a co-sponsor and activity provider again this year, so we’ll see you there!)
Young writer in the family? West Seattle’s VFW Post 2713 has just announced its annual essay contest for students:
All students in private, public, or home school are eligible to compete. First, second, and third place prizes will be awarded for each grade, while first place winners will advance to state and possibly national levels with greater prizes. The competitions are:
Youth Essay – Grades 3rd, 4th, 5th
Topic “Why is America my favorite country?”
Prizes: 1st $50, 2nd $25, 3rd $15
Rules and entry forms herePatriots Pen – Grades 6th, 7th, 8th
Topic “What Freedom Means to Me”
Prizes: 1st $50, 2nd $25, 3rd $15
Rules and entry forms hereVoice of Democracy – Grades 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th
Topic “My Vision for America”
Prizes: 1st $100, 2nd $50, 3rd $25
Note: Each state winner is eligible for a $30,000 scholarship.
Rules and entry forms here
Deadline for all entries is November 1st. Good luck!
(CHECK “PRESIDENTIAL VISIT FRIDAY” BELOW for updated information)
(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
6:59 AM: No incidents in our area or the nearest outbound routes so far this morning.
PRESIDENTIAL VISIT FRIDAY: After President Obama visits Roseburg, Oregon, tomorrow to meet with families of the college shooting victims, he will be heading this way for a Seattle fundraiser stop. We’ve looked and listened in a variety of places but we’re not finding the schedule yet. (The aviation alert for Eugene, from which he will travel to and from Roseburg by helicopter before heading to Seattle, runs until 3:15 pm, and the one for Seattle runs until 7:30 pm.) **ADDED** Sen. Patty Murray‘s campaign, presenting the Seattle event, says it starts at 5 pm. … **2ND ADD** SPD has some downtown-specific information for Friday here. He’s going to downtown Seattle for a 4:30 pm party roundtable and then the Murray fundraiser, says Channel 7. **3RD ADD** Metro has added some reroutes related to street closures – look for the 10/9 listings here. ** More as we get it.
(back to original traffic watch for the day)
7:38 AM: Still relatively quiet, aside from the usual backups. Transportation headlines from the past day, in case you missed them: Next Alaskan Way Viaduct inspection closure is set for Halloween weekend … Speaking of The Viaduct, did you see the video explaining what’s happening with the tunneling machine? …
8:23 AM – NEED AN ORCA LIFT CARD? If you qualify for the ORCA LIFT discount-transit-fare program but haven’t gotten around to enrolling yet, there’s a new place to do it in West Seattle – the city will have staff at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center (6400 Sylvan Way SW) from 1-6 pm every Wednesday starting next week (October 14th). Not sure if you qualify? Check here.
9:40 AM – ONE MORE WEEKEND ALERT: From WSDOT:
This wkd WB I-90 across Lake Washington will be detoured to the express lanes from Friday night to Monday morning. pic.twitter.com/r5i9LkGmK8
— Washington State DOT (@wsdot) October 8, 2015
10:02 AM: Washington State Ferries says heavy fog has the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run at least half an hour behind schedule right now.
This marble bench graced ARK Park at 42nd SW and SW 102nd in Arbor Heights, in memory of a little life lost, until a heartbreaking discovery: Someone has stolen it. They had to have known it was a memorial, given this plaque:
Allexandra Ramona Kimball is the park’s namesake and inspiration; as noted here in 2009, the first anniversary of her birthdate was the day ground was broken for the park. While the land is owned by neighboring Arbor Heights Community Church – which also operates ARK Preschool in her memory – it was created for the entire neighborhood, and has been the site of block parties and other celebrations. The bench is described as “irreplaceable to those who were affected by her short, sweet life.”
(King County photo)
A milestone for the Murray Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project across from Lowman Beach Park – the tank is complete, and construction is starting for the building housing it. It’s been eight years since community members started hearing about the need for a project to reduce overflows into Puget Sound, almost five years after the announcement of the plan to locate it on what was a residential block, and almost two years since site work began. Announced tonight by the King County Wastewater Treatment Division:
King County’s contractor finished the concrete work for the Murray CSO Control facility’s one million gallon underground storage tank. Building the storage tank required some of the most intense activity on the project. King County and its contractor deeply appreciate the community’s patience while crews built the tank.
