April 28, 2008


Photography © Susie Fitzhugh

District News

Meetings scheduled to share, engage staff and community on Strategic Plan
     As the School District pulls together its Strategic Plan, several meetings have been scheduled next month to share and engage with the School Board, staff, families, and community members. Important dates include:
• May 7   – School Board work session, 4-5:30 p.m., JSCEE Auditorium
• May 14 – Alliance for Education Breakfast – 7-8:45 a.m., Seattle Westin
• May 14 – Community Meeting – 7-8:30 p.m., Roosevelt High School Library
• May 15 – Community Meeting – 7-8:30 p.m., West Seattle High School Commons
• May 20 – Community Meeting – 7-8:30 p.m., Aki Kurose Cafeteria (designed for bilingual families)
• May 21 – Draft plan is introduced to School Board
• June 4 –  Board vote on Strategic Plan
     Updates to the Strategic Plan will continue to be posted on the Strategic Plan Web site.

School Board Update: April 23 meeting highlights
     At its April 23 meeting, the School Board approved a series of motions related to capital projects, including the construction contract for renovation of Hamilton Middle School. The Board also heard a report on the recent Career-Technical Education Forum, learned that Seattle students have passed the one billion-word mark in the challenge to “Read a Million Words, Seattle!”, and discussed an updated Plan for Migration of various computer systems from VAX.
     Introduced for action at the May 7 meeting were motions to approve the sale of Queen Anne Gym for $7.5 million, modifications to the Ground Lease and redevelopment of the Lake City School property, and the Garfield High School/Interbay Playfield Property Exchange. A further motion was introduced that would transfer more than $9.7 million from Building Excellence III project budgets (South Shore and Hamilton) back to the BEX III reserve account. This transfer is possible because construction bids received for these two projects were well within the established construction budgets thus negating the need for added escalation reserve monies.
     A resolution to authorize the Superintendent to implement an exempt and certificated administrator reduction in force was also introduced. The next regularly scheduled board meeting is May 7, at 6 p.m. at the Stanford Center. It will be preceded by a work session related to a Strategic Planning update.

District announces four principal appointments for 2008-09
     Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., and Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno announced principal appointments for the 2008-09 school year. The appointments include:
• Heather Swanson, Catharine Blaine K-8 School ? Swanson served as principal intern/assistant principal at Blaine for 18 months prior to her appointment as interim principal in fall 2007. She also has leadership experience as a principal intern at Sanislo Elementary and Eckstein Middle School.
• Anne Fitzpatrick, Kimball Elementary School - Fitzpatrick received her administrative credential from Western Washington University and interned at Blaine K-8. She was the assistant principal at Van Asselt Elementary.
• Cashel Toner, Loyal Heights Elementary School ? Toner replaces Principal Clover Codd who has been at Loyal Heights Elementary for the past five years. Toner?s professional preparation includes an Education Specialist degree with a principal certification from Seattle University and a Masters in Teaching degree from Seattle University.
• Justin Baeder, Olympic View Elementary School ? Baeder will be replacing Principal Tim Moynihan who has been at Olympic View Elementary for seven years. His professional preparation includes a Master?s Degree in curriculum and instruction from Seattle University and principal certification from the Danforth Program for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington.
      Click on the news release link for more information on the principals? background and their selection process.

May Madness Activity Challenge scheduled for May 1-31
     A Districtwide, monthlong, activity challenge – in conjunction with the Healthiest State Campaign’s Spring Training Challenge is scheduled for May 1-31. All District employees can participate in teams of up to 10 individuals. There will be prizes for: Most Miles Earned, Most Creative Team Name, Most Inspirational Individual. Register now at www.HealthiestState.org. Employees can also start early and join the Healthiest State Campaign’s Spring Training Challenge which runs April 22–May 31. Make the miles count in both challenges! The May Madness Activity Challenge is sponsored by King County Steps to Health in partnership with the Washington Health Foundation. Click on the links to download the poster, registration instructions and log instructions. For questions, contact Heather Pitre at (206) 438-6113 or HeatherP@whf.org.

Student Celebrations

Three B.F. Day student teams selected for national Toy Challenge finals
     Three teams of students from the classroom of Lauri Boren, science teacher at B.F. Day Elementary School, have been chosen to participate in the finals of The Sally Ride Toy Challenge in San Diego on May 31. The TOY challenge is a competition in which fifth- to eighth-grade students design, make prototypes, and create a final product of a toy or game. The three teams are in the process of creating their final products: The Gastavians are making “The Weatherboard,” the 6 Headed Awesome Dawgs are creating “The Quado-stick,” and Utter Nonsense is creating “The Exo-Clock.”  Click on the link for the news release written by one of the students. For more information, contact Lauri Boren at 252-6045 or laboren@seattleschools.org.

Three students awarded corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships®
     The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that three students from Seattle Public Schools were awarded corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarships. The corporate awards all came from the National Merit Boeing Scholarships, as part of The Boeing Company’s comprehensive aid to education program. It is awarded annually to children of Boeing employees. The scholarships went to:
▪ Christena J. Berner, Garfield High School;
▪ Colin N. Hartman, Roosevelt High School; and
▪ Andrea J. Love, Garfield High School

Ingraham team qualifies for finals in prestigious model rocket contest; students learn 'real world' physics Ten students from Ingraham High School have qualified to compete in the May 17 finals of the prestigious Team America Rocketry Challenge. The contest – the largest in the world – attracted more than 6,000 student applicants from around the United States, including 10 teams from Washington state. Ingraham is the only team from the state to qualify this year and is in the top 100 high school teams qualified to compete in the national contest in Virginia. Student team members include: Sarah Crane, Catherine Hennig, Alex Kon, Vincent Liu, Katy Loubet-Senear, Patrick Ma, Nat Mote, Nelly Nicklason, Julian Picard, Kim Smith. The contest requires that students design, build, and test a model rocket that can fly for as close to 45 seconds total flight duration and 750 feet maximum altitude as possible — with a payload of two raw eggs — and successfully parachute its cargo back to the ground unbroken.  The top ten teams will share a prize pool of $60,000 in cash, and the winning team will get a free VIP trip to the Farnborough Air Show near London in July. For more information, see the Ingraham High news release or contact Peter Schurke, Team Supervising Teacher at 252-3880 or pmschurke@seattleschools.org. To see pictures of the rocket team, bios of the team members, and read about their program, go to www.ingrahamrocketry.org. There, you can also donate to help the team raise the money they need to travel to Nationals.

Photos courtesy of Seattle Public Library 'The Phoenix,' of Madrona K-8, top photo, discuss a question at the City Finals of the Global Reading Challenge. The 'Half n' Half Hansons' of John Hay Elementary, bottom photo, took the top spot and will advance to the Video Conference Finals on May 9.

The "Half 'n Half Hansons" of John Hay Elementary School placed first in the City Finals of the Global Reading Challenge and will go on to face the top teams from Kalamazoo, Michigan; Frasier Valley, British Columbia; and Coquitlam, British Columbia. That event will be held May 9 at a Video Conference Finals in the John Stanford Center. More than 2,000 fourth- and fifth- graders from 40 Seattle Public Schools studied 10 books to prepare for the Global Reading Challenge and answered questions about characters, plots and settings. The annual contest, now in its 13th year, is sponsored by The Seattle Public Library and Kalamazoo Public Library in cooperation with their local public school systems. Click on this link to see photos of the teams and City Finals. For additional information, contact Mary Palmer at mary.palmer@spl.org.      2008 Global Reading Challenge      Video Conference Finals      Friday, May 9      10 a.m.      John Stanford Center      2445 Third Ave. S.