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Cleveland High School

South-End School News: Meet & Greet With New Rainier Beach HS Principal + Parent Summit at Cleveland + More

August 10, 2011

in Education,News

Meet new Rainier Beach High School principal on Aug. 15:

The community is invited to join Rainier Beach High School for a Meet & Greet with its new principal, Dwane Chapelle, on Mon., Aug. 15, from 6:30-8 pm at 8815 Seward Park Ave. S.

According to Seattle Public Schools, this will be an opportunity to hear about the “great plans Rainier Beach has in store for the coming year” and ask questions of the school’s new leader, a former juvenile detention officer in Dallas County, Texas.

In January, after the school was designated as one of the worst in the state, then principal Dr. Robert Gary - with the school for 13 years – and his relatively new co-principal Lisa Escobar were reassigned to other schools.

“I am confident that with a strong team in place at Rainier Beach High School, we will see significant improvements,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Susan Enfield.

Parent Summit at Cleveland High School scheduled for Aug. 20:

The community is invited to join the Seattle Alliance of Black School Educators and the U. S. Department of Education for a free Parent Summit at Cleveland High School (5511 15th Ave. S.) on Sat., Aug. 20, from7:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Topics to be discussed include school reform, parent and family engagement, Seattle Public Schools Initiatives, the Importance of Social Emotional Skills in Early Learning, how to protect yourself and others from Civil Rights violations and more.

For more information, contact ighowell@mindspring.com or jbhill43@gmail.com.

Rainier Beach High School Orientation planned for Aug. 25:

Rainier Beach High School families are encouraged to meet in the school’s cafeteria (8815 Seward Park Ave. S.) for orientation on Thurs., Aug. 25, 4 to 7 pm to pick up schedules, learn about programs, meet with the RBHS community and enjoy a BBQ. For more information, email RainierBeachPTSA@gmail.com.

SPS receives $1 million planning grant aimed at enhancing arts instruction in classroom:

Seattle Public Schools has received a $1million grant from the New York-based Wallace Foundation to engage the community and develop a multi-year plan for introducing more arts instruction into the classroom.

The Foundation’s Arts Learning Initiative planning grant, which runs from July 2011 through January 2013, will support development of a comprehensive K-12 arts education plan aimed at increasing quality learning opportunities for all students, especially those with the least access to the arts.

The 19-month planning process will further advance a five-year effort between Seattle Public Schools and the City of Seattle – known as the Arts Education Partnership – to build a system and aligned resources (including budget, arts partnerships, professional development and instructional tools) to put the arts back in education for all students as a means to encourage creative expression and develop job and life skills.

Photo/Rainier Valley Post

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Sable Verity: Urban League in Auditor’s Cross-Hairs (Yes, Again) Over Cleveland HS Program

June 30, 2011

in Education,News,Opinion

by Sable Verity

File this under wtfdejavu. That’s a new word. It was necessary to create one, give this:

The state auditor is again questioning whether the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle has overcharged Seattle Public Schools — this time for a contract it signed with the school district in December to help African-American students at Cleveland High.

The district approved the $80,000 contract, despite questions it had about the League’s work with the district’s now-defunct small-business program. District officials signed the more recent contract anyway, saying the full scope of concerns was not clear at the time.

Really?! The “full scope” wasn’t clear?! Nice try. Just ‘cuz you say so, doesn’t make it true, Seattle Schools.

A more accurate assessment is that they ignored the full scope of the concerns until it was impossible to do so. But whatever. Let’s hand out another $80k for… oh that’s right, you don’t know what it was for- damn that 1-line billing!

More, from The Seattle Times (RVP news partner):

auditors said monthly invoices submitted for the program lacked detail, with just a one-line description of the work and a lump-sum charge of $8,000. The program, called Urban Scholars, was modeled after a privately funded program run by the Urban League at Garfield High.

Auditors did not name the Urban League, but district officials confirmed that’s the contractor in question.

The district recently canceled the Urban Scholars contract, along with the only other contract it still had with the Urban League, for after-school tutoring services.

And also:

Duggan Harman, the district’s executive director of finance, said the district agreed with the auditor’s concerns about how the Urban League billed for the Urban Scholars program.

He said he believes the program at Cleveland was a good one but that the district ultimately felt the Urban League had misled it about how many students were being helped.

“We made the decision that we didn’t want to do business with them,” Harman said.

It became clear, he said, that the invoices for the Cleveland program included expenses for the separate and privately funded program at Garfield.

At Cleveland, the League served about 30 students.