The facility building will have three rooms to house mechanical and electrical equipment. It was designed to follow the slope of Lincoln Park Way SW behind it. The building will be 20 feet tall at its highest point. Construction of the facility building will continue into Spring 2016.
Work to connect the underground storage tank to the Murray Pump Station will continue while the building is constructed. This work will increase congestion and cause traffic delays of up to 15 minutes and parking restrictions on the 7000 block of Beach Dr. SW. Please stay safe. Follow
the directions of flaggers and signs when near the site.
The project is intended to dramatically reduce the number of overflows from the Murray Pump Station at Lowman Beach, from an average of five per year – and five million gallons total – down to no more than one.
From today’s quarterly meeting of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Stakeholders meeting:
The dates are set for this year’s semiannual AWV inspection closure – scheduled for Halloween weekend, 6 am-6 pm on Saturday, October 31st, and again on Sunday, November 1st. The Viaduct will be closed both ways between the West Seattle Bridge and Battery Street Tunnel. WSDOT said at this afternoon’s meeting that besides the inspection, they’ll do some maintenance as usual – in particular, fire-suppression systems in the BSTunnel need some work.
Also at the meeting, WSDOT played the video that we featured here earlier in the day, showing what’s been happening with the tunneling machine as work continues to get it ready to start tunneling again later this year. The Viaduct closure that’s expected when the machine goes beneath the structure could last up to two weeks. Assuming everything goes as currently projected, the machine will stop in a long-planned “safe zone” just outside the edge of the structure, so it can get a checkup to see how it’s doing after what would be the first few weeks of digging.
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
With four weeks left until the general election – the night the voting ends and the vote-counting begins – a forum in Fauntleroy last night featured the six candidates for the three City Council seats that will be on your ballot.
“This is a unique election,” observed Boots Winterstein from the Westside Interfaith Network (WIN), which co-presented the forum with the League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County, whose Lucy Gaskill-Gaddis served as moderator.
The format put most of the questions to all of the candidates – for City Council District 1, West Seattle/South Park, Lisa Herbold and Shannon Braddock; for at-large (citywide) Position 8, Jon Grant and Tim Burgess; for at-large Position 9, Bill Bradburd and Lorena González.
The sharpest differences were evident between each of the two sets of citywide candidates; in the local race, it was more subtle, with little all-out disagreement. And District 1 is where the forum Q/A began.
That’s Miles, our ex-shelter cat and official WSB assistant, suggesting you might want to add a feline family member this Saturday, when the Seattle Animal Shelter returns to West Seattle for an adopt-a-thon. He’s not available but dozens of cats are – including, we’ve just learned, 16 kittens, among them Bento and Sushi (city-provided photo below):
Here’s the basic info about the event:
The Seattle Animal Shelter will host a cat adopt-a-thon on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, at the High Point Community Center, located at 6920 34th Ave. SW. The event runs from noon to 3 p.m. and features numerous kittens and cats of different breeds. Cats available at this event have been living with foster parents, who are available at the event to share information about the personality and habits of the cats with potential adopters, helping to make a perfect match.
“With our monthly neighborhood adoptathons, we hope to continue to spread the word about the joys and value of adopting shelter pets and saving lives. If you have room in your home and your heart for an orphaned animal, this is a great opportunity to come and see some of the wonderful pets available from our foster-care parents,” said Don Jordan, Seattle Animal Shelter director.
Adoption prices range from $45 to $135 (plus applicable license fees) and include:
● Initial vaccinations
● Deworming
● Feline Leukemia testing
● Certificate for free health exam at local veterinarians
● Spay or neuter
● Microchip
The Seattle Animal Shelter has a foster-care program to rehabilitate sick and immature dogs and cats. Donations from the city’s “Help the Animals Fund” pay for veterinary care for these animals while they are being fostered.
Or maybe Nellie or Robbie.
