You can never start planning early enough for that special time when your first child is about to enter Kindergarten. Two years before my son was due to start Kindergarten, I toured four schools. It was helpful to find out early what my options were and to spend a year observing my kid and solidifying in my mind what place fit him the best. Morning tours are great because you can see the kids in the class; however, I find that visiting…
I’ve probably walked or driven by The Assistance League of Seattle a hundred times, but never bothered to see what went on inside. This charity is run out of two houses on North 45th Street, opposite the Chevron gas station. The AL Seattle runs three philanthropic programs; the Enrichment Scholarship Program, the Financial Aid for Education Program, and Operation School Bell, which provides free clothing for children in need in grades K-5. The Assistance League of Seattle is a chapter of the National Assistance League and it has operated here locally since 1962. The recently declared, State…
Seattle Public Schools will be renovating Lincoln High School and it will re-open as a permanent high school in September of 2019. Join Director Burke and SPS staff this Thursday, Oct 27 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM for a community listening meeting about the reopening. They will share plans have for the site renovation and restoration, while academic programming and student assignment plans are still developing. Come and share your concerns and ideas to help make Lincoln's opening a successful…
An article has already been written about Hamilton International Middle School's new additions, but here is an insider's perspective anyway. This is my third year at Hamilton. My experience has always been pleasant and the building itself, though somewhat annoying when I'm trying to reach faraway classes, has been a solid good. The portables that have taken over the Hamilton playtop have been designated for eighth graders such as myself. I have three classes in the portables as do many of my friends.…
If you like to eat, tend or learn about plants, this weekend's Wallingford activities should be right up your alley! Invasive Plants Class 10 to 11:30 Saturday: The community gardeners at the Freeway Estates Community Orchard (FECO) invite you to participate in their invasive plants class on Saturday from 10:00- 11:30 am at the Freeway Estates Community Orchard: 6th Ave NE, just north of NE 60th St (on the west side of I-5, next to the sound wall). This class will be taught by a representative…
A few weeks back, when I posted about pesticide use at Wallingford Park, I heard from several families at Hamilton International Middle School. As noted before on this blog, Seattle Public Schools routinely utilizes pesticides at public schools, because it is more cost-effective than hand-weeding. There are so many concerns about the use of pesticides around children and pregnant women that I don't even know where to begin my rant about this short-sighted behavior, so I will point you to the fact…
Wallingford is fortunate to have some excellent public elementary schools, although they are unfortunately fractured in their attendance areas. Just last year the decision was made to make both John Stanford and McDonald school "option schools", meaning nobody in Wallingford is guaranteed entrance. There's a complicated lottery system that assigns a certain number of slots to students in the walk zone and then to other buckets as well, so nobody is guaranteed a slot. The primary reason Sherry Carr (our school board…