Sound familiar? The ULMS admitted it used contract money from Seattle Public Schools to “keep the doors open.” Now it seems the Urban League was taking money for 1 group of kids and using it to fund a program for another group of kids. I have to check the rule book, but you might could go to hell for that.

And also, who knows if the Urban Scholars program is effective. Yeah, the adults on the ground working with the kids are passionate, highly qualified and far from the poor decision making at the District or the Urban League, and yeah, the kids are awesome, driven, working hard to create their own paths to success, but whatever, right? Heck, a program like ULS could be a saving grace, but no one cares now.  Not with this kind of residue smeared all over it.

Here’s a question though, which pot of SPS money was used in this latest contract debacle? Inner city… South Seattle… brown kids… hmmmm… Families and Education Levy, anyone?

Cleveland High School is located on Beacon Hill in Southeast Seattle. Photo/do communications

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South-End Students Traveling to Guatemala, Collecting Donations of Crocs & Flip Flops

February 2, 2011

in Education,News

Later this month, three freshmen students from STEM @ Cleveland’s School of Life Sciences (SoLS) academy will be traveling to Guatemala to spread the word on the prevention of ascaris, a type of roundworm that infects humans, and they need your help.

The worms are typically transmitted when the eggs or lavae in the soil get into a person’s mouth or skin, so the students – Shanteria Wright, Hanna Rossen and Adam Gruenbaum – are asking the community to donate their gently-used flip flops or Crocs, which they will then deliver to patients at several clinics in Guatemala. A donation box is currently set up at the school’s main office (5511-15th Ave. S.) on Beacon Hill.

The students will be visiting medical clinics in Monterico, a small beach town where intestinal worms and other health issues are a major concern. They will present information to the community about how a low-cost solution, such as wearing footwear, can drastically reduce ascaris and other worm infections.

Marjorie Milligan, SoLS principal, will accompany the students on the trip that is scheduled for Feb. 17-25.The SoLS academy at STEM @ Cleveland focuses on the life sciences, including biology and biochemistry, as well as global health issues.

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Rainier Beach HS Principal Out After 13 Years

January 19, 2011

in Education,News

School superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson announced last week that Rainier Beach High School co-principals, Dr. Robert Gary and Lisa Escobar will transition to new positions and a new principal will be appointed for the 2011-2012 school year.

The announcement came on the heels of last week’s news that the troubled Rainier Valley high school is one of the worst in the state, a designation that makes the school eligible for a School Improvement Grant ranging from $50,000 to $2 million per year over a three-year period beginning in fall 2011.

The grant requires that a new principal must be appointed if the current principal has been in place for more than two years.

Dr. Gary has been principal at Rainier Beach for 13 years, and Escobar joined him as co-principal just last year.

The detailed grant applications are due by March 4, and successful awardees will be notified by OSPI on March 31.  Information about the amount funded will be available by April 22.

In 2010, two southeast Seattle schools – Hawthorne Elementary in Mt. Baker and and Cleveland High School on Beacon Hill – received $5.76 million over three years in SIG funding.

Photo/do communications

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South-End Teens MUCH More Likely to Get Pregnant Than North-End Peers

October 20, 2010

in Education,News,Youth

The Seattle Times (RVP news partner):

Teen pregnancy is associated with all sorts of bad things — physical risks to babies, interrupted education for moms, and lower lifetime incomes all around — so it’s good news that Washington, overall, has a significantly lower rate than the U.S. average.

But the statistics released Wednesday morning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t tell the whole story. Buried inside the big-picture statistics about Washington are numbers that reveal pockets of teen pregnancy, often in nearby high schools and middle schools.

Consider this: According to Public Health — Seattle & King County, …in Northeast Seattle, there are 1.7 births for every 1,000 teens. But in Southeast Seattle, that number zooms to nearly 18. Read more.

Three south-end schools – Aki Kurose Middle School, Cleveland High School and Rainier Beach High School – will participate in Planned Parenthood’s pilot “Teen Outreach Program”. Photo/do communications

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Three South-End Schools Receive $1 Million Grant to Increase Student Achievement

September 29, 2010

in Education,News

6-20-018

Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has received a $1.05 million, three-year Youth Engagement Zone grant designed to help improve academic and civic engagement for students attending STEM @ Cleveland High School, Aki Kurose Middle School and Mercer Middle School in southeast Seattle.

The grant – a partnership with the Nature Consortium, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and South Seattle Community College – will focus on improving student engagement, academic achievement, graduation rates and college attendance. According to SPS:

The Seattle zone partnerships will connect learning from Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) classes to address local environmental challenges, such as water pollution and invasive species around the Lower Duwamish River. The program will improve community conditions, as well as student attendance, behavior and motivation to learn.

