West Seattle, Washington
27 Sunday
More than 100 people jammed the Chief Sealth HS Library (at Boren) last night for the International Baccalaureate program’s Information Night. IB is a rigorous academic program for juniors and seniors, with some components even good for college credit. This is the second year for IB at Sealth; we spent a moment last night talking with the program coordinator, Laura Robb – our clip, and more info, just ahead:Read More
(October 2007 Lafayette Walk-A-Thon photo courtesy of Luckie)
THIS MORNING: Lafayette Elementary School‘s annual Walk-A-Thon – you can cheer the kids on between 9 am and 3 pm as they circle the recreation areas on the west side of the school (map). This year they’re hoping to raise $38,000 for enrichment programs the district doesn’t fund; the $55K raised in last year’s Walk-A-Thon paid for a tutor program, Accelerated Reader tests, school computers, and a science enrichment program, as well as adding to a fund for playground updates.
TONIGHT: That’s our video (it’s better than the automated thumbnail implies) from the end of the thrilling West Seattle High School victory over O’Dea last month. Tonight, the undefeated Wildcats play their homecoming game, facing Rainier Beach at Southwest Athletic Complex (7 pm) – and before the game, you’re invited to a pep rally and barbecue (hot dogs and hamburgers!) at the WSHS Commons, 4:30-5:30. For anyone who can’t be at the game, but will be online somewhere, we’re planning updates via Twitter (if you have or get a Twitter account, follow us at westseattleblog; or you can see our Twitter updates on the web at twitter.com/westseattleblog).
Those photos show the lineup of law-enforcement vehicles — and law enforcers — on 42nd SW between Holy Rosary‘s church and school this morning, after a motorcade that kicked off a “Red Ribbon Week” drug-awareness rally; (added at 1:47 pm) here’s video of the motorcade’s arrival, as students stood on the curb to welcome the visitors:
The rally had a bigtime guest list, including Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske (media weren’t allowed to photograph students’ faces closeup, a fairly common rule for coverage of schools’ events, so that’s why you’re seeing the tops of heads here):
Holy Rosary was chosen as the only school in Seattle to host this major event this year (there was one in Tacoma too) — and at the assembly that followed the show of force in the street (plus a helicopter landing on the playground), students heard from the widow of murdered DEA agent Enrique Camarena, the inspiration for “Red Ribbon Week.” This wasn’t your average “drugs are bad, don’t do them, see ya” rally – Mika Camarena spoke quietly and powerfully to ask the children to respect themselves and their health, as well as those in uniform. In the middle of the gym where she and others spoke was a bust of her late husband, which she acknowledged as she walked up:
Just before the indoor portion of the assembly began, this DEA chopper landed on the playground out back (who needs a helipad?):
The chopper and various law enforcers (including Duke the Seattle Police drug dog, shown below with his human partner) were on display as show-and-tell for Holy Rosary students after the assembly.
Today’s assembly was emceed by local TV reporter Jim Dever, who lives in West Seattle. As part of Red Ribbon Week, by the way, Holy Rosary students have made artwork that’s on display at Jefferson Square Safeway; you can see samples on the school’s home page (scroll down).
It’s been in the citywide-media digest on the More page, but we wanted to add a home-page shoutout: Seattle Police Officer Adrian Diaz, who also has ties to the Chief Sealth High School community including serving as assistant wrestling coach, is being honored tonight with the city’s Latino Heritage Award. Here’s a Times story with photo; the award’s being presented tonight at the Seattle Aquarium.
As noted in comments on last night’s report about the West Seattle High School Wildcats‘ sixth-straight football win (photo left), their next game is Homecoming. This afternoon, we received an invitation to share with you, to come celebrate not just Homecoming, but also the great season WSHS is having so far: 4:30-5:30 pm Friday at the WSHS Commons, a good old-fashioned pep rally, free, community invited, hot dogs and hamburgers. See you there! (The actual game is 7 pm, SW Athletic Complex, vs. Rainier Beach.)
