West Seattle, Washington
12 Monday
That’s Sydney Fuller, a Gatewood Elementary student who’s about to join 5 Chief Sealth High School students – and some adult chaperones – on the bicycle ride of a lifetime. Under the title “An Inconvenient Ride,” they’re going to spend three weeks bicycling across the country (here’s their route) as an “environmental-awareness project,” returning home for a triumphant arrival on Earth Day — April 22nd — at a Benaroya Hall benefit for Project Earth Care, in which students from the schools already have been cooperating:Read More
Two announcements to share with you – one for a new Spanish-language preschool, another for a new tutoring service that addresses attention-span issues as well as conventional tutoring and ESL work – full details ahead:Read More
Starting at 4 pm, Endolyne Joe’s in Fauntleroy donates part of tonight’s proceeds to the Denny Middle School music program (featured here with video during its first-ever midwinter-break camp). Choir and band performances are promised, to serenade you during supper!
Some West Seattle private schools have this week off – Our Lady of Guadalupe and Holy Rosary, for example – but Seattle Public Schools‘ spring break isn’t till next week.
First, that’s a quick bit of video from tonight’s Chief Sealth Mariachi and Honor Choir fundraiser, the annual tamale dinner at which diners were serenaded by the student musicians; you can hear the CSHS mariachis in our clip. Find out more about Chief Sealth’s music program at its website.
Second, almost a month after the Denny/Sealth shared-campus vote, the School Design Team meetings — which are open to the public — are starting up again next week, 3 pm Tuesday at CSHS. Organizers say the next meeting will include a project update and “discussion of next steps.”
Thanks to Arbor Heights Elementary School teacher Mark Ahlness for these photos from last night’s Art Fair and Auction (silent-auction participants shown below) — he says it was an “incredible success”! More fundraisers are on our Events page (including tomorrow night’s Chief Sealth Tamale Dinner for music $).
Sanislo Elementary – tucked into a wooded corner along Myrtle a few blocks east of Delridge – bills itself as “the small school with big ideas.” Tonight was the night their librarian Maryann Horsley‘s big idea for “West Seattle Reads” (previous coverage here) took flight as kids picked up free books – with a kite theme – and watched a kite expert show them some fun creations:
The goal is to get as many West Seattle kids as possible reading these two books (“The Emperor and the Kite†by Jane Yolen and Ed Young for younger kids, “The Kite Fighters†by Linda Sue Park and Eung Won Park for older kids) and then joining in two discussions at local libraries in a few weeks:
The discussions are April 14 at Delridge Library and April 15 at Southwest Library. Then “West Seattle Reads” wraps up with a kite celebration at Sanislo on April 27. And if you couldn’t go last night – you can still get the free books and join in “West Seattle Reads” — e-mail Maryann Horsley (click here).
One of West Seattle’s smallest elementary schools has a big event for all West Seattle families this week: Sanislo Elementary (16th/Myrtle; map) is one of just a few schools to win a “One Book, One Community” state grant, thanks to the successful proposal sent in by Sanislo librarian Maryann Horsley. Your part in this starts 6:30-7:30 pm Wednesday, when you’re invited to Sanislo for 
the kickoff of “West Seattle Reads” — including free books! Kites are the theme, appropriately enough for this time of year. Two books will be offered — a picture book for kindergarteners through 3rd graders, “The Emperor and the Kite” by Jane Yolen and Ed Young, 
and a chapter book for older kids, “The Kite Fighters” by Linda Sue Park and Eung Won Park. The school says the Drachen Foundation is also providing a temporary installation of Drachen kites. (Besides free books, kite-making kits will be distributed during Wednesday night’s event.) As a followup to Wednesday, discussions about these books are planned at local libraries including Delridge (7 pm 4/14) and Southwest (7 pm 4/15) library branches, and then a community kite celebration at Sanislo is set for April 27th.
When we interviewed Chief Sealth High School principal John Boyd two weeks ago, that sign and others were displayed prominently around campus, and there was even a countdown clock on the Sealth home page. Now, for CSHS and West Seattle HS and other high schools, the countdown’s over and the big test is here – reading/writing this week, math/science in April. The testing window for lower grades starts in mid-April.
At its first meeting after the big Denny/Sealth vote, the Seattle School Board has something else of West Seattle (and beyond) interest on next Wednesday’s agenda: Changes in its policy on how to deal with what the district now considers “surplus properties” no longer being used as schools. 