STEM @ Cleveland is an Option School, which means that students from across the District can apply to enroll in the program. Cleveland has two STEM academies: the Life Sciences and Global Health Academy, and the Engineering and Design Academy. A third academy – the College Readiness Academy – serves 11th- and 12th-graders until full implementation of STEM in 2012-13. Photo/do communications

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Charlie Mas: Three Years Later, SE Education Initiative an Abject Failure

September 10, 2010

in Education,Opinion

Charlie Mas, Seattle Public Schools Community Blog:

There has been some discussion of Rainier Beach High School on the NSAP thread and it has been along the lines of “What can be done to make Rainier Beach a school of choice for the families living in that neighborhood?”

The fact that we are asking this question after three years of the Southeast Education Initiative is conclusive proof that the Initiative was an abject failure. The primary purpose of the project was to make Rainier Beach, Cleveland, and Aki Kurose schools of choice. Neither Rainier Beach nor Aki Kurose are schools of choice and Cleveland is closed. STEM has moved into the building.

Meanwhile,

Rainier Beach has, inexplicably, two principals. At the time of the appointment of the second principal, a press release said:

“Progress has been made over the past several years at Rainier Beach,” said Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. “This has been possible due to Dr. Gary’s leadership and to the hard work of students, staff and families working closely together. We are committed to continuing to invest in the success of Rainier Beach High School. Thinking differently about the leadership model at the school will help support the work required to ensure Rainier Beach is an excellent school.”I have no idea what she was talking about. I don’t know what progress she meant and I don’t know what she meant about the leadership model at the school.

The last update to the Board and the community on the Southeast Education Initiative was in October of 2008. The District never publicly spoke about it again or offered any report on the results or progress. Read more.

Rainier Beach High School sits just east of Rainier Avenue South and South Henderson Street – one of Seattle’s most violent corners. Photo/do communications

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Open Thread: Should South-End Schools Segregate?

July 27, 2010

in Education,Opinion

RBHS2

Considering the many challenges facing schools in southeast Seattle, some have suggested that educating girls and boys separately may help fix our public schools, others say the concept simply reinforces outmoded gender stereotypes.What do you think?

From Newsweek:

If you thought charter schools and ending teacher tenure were controversial fixes for the American school system, see what happens you bring up the idea of educating boys and girls separately. With male academic achievement declining by almost every measure, and their scores possibly dragging down national averages, administrators are taking a fresh look at same-sex classrooms and the concept that boys and girls might do better when they’re apart. Why is it such a hot-button topic? Well, because it goes against 30 years of thinking, and smacks of “separate but equal” education.

The advocates of the single-sex approach are surprising, as are the foes. Among many liberal thinkers, gender segregation sounds like regressing to a time when girls were educated in finishing schools and had access to neither the number, nor caliber of schools available to boys. Plus, the notion that boys and girls learn differently—touted by some as the primary rational for gender separation—goes against one of feminism’s (at least the 1970s version) main messages. To say that there is something inherently different between boys and girls is, for many, tantamount to saying that women are the weaker sex.

For these reasons, Democratic politicians spent decades fighting vehemently against loosening legislation to allow public schools to offer same-sex classes. But in 2001, Sen. Hillary Clinton linked the issue to class—citing an unfairness in the fact that single-sex education is available as a choice only to those who can afford private-school tuition. Clinton, a graduate of all-women’s Wellesley College, joined forces with Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to successfully bring about legislative change. Since then, the number of public schools offering same-sex classes has grown from 11 to 540—still a relatively small figure in the big picture, but a jump of more than 4,000 percent nonetheless. Read more.

Rainier Beach High School has faced numerous challenges over the years. Photo/do communications

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School News: Cleveland Students Win Awards, Franklin Students Produce Video & More

March 30, 2010

in Education,News

untitledTwo Cleveland students win awards for ‘Is Justice Blind?’ essay contest:

Two Cleveland High School students received first- and second-place awards for their entries in the “Is Justice Blind?” essay contest. Maraaunjanique Smallwood and Anise Leffall, students in the third-period U.S. history class of Teofilo Cadiente, won first and second prize respectively. The 500-word contest was sponsored by the Washington State Bar Associations’s Committee for Diversity. Pictured: Anise Leffall, left, and Maraaunjanique Smallwood, show their awards for the ‘Is Justice Blind?’ essay contest. Photo/Jazmine Calhoun

Franklin students produce video showcasing school:

Franklin High School students, with the help of school advisors, have compiled a video as part of the White House and the Department of Education’s Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. At the beginning of the school year, President Obama encouraged students across the country to take responsibility for their education, study hard and graduate from high school. The contest encourages schools to show how they are making great strides on personal responsibility, academic excellence and college readiness. President Obama will visit the winning school and deliver the commencement address to the class of 2010. The ‘Awesome Worldwide Readers’ of Stevens Elementary School, left photo, and the ‘Readers of Time’ of Orca Elementary School are the 2010 City Final Champions.