As we mentioned this morning, Seattle Public Schools reps have spent the week touring the city to invite members of the public to come offer ideas for projects to put in the next capital levy that’ll go before voters, likely February 2010. We got first word almost three weeks ago and mentioned it here; it was publicized many other ways, too. Certainly, Friday is a less-than-optimal night for a public meeting; even considering that, the turnout was absymal — just 4 people were on hand for the meeting: 2 members of the public (both teachers), the official SPS presenter, and the reporter we assigned to cover it. Here’s her story:Read More
Dropped by Southwest Athletic Complex just in time for the end of the game — West Seattle High School 54, Cleveland 7. WSHS is now 6-0 in ’08. We’ll add post-game-cheering video later. (Chief Sealth has the week off; Seattle Lutheran played Chief Leschi tonight and also had a lopsided win, 67-6!) ADDED 11:30 PM: Video of the cheerleaders’ celebratory routine at game’s end:
(video lost in blip.tv shutdown)
Coinciding with International Walk to School Month – celebrated with events like this week’s walk from Bar-S to Alki Elementary (photo left; full WSB coverage, with video, here) – we get word from Brian Dougherty, Safe Routes to School coordinator for SDOT, that applications are being accepted for “the Seattle Safe Routes to School Mini Grant program. Any group of two or more people qualifies to apply for a grant of up to $1,000. Projects should improve pedestrian and bicycle safety near schools and encourage walking and biking to school.” The deadline’s about a month away; the application form is fairly simple, and you can get it – along with more details on who can apply and what the program’s for – by clicking here.
Public meetings on Friday nights are fairly rare. Tonight, though, there’s one in West Seattle: Seattle Public Schools reps have gone around the city this week asking for opinions on what might belong in the next “capital levy,” February 2010; tonight you’re invited to show up and chime in, 6:30 pm at West Seattle High School library – here’s the official flyer.
That posterboard propped up at last night’s meeting of the Design Team for the Redevelopment of the Denny Middle School Site (yes, that’s its official name) spells out the school district’s baseline priorities for the 6-acre site (map) even before the Design Team process gets going in earnest: The softball and tennis facilities are replacements for what will be lost when the new Denny is built on the Chief Sealth campus; the “potential elementary school” is something that has recently emerged and is now being discussed more loudly — we first heard it from West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist at Westwood Neighborhood Council meetings; earlier in the year, he mentioned the district might have to build another school on the site; then at Monday’s WNC meeting focused on the Denny site (WSB coverage here), he said it was likely to be an elementary-school site. Last night, Don Gillmore from the school district elaborated that a new elementary school might be built there with the closure of three (unspecified) others, and noted that the closed Hughes site also is a “prime candidate” for a future new elementary school. Way down the road but keep your ears up. Meantime, on to what happened last night and what happens next with the Denny site plan, plus an update on construction status at the Chief Sealth site, just ahead:Read More
Reminder that the school-district-organized Design Team charged with helping settle the future of the current Denny Middle School site meets 7 pm tonight at Denny, two days after the Westwood Neighborhood Council‘s meeting to discuss the community’s hopes for the site (WSB coverage here), once the school is demolished after its replacement is built on the Sealth campus. Meantime, the Departure Advisory Committee tasked with reviewing the district’s request for code “departures” as part of the Sealth/Denny consolidation — to enable less parking and more height — settled on a recommendation last night. Member Monica Kenny says the committee recommended approving the “departures” with a fairly sizable list of conditions, including signage, some street-parking restrictions in nearby neighborhoods, angle parking on the east side of 27th between Thistle and Kenyon, and providing neighbors with a “master calendar” of major events planned at the school. They’ll meet again Oct. 20th to make a final decision.
That video clip shows one of the most crowded, and liveliest, ribbon-cuttings we’ve ever seen, and after all these years in media, we’ve seen our share. Sanislo Elementary School (map) students joined Mayor Nickels – and other city officials including SDOT boss Grace Crunican, who like Nickels is a West Seattleite, plus City Council Transportation Committee Chair Jan Drago, as well as reps from the pedestrian-advocacy group Feet First – to celebrate the new sidewalks leading up Myrtle to Sanislo. We first showed them to you as work was finishing up in August; here’s how they look today – this is the view eastward down Myrtle:
At today’s event, Sanislo Principal Debbie Nelsen introduced one of her fifth-grade safety helpers, Miles, who talked about the difference the new sidewalks have made:
None of the five schools listed this morning as getting safety improvements next year is in West Seattle, though Concord isn’t far away; here’s the official city news release with the full list. Councilmember Drago noted that the improvements along Sanislo walking routes also included the nearby staircase down to Delridge, which she took us to have a look at (note the new lighting fixture at right):
That’s the same staircase City Council members visited eleven months ago as they announced a new emphasis on pedestrian safety (WSB coverage, with video, here). Today, meantime, Drago even brought along a favorite walking partner — her 19-year-old “grand-dog” Nicky, who recently came to live with her and, she said, successfully completed his first circumnavigation of Green Lake before they came to the Sanislo event:
The mayor also announced more schools in line for pedestrian improvements next year; more on that, and more video from this morning’s event – including a student’s speech! – coming up.
