A month ago I wrote about the horticulture program getting a timely axe with Black River High School. I want to juxtapose that story with a new one I wrote about an exciting new environmental science class at Hazen High School. (Though the horticulture program wasn’t at Hazen, it has several Hazen students.)

One program is closing, while another one is opening. It’s all under the same vision, increasing rigor. When you read them together, it shows more clearly what the district is changing in the science program.

An unanswered question I had after the horticulture program closed is what the district plans to replace it with. By several standards it was a successful class.

Teresa Coda, the Hazen science chair, mentioned that teachers looked at several courses including astronomy. (Hazen chose environmental science because the new solar panels fit well into the class.) The class, which both sparks the interest of students and maybe even federal grants, is a probably good picture of what’s going to be coming.

RCW 28A.335.020
School closures — Policy of citizen involvement required — Summary of effects — Hearings — Notice.

Before any school closure, a school district board of directors shall adopt a policy regarding school closures which provides for citizen involvement before the school district board of directors considers the closure of any school for instructional purposes. The policy adopted shall include provisions for the development of a written summary containing an analysis as to the effects of the proposed school closure. The policy shall also include a requirement that during the ninety days before a school district’s final decision upon any school closure, the school board of directors shall conduct hearings to receive testimony from the public on any issues related to the closure of any school for instructional purposes. The policy shall require separate hearings for each school which is proposed to be closed.
The policy adopted shall provide for reasonable notice to the residents affected by the proposed school closure. At a minimum, the notice of any hearing pertaining to a proposed school closure shall contain the date, time, place, and purpose of the hearing. Notice of each hearing shall be published once each week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the area where the school, subject to closure, is located. The last notice of hearing shall be published not later than seven days immediately before the final hearing.

Barbara Madsen

Here is the press release:
Hazen High School alum Barbara Madsen has been elected as the state’s newest Chief Justice to Washington’s Supreme Court. Justice Madsen, who graduated from Hazen in 1970, was first elected in to the Supreme Court in 1992, and re-elected for a third term in 2004. She has served as a public defender in King and Snohomish Counties, and a Seattle City attorney. The chief justice presides over the court’s public hearings, serves as the administrative head of the state’s judicial branch, and is the court’s main spokesperson.

Where: Lindbergh High School, 16426 128th Ave. S.E., Renton
When: 6-8 p.m., Dec. 17
Cost: $5, $7 for VIP seating

Below is Pham’s press release.

Press Release

The fair gives Renton School District students ideas for job training and apprenticeships. Several of the fair participants will have hands-on activities for students.

“They are our future workforce, and providing information to help them prepare and train them in this very competitive job market is key,” according to a press release.

The fair is open to all high school students and buses will be transporting students from different schools.

The fair is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a complimentary lunch from the Lindbergh culinary arts students.

The visit was a few minutes behind schedule. After a classroom visit, we left the classroom to be surprised by a bell that flooded the hallway with students, all eager to shake her hand.

Below are a few images I got from the event. I set me ISO at 800 to accommodate low lights and a lens with a 4.0 aperture, which is why the photos are so grainy.

Governor Christine Gregoire at Dimmitt Middle School

Governor Christine Gregoire at Dimmitt Middle School

Auditions are planned for Monday, Nov. 30. Students then rehearse during the week, and Friday, Dev. 4, they put on a performance for the school and parents.

The plays are updated versions of fairy tales. This year they’re planning on “Pinocchio.”

The second one comes straight from spokesperson Randy Matheson:

Kennydale Elementary School students in Norm Brecke’s Story Club will bring literature to life in two upcoming performances. Nearly 25 students in third- through fifth-grades read folktales, and then are trained in various memorization skills and dramatic movement techniques to perform the stories for audiences. This is the second year for the dramatic performances, which will be offered first to students and again for families on Dec. 10 in the school’s commons.

Only about 40.4 percent of 10-grade students in the Renton School District passed the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) last year, sending the district scrambling to improve math performance. Whereas 45.5 percent of Washington state students passed the math portion.

Right now students who fail the standardized test in 10th grade can retake the exam or take an additional two years of math. This option will no longer be available for the class of 2013.

The graduating class of 2010 is only required to take 2.0 credits of math. As I reported last week, starting with the class of 2013, students are required to take an additional credit, totaling 3.0 credits. The district doesn’t know how many more math teachers it will need to hire to provide enough courses for students.

There is a chance this could impact elective courses, but I’ve heard conflicting opinions from district administrators.

Right now it appears that the state legislature is phasing in higher standards. First for reading and writing, where the district performs well, and now with math scores. Currently, all students must pass the reading and writing portion of the HSPE or WASL to graduate.

I’m working on an in-depth story looking at the impact of these higher standards on the school district and the students. Feel free to give your input, I’d like to know parent and teacher concerns.

Freshmen this year will need to earn 3.0 credits of math instead of 2.0 credits.

One credit is equivalent to taking one math class for an entire year, or 0.5 credits for one semester. Students will be required to take three years of math instead of two.

