West Seattle, Washington
26 Saturday
As part of the same school district ballot measure (BEX III) that raised money for projects including the Denny/Sealth combined campus, the Southwest Athletic Complex across from Chief Sealth is getting new turf. Didn’t get to share this pic with you till now, but we spotted striping work being done on Thursday afternoon. On a related note regarding the athletic complex – as we reported earlier this week, there was a suggestion at Tuesday night’s Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting that the perpetual inaccessibility of the complex because of locked fencing – a hindrance in particular for people trying to walk between Thistle and Trenton, from the school zone to Westwood Village — might be changeable. West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist said he’d check into it. We e-mailed him to ask if he’d gotten anywhere with that, and he replied: “I have not yet had a chance to chase this one down. My guess is that the most productive conversations about the fencing will occur this fall as part of the larger site development planning effort.” (Read more about that in our report about the WNC meeting.)
Two updates today: First, we reported earlier this week about West Seattle-based activist Chris Jackins‘ appeal of the Sealth site “determination of nonsignificance,” and a controversy over tree-cutting that had been done before a hearing on that appeal. We have new information on the appeal (and why there was no public notice of the hearing) – also, we have a report from last night’s Westwood Neighborhood Council meeting, where both city Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher and West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist were on hand for some honest and open discussion about the future of the Denny site, once the old school’s demolished (shown above, the WNC “vision” for what the site could become – click image for a larger view):Read More
Reading citywide-media coverage regarding the latest developments in Seattle Public Schools‘ plan to cut trees to make way for an Ingraham High School project, we were startled to see the reports featuring a line about alleged unauthorized district tree-cutting as Denny/Sealth construction/renovation work begins on the Chief Sealth HS campus. Certainly the West Seattle project has had more than its share of controversy, but we hadn’t heard about any tree trouble, so we started digging around. Here’s what we found out:Read More
Good thing they’re not gathering at the school — since as we first reported last week, the renovations are ramping up, and the campus is closed for two years. But they’re partying just the same – all former Chief Sealth High School students from the ’60s and ’70s are invited to a gathering at West Seattle Golf Course tonight. The Class of ’73 is sponsoring it in honor of its 35th anniversary, but they want to share memories with those who came before and after. They describe it as “a free, casual event with a no-host bar and food available from the Cafe. Get-together starts at 5 pm, with music of the era until 10:30. Bring any Sealth yearbooks and memories along. No RSVP needed!”
Denny Middle School principal Jeff Clark sent WSB pix of the new Denny-sponsored All-City Junior Marching Band in the recent Kiddies’ Parade, with an update letting us — and you — know there’s been a lot going on at his school this summer (vacation? what vacation?). And that dovetails with updates on two opportunities to get involved with both the new Denny/Sealth campus and with plans for the future of the Denny site once its replacement is built on that shared campus (where major work is under way now, as we reported last week) – and tomorrow’s the deadline to get in on one of those opportunities. Read on for all the details:Read More
That’s a look inside the old Chief Sealth High School commons, where the old floor’s just been pulled up for replacement – one of many renovations that will be taking place in the next 2 years. At the back of the photo, the old cafeteria’s blocked off for hazmat work including getting out the type of old pipes that were wrapped with asbestos insulation way back when; the new cafeteria and commons will be a shared facility with the new Denny Middle School to be built on the Sealth campus, and while that’s not fully opening till a year after Sealth students return in fall 2010, project manager Robert Evans says the new cafeteria and commons will be ready in two years. We met with Evans and other key leaders from the Sealth/Denny project at CSHS this afternoon; full details of what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and the latest on the process to determine the future of the Denny site, coming up.
We met Denny Middle School assistant principal Mia Williams back during mid-winter break, when we covered the music camp at Denny. This afternoon, Seattle Public Schools sends word that after four years as assistant principal at Denny, Williams has been appointed interim principal at Aki Kurose Middle School. ADDED THURSDAY NIGHT: Here’s why AKMS needs a new principal.
Out for a walk tonight, we passed the west edge of the Gatewood Elementary playground along Fauntleroy, saw kids on the new play structure (recent photo above), and wondered if we were late to discover that it was finally unfenced and ready for use. Turns out, not so — moments later, we got e-mail from Steve White, announcing … the construction fence just came down today and the play structure is open! This is the culmination of a long process of planning, fundraising, and volunteer work (remember the goats?); a formal dedication/celebration isn’t expected, Steve says, till after the new school year starts.