If you’ve wondered what’s happened in the six weeks since the repaired cutterhead was lowered back into the Highway 99 tunneling machine’s “access pit” – and what’s left to do before Seattle Tunnel Partners turns it back on again – that video should answer your questions. It’s provided by WSDOT and narrated by STP’s Chris Dixon, who’s in charge of the project. We’re also expecting to hear a status report at the quarterly Highway 99 stakeholders’ meeting later today. (And yes, according to a recent city doc, transportation officials are still expecting to close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for about a week and a half while the tunnel machine passes directly beneath it. No way to know when that’ll be until the machine again gets going, and stays going – it’s currently “forecast” for February.)
That’s a rendering of the new expansion building that West Seattle Nursery is about to start work on next door. We reported on the expansion plan early last year. Nursery owner Mark Smith owns the old house on the site and had hoped to give it to someone who would be interested in moving it to another location, but that didn’t work out, so it will be demolished next Monday. The expansion is designed by Parie Hines of LD Arch Design (WSB sponsor) will include “a new houseplant and gift shop; a coffee bar; a classroom; storage; and office space.” (Find more details of the building, especially its sustainability features, on the LD Arch Design website.) This will clear the way for the original WSN building to have an expanded garden center with more tools, accessories, and furniture. The project – to be built by Ventana Construction (also a WSB sponsor) – is expected to be finished by the end of March.
While saying it’s been in operation for two months, Seattle Police just officially unveiled what they’re calling the Real-Time Crime Center, as a key component of a strategy titled “Agile Policing.”
The RTCC is a room at SPD headquarters downtown where a commander, analysts, and others are monitoring, and responding to, trends detected in real time around the city, tracked on a big board showing how many calls are open at any given time, what types of calls (divided into three “priority” categories), and where, updated every six seconds. The screengrab above is from a demonstration by SPD chief operating officer Mike Wagers during the Seattle Channel‘s live webcast of the announcement; we’ll add or substitute the video clip when it’s available via SC later. Here’s the official news release via SPD Blotter; we have a few more notes from having monitored the announcement live:
It’s centralizing analysis and data-sorting functions rather than having, as SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole called them, “islands of information” at precincts and other locations. SPD says it’s also enabling information to be sorted and interpreted more quickly in a way that can assist officers in the field. One example given was a “shots fired” call, in which 911 might receive more than a dozen calls from people, each offering a fragment of information that could be a puzzle piece usable for solving/tracing it – what was heard, what was seen, was there a car, part of a license plate – all to be put together and sent to officers rather than expecting them all to sort and decode the puzzle pieces while busy with everything else in the field.
Right now, SPD says, the RTCC is being staffed Mondays-Fridays 8 am-4 pm and Tuesday nights-Saturday nights 4 pm-2 am, but that could change if they determine different scheduling would be better. They were asked what live cameras are being used, if any; only SDOT cameras that are also visible to the public, SPD replied – not any current or future police cameras (dash cams, body cams, the never-activated surveillance cameras).
We’ve had (and are having) some rain, and water-saving has topped the city’s request, but don’t stop now, the regional water utilities are imploring you in this update:
Fall has arrived, but consistent fall rains have not. Everett, Seattle, and Tacoma remain in the second stage of their drought response plans. The water systems rely on fall rains to fill the reservoirs so there is enough water for people and fish. Customers in the region have reduced their use over the past eight weeks by a total of 14 percent. The cities are asking their customers to continue to reduce their water use.
This time of year is critical in the salmon life cycle, as they migrate back from the ocean and travel up their native rivers to spawn. Both the amount and temperature of water in rivers affect their ability to conserve energy, avoid predators and successfully spawn.
… The total water level in SPU’s reservoirs is at 74 percent of what would be typical for this time of year.
