January 9, 2009
Photography ?
Susie Fitzhugh
District News
Final
capacity management and building closure recommendations presented;
School Board vote scheduled for January 29
The School Board is reviewing final
recommendations on Districtwide capacity
management that include several building closures, a new K-8
school, and a number of program relocations. Superintendent Maria
L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., released the final recommendations on
January 6 and presented it to the School Board on January 7. A
final public hearing is scheduled for January 22 and a School Board
vote is scheduled for January 29. The net effect of the
Superintendent’s Final Recommendations are:
• Five buildings will be closed, one of which will be closed
temporarily and may reopen;
• Eight programs will relocate from one building to
another;
• One new program will be created (a new K-8 school in
Northeast Seattle); and
• Five programs will be discontinued and their students
reassigned to new schools in fall 2009..
Read News Release.
Final recommendations
Final recommendations overview
Frequently Asked Questions
Lowell
public hearing rescheduled for January 20
Final public hearing to be held at John Stanford
Center auditorium
Because
of inclement weather conditions, the December 18 public hearing
planned for Lowell has been rescheduled for January 20, from 6:30
to 8:30 p.m. Other public hearings were held on December 15 and 16
for buildings proposed for closure in the Superintendent's
preliminary recommendations.
A final public hearing, at which
testimony is welcome on any of the buildings being proposed for
closure, is scheduled for January 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the
John Stanford Center.
Read news release.
Snow
makeup days set for June 17, 18 and 19, 2009
Three
additional days will be added to the school calendar in June 2009
to make up for school closure days on December 17, 18 and 19, 2008,
because of heavy snow. Snow closure makeup days are June 17, 18 and
19, 2009. Unless additional closure makeup days are needed, the
last day of school for students will be on Friday, June 19,
2009.
Click here for an updated online calendar.
Information updated on school
tours and open houses
Updated
school tours and open houses for elementary and secondary
schools have been posted on the Enrollment Services Web site. Open
enrollment for the 2009-10 school year has now been rescheduled to
be held between Monday, March 2 and Tuesday, March 31. Enrollment
Services will extend its hours until 8 p.m. on the last two
evenings – March 30 and 31. Families can also submit
applications by mail or fax. Assignment letters will go out by the
end of May. The Citywide Kindergarten and Middle School Fair
scheduled for Saturday, January 10, 2009, has been canceled due to
the timeline of the school closure process. For more information, please
see the Enrollment
Services Web site or contact Enrollment Services at
252-0760.
Staff Celebrations
Lawton teacher's art selected
for gallery
The artwork of
Steve Reddy, a teacher at
Lawton Elementary School, was selected to be on display at the the
2009 Collective Visions Gallery in Bremerton. His painting, "FROG,"
will be competing for $8,000 in prizes and awards. The painting,
along with 130 artworks from other artists, will be on display
during February.
Read more. |
|
Three
elementary teachers honored for excellence in
teaching
Three
elementary school teachers received awards from the SynapticMash
Innovation Foundation for excellence in teaching. The 2008
Teacher Recognition Awards Program honored the teachers for
their passion for teaching and contributions to student
learning. This year’s recipients are: Jenny Dew, a
first-grade teacher at Roxhill Elementary; Nhi Le, a first-grade
teacher at Muir Elementary; and Bernard McDonough, a fourth- and
fifth-grade teacher at Van Asselt Elementary. Each received an
acrylic award, a $500 check and a $25 gift card from Borders Books.
Read more.
 |
Sound Transit selects Mercer
teacher's storyboard for art display
A cultural storyboard, designed by Sultan Mohamed, a teacher at
Asa Mercer Middle School, hangs by the Sound Transit line on Martin
Luther King Jr. Way. Peter Requiam, an artist, helped with the
fabrication of the newly installed artwork. |
Chief
Sealth, Beacon Hill each receive $20,000 MVP Award
24
teachers selected for 2008 'Symetra Heroes in the Classroom'
award
Chief
Sealth High School and Beacon Hill International School are the
recipients of the
2008 Symetra Heroes in the Classroom “MVP Award.”
Through the award, each school will receive $20,000 toward an
innovative student achievement program.
• The Chief Sealth “LapHawks” program will
improve technology education, expand the availability of computers,
and promote computer literacy and programming skills. In addition,
the computers will be used for peer mentoring between students in
the SmartGirls afterschool program and middle schools students,
expanding the impact of the technology.