Driving Delridge, we spotted work under way alongside that row of portables at Chief Sealth High School‘s new temporary home (the former Boren Junior High), a short time after getting a quick update on the start of the two-year Sealth renovation project. A doorhanger’s gone out to neighbors, says Pauline Sugarman, assistant to Robert Evans, the Project Manager for the Denny/Sealth construction process — but if you were expecting to see demolition of the CSHS portables, once expected to be among the first visible signs of work, you’ll be waiting a while longer. Sugarman says one portable has been moved and the others won’t be demolished “for quite a while” because another permit is needed. She adds, “Most if not all of the construction right now is happening in the inside of the existing buildings.” You can check this city webpage to track the various permits that have been applied for and granted; the Sealth website has its own page with info-links about the relocation to Boren.
The portables at Pathfinder K-8 on Genesee Hill used to look like this:
Then after a big painting party a few months ago, most of them had a more colorful facade, as you can see in the background of this photo:
But there’s still work to do, and Eric Baer sends work that volunteers including a corps from Seattle Works will be getting the job done at Pathfinder 10 am-2 pm today. Since we’re walking in the parade to pay tribute to local volunteers, hats off to them and everybody else who makes West Seattle a spectacular place to live.
As reported in recent weeks, both Roxhill Elementary and Schmitz Park Elementary lost their principals. The district has just announced who’s replacing them:Read More
With Chief Sealth High School ready to move into Boren (WSB photo above, from 7/4), renovation work at Sealth is kicking into high gear, in the first phase of the process to combine the campuses of Sealth and nearby Denny Middle School. Last night, the Westwood Neighborhood Council got the latest on the project and also dove deeper into discussion of what will happen to the Denny site once the old school is demolished. Local journalist David Preston covered the meeting for WSB – read on for his report:Read More
Spotted while driving Delridge, headed for the fireworks-barge photo-op (we’ll have video and info up about that before we leave for the parades) – it’s almost identical to the sign outside Chief Sealth‘s closed-for-two-years-of-renovations campus on Thistle, except it has the school’s website address in the blue stripe at the bottom.
We’ve chronicled the community dreaming, planning, and working that led to this point – now the Gatewood Elementary play structure (chosen just a couple months ago) is up and just a few finishing touches remain till it will be ready for kids to use. Next one happens tomorrow morning – see the pile of wood chips at the right side of the picture? Starting at 9 am tomorrow, show up and you’ll likely be handed a shovel to use to dig in. Next week, a little more work remains to be done before the school district can give it a final inspection and then hopefully thumbs-up for the fence to come down.
Earlier this week, we brought you the first look at the program for West Seattle Summer Fest, the street festival in The Junction coming up July 11-13 (two weeks from Friday!). Of course, the program doesn’t reveal every little detail of the fun, or the food – part of which will be good chow for a good cause. Eric Radovich from BlueStar, a Summer Fest sponsor, 
tells us about a food booth that hopes to score enough cash to kick off their fundraising program to get new jerseys for the West Seattle High School football team. The ones they’ve been using are more than five years old, and “tired” to say the least. 70 jerseys will cost about $5,000. So football players and parent volunteers, possibly cheerleaders too, will staff a food booth at Summer Fest. The players, in fact, will be taking a course this Saturday at the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ to qualify for food-handler cards (the course has been on our Events page for a while and is open to the public if you know anyone else who needs to take it). They’re hoping the food booth will bring in at least $1,000 in “seed money” to get the jersey drive — which Marc Patnode is heading up — rolling; they plan to serve chicken sandwiches on French bread, chicken Caesar salads, ice-cream novelties, and soft drinks at the booth, so look for them when you’re hungry/thirsty at Summer Fest.
From the Seattle Public Schools “School Beat” e-newsletter that arrived today:
Cathy Thompson, currently principal at Roxhill Elementary School, has been appointed Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction. This is a newly established role that strengthens the Learning and Teaching function in support of the Strategic Plan. Before taking the leadership role at Roxhill, Cathy spent four years at Rainier View Elementary School, four years as a literacy instructional coach and six years as a first-grade teacher at Bailey Gatzert Elementary School.
That means Roxhill and Schmitz Park Elementary Schools (links and maps to those and all other WS schools are on this WSB page) here in West Seattle are both looking for new principals; the SPS communications team is checking into the search status and we should have an update next week. “School Beat” also mentioned that volunteers organized by Pricewaterhousecooper were sprucing up Roxhill today.