(Steller’s Jay, photographed on Tuesday by Mark Wangerin)
Your daily look into the future – the next 12 hours or so of it, anyway – from the WSB West Seattle Event Calendar (which always includes more daily happenings than what we highlight here, so please jump over and browse through when you get a minute):
FREE MUSIC/MOVEMENT CLASS … for toddlers! 10:30 am Wednesdays at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center; details in our calendar listing. (6400 Sylvan Way SW)
WSHS CURRICULUM NIGHT: Families of current West Seattle High School students are invited to “Curriculum Night” at 6:30 pm. From the school newsletter: “Pick up a copy of your student’s schedule and a map of the building in the Commons. Administration, counselors and other school support staff will be on hand to greet you. Spirit gear, PTSA memberships and auction tickets will be sold. Our Culinary Arts students will be serving cupcakes, coffee, and cold drinks. After the opening, you will go to each of your student’s classes for 10 minutes. Don’t miss this important night to connect!” (3000 California SW)
HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION: 6:30 pm at Delridge Community Center, featuring a performance by Joyas Mestizas. Refreshments too! (4501 Delridge Way SW)
SOUTHWEST DISTRICT COUNCIL: 6:30 pm at the Sisson Building in The Junction. Agenda highlights:
6:40 p.m. West Seattle Timebank
-Tamsen Spengler, President6:50 p.m. Port of Seattle – Terminal 5 Modernization Project
-Paul Meyer, Environmental Manager7:10 p.m. Move Seattle – Proposition 1 Discussion
-Let’s Move Seattle Campaign, CM Tom Rasmussen & Anthony Auriemma
-Keep Seattle Affordable, Eugene Wasserman
(California SW & SW Oregon)
TONIGHT’S TRIVIA: 8:30 pm at Talarico’s Pizzeria in The Junction. (4718 California SW)
And something you can do any time today/tonight:
EARLYBIRD DEADLINE FOR SOUTHWEST SEATTLE HISTORICAL SOCIETY GALA: From SWSHS executive director Clay Eals: “Today (Wednesday) is the early-bird deadline to save on Champagne Gala Brunch tickets – $85. People can purchase them at that price online or by dropping a check (in an envelope) in our museum mailbox (61st/Stevens) by midnight.” Here’s a new video invitation, featuring Catherine Gruye Alexander, daughter of the first Homestead chef in 1950, Bob Gruye – she and brother Rob will be speaking at the gala, which is themed “Coming Home to the Homestead“:
Also announced by SWSHS – the live auction of the November 7th gala will include log sections of the Homestead. More info on the gala, happening at Salty’s on Alki and with The Kenney as presenting sponsor (both are also WSB sponsors, and WSB is a media sponsor for the gala) can be found here.
(Screen grab from SPD police-report map, filtered to show car prowls)
CAR PROWL TURNS TO BURGLARY, PLUS, THE STATS: Those are all the car prowls on the Seattle Police report map for West Seattle right now – 16 of them, dated from last Wednesday (September 30th) to last Sunday (October 4th). The default map view is supposed to show the entire past week, but we usually notice a few days lag, and indeed, checking Tweets by Beat (which we aggregate automatically on the WSB Crime Watch page), we see three more from the past two days, so that’s 19. And that’s not even counting the one reported to us this morning by Paul from the 3800 block of 34th SW (map) – that would be the 20th in one week – which he says preceded a burglary:
At approximately 4:05 am today, our dog started barking and we heard someone getting in a car and heading down the alley behind our house, between 34th and 35th. I went into our attached garage and found the garage door to be open and some items were missing. We quickly discovered that the burglars had broken into our car which was parked in the alley and gained access to the garage door remote.
If you could, please ask readers if anyone on or around the 3800 block of 34th SW or 35th SW saw any people or cars around 4 am today, or if they have any security camera footage that they could review. A car prowl is one thing, but a break-in while we’re at home is pretty brazen and unnerving, and any help would be appreciated.
Police did respond and investigate, Paul says. Meantime, another reader report from the queue:
ONE MORE CRIME WATCH NOTE: You might call this one a drive-by theft. It happened Sunday evening, Barry reported – “… a black backpack with wallet, cell phone, and medicine was stolen from the end of the blind alley off Walker between California and 44th. Construction crew working on our house were preparing to leave and were collecting their equipment when a SUV drove down to the end of the alley snatched the backpack and backed out of the alley very quickly.” It was a black Billabong backpack and has been reported to police.
NEXT WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL MEETING: 7 pm Tuesday, October 20th, at the Southwest Precinct – come hear crime updates and bring your concerns for Q/A with police.
