There will be a brief presentation of program highlights followed by the tour of the school building. Registration is not required. Please note that no child care is provided.
Beacon Hill International School is located at 2025 14th Ave. S.
Pat Murakami of the Cleveland High School PTSA sent this late appeal to the community, seeking volunteers at the school for today:
There are MANY great things about Cleveland High School. Advanced planning isn’t one of them. A teacher approached me today, asking for parent volunteers for tomorrow [February 15]. Most of our parents have limited free time during the work day, so if community members would like to participate in the following, it would be a great opportunity to check out Cleveland from the inside. Folks will find out what a fine school Cleveland is, and what incredible students go there.
Kate Reedy, a Humanities teacher, needs volunteers February 15th as ‘Members of Congress.’ The students will be testifying before us at a Congressional Hearing. It will be fun and a great opportunity to see our students in action. You are welcome to participate in one or all of the following sessions. The Hearings will be held in Room 1207 of the Main Building.
- 3/4 Period 9:20 – 10:45
- 5/6 Period 12:00 – 1:25
- 7/8 Period 1:30 – 2:50
Please park in the lot at the south end of the school (off 15th Avenue South) and enter the original Cleveland building (just north of the parking lot) on the side facing away from 15th. Sign in at the counter on the left hand side of the entrance area. Room 1207 is on the 2nd floor of this building.
Thank you!
Pat Murakami, 2011-12 PTSA President
Two Beacon Hill schools were among 21 Seattle schools honored by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education with 2011 Washington Achievement Awards.
Maple Elementary School was one of the eight schools recognized for overall excellence at the elementary level.
Asa Mercer Middle School was one of five schools recognized for overall excellence at the K-8, 6-8, or 9-12 levels. Mercer was also recognized for outstanding achievement in mathematics and outstanding achievement in science.
Nearby Franklin High School was also honored, for outstanding improvement.
The Seattle honorees were among 186 Washington schools to be recognized for their performance on the “Achievement Index,” which measures schools’ performance over time. (Find out more about the Index and the Achievement Awards here.) The 21 schools honored for 2011 are up from 13 in 2010 and seven in 2009.
The schools will be recognized during a ceremony on April 25 at Mariner High School in Everett.
It’s time for a new quarter of Spanish classes at El Centro de la Raza, for adults at the beginner to intermediate levels. Winter quarter classes start on Tuesday, January 17, and run on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m., through March 22.
Classes are taught by native Spanish speakers in an interactive, community-based setting. The class fee is $300, and fees are used to help support El Centro’s human service and community-building programs. For more information, please call (206) 957-4605 or email execasst@elcentrodelaraza.org.
Artists, organizations, and youth-service agencies: The Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs is seeking project applications for the 2012-2013 Youth Arts program, an annual funding program that supports arts training opportunities for middle and high school youth.
Funding of up to $10,000 may be granted to individual artists, artist teams, arts and cultural organizations, and youth-service agencies. Youth Arts prioritizes youth or communities with limited or no access to the arts. Previous grants may be seen here. The projects in the last round of funding are estimated to serve 8,697 kids in about 44,000 hours of after-school arts training from September 2011 through September 2012.
An upcoming informational workshop for interested funding applicants is planned for Monday, January 9 at the Beacon Hill Library, 2821 Beacon Ave. S., from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Attendees will learn about the program and the application process, as well as meet and get advice from previous award recipients. No registration is required for the workshop.
Guidelines for the application are here. You can complete an online application here. The application deadline is 11 p.m., Wednesday, February 15.
All classes are free and open to the public. Registration is not required, but seating may be limited. For more information, call 206-386-4636.
The class list:
Seattle schools are ranked according to absolute performance scores and yearâ€toâ€year growth scores on a 1-5 scale, with Level 1 being low and Level 5 being the highest level. Cleveland, which began a new Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) academy program last year, moved up from Level 2 to Level 3, and achieved a 218 percent increase in students meeting the math standard. Additionally, the school showed a small increase in enrollment in Fall 2010.
Here are further details in the report sent out by the school district:
At Cleveland High School, which moved up from Level 2 to Level 3, students have shown impressive academic growth after their first year of participation in both the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program and the federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program.
Their success is illustrated by their performance on the statewide reading and math exams taken by students in grades 9 and 10: In reading, the percentage of students meeting standard increased by 6 percent from spring 2010 to 2011, rising from 63 percent to 69 percent; and in math, the school saw a 218 percent increase, as the number of students meeting standard increased from 17 percent to 54 percent.
Since the state changed some parts of the state’s high school math test, it is impossible to fully compare Spring 2010 and Spring 2011 math results until Spring 2012, when the students will have taken the same test for a second year in a row. Even so, Cleveland students have made significant progress in just one year. Cleveland principal Princess Shareef said that faculty are working to increase the level of challenge in the coursework, as well as providing extra math instruction to students who are not yet meeting standards.
Two other measures of successful high schools are enrollment counts and graduation rates. Cleveland’s enrollment had been declining for years, so one of the school’s goals has been to attract more students. Those efforts are paying off: in Fall 2009, Cleveland had 738 students enrolled; by Fall 2010, enrollment had increased to 795 students.
Cleveland’s graduation rates are also showing progress: The school’s overall graduation rate jumped from 55 percent in Spring 2010 to 68% in Spring 2011. Shareef notes that staff focused on closing the gap in graduation rates between Angloâ€American students and students of color.
Beacon Hill’s Asa Mercer Middle School is one of five public schools in Seattle that has been recognized as a “School of Distinction” for outstanding academic achievement in improving math and reading. Schools with this honor have placed in the top 5 percent of highest-improving schools in Washington.
The other schools in Seattle to earn this honor are Alki Elementary School, Hamilton International Middle School, Madison Middle School, and Orca K-8 School.
Mercer has received this honor for the last three years in a row. Congratulations to everyone at Mercer!
The community meetings are held each month. The next two meetings are scheduled for Saturday, October 29, and Saturday, November 19, from 10 a.m. until noon at the same Tully’s.
If you are at the very northern tip of Beacon Hill, you may be in District V instead. The District V representative is Kay Smith-Blum, and she’ll be hosting a community meeting on Saturday, October 8, from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Douglass-Truth Library, 2300 E. Yesler Way.
The Seattle Public Library is hosting a series of “Urban Self-Reliance” workshops, including several here at the Beacon Hill Library branch. The workshops are free and open to the public, and registration is not required unless noted in the class description below.
These are the classes scheduled for the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Ave. S.):
“Bicycle Maintenance”: Basic bike maintenance techniques taught by instructors from The Bikery, a non-profit community bike project. Registration is required for this workshop; call 206-684-4711 to sign up. (1-3 p.m., Sunday, October 2.)
“Keeping Chickens in the City”: The basics of keeping chickens in the city, including starting with chicks, feeding and housing requirements, and more. (6-7:30 p.m., Monday, October 10.)
“Finding Edible Weeds in Your Garden and Lawn”: Local author and expert forager Langdon Cook will talk about how to use your backyard as an exotic produce aisle. (6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 26.)
Classes offered at other library branches include “DIY Seismic Home Retrofitting,” “Apartment Gardening with Amy Pennington,” “Introduction to Bike Commuting,” “Simple Sewing (Bags/Pillows/Potholders),” and more. For more information about the classes offered throughout the rest of the city, see the SPL website.