That’s one of many “official” photos taken as what turned out to be a crowd more than 50 strong celebrated Walk This Way Day – part of Walk to School Month – this morning with a stroll from Bar-S Playfield (map) to Alki Elementary (map) — accompanied by Mayor Nickels, in the first of two West Seattle school appearances this morning (the second was at Sanislo Elementary; more on that in our next report). The morning’s events started with the young walkers – and the mayor – learning a chant from Deb Will (a child-safety educator from Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital) representing Safe Kids, which (along with FedEx) offered raffle prizes and stickers to participants:
Nancy Woodland from WestSide Baby, which often partners with Safe Kids (including car-seat safety checks back on Stuff the Bus Day), was there too:
Then, with the crowd continuing to grow in size – including police and fire escorts (with Engine 29 alongside), they were off, led by Allison Carver of the Alki Elementary PTA:
After walking up the south side of Admiral to the crossing-guard-staffed intersection at 59th, the walkers arrived at Alki Elementary, where an outdoor assembly followed.
If you’re an Alki Elementary parent, look for safety info coming home via “kid mail” today, because of today’s activities; there’s a PTA meeting tonight too, 6:30 pm at the school, with a different kind of safety — Internet safety — on the agenda.
Just a few months till Seattle Public Schools aims to have a final decision on the future of the Denny Middle School site, once the new Denny is built and occupied on the Chief Sealth campus nearby – and tonight was the first of three key meetings in the process that are all happening this week. The Westwood Neighborhood Council organized this one in hopes of clarifying community priorities for the Denny site, and the cozy group in attendance emerged with a list:Read More
Though Denny Middle School won’t be moving into its new location on the Chief Sealth campus for 2+ years, Seattle Public Schools wants to lock down a plan for the current Denny site’s future within a matter of months. A district-organized Design Team already has had its first meeting; tonight, the Westwood Neighborhood Council is offering the community a chance to voice its hopes and dreams. 7:30 pm, Southwest Community Center. (As we mentioned over the weekend, this is the first of three Denny/Sealth-related meetings over the next three nights; we are also reminded this morning that Friday night also brings a major school district-related meeting to West Seattle — 6:30 pm Friday, West Seattle High School library, the community meeting to talk about what should be in the district’s next levy request; see the flyer here.)
“COMMUNITY BUILDER” HONORED: He’s another one of West Seattle’s semi-unsung heroes — North Delridge Neighborhood Council co-chair Mike Dady, who works tirelessly on behalf of an area that’s been fighting its way to a better future. Now, we’ve got word the Seattle Neighborhood Group is honoring him with a “Community Builder Award” at an upcoming event; here’s the flyer. Congratulations, Mike!
CHIEF SEALTH HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER HONORED: The Seattle Public Schools “School Beat” e-mail newsletter brings word that CSHS teacher Gary Thomsen is the first Seattle teacher to win the “Service to Community Award” from the University of Puget Sound, given for his “tireless work in the local community” (read more here).
CONSERVATION “HERO” FINALIST – AND YOU CAN VOTE: Also today, we just got word that Fauntleroy’s Judy Pickens is one of the five finalists in the “Cox Conserves Heroes” program – you can watch her story (and that of the other four finalists) here. Among many other projects with which she is involved, Judy has worked long and hard to help restore and protect Fauntleroy Creek as a rare, urban salmon stream. Whoever wins gets $5,000 to donate to a charity – and Judy has chosen EarthCorps. Vote for Judy by going to this page and using the form in the left sidebar.
Seen at tonight’s Chief Sealth High School open house at the temporary (this year and next) Boren location – new T-shirts that the CSHS PTSA is selling, with BELIEVE in English on the front and many more languages on the back:
We dropped in as Sealth Principal John Boyd was saying a few words to the crowd:
Just general opening remarks, but significant in that this is the first open house in Sealth’s two-year home (while the permanent campus is undergoing renovation work, which started over the summer). Other activities tonight included dinner and chances for families to learn more about what’s being taught this year. Lots more school news on the CSHS website; the PTSA has its own site too, right here.