(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
7:04 AM: Rain’s back. One incident just reported – a crash toward the east end of the SW Roxbury corridor, at 3rd and Olson.
7:44 AM: The SFD call for that crash has closed.
7:59 AM: As commenters are noting – traffic is just a general mess. As the WSDOT traffic tweeter put it:
If you're just joining us, slow going around the Puget Sound and Vancouver area due to the mysterious wet substance coming from the sky.
— Washington State DOT (@wsdot) October 7, 2015
8:34 AM: Alert texted/tweeted by Sound Transit: “All ST Express buses are experiencing 20-40 min delays due to slow moving traffic due to the rain and previous collisions or disabled vehicles blocking lanes.” (The Express buses include Route 560, which runs to/from the Westwood area.)
One more school note: Heads up for the High Point area – a temporary portable used for the start of the school year at West Seattle Elementary will be removed from campus this Saturday morning (October 10th), now that a new one to be used TFN is in place. The district says the 12′ x 56′ modular structure is scheduled to be moved out at 9 am Saturday “via the site access gate at the intersection of 34th and Willow Streets. The city will coordinate with us and may or may not place traffic signs on the street(s) being affected.”
Food literacy was back on the menu today in the Sanislo Elementary library, as Katherine Pryor – author of “Sylvia’s Spinach” and “Zora’s Zucchini” – came to visit. First- and second-graders rotated through over the course of the morning. Sanislo librarian Craig Seasholes featured “Zora …,” the newer of the two books, with kindergarteners back in June, and wrote about it here. Pryor’s publisher is Readers to Eaters, whose co-founder Philip Lee visited Sanislo last year. (Check out all the Readers to Eaters books here.)
Pryor talked to the students about growing food, including how she gardened in the back of a pickup truck one summer. In a re-enactment of the story about Sylvia, they all got to taste spinach leaves, in case they hadn’t before – and we hear some spinach was to be planted in the school garden beds, too.
(Photos courtesy KCTS 9 – above, at Chief Sealth IHS; below, at Denny IMS)
In a program that premiered tonight, KCTS announced that Denny International Middle School and Chief Sealth International High School are two of this year’s three “Pathways to Excellence Award” recipients:
KCTS 9 is pleased to announce the 2015 Pathways to Excellence Award winners, recognizing schools in Washington state that are helping low-income students and students of color achieve at higher levels, making measurable progress in closing the achievement and opportunity gaps. Each school is improving teaching and learning and expanding connections with families and communities in meaningful ways. The honorees are selected by KCTS 9 in partnership with the Washington State Board of Education.
The 2015 honorees are:
Denny International Middle School, Seattle Public Schools, West Seattle
Chief Sealth International High School, Seattle Public Schools, West Seattle
Chinook Elementary School, Auburn School District, AuburnMy School, Our Future: 2015 — a new half-hour special on KCTS 9 — looks at the three Washington State schools to see how dedicated teachers, families and students are working together to beat the odds. See their stories and those of past award-winners, at KCTS9.org/pathways.
Ensuring that all children, regardless of racial, ethnic or socioeconomic background, have fair and equitable access to quality learning experiences is one of the great challenges of our time. Across the country, schools are struggling to fully serve low-income students and students who have been traditionally underserved — including African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians — and ensure that all students find a pathway to success. When we hear about the opportunity gap — the disparity in access to the quality educational resources needed for all children to be academically successful — the headlines are usually quite grim. Fortunately, some Washington schools are generating good news. These bright spots are an inspiration to parents, teachers, principals and communities, showing that there are strategies that are working to combat the persistent gap in educational equality and provide students with the skills they need to succeed in school and life.
You can watch the feature about Sealth here; about Denny, here. On TV, the full half-hour program about all three schools will be shown on KCTS 9 on October 17th, October 20th, and October 31st – check the schedule for more information.
(From Fire Station 32 “schematic design” packet dated August 2013, by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The rebuild of West Seattle’s Fire Station 32 is now running nine years behind the schedule that was originally projected when voters passed the levy to fund it and a tall stack of other projects.
We’ve learned that its construction is now not expected to start until early next year – which will be about a year after its crews were moved to interim locations.
