Thanks to the person who cameraphoned us with that photo of the Denny Middle School band serenading West Seattle Elementary School about an hour ago, as the Feet First walk-to-school month of Fast Feet Fridays finished up. (Our coverage of the first one is here.)
OFF-LEASH AREA CLOSED TODAY:Westcrest Park Off-Leash Area is closed 9 am-4 pm today for maintenance work, and park steward Steve says in this post on the WPOLA Yahoo! group, “I need all the humans I can get!” to help.
SCHOOLS SHOW OFF ART/MUSIC TALENT: Lafayette Elementary has an Art Walk 6-9 pm at the school and in nearby businesses’ windows; Pathfinder K-8 has its first all-school art show 6:30-8 pm; the West Seattle High School Spring Concert is at 7:30 pm.
More new events added daily (now stretching to next spring!) on the WSB Events page.
Thanks to Fiona Preedy for that photo and word that the two teachers pictured, Carolyn Kunihiro (left) and Sharon Glockner, are retiring from Schmitz Park Elementary this year and will be feted at a reception on Friday, June 6th (along with SP principal Richard Mellish, who’s departing). Fiona adds, “I’d like to invite former students, families, and staff to the reception, to bring these teachers their well wishes and as a reunion. If folks are unable to attend, pictures, stories, memories, are being gratefully received at schmitzparkelementary@gmail.com.” That’s a big potential pool of participants — Fiona says Mrs. Kunihiro has been teaching for 35 years (27 at SP) and Mrs. Glockner for 38 years (28 at SP).
Three weeks from today, the school year ends for most local students; in the wake of the last pre-summer-vacation three-day weekend, we have updates (including events you’re invited to share!) from six local schools:Read More
Almost every week for the past few months, we’ve walked into Room 145 at Chief Sealth High School and sat down with two of the students in Sam Reed‘s Web Design II class to talk over a project that was part of an ambitious effort he launched this semester — pairing student teams with small-business proprietors to create websites in a real vendor/client type of atmosphere. (He asked WSB last November to put out the call for small-business volunteers, and got more than three dozen responses!) Tonight, Reed organized a reception for the students, their families, and the “clients” to see the sites unveiled — here’s how it went:Read More
Just got word of a unique competition at Chief Sealth High School tonight and an invitation for you to attend — 120 students from Sealth, Ballard, and Franklin High Schools are competing in the final round of the Seattle Academy of Finance’s Annual Case Competition. Working in 4-person teams, the students got a “business case” six days ago and have had to work to solve it – tonight, they present their proposals to corporate and faculty judges. It’s happening 7:30 pm in the Sealth “Little Auditorium.” (Read the full news release here.) Just so happens part of Team WSB was already going to be at Sealth tonight for a smaller event celebrating a project we told you about last November – business teacher Sam Reed‘s Web Design students have been designing websites for volunteer small-business participants (including a side project we had been contemplating) and tonight, with those participants on hand as well as their families, the students unveil their work. We’ll be there to cover both.
Above left, that’s Seattle Seahawks cornerback Kelly Jennings, focusing on the educational field rather than the playing field tonight at South Seattle Community College, appearing on behalf of City University, which is partnering with SSCC in a new 4-year-degree program (reported here last month). This was part of College Night at Brockey Center on the school’s campus in northeastern West Seattle:
During the event, visitors wandered between booths and tables set up on behalf of other educational institutions as well as SSCC programs like its culinary-arts offerings, spotlighted in a cooking demo:
College Night is an annual SSCC event organized to provide information on transferring to four-year programs or further exploring some of the school’s vocational programs. (One more note on Jennings’ appearance – info provided in advance notes that he holds two degrees in Finance and Business Management from the University of Miami.)