The Fauntleroy Schoolhouse (1951 photo @ left), home to Fauntleroy Children’s Center among other businesses/facilities, is now on that list, and many people have been working hard to figure out how to keep the district changes from resulting in dramatic neighborhood changes. The proposed new policy is now posted online as part of the Wednesday school-board agenda (find it here), spelling out details such as the plan to end the renting of these properties at “below-market” rates and a multiyear transition in certain cases to the full charging of the new rent, while also making some provision for reduced rates at sites like this that are home to “youth education” programs. The new districtwide policy is scheduled for introduction this Wednesday and a final vote two weeks later; as always, the district takes sign-ups for public comment (on any topic, not just what’s on the agenda) starting first thing Monday morning – the online agenda explains how to sign up. Also, the Fauntleroy Community Association is scheduled to discuss the situation at its Tuesday meeting, one day before the school-board meeting; its webpage about the schoolhouse effort, including last April’s gathering, is here; West Seattle State Senator Joe McDermott briefly outlined the situation here – but of the bills he mentioned, neither one appears on this list of bills that survived the most recent cutoff before the Legislature ends its regular session this week.)
Footnote to last week’s vote … the permit application for the CSHS work is now on file with the city.
AdamOnAlki reported it in the comments late last night:
74-43 in favor of Squalicum. Great season, boys. You surprised and impressed us all!
And as David went on to add, the West Seattle High School boys’ first trip to the state basketball tournament in more than 30 years isn’t quite over yet:
(Today) they play Auburn (22-3) … They have the potential to finish in 5th place, if they can win 3 straight games. It’ll be tough but it’s not over.
Today’s WSHS-Auburn game is at 2 pm at KeyArena.
The state boys’ basketball tournament starts tonight, and West Seattle plays Squalicum (from Bellingham) at KeyArena at 9 pm. (Here are the brackets.) If you can’t go to the game but you want to follow closely online, it appears that’s possible through this site ($10 for tournament-long access).
We found those two Girl Scouts selling cookies outside Thriftway this afternoon – second day of local Scouts’ sales – their West Seattle cookie-selling locations are listed here. (We got Thin Mints, $4/box, yum.) More West Seattle Saturday scenes ahead, including the rainbow-and-hail video link:Read More
Per the Times, the West Seattle High School boys’ basketball team fell short in their game against Seattle Prep this afternoon. And the Seattle Lutheran High School boys and girls didn’t make it to the final rounds of the tournament in Spokane. Nonetheless, we want to send out a hearty “congratulations” for the kids, their families, coaches, and supporters; good job! SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Here are the brackets for the tournament WSHS is in; thanks to David for pointing us to that site where the Wildcats can be tracked through the next rounds. They play Squalicum at 9 pm Wednesday, KeyArena.
So much happening today that we have another round of reminders to come in a few hours — but first, some events that begin this morning: 9 am, the West Seattle High School Class of 2008 fundraising car wash starts at the WSHS parking lot; 10 am, the West Seattle Family Wellness Fair starts at High Point Community Center; also at 10, the Sanislo Elementary used book sale and bake sale gets under way. Much more on the Events page.
Thanks to Eddie for the tip: Seattle Public Schools is raising a little extra cash by auctioning a lot of stuff off at Boren tomorrow, starting at 9 am. More info (list, photos, etc.) here.
Thanks to Paul Cozens for the latest update:
In a hard-fought battle which went down to the last second, the West Seattle boys beat Cleveland 56 – 53 Thursday night at Bellevue Community College (BCC.)
West Seattle now plays Seattle Prep for third place in the Sea-King District. The game is at 3:00 PM on March 1 at BCC. Win or lose, the Wildcats are going to the state tournament!
Let’s see how many fans we can pack in the BCC gymnasium Saturday.
Go West Side!
9:50 PM: Back at WSB HQ now. Processing video for a separate wrap-up post on tonight’s School Board vote.
9:10 PM: Just back from wading into reaction interview central in the foyer outside the board room. Talked to Sealth staffers Delfino Munoz and John Wright, both of whom spoke against Option 2 tonight. Munoz quote: “It’s not over.” But what’s next – he says it’ll take some time to step back and reassess. (The board meeting continues, by the way; we will continue monitoring in case of anything WS-related.) P.S. The opponents were clearly disappointed as they cleared the chambers after the vote, but were classy about it – no loud boos or other disruptions – in case you were curious (and didn’t happen to be watching on TV). The board’s now discussing future transportation plans for students; high-school students are scheduled to stop getting “yellow bus” transportation as of next year, and are to be given Metro passes instead. WEST SEATTLE-SPECIFIC NOTE: District staff confirms this is the last year that Spectrum kids (one of the district’s gifted programs) from West Seattle who go to Washington Middle School will have the opportunity to ride regular school buses; that ends next year, though Metro passes would be made available for them too. (Meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm.)
9:05 PM – The vote is 5-2 for Option 2. The no votes are from Mary Bass and Harium Martin-Morris.