• Beacon Hill will develop a community literacy program,
“Heroes at Home,” tailored to the unique multicultural
needs of the school’s students and families. The program
empowers parents to assume a more active role in supporting their
child’s literacy learning. The funds will be used to purchase
books and audio recordings in languages such as Chinese, English,
Somali, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Other events, including
Family Literacy Nights, hope to give parents encouragement,
strategies and the confidence to recognize the impact they have on
their child’s academic success.
The Symetra Heroes in the Classroom
program also honors 24 Seattle Public
Schools’ teachers for excellence in the classroom
throughout the Seahawks season. This year, each of the schools
represented by a 2008 teacher Hero were eligible to compete for the
MVP Award. Symetra and the Seahawks joined the Alliance for
Education, Seattle Foundation and Seattle Public Schools to develop
the MVP Award funding plans and select the winning
schools.
Around the Schools
Nathan
Hale's award-winning radio station turns 38
KNHC
C89.5, Nathan Hale High School's award-winning radio station, will
celebrate is 38th birthday on January 25. Now transmitting at
30,000 watts, the station boasts 100,000 weekly listeners on the FM
dial with over 200,000 visit on the Web. The new digital broadcast
facility on Cougar Mountain allows extended coverage in HD quality
across the Puget Sound region to more than 3.2 million people. The
radio station is embarking on a $4 million "Tune-in To Tomorrow" or
T3 Capital Campaign, to include purchase of new digital radio
equipment and establishment of a college scholarship fund for
graduating seniors. For more information on the Tune-in To Tomorrow
(T3) Capital Campaign, contact Alexis Ross Miller at (206) 252-0739
or armiller1@seattleschools.org.
For general C89.5 information, contact General Manager Neilson at
(206) 252-3801 or gneilson@seattleschools.org.
Read
more.
Tibetan
student shares culture with Aki Kurose students
|
Tenzin
Gakyi of Dharamsala, India met with Stefanie Richardson’s
8th-grade world geography class at Aki Kurose Middle School on
December 2 to share insights into her home and Tibetan
culture. Gakyi, an 11th-grade student at Northwest School,
was a student at the Tibetan Children’s Village before moving
to Seattle this year. Gakyi’s classroom visit was the
culmination of a program hosted by the Seattle-based non-profit
organization, Bridges to
Understanding, which paired the Aki Kurose students with
students at the Tibetan Children’s Village to create and
share digital stories. In addition, they posted questions and
responses to each other on Bridges’ interactive Web
site.
|
Tenzin Gakyi of
Dharamsala, India, right, shares stories about Tibetan life and
culture with students at Aki Kurose Middle School. Teri Akin, left,
is Gakyi's sponsor. |
Forty-one schools earn awards for energy conservation
efforts
Forty-one schools in the
Seattle School District earned a total of $65,000 in awards for
reducing their overall utility use in 2007-08 compared to the
previous year. Each of the schools earned awards of between $260
and $3,100 through the
Shared Savings Program. Schools can use their award money to
further conservation efforts. Each school collectively determines
what project they would like to fund.
From September 2007 through August
2008, custodians, teachers, students, and administrative staff
worked hard to save more than 1.5 million kilowatt hours of
electricity, 2.1 million gallons of water and 45,800 therms
of natural gas. The electricity savings are enough to power 125
homes for an entire year. Click on the link for a list of the
2007-08 award winning schools.
 |
Maple Elementary students send thanks for
donations
An office tree,
left, at eSurge – a Seattle company that supplies medical
supplies, pharmaceuticals, and equipment – is decorated with
dozens of "thank you" notes and cards made by Diane Trudnowski's
second-grade students at Maple Elementary School. The company had
"adopted" the students through the Adopt-A-Classroom.org
program and earlier this year bought every student in Pod C-2 a new
backpack filled with school supplies. The company also donated
classroom supplies, and an electronic readerboard for the
school.
|
'Twilight' movie's popularity encourages students to read
books
Students from Meany Middle
School and Cleveland High School packed the Columbia City Cinema on
December 3 for a special showing of the movie Twilight
based on the best-selling book series by Stephenie Meyer.
Librarians Sarah Evans, Kathleen Dunbar, and Library Assistant
Renee Hollingsworth hope that seeing the hit movie helps students
get excited and interested in reading the series of books. A
goal for the staff at Meany is to foster students' ability to
compare and contrast storytelling in different media formats.
Because of the movie’s popularity, the librarians noted that
the book rarely stays on the shelves and has a long checkout
waiting list.