For the first time in the months we’ve been covering the Denny Middle School/Chief Sealth High School combined-campus controversy/vote/aftermath, we sat in this afternoon on a meeting of the School Design Team, which includes reps from various constituencies with various types of ties to one or both schools. Today’s major items included the first look at a proposal for the exterior design of the new Denny on the Sealth campus, and Denny principal Jeff Clark didn’t mince words with his first reaction — that and more ahead:Read More
With temperatures still in the 80s as Saturday night began, Highland Park Elementary truly had a tropical-island atmosphere for its luau last night. (Above, video of a young dancer who was one of many entertainers, getting a little help from a young assistant; shortly afterward, other kids were invited up on stage to get a chance to sway to the island music.) A little education sneaked in with the entertainment and luau food — with info about recycling on display at the back of the cafeteria. We hadn’t been inside Highland Park Elementary before – it’s a beautiful school inside and out (see photo below), built in 1999 (background here) to replace a 1921 building, at 10th and Trenton.
Yet another group of folks working hard in the hot Saturday sun — the 40-plus volunteers helping put the almost-finishing touches on the preschool playground at West Seattle Elementary in High Point. These few seconds of video will give you an idea of just how busy they were:
Just steps away from where all the work was under way on the west side of the school, this window display chronicles the playground project’s progress:
Organizers at the site told WSB today that this work would leave the playground 90% complete, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally open it will be scheduled very soon.
Some of this work traces back to the “Day of Service” event that brought Governor Gregoire, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, and other dignitaries to WS Elementary on King Day (WSB coverage here); we photographed early playground-project prep during a preview a few days earlier.
Congratulations to Madison Middle School seventh-graders Allie Commons and Dylan Tucker, who will be honored at a reception in Olympia today. They’re receiving an award at the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s annual School Art Show Awards and Reception, in connection with their work in the 2008 Youth Art Month flag-design contest (shown above). This comes as Arts Education Week wraps up. (Allie and Dylan’s work is featured on the state’s webpage for today’s event, as well as on page 2 of the program.) The Seattle Public Schools communication team also notes that Madison students “have been working on a project titled ‘A World with No Art’ with posters (on display at the school) illustrating what would be missing from their lives if fine art, music, dance, and drama did not exist.
Thursday-night highlights from the frequently updated WSB Events page:
“TASTE OF WEST SEATTLE”: Tonight at The Hall @ Fauntleroy, it’s the annual Taste of West Seattle benefiting West Seattle Helpline. On the menu: dishes from restaurants around West Seattle. 6-8:30 pm; check with Helpline (website here) for ticket availability.
SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ STRATEGIC PLAN: The district’s working on one and asking for your help. A round of public meetings is part of the process, and there’s one tonight in the West Seattle High School Commons, 7 pm.
Thanks to the folks at Hope Lutheran School for the advance alert about tonight’s Lion Dance parade to their school, after a special event at the nearby Seattle Lutheran gym capped a special unit of Chinese studies. Just so happened that your editor here and the Junior Member of the Team were at also-nearby Ginomai for the JuNO meeting on Junction development projects (full report upcoming); thanks to JMoT for going out with the camera to catch this glimpse (the drums rocked the meeting room for a few minutes too!).
First, the Sunday sale: The folks at Community School of West Seattle want you to know their megasale (100+ families) is continuing today, till 4 pm. (And yes, they have tents, so don’t let the rain stop you! Address and Saturday picture are here.) Next, a sale report from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council, which sent this Saturday photo (we showed a pic of the NDNC bake sale yesterday):
That sale raised money and volunteer hours (important for matching funds) to expand the play area at Cottage Grove Park (5206 26th SW; city info page here) with tot-size equipment, particularly in hopes of affording a fun setup similar to this:
Next step is where you come in, if you can help: An organizational meeting Friday morning. Here’s the invitation from organizers:
Neighbors are planning to build a playground for babies and toddlers at the Cottage Grove Playground in Delridge. We need YOUR input – which playground design should we choose? Which equipment do we want? How can we best raise money? Come give your input at a playground meeting.
Friday, May 16, 10 am at Cottage Grove playground if the weather is good; or at the Delridge Community Center common area if the weather is bad. If the indoor play area is open we’ll meet there. Bring kids, blanket for the grass & snacks for your family.