After the jump, the rest of our liveblogging of tonight’s meeting, in reverse chronological order, exactly as we filed it during the meeting:Read More
Tonight, the Seattle School Board is scheduled to make its decision on the Denny Middle School/Chief Sealth High School shared-campus proposal. (All WSB coverage is archived here.) What board members specifically are being asked to approve or reject is a resolution to move $10 million from elsewhere in the budget to support Option 2 (district rendering below), the option recommended by district administration — going ahead with building a new Denny on the Sealth campus, but adding money to the required renovations CSHS was already scheduled to get:
WSB will be there tonight with live online updates; as the day goes on, we’ll report any late pre-vote developments, starting with this: Sealth teacher John Wright forwarded a petition signed by staffers who support Option 3 (building a new Denny on its current site; renovating Sealth with the basic upgrades it is scheduled to get no matter what). Here’s the petition text; Wright says of the 93 CSHS staffers contacted yesterday, 83 signed it (they hadn’t yet reached 16 staffers):
We the undersigned staff at Chief Sealth High School strongly urge the School Board to vote for Option 3 to keep the campuses separate. We strongly urge all available funds be utilized to build the absolutely best possible Denny Middle School to support our entire community.
There have been multiple admissions of community and staff engagement flaws in this entire process, some accidental, some intentional. Ultimately, however, we request Option 3 be chosen as there has been no evidence towards academic benefit for any co-location campus model.
1. All or almost all of the existing 6-12 models in the country referred to by the school district are either private, charter or magnet schools with self-selecting application processes. The models of 6-12 schools which exist were pre-planned projects, not mergers of existing schools. Successful 6-12 models had staff heavily involved in every phase of the development of the school and, in many models, the schools were created gradually (ex. one grade level at a time).
2. There is no academic plan for a 6-12 co-location model. Vague affirmations from the district that it “could work†as well as the Facilities Department website’s Academic Benefits (actually just copied from the Denny principal’s letter) do not constitute an academic plan. An academic plan requires considerable deliberation and intensive wide-ranging input prior to construction according to best practices.
3. Any large-scale educational program change absolutely needs teacher support for it to be successful. Combining the campuses without an educational plan for shared programs, shared planning and collaboration time for teachers, will lead to a lack of support and poor implementation.
Ultimately the reason why Sealth staff cannot find a single research study to clearly refute the proposed 6-12 model for Sealth & Denny is because something like this appears to have never been tried before. Never before have two existing schools with a significant FRL rate and no self-selecting application process had a building built prior to the development of an educational plan with the expectation that it would somehow work out. There are no studies to support or refute this exact model because it is a massive experiment on our kids – it has not been tried elsewhere and we believe it has not been done because it is an inadequate model.
Wright says Sealth principal John Boyd (WSB interview from yesterday morning is here) was presented with this petition late yesterday afternoon, before it was sent to the School Board. He also notes “this is a staff petition because the district still maintains that all of the other ‘Sealth staff polls’ were unofficial. So to avoid charges of ballot stuffing or any other classic attempts to discredit the integrity of the staff’s position, the original petitions will be given to the Board along with the staff list so they can verify the accuracy by contacting anybody they want.” He says that will be done at tonight’s meeting.
The West Seattle High boys lost yesterday’s basketball game to Rainier Beach, 68-45, according to a brief mention in this Times roundup, which notes they play Cleveland next in this double-elimination round, 6:30 pm Thursday, also at Bellevue Community College.
The agenda for tomorrow night’s Seattle School Board meeting, including the vote on the Denny-Sealth combined-campus project, is now updated on the district website. In the public-comment section at the start of the meeting, 18 people are listed as signed up to speak about the Denny-Sealth proposal (you can see the entire list on the agenda posted online). Also added to the agenda since this morning is the “updated report” on the actual item on which board members will be voting, whether to “transfer” $10 million to the Denny-Sealth project in support of Option 2. Here’s a link to that; its list of the sources for the $10 million is: “$1.5 million from Debt Service Fund, $3.5 million from BEX III Technology, $5 million from BEX III Infrastructure.” Again, the meeting’s at 6 pm tomorrow, district HQ in Sodo; we’ll be there and plan to liveblog it with continuous updates here, start to finish (you can also watch live on cable channel 26).
Within the past half-hour, as promised, several dozen Chief Sealth High School students walked out in protest of the proposal to build a new Denny Middle School on their campus. They walked up Thistle and past Denny, as shown in the clip above. We watched the walkout from their Sealth departure and it appeared orderly; according to an e-mail sent to the CSHS staff by principal John Boyd, any student who missed a class will be marked for an unexcused absence in that class. ADDED 4 PM: Another angle from our video, as the protesters walked uphill on Thistle toward Denny:
| 4 COMMENTS