Environmental educator honored
for work with Seattle Schools
An environmental educator and
schools coordinator who has worked with Seattle Public
Schools’ students and teachers since 2002 has been named
“Outstanding Non-Formal Environmental Educator” for
2008. The Environmental Education Association of Washington
recognized Linda
Versage for her work with Homewaters
Project.
Versage, an environmental educator
for more than 25 years, developed three
interdisciplinary field investigations and one
year-long project connecting Seattle Public Schools classroom
science to nature in students’ own neighborhoods. She
delivered these programs for more than 40 Seattle Schools and
trained more than 90 Seattle Public Schools teachers in the
delivery of the programs. EEAW specifically cited Linda’s
recent creation of the
“Ecosystems Unit Field Investigation." The program
includes a WASL-based “fair test” that has helped
fourth-graders at John Muir, Bailey Gatzert, Sacajawea, Van Asselt,
Olympic View, Alki, New School, McGilvra, Graham Hill, Northgate
and Salmon Bay Schools meet standards covered in the statewide
test.
 |
 |
Students, teachers, family,
members of
Duwamish tribe celebrate at Pathfinder
On
December 4, more than 200 students, teachers, family, and members
of the Duwamish tribe attended a potluck meal at Pathfinder K-8.
The meal included turkey, salmon and an array of local and
traditional foods, including nuts, squash, beans and corn. The
evening included gift exchanges, performances by students and the
Duwamish Singing Feet dance troupe, and storytellers.
The Duwamish
Singing Feet dance troupe, top photo, perform at a celebration at
Pathfinder K-8. Second- and third-grade teachers, left photo,
present a button blanket to the Duwamish for their new longhouse on
West Marginal Way. Each classroom had a clan animal represented on
the blanket - frog, spider, and owl. Photos by Alexander
Cooley |
Award-winning Ballard alumni
inspires, works with film students
A Ballard High School
alumni, who worked with Ballard students and graduates in his
filmmaking project, will hold a private screening of his short
comedy "Time Keeps on Skippin'" on January 9. Writer and Director
George Westberg, now a film student at New York University's Tisch
School of the Arts, recruited three Ballard students to work as
part of his film crew: Emily Deering (art director); Daniel
Maldonado (sound recordist); Alexandra Papac (camera operator); and
Ballard graduate Coburn Erskine (lighting director); Westberg also
used other Ballard graduates as actors: Emily McVicker, David
Kulcsar, Sophia Federighi, and Aaron Persinger.
Upcoming Events
Cleveland High hosts Community Safety Fair on January
10
Cleveland High School is
hosting a free Community Safety Fair on January 10. Participants
will be able to learn about safety issues and concerns, such as the
911 emergency help line, neighborhood nuisance and property laws,
emergency preparedness, and home security. Other resource tables
will be at the fair. The event is sponsored by the Seattle Police
Department, Department of Neighborhoods, Seattle Public Schools,
and the Greater Duwamish District Council.
Community
Safety Fair
Saturday, January 10,
2009
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Cleveland High School Commons
5511 15th Ave. S.
Students, parents encouraged to
attend College Goal Sunday
This month, students and
parents are encouraged to attend College Goal
Sunday, a free onsite program that helps students and families
complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for
college. Experts will be available to help families fill out the
FAFSA form, which is required to apply for federal assistance. The
event takes place this month and next in Seattle, as well as multiple
locations across the state.
College Goal Sunday
Sunday, January 25
2-4 p.m.
Seattle Central Community
College
1701 Broadway
School and District Events
Calendar
If you would like to know
about current special school events, fund-raisers or other District
events, go online to the District
Events Calendar where you can see what's going on monthly at
Seattle Public Schools or search for specific events by date,
school and type.
We Need Your Ideas
The Communications Office is
always looking for stories on interesting classroom projects,
inspirational people, or events in our schools to share with the
greater Seattle community. We often highlight stories submitted by
school staff for potential media coverage as well as District and
community publications. For examples of stories we have published
in the past, please visit this link.
We would like to hear from you. If you have a unique story to
share, please send your ideas directly to goodnews@seattleschools.org.
Deadline for submissions is January 19 for the January 22
issue.
In the News
For a sampling of this
week's local newspaper stories on Seattle Public Schools, please
click here.
SCHOOL BEAT
is an electronic newsletter covering District and school-based news
and is published twice a month for the staff and community of
Seattle Public Schools. Community members can subscribe or
unsubscribe to this e-newsletter by clicking
here. |