That’s just one tiny cross-section of the HUGE volunteer cleanup/beautification work at Pathfinder K-8 on Genesee Hill (map) today … the amphitheater on the lower field, cleared from under a serious case of overgrowth. Even more impressive, a huge painting project splashing brighter colors onto the portables up on the main grounds … our video of that, unfortunately, did not survive a serious case of user error, but the Pathfinder folks promised us before/after photos for a followup. They had more than 100 volunteers on hand (including dozens from Seattle Works and West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist) and also were grateful for donations from local businesses (a Pathfinder parent gave them a shoutout in this thread in the WSB Forums). Pathfinder, you may recall, needs a better building but almost got moved to an arguably worse one in the recent round of school closures/consolidations; since no new building is likely any time soon, this was a case of the school community working to improve the livability of what they have.
The STAR 101.5 “Teacher of the Week” promotion had another West Seattle winner today — congrats to Arbor Heights Elementary second-grade teacher Sally Shavey. This comes six weeks after Lafayette Elementary fifth-grade teacher Catherine Bloom won the same honor.
I am one of 2 photography teachers at West Seattle High.
We do ask our students to take landscape and portrait pictures that they find beautiful, so if you see students wandering and taking pictures of each other, random people or pets (they should ask first), bushes, trees, pretty houses, architecture, they may very well be doing their coursework. However, the story of the mother taking pictures of a car is not in line with any assignments I am aware of, and just sounds weird. Students shooting pics during the school day should have a signed note from one of their teachers, indicating permission for them to be outside shooting: you can ask to see this if you feel they are acting inappropriately, and please, contact the school with their name and location if they are. Students with inappropriate behaviors of any kind should be reported immediately to the WSHS Main Office.
Somebody breathlessly called WSB HQ early this morning to report this sighting on the lawn @ Pathfinder K-8 along Genesee Hill. We’re not just all about fire trucks and teardowns; we love happy photos too, so we were glad to head out for a look. If we were a betting person, we would suspect it has something to do with the big event coming up Saturday (update: actually it’s for Teacher Appreciation Week), and the flamingos remind us we hadn’t published the latest news release from the fine folks @ Pathfinder about the event, some advance work done last weekend, and how you can be part of Saturday’s festivities:Read More
TODAY: The weather’s a little sketchy but if you were going to wash your car anyway, note that the WSHS Class of ’08 is having another Grad Night-fundraising car wash at the school through 2 pm today.
TODAY:Arbor Heights and Highland Park Elementary Schools are both having rummage sales under way right now (AH has a plant sale too); more here.
THURSDAY: Another WSHS benefit — the Foundation is raising money for visual and performing arts with an evening of dinner and theater (and a few extras!) on Thursday night, hosted by County Councilmember (and WSHS alum) Dow Constantine — read on for full details and ticket info:Read More
No punchy answer, just the facts: The Feet First chicken greeted the Fast Feet Fridays walking-to-school contingent — including a guest appearance by West Seattle’s school board member Steve Sundquist (he’s in the blue jacket telling the chicken “good morning”) — at 34th/Morgan in High Point, where the long-sought crosswalk was just painted two days ago. (Also in the video, you see Leah the crossing guard, who was nearly hit by a car while we were covering this dangerous crossing spot a few months ago.) This is part of Walk to School Month and Feet First’s ongoing Safe Routes to School campaign; it’ll feature special events like this every Friday this month on the route to West Seattle Elementary. This group walked from 31st/Graham; another group started at Hughes Playground at 29th/Holden, and “a Sunrise Heights neighbor” sent us this photo from that site (thanks!):
With so much going on last night, we sought some help making sure the major events could all be covered — and a WSB’er who has reported previously for us, Evan Baumgardner, agreed to handle one of them — the Seattle Public Schools hearing on the Fauntleroy Schoolhouse sale (one month after a community meeting about it, WSB coverage here). Here’s his report:Read More
April 28: Student directed to leave the Library after repeatedly refusing to stop using his cell phone, to library staff and then security officers.
Actually that’s just one small snippet from a newsletter jampacked with other news from West Seattle’s only college; the folks at SSCC invited us to share the whole thing with you here.
Case Competition. Working in 4-person teams, the students got a “business case” six days ago and have had to work to solve it – tonight, they present their proposals to corporate and faculty judges. It’s happening 7:30 pm in the Sealth “Little Auditorium.” (
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