Photo by Grundlepuck from the Seattlest Flickr poolWorried about rising material costs, the Seattle school district has sped ahead with construction of new schools without waiting to get input from parents. "I mean, you could drag these things out for another two years...We have to say 'Did we do enough to move forward with the project?' That's what I'm really looking into," School Board member Harium Martin-Morris told the Times' Emily Heffter. Who are......

--By a--if you can believe this--unanimous vote of the Seattle School Board, Maria Goodloe-Johnson is the new superintendent. --You already couldn't listen to Don Imus in Seattle, but now it's a nationwide thing. --The hiker who died in a fall at Baker Lake this week was also a rocker. --Mariners vs. Boston postponed due to this. --According to the P-I, Seattle has other blogs. --Local boy Luke Burbank on his new, as-yet-untitled NPR show. --How......

Seattlest's AP US History teacher, George Henry, was something of a rabble-rouser at our Salt Lake City high school. At the time, we only barely appreciated that we were getting a hands-on miniature lesson in civil disobedience from the only African-American teacher at the school. What we knew at the time was that when the school board started debating talking about condoms and sex ed, George Henry started one of his lectures by replacing every......

As we predicted when we first heard this story about Frosty Hardison--a parent who convinced the Federal Way school board to stop showing An Inconvenient Truth back in December--a whole host of sane, level-headed people wrote into the school board to suggest that Frosty was a bit off his rocker. Sadly, the Federal Way school board still insists that teachers, when covering a "controversial" topic, offer a "credible, legitimate opposing view" about that topic. There......

Today marks the final edition of the King County Journal, a newspaper that, in various incarnations, has been covering suburban King County for like, a hundred years or something. Yeah, I know: Stop the presses. Newspapers, those rough first drafts of history, aren't supposed to just cease to exist. I worked as a reporter at the KCJ until the end of the year, then started another job. It was a lucky break; I didn't......

Turns out it's not so easy to outfox young and dedicated junk food consumers, such as students at Cleveland High School: Chips and cookies were replaced in vending machines with granola bars and trail mix; sugary drinks are no longer sold in schools. Cleveland fell into line with other schools, offering healthier foods in its cafeteria and vending machines. Teens such as Tikisha fell into line, too -- out the door to find their junk......

The Times has already called on the School Board to resign. Seattlest is calling for the school board to repeat 9th grade English. They just released their evaluation of Superintendent Raj Manhas, and it's polluted with flaccid language, poorly-defined words, and nonsensical clichés. Any writing teacher would exhaust her red pen with frowny faces trying to edit it. Here's just one example, from the mysterious "Leadership, Advocacy and Communications" section (the only one critical of......

We've been hoping for weeks to publish what Danny Westneat did today--an open letter to everyone who says Seattle's schools are shitty. You've all made your point that Seattle schools stink. But before we subject ourselves to any more of this Seattle self-flagellation, please first indulge me a little quiz. Among our state's 10 largest cities, where do you suppose Seattle ranks for academic achievement? Westneat then supplies statistics indicating that Seattle schools are......

--Hooray! There were fewer racial slurs at last night's school board meeting! --The winter blues have hit Kirkland. --In Carville vs. Dean: The Battle of the Bald, one local activist is firmly in the Dean camp. --Who knew--a helpful skinhead! --12.9% of Seattle's population is gay and the remaining 87.1% is really gay, making us the second gayest city in the U.S. --There is good news and bad news concerning local salmon populations and......

--That lovey dovey crap we said about Microsoft and China earlier today? Forget it. --Best unloved Reality TV-based Halloween costume. Ever. --Couple local skiers seem to be mixed up in a porn thing with a guy called Warren Miller. --John Moe unveils the girls team secretly plotting the violent overthrow of the boys team. Go on, girls! --SeattleDuck says no to procrastination, yes to Getting Things Done. --Renton's Displaced Hipster displaces himself even further,......

Seattle Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas announced today he'll resign at the end of the year, leaving a job opening for anyone who likes getting screamed at. Manhas has attempted to get the school district financially solvent by closing schools. It's totally sane. Unfortunately, a lot of parents aren't. Maybe Manhas will join his former spokesman, who quit in disgust after last week's rowdy public meeting (video here), where psychotic parents hurled racial epiphets and, in......

There are very few public meetings which Seattlest regrets not attending. Very few. In fact, last night's Seattle Public School Board meeting might represent the very first time Seattlest has ever been convinced by the morning RSS that we made a mistake in skipping a meeting. Here are some of the highlights from print accounts of the meeting: -"Hours of public comments from angry parents and community members over the latest closure proposal" - Superintendant......

By this point it's pretty obvious that the Seattle Public School Board's strategy is to continue this shell game of school closures until students, parents and the public at large is so completely confused as to put up little or no struggle. And as if by magic, the budget will be balanced. If we were the sadistic type, your computer would currently be downloading a MIDI version of some clown music to further illustrate our......

Seattlest lives a neighborhood over from the University of Washington, and in our day to day lives we're kind of ambivalent about that fact, but every now and then we really think about it and we're happy to be in close proximity to such a large and distinguished house of knowledge. They teach stuff there, and more than that, they learn stuff. Science, language, the arts, and the inexorable forward motion of the human......

This week, federal judge John Jones knocked down the mandate from a Pennsylvania school board that their science teachers present Intelligent Design as a valid alternative to evolution in their classrooms. While he was at it, he smacked the Dover School board for being a bunch of disingenuous liars. Scientists, teachers, and intelligent people from all walks of life, religious or otherwise, rejoiced. The Discovery Institute responded with...diatribe. Dr. John West, Associate Director of the......

We understand that you come to us for up-to-the-minute information about the Seattle School Board election. On Saturday the Times ran an article calling the races for school board in Seattle "the hottest." Of course the article focused on how most candidates in the state are running unopposed. We were going to break down trends, come up with graphs, demand answers from those bureaucratic fat cats, and really delve into why of the 47 seats......

Do you live in West Seattle? Do you like old people asking questions about the monorail? Do you like watching C-Span, but wish that you could walk up and touch the speakers? Then tonight you are in luck. The 34th Legislative District Democrats are holding their candidate forum tonight. Those running for mayor, city council, the port, and school board will be getting their position statements on all over the Hall at Fauntleroy. Watch......

The Seattle Public School District has proposed a new budget to the board and Seattlest is guessing that it doesn't include any school closings. Instead, a variety of one-time financial sources will help bring a little balance to the budget, at least for the time being. Let's postpone those closings one more year, shall we? According to the PI the money will come from the following sources: An extra $2.6 million in levy dollars the......

Last week Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Raj Manhas announced a plan to close ten schools and end busing to others in order to save money and cut into the district’s increasing deficit—they project losses of $20 million in 2006-7. The controversial plan has angered parents and teachers and has received front-page attention from the local media--the camera loves kids holding handmade signs. However, it still needs approval from the school board, and this in......

Today Seattlest welcomes our new political correspondant to the fold. David Swidler is a longtime Seattle resident who recently returned to the Emerald City after some time in LA. He's worked for political consultants in Seattle previously so we're pretty sure he knows a few things. If you're one of the thousands of people running against Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin you might want to know why. Even though it is only early March and......