Posted online, and also forwarded to WSB in e-mail: A letter from Chief Sealth High School principal John Boyd, to students’ families, following the incident covered here yesterday. (We checked with Seattle Public Schools‘ media team at the time and their response indicated it happened off-campus, but Principal Boyd’s note mentioned a “fight … on campus during lunch.” In response to our request for clarification, he tells WSB, “To clarify, while there was a fight that occurred on campus yesterday, the issue that sparked large scale police response occurred off campus.”) He also writes, “Those students known to be involved in the incident have been disciplined according to District policy,” notes today’s meeting with police (reported here this morning), and says Sealth will be in a “closed campus” situation for the rest of the week. P.S. Sealth/Boren updates are part of the North Delridge Neighborhood Council agenda for tonight (7 pm, Delridge Library).
SAFETY: While talking with Southwest Precinct Lt. Steve Paulsen about Tuesday’s disturbance across the street from Chief Sealth High School‘s interim Boren campus (WSB coverage here), we learned that precinct leaders and the principals of Sealth and West Seattle high schools will be meeting today to talk about how things are going so far this school year.
TRANSPORTATION: This school year, Seattle Public Schools had intended to stop running most yellow-school-bus service to high schools around the city, including WSHS and CSHS, giving students Metro passes instead. But from the very start four weeks ago, parents in some areas started pointing out that some kids couldn’t find room on Metro buses; you can read some local stories in this WSB Forums thread. Now, some adjustments have been made; as a result, SPS spokesperson David Tucker says nine school buses are serving CSHS in the morning, four of which go to Denny Middle School first (fewer in the afternoon – four for CSHS alone, 2 more that pick up at CSHS and then Denny); and starting today, two school buses will be added for WSHS transporting about 106 students. Metro had added some buses in certain dayparts on the line serving WSHS but said it had no money to continue that into October or beyond.
One week after the big victory over O’Dea, West Seattle High School‘s football team remains undefeated, beating Nathan Hale last night.
QUAKE DRILL: A statewide earthquake drill is planned for 10:15 this morning, and EVERYBODY is urged to participate. Find out more about it here.
A CALL YOU MIGHT GET IF YOU’RE A SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARENT: In connection with the quake drill, SPS is sending out “test emergency calls” from its new SchoolMessenger system; a “random sample of 5% of … families” will get these calls; another 5% will get a “general announcement” version of test calls from the system.
SPEAKING OF SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Today is the first “two-hour early dismissal day” of the school year.
AND ONE MORE SCHOOL NOTE: Today’s the first monthly informal coffee hour that West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist — 9 to 10 am, Coffee to a Tea with Sugar in The Junction; drop by to talk education issues.
GETTING OUT THE LONG-TERM-CARE-RESIDENT VOTE: That’s the topic of a major conference at Providence Mount St. Vincent today, 9:30 am-2:30 pm, with everyone in the local long-term-care community welcome to participate.
“NICKELSVILLE” UPDATE: Not much was reported on the second day of the homeless camp’s existence at Highland Park Way/West Marginal; tonight at 7 pm, organizers hope to rally “community supporters” as they count down the final hours till the city’s eviction notice kicks in at 5 pm Thursday.
The school district is gearing up for a capital levy that’ll likely go to voters in February 2010, and starting meetings now to ask for input on what to ask voters to spend on. The first West Seattle meeting is set for October 10, West Seattle High School library, flyer here.
Though the current Denny Middle School won’t be vacated for more than two years — winter break 2010-2011 — Seattle Public Schools leaders say they need to finalize a plan for its site within the next few months. As mentioned here Friday, the district-organized Design Team (for which community volunteers were sought) starts meeting tomorrow (3 pm at Denny), and now the Westwood Neighborhood Council has set a community meeting to engage neighbors in a discussion of what they want to see. Here’s the announcement just released:
Goodbye Denny, Hello Sports Complex?
After Denny Middle School is relocated to its new location on the Sealth/Denny campus, the Seattle School District will demolish the existing school building. Current District plans call for an expanded sports complex including lighted softball fields, tennis courts and parking to occupy much of the area. As neighbors of the schools, what would you like the future site to look like?
Denny school neighbors voice your opinion!
Westwood Neighborhood Council is hosting a community meeting
7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Monday October 6
At the SW Community Center, 2801 SW Thistle
Come find out what is happening in your community!!
Please go to www.westwood-neighborhood.org for more information about this meeting, and about the School District’s plans.
Our coverage of the Denny site discussions to date, and the Denny/Sealth campus-combining project that’s leading to the future demolition of the current school, is archived here.
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