To balance the new standard, the district reduced its elective requirements from 7.0 to 6.0 credits.

This change will not impact current sophomores, juniors or seniors. The district still requires 22 credits to graduate, although students typically complete 24 credits.

Administration isn’t expecting this to improve WASL scores by much, as students are tested in the 10th grade. The changes will likely effect students their junior and senior years.

I spoke with Kathleen Bailey on the subject for a formal story. I hope to write it for RentonReporter.com Monday.

‘The committee that will examine school boundaries and the potential opening of Honeydew Elementary School was approved at Wednesday’s Renton School District board meeting.

At the meeting it was suggested that this would include boundaries between McKnight and Dimmitt middle schools, though it wasn’t included in the report.

The advisory committee also hopes to finalize Renton High School service areas and boundaries for Bryn Mawr, Lakeridge and Campbell Hill elementary schools.

Alongside considering the opening of Honeydew next year, the board will discuss if portable classrooms are needed for 2010-2011.

The 2009 Enrollment Review Committee will be lead by Lou Pappas, who has worked with the district on this issue before.

The committee will be made of 30 parent representatives from the district alongside two elementary principals, a middle school principal and principal Damien Pattenaude of Renton High.

Director David Merrill requested that Pappas also find a representative in the Honeydew area, though Honeydew doesn’t have a boundary, as it isn’t open.

Pappas agreed to have someone living nearby the school on the committee, and suggested that someone already likely was.

The meetings, which start Nov. 17, will be open to the public. The public can comment, but only during a specific time in the meeting.

They’re to be held in the facilities conference room, below is the schedule.

Nov. 17 – introduction, scope of work, background, information, enrollment projections
Dec. 8 – individual building use reports, elementary and secondary
Jan. 12 – begin deliberations and develop preliminary observations and recommendations
Feb. 9 – finalize observations and recommendations
Feb. 23 – finalize recommendations
Feb. 24 or March 10 – presentation to the Board of Directions

Enrollment Review Committee Board Presentation

Below is a document given formally at the Oct. 14 school board meeting.

Flood Planning

Father Gary Zender of the St. Anthony Parish holds a radish from the school's new garden and greenhouse.

I went to the blessing ceremony for St. Anthony School’s new greenhouse.

This photo I took I found particularly beautiful, and I thought I’d give a little preview before I write up the story for tomorrow.

The project was completed much to the hard work of first-grade teacher Jan Seely, who plucked the radish from a garden bed before the ceremony started.

The school will use the garden to teach children about growing vegetables and keeping a garden. The vegetables themselves will be distributed through the school’s food bank.

The event is one of four this fall, and runs from 7-10 p.m.

There will be snacks, a three-on-three basketball tournament, a movie, Rock Band, Guitar Hero and prizes.

The cost is free, but students should bring an ID. The program is organized by the City of Renton Parks Department for teens to have fun and get some exercise.

For more information visit the city ‘Teen Scene’ Web page by clicking here.

Highlands Neighborhood Center, 800 Edmonds Ave. N.E., Renton.

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The board approved the plans without objection Oct. 14. So far the project is on time and budget.

Contractors are hoping to complete the project between September and December of 2011. I’ll write more on it when I have time.

Hazen Board Presentation

The Dimmit Middle School students participated in science research with Salish Sea Expeditions.

The project gave students a chance to experience science firsthand, by studying the effects of light and depth on plankton populations in Puget Sound.

The students slept, cooked and learn to sail while on the boat, while families and friends were able to track the students’ adventure online.

I was hoping to take pictures of them getting on the boat, but I didn’t hear about it until it happened. I’m going to try and get something in next week’s paper.

Under the guidance of Renton High teacher Eric Hougan, the students maintain a rigorous high school course load, while also taking classes in child development, teaching as a career, and classroom management.

The students also spend time in an elementary school, tutoring, observing, and gaining knowledge from professional teaching staff.

The program is a collaboration between the school district and Central Washington University and is paid for by a Recruiting Washington Teachers grant, a state-funded program, administered by the state’s Professional Educator Standards Board.

U.S. Department General Counsel Charlie Rose, right, converses with teachers at Renton High School about No Child Left Behind. Principal Damien Pattenaude, left.

When I first read the name Charlie Rose, I thought the big broadcaster that found fame through his work with Bill Moyers was about to bless Renton High School with a visit Wednesday.

After the U.S. Department of Education’s General Counsel Charlie Rose, not the big broadcaster, shook my hand, I realized I was still about to hear something cool, but from the faculty he conversed with.

He’s been traveling around America conducting “Listening and Learning” sessions with faculty and parents about No Child Left Behind.

Principal Damien Pattenaude offered a presentation on how the faculty and he have changed the school in the past few years.

In the past year, fights are down by half, and tardy students by 14 percent, he said.

However, nothing stuck more than the two sticky notes math teacher Stacey Snyder placed under the projector.

They were pie charts that demonstrated how the once typically white and Asian dominated higher math classes now reflect the school’s actual demographic with blacks and Hispanics.