When the station’s Engine 32 and Ladder 11 moved to a temporary site early this year, demolition of the original station was supposedly imminent. But more than half a year has passed, with no sign of work. After a reader e-mailed to ask what was going on, so we started looking into it.
What we’ve learned is that it’s going out to bid again – and now it appears that Station 32’s crews will have been out of the old location a full year by the time the teardown begins, meaning they’ll be in temporary quarters for about two years. (E-32 and L-11 are now in temporary structures on city-owned land that’s set for a future park, along 40th SW between Alaska and Edmunds, while Medic 32 is currently based at Station 37 in Sunrise Heights.)
The Station 32 rebuild was part of the $167 million Fire Levy approved by voters in 2003. It was a nine-year levy, so property owners aren’t paying it any more. But the presentation given to the City Council that year promised the city would “implement the program over the shortest possible time period to minimize the risks of inflation.” Page 19, the program schedule, shows the Station 32 project as expected to be complete by the end of 2007:
And now, as the end of 2015 approaches, this project hasn’t even started construction yet.
Design started three years ago, as noted on the periodic status/schedule reports posted on the Fire Levy website. (The most recent status/schedule report, however, posted less than a month ago, shows the site as under construction, which it is not.)
Fire Levy projects are now managed by the city’s Finance and Administrative Services department. When we checked with FAS last winter, a spokesperson told us (as reported here) demolition and construction was expected to start by late February – of this year.
Responding to our latest inquiry, FAS spokesperson Cyndi Wilder tells us the project has to go out to bid again:
Initially, this project was bid out through an alternative contract method called general contractor/construction manager (GC/CM), which allowed the general contractor to assist in the design process through a pre-construction services contract. The GC/CM process, following design, allows the City the option to negotiate with a selected construction firm to determine an appropriate construction cost.
The City and the contractor were unable to agree upon a negotiated cost that fits within the City budget. This week, the City is in the process of cancelling the pre-construction contract and will quickly move to a traditional bidding process for construction, where the entire construction contract will be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. We anticipate beginning demolition on the old Fire Station 32 facility in the first quarter of 2016.
According to the project’s city webpage, the GC/CM contract had been awarded to BNBuilders (which has its own page for the project here).
We don’t know what if anything the schedule changes have cost the city. The project is budgeted at $18.6 million, according to the latest online financial report; the actual construction cost was cited at $10.6 million in various places including this solicitation for subcontractors, under the BN Builders contract. The new FS 32 was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ), whose designs were shown to the community at this 2014 open house.
The Fire Levy has an Oversight Committee that still meets periodically, with its next meeting scheduled for December 15th. Its meeting minutes are online, but recent editions have few details other than who was in attendance and the number of projects in progress. Earlier, more detailed sets of minutes shine some light on the overall delay, first indicating that some early challenges included big project-cost inflation in the first few years after the levy’s passage, with some of the cost increases attributed to factors such as China buying much of the world’s steel and estimates having been based on “suburban” fire stations rather than “urban.” The earliest mention we found of FS 32 in meeting minutes was November 2007, when its architect was about to be announced; BCJ was described as being in “pre-design” as of the July 2008 meeting minutes. At the November 2008 meeting, several postponements were announced, and at that time, the committee was told that Station 32 would be done in 2011. The next year, the project was listed as “being deferred” due to the shortfall in Real Estate Excise Tax received by the city. Later in 2009, meeting minutes said the project would start in 2010; toward the end of that year, a new delay – a request to search for a different site. The next mention of a new schedule came in 2011 – when it was declared to be starting in 2012. Then suddenly the February 2012 minutes say FS 32 would be complete “after 2015.” Every set of minutes from that year says the same thing, and then the specific mentions cease.
P.S. West Seattle’s Station 37, mentioned above as interim home to one of FS 32’s units, was a levy project too – shown on that original 2003 schedule as expected to be finished by the end of 2007, opened three years after that. Other local levy projects include upgrades at Station 36 (North Delridge), Station 11 (Highland Park), and Station 29 (Admiral); the first two are complete, the third still under way (and, like FS 32, listed on that City Council pre-levy presentation as projected for completion by 2008).
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