Cleveland High School’s girls basketball team members celebrate their first-ever state basketball championship March 13 at Tacoma Dome:

Congratulations to Cleveland High School’s girls basketball team, which won the school’s first-ever state girls basketball championship March 13 by upsetting top-ranked Holy Names, 47-44, in the 3A final at the Tacoma Dome. The Eagles, which finished the season with a 22-7 record, were led by junior Cheyenne Wilson, the MVP of the tournament, who scored 20 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Calah Scott, a sophomore, scored 10 points and Shacolby Jenkins added eight points and six rebounds. In addition, the Seattle Times named second-year Cleveland Coach Stephanie Wheeler-Smith the All-State Girls Coach of the Year. The Seattle City Council is declaring April 5 “Cleveland High School Day” in recognition of the championship.

Aki Kurose holds fund-raiser to support arts at the school:

The Aki Kurose Middle School Academy on March 2 showed off its visual and performing art programs, along with visual arts displays and performances by drama, choir and band students. The fund-raiser was held at the Daniels Recital Hall (First United Methodist Church). The Aki Kurose Academy Community Arts Bash raised money to support arts at the school. Art teacher Scott Anstett, band teacher Michael Ayer and theater arts teacher Hannah Williams prepared their students for the evening.

southlake2South Lake High students get money wise:

South Lake High School’s entire student body and teaching staff, including the administrative team, counselor, and college/career center specialist, recently took three buses to Junior Achievement’s Budget Challenge in Auburn to learn how to live within a budget.  Students entered the 6,600-square-foot business park, known as the JA Finance Park, that holds 18 local storefronts, including Quadrant Homes, Wells Fargo, Home Depot, Puget Sound Energy, as well as a car dealership and more businesses.

Every student was given their very own simulated life situation which included their age, marital status, income and some even had kids. Students created and maintained a budget based on their net monthly income and made appropriate financial decisions such as buying a house, a car, choosing a health insurance package, tracking investments and paying utilities.

South Lake High School students learned how to live within a budget at the Junior Achievement’s Budget Challenge in Auburn.

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Cleveland High Plan for Magnet School Draws Interest, but Is There Enough Money?

January 25, 2010

in Business,Education,News

6-20-018

Seattle Times (RVP news partner):

Plans to turn Seattle’s Cleveland High into a magnet school that focuses on math, science, engineering and technology drew hundreds of eighth-graders and their parents to an open house Saturday.

They included Sonja and Gerald Bradford, who said the new program put Cleveland on the list of prospective high schools for their daughter Brooke, now an eighth-grader at University Prep, a private school in North Seattle.

Yet even as the Seattle Public Schools recruits students for what it hopes will be a standout program, there are questions about where the district will find some of the money to get it started and whether it should proceed, given that other schools’ budgets may be cut next fall. Read more.

Cleveland High School is located at 5511 15th Avenue South on Beacon Hill. Photo/do communications, inc.

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South-End Students Win Medals in Web-Design Contest

October 30, 2009

in Education,News

untitledFrom Seattle Public Schools:

The Upward Bound Program at the University of Washington recognized Cleveland and Franklin high school students Samuel Abera, Jazmine Calhoun, Michael Dugar, Emil Floresca, Sherese Hooper, Jia Jun Huang, Rayman Hui, Wilson Huynh, Akerei Iese, Annie Ng, Jade Pruitt, Sushen Tu, Cynthia Wanjiku, Hannah Wei, Christopher Williams, and Jessica Velasco who competed in the national 2009 TRIO Quest activities sponsored by the University of Washington.

The students won both gold and silver medals and the teams were semifinalists in the ThinkQuest TRIO activity. Students were required to work in teams of 3-6 to research information, write, design and collaboratively create educational Web sites. The sites of these students were chosen out of more than 100 Web sites created by more than 400 TRIO students across the country. Coffee won a gold medal and Smoking won a silver medal. Winners received digital cameras, medals and certificates. Read more.

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