Think of the children! The fate of their education in Seattle's public schools is in your hands. Read up on each of the candidates in the 4 district positions to help narrow down the race in November. more ›

It's right smack in the middle of Seattle's 2009 Elections, and we've noticed a familiar name on the ballot. Kay Smith Blum...Kay Smith Blum--like, CEO of Butch Blum? Yes, Seattle's premier high fashion retail exec is running for Seattle School Board Position #5, and we got a chance to ask her what's the deal. more ›

The P-I says that the Seattle school board voted to adopt (4-3) the Key Curriculum Press Discovering Mathematics textbooks series--for algebra, advanced algebra, geometry, pre-calculus and calculus classes across the district. (Statistics classes get an Addison-Wesley textbook.) more ›

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. more ›

Rainier Valley Post has a few reasons why it's wrong to close the African American Academy. (Sable Verity wholeheartedly disagrees.) West Seattle Blog was on the ball this afternoon and has an updated post about the school board's proposed amendments to what were supposedly the final recommendations for school closures. The board votes on the recommended list tomorrow. Not everyone was thinking about school, though. MyBallard, for instance, was contemplating cottage-style housing developments. And Central District News learned from SDOT that 23rd Avenue is in such bad shape, it will take more than the usual time and effort to repair it. more ›

We had no idea Seattle Metropolitan even had blogs, but they do, and the fashion one (the first one we clicked on) by Laura Cassidy is fun. Cassidy was not enamored with Michelle Obama's white ball gown but really dug her lemongrass suit. Seattle Weekly's new music editor, Jonathan Cunningham, introduced himself over at Reverb ("I'm not a hipster. I pull no punches"). Over at Sound Politics, Stefan Sharkansky is freaking out about mail-in ballot signature verification. And the great debate about school closures continues, respectfully, at Crosscut: they've published the School Board's rebuttal of Dick Lilly's argument that the SPS shouldn't close any schools at all.
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There may very well have been fuckery afoot in the decision to close/re-purpose Cooper Elementary's building rather than close the more affluent Arbor Heights Elementary. (Why are we not surprised?) In a controversial series of posts over the weekend, blogger Sable Verity alleged that Seattle School Board District 6 Director Steve Sundquist was discriminatory and unethical in the way he interacted with parents and students at the two school. This morning, KUOW reports on their investigation into the role that poverty may have played in the school closures conversation. more ›

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. more ›

--By a--if you can believe this-- vote of the Seattle School Board, Maria Goodloe-Johnson is the new superintendent. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

The Times has already called on the School Board to resign. Seattlest is calling for the school board to repeat 9th grade English. more ›

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. more ›

--The horrible aftershocks of the internet gambling ban rock a local website. more ›

--Even The Stranger's Brendan Kiley, who knows from killing animals, is surprised that the U.S. Army tortures live pigs as a training exercise. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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 point. more ›

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 condition happening just a few streets over, 24/7! more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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? more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›