Results tagged “mariagoodloejohnson”

The Seattle school board voted last night to approve Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson's proposed list of closures, which means that a total of eight programs will be re-located or shut down completely. The following schools will close: Genesee Hill, T.T. Minor, Mann, Van Asselt, and John Hay the Old Hay building. In addition, the following programs and school entities will be discontinued: African American Academy, Meany Middle School, Cooper Elementary, T.T. Minor Elementary, and Summit K-12. Cooper Elementary's building will house Pathfinders K-8, displaced by Genesee Hill's closure. See the Seattle Public Schools press release for more detailed information about program relocation.

In a press conference at 3 p.m., Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson released her final school closure recommendation list [pdf]. Here's the summary graphic from the SPS' news release:

Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson announced last night that the district is no longer considering closing a traditional high school during this round of school closures--and it sounds like she's not terribly interested in pushing for the relocation of Aki Kurose middle school students and/or the Center School program into Rainier Beach High School as planned either. This is either testament to the power of a vocal group of people to affect The System's machinations, or it is proof that the school closure list is more mutable than the central Puget Sound weather forecast.

Phew, what a week. We've had the two Port resignations, all the school closure hullaballoo, Noemi Lopez' killer landing in custody, and--late yesterday--a breakthrough in the viaduct arguments. To be honest, we'd like nothing more than to laugh about all of this. Enter, stage South End: Sable Verity's eminently LOL-worthy guest column on the Rainier Valley Post, in which she imagines the weekend wrap-up conversation between the governor, the mayor, the school district superintendent, and the county executive. It is hilariously spot on, and exactly the dose of intelligent humor we needed to get us through a rainy Friday.

The proposed school closure list has been changed, yet again! The big news is that Rainier Beach High School (previously announced as considered for a merger with Cleveland High School, to the chagrin of almost everyone) is off the closure table. Instead, the plan is to either move Aki Kurose middle school students into the RBHS building or to close down the Center School Program and request that those high-schoolers attend Rainier Beach.

• Capitol Hill Seattle has taken on an important question regarding the almighty hamburger. Which has the better burger, Quinn's or the Lunchbox Laboratory? The argument's raging in the comments.
• Subterfuge Seattle has successfully identified "Seattle's most socially relevant person," and they're kind enough to share not only the guy's name and bio information, but a photo as well!
• As usual, The Sable Verity has the inside scoop on all matters South End--this time, she's calling out the Seattle Public Schools superintendent for marking Rainier Beach High for closure before Goodloe-Johnson was even in charge. Ouch.

Photo by Grundlepuck from the Seattlest Flickr pool

Worried about rising material costs, the Seattle school district has sped ahead with construction of new schools without waiting to get input from parents.