“What I’m struck by here is the fact that it seems that the teachers and the principal reached a catalyst,” Rose said to the teachers, who talked heavily about self-reflection.

After several years of heavy faculty and administration turnover, the teachers decided to start changing school’s culture, and now it’s now starting to change student performance.

“That is the high quality approach… that we need to encourage,” Rose said.

Look for more in next week’s paper.

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RTC interim president Steve Hanson

The Renton Technical College Board of Trustees are planning on having their monthly meeting tomorrow, Oct. 13 at 4 p.m.

It’s the first meeting the trustees will have with the new interim president, Steve Hanson.

The board and Hanson will discuss goals and expectations for the year, Hanson said.

The meeting is among the first of expected discussions about the future of the school, after the firing of former president Don Bressler this summer.

Check out the trustee’s page for more information. Though they haven’t posted an agenda. The meeting is open to the public, as long as the trustees don’t go into executive session.

Also, check out my profile story on Hanson.

You can also tweet me @celestegracey.

Grossnickle and incumbent Teal are both running for the Renton School District board.

Renton jumped from a 60 percent graduation rate to an 81 percent graduation rate, while Lindbergh High School jumped from 85 percent to 93.7 percent and Hazen High School from 96 percent to 97 percent.

These numbers track how many freshmen graduate as seniors.

Parents are encouraged to take these statistics with a grain of salt, as the dropout rate doesn’t necessarily reflect quality of education or even completion of education.

A variety of scenarios play into the rates, including immigrants who move and never graduate from the district.

From 2004-2009 Renton’s rates float around the 70s and some 80s while Hazen and Lindbergh’s rates float around the 80s and 90s.

I’m hoping to develop this into a full story, inquiring why Renton’s numbers fluctuated so heavily these past few years and about what factors really drive the numbers.

I’m still waiting on the WASL scores from the district. We’ll run them as soon as we get them.

Graduation Rate Statistics 2004-2009

All staff will be conducting various trainings. There will also be a teacher training day November 6.

Classes were not canceled, just never scheduled for this day. I apologize for any confusion.

Hazen High School’s Divina Voce Women’s Ensemble has been invited to perform at Western
Washington University’s Invitational Choral Festival.

The Hazen group is one of only eight Washington high school choirs considered among the best to perform for world renowned clinicians and exchange with WWU’s Concert Choir.

The event takes place in mid-November.  This is Hazen’s second appearance at the event: the Concert Choir was invited in 2007.  Divina Voce will also perform at the Renton Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Landing on November 21.

Renton Rotary president Dan Kellogg helps Cascade Elementary School third-grader David Galaviz look up a word in his new dictionary.

About 1,200 third graders in the Renton School District received free dictionaries from the Rotary Club of Renton, Sept. 29.
The new books, written for children, are a part of the rotary’s annual tradition to ensure all students have dictionaries available at home.
The goal of the more than $10,000 project is to further support of early childhood education.
Though dictionaries are available in the classroom, school libraries and online, the books are a personal gift that kids can use with family members.
Some third-graders who received the dictionaries in the past reported using the books with their siblings and, in a few cases, to help teach English to family members.
Rotary members have taken a few weeks to distribute the books personally and help children write their names in them using special stickers.

Brian Goddard, Colin Jones and Jack Li, all seniors, won awards for exceptional scores on their AP exams.

Twenty-one Hazen High School students earned AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on their advanced placement exams. Three of the students, Brian Goddard, Colin Jones and Jack Li, are seniors this year.

The other students graduated last year. The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program provides motivated and academically prepared students an opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school, and to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams.

Over a week ago I sat down with Renton Tech’s new interim president Steve Hanson for an hour-long interview about himself and the college,  and this is the profile shot I ended up taking. Cool stuff, right? (Read the story on Hanson here.)

Renton Tech's new interim president, Steve Hanson, visits a class in the surgery tech school.

I decided once I was done asking my questions that I wanted to get a better feel for his personality, and a better photo opportunity than a glorified mug shot. So I asked him to show me around campus.

(I took this photo with my digital SLR Canon Rebel and my fixed 4.0, 24-105mm, L-IS Canon lens.)

The last place we visited was the medical building, where we ended up chatting with an instructor in a surgery tech class. The instructor, happy to see Hanson who she obviously knew, was standing to the left of him.

In the story I poked fun of him for not having any photos on his walls, but a few days later he brought a stack to be hung. I’ll only have to guess at what he put up.

Hazen High School senior Julie Vaisarova

Props to Hazen High School senior Julie Vaisarova who was named a 2009 National Merit Scholar semifinalist.

She is one of a few Washington state students to receive the honor, which recognizes individual students who show exceptional academic ability and potential for success in rigorous college studies.

She now has an opportunity to continue in the competition for a National Merit Scholarship.

Eighty-four percent of Lakeridge Elementary School first-graders exceeded standards on beginning-of-the-year reading proficiency testing. The students took part in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBLES) testing which helps establish a student’s oral fluency level and measures his/her accuracy of reading at the beginning, middle and end of the year at each grade level.