We just confirmed with the Seattle Animal Shelter that they have seized the dog which is reported to have bitten a child at the Lafayette Elementary playground before school this morning. Our first report came from Lafayette parent Bernicki, who quotes school administration as saying the bite wasn’t serious; the dog apparently ran onto the playground without its owner or minder anywhere in sight, and in fact, Ann Graves from the Animal Shelter tells WSB they are still trying to locate its owner before they can decide what will happen to the dog. She says their report indicated the dog is a pit bull, which is also what Bernicki told us, but they will not be able to confirm its breed — it could be a mix — until the dog is at SAS facilities later.
Five people now have been arrested for the break-in early yesterday at West Seattle HS (original WSB report here, followed by a comment explaining that “the burglars stole items from our special-education students”). Sgt. Jeff Durden at the Southwest Precinct just provided these details: “During the initial incident, one arrest was made of an adult West Seattle High school student. He brought the four other other West Seattle High students into the SW Precinct around 2 pm yesterday. All of the student/suspects are cooperating with both detectives and the school. All property is in the process of being returned.”
Well, we were looking for an excuse to post this photo sent by “Trick” (thank you!) after he spotted these baby birds:
The young humans among us will also be clamoring – with joy – since they’re pretty much all out of school as of this afternoon – it’s the last day of classes for Seattle Public Schools students, with dismissal an hour earlier than usual. Summer vacation lasts till school resumes September 3rd, and changes are ahead for some local schools when summer’s over — Chief Sealth High School moves into Boren on Delridge for two years while renovations are under way; West Seattle Montessori moves into a temporary White Center location because its longtime WS home is earmarked for a mixed-use building (the developer (as reported here, when we also mentioned Harbor Properties, told WSB they’re still talking with WSMS about a new home in the new building); and as we reported a few weeks ago, Hope Lutheran School has construction under way over the summer (some of it for the adjacent church, too).
Police confirm a break-in early this morning at West Seattle High School – Victoria tells WSB there was quite the commotion on her section of Walnut between about 3:30 am and 5:30 am, when a car apparently related to the investigation was finally towed; Lt. Steve Paulsen at the Southwest Precinct says one “adult” was arrested and they suspect “some seniors (were) involved as well.” Thanks also to Todd for pointing out this brief online citywide-media report, which suggests the burglars had targeted computer equipment.
As that clip shows, Seattle Public Schools superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson played photographer for a few minutes at this afternoon’s Chief Sealth High School graduation: West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist handed the superintendent his camera as he prepared to greet one of the grads ascending to the stage to receive her diploma — his daughter Leslie Sundquist. We’ve reported many Chief Sealth HS stories this year, many congratulatory and some contentious, but this afternoon was all about celebration, like the classic cap-tossing moment, which we also caught on video:
Earlier in the afternoon, principal John Boyd — Sealth Class of ’82 — noted that this class was special to him because their first year at CSHS was his first year as its principal. He also pointed out that this year’s grads received scholarships totaling more than $1 million (the list of those scholarships and other awards took up half the 12-page program!). More video from today’s event – a rap, a poem, and a-cappella – ahead:Read More
Thanks to Bil Hood for getting us photos of tonight’s Seattle Lutheran High School graduation — one of two West Seattle schools with commencement ceremonies tonight (we posted West Seattle High School photos earlier). 32 seniors graduated this year; the total number of SLHS grads is now at 1,087, Hood says.
SLHS Class of ’08 valedictorian is Joseph Hwang, one of tonight’s speakers:
As we mentioned earlier, this leaves Chief Sealth High School awaiting its ceremony – 1 pm Saturday, Southwest Athletic Complex.
West Seattle High School‘s graduation ceremony is under way in bright sunshine at Seattle Center’s Memorial Stadium right now; we took that photo (and the ones below) a short time ago – the photo above shows the 49 percent who are graduating with honors — including 10 valedictorians with 4.0 averages — were asked to stand and be acknowledged. They wore special gold banners:
Dignitaries there to share the ceremony with the more than 200 grads included West Seattle’s school-board rep Steve Sundquist and district superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson (third and second from right, respectively):
Seattle Lutheran High School‘s ceremony is 7:30 tonight; Chief Sealth High School grads are honored at 1 pm Saturday (Southwest Athletic Complex across from the school).
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