February 2008

Our Schools - Educating Mom
What’s to Love about Seattle High Schools?

by Linda Thomas

Ballard High School students pick up CSI-like electrophoresis gear and get ready for a biochemistry class. Global leadership students at Chief Sealth walk to a nearby elementary school to teach kids about water conservation. Roosevelt actors memorize lines for another mega-hit musical.

Something cool happens every day in each of Seattle’s high schools.

During this month of love, I’m sharing a few of the things students, teachers and principals told me they love about their high schools – Seattle’s 10 comprehensive schools and one nontraditional school.

February is also the month of open enrollment for Seattle Schools. Sounds far less romantic, doesn’t it? Many parents will go on school tours and go online to compare programs before choosing a school for their kids. Tours and test scores are important, but they don’t always convey the character of a school. For that, we need to go inside.

Trendsetters

The school day begins with thumping, energetic dance music from C-89.5 – one of the best student-run radio stations in the country. Down the hall, students appreciate a different kind of music as they discuss Pagliacci (the tragic Italian opera, not the local pizza company.) Nathan Hale High School, home to “Seattle’s Hottest Music,” also has an Opera Club.

“Opera is a bit of a hard sell initially,” says Larry Uhlman, the language arts teacher who started the club. Once students realize opera stories are universal – about love and hate – they connect to the performance.

Students attend final dress rehearsals of Seattle Opera performances. That’s four operas a year. Some teens go because it’s an uncommon social experience. Some like the singing style. And “a few actually think it’s cool,” Uhlman says.

Artsy and Smart

Nowhere is the value of arts in education more apparent than at Center School, a nontraditional high school located in Seattle Center.

It’s strong on arts and academics. Its students’ average SAT scores are among the highest in the district, according to the 2006-2007 annual reports.

“We have a rigorous academic and college prep curriculum,” says Lisa Escobar, Center School’s principal. “Combining creative and cognitive learning helps students create strategies for anything they might encounter in life.”

As a bonus, professionals with the Seattle Repertory Theatre teach drama classes at Center School.

Drama Queens and Kings

One of the most acclaimed high school drama programs is at Roosevelt High School.

Along with acting, directing and technical classes, Roosevelt has four private voice teachers and a choreographer for their spring musical. People are already requesting tickets for this year’s Me and My Girl.

Drama teacher Ruben Van Kempen expects his students to be as skilled academically as they are on stage. Several of his former students have found steady work on Broadway. Four Roosevelt grads (Noah Racey, Chad Kimball, Jennifer West and Charlie Marcus) were all in Tony award-winning or nominated Broadway shows at the same time in 2002.

“Our drama community is the most inclusive I’ve worked with. That’s the best part about it,” says Van Kempen. “We have a huge spectrum of kids involved with drama from special-needs students, to aspiring actors, to those who will go on to Harvard or Yale in math or science.”

Rainier Renaissance

Rainier Beach High School doesn’t have a drama program at Roosevelt’s level … yet. It does have a $6.1 million performing arts center and is boosting its drama and music career options.

This school year Principal Robert Gary Jr. hired a drama teacher, a music teacher and an Advanced Placement (AP) history teacher. Eighty percent of the school’s educators are trained to teach at least one AP course in their specialty area.

“The goal is to have them trained for all the courses in their academic areas by 2010,” Gary says.

Although the school is shooting for stronger academics, they already score with sports. The Vikings basketball team has won four boys’ state championships. Eight is a good number for them with victories in 1988 and 1998. Maybe 2008 will be their year to win again.

Academic Advances

Another small school that’s improving its academic reputation by adding AP classes is Cleveland High School. For the first time, Cleveland has AP classes in biology and language arts. Principal Wayne Floyd plans to have advanced classes in physics, chemistry and history in the next few years.

“Kids want to be challenged. We’re pushing them to do well every day, and we’re pushing them toward college,” Floyd says.

Floyd also wants to add more technical and computer classes at the school. That’s an area where individuals are already excelling. Two students, Ray Hamilton and Nathaniel Gonzalez, recently won a national Web design contest.

“We are United”

West Seattle High School senior Zack Desmond is a leader. Desmond, the Associated Student Body (ASB) president, led the students’ fight to keep a four-period school day with 85-minute classes. But they lost. Beginning this fall, they’ll join the rest of Seattle’s high schools with a six-period schedule.

“The change is disappointing,” he says. “We liked being unique.”

Still, West Seattle stands out in other ways. It has top-notch fashion, marketing and photography courses that put students in front of industry professionals for critiques of their creations.

“We’re also a lot less cliquey than other schools, and I’d put our school spirit up against any other high school in the city,” Desmond adds.

Sought-After Program

West Seattle might have the spirit, but when it comes to being good sports, Ingraham High School is hard to beat. The Rams hold the record for the most sportsmanship awards from the Metro League.

It’s also tough to top Principal Martin Floe’s dedication. He graduated from Ingraham in 1984, returned after college, and has been there in several roles since 1990.

Floe says that one thing that makes Ingraham’s “close-knit community” exceptional is the International Baccalaureate program. IB is a pre-college course of study, and until this school year, it was not available in any other Seattle public school.

“We have a number of kids who start college at a sophomore/junior level because of all the work they’ve done in high school,” Floe says. “An IB diploma is sought after by universities around the world.”

Empowering Kids

Chief Sealth High School started an IB program this school year to expand its international and multicultural focus. Sealth has a diverse student population who speak more than 40 languages.

Chief Sealth also started a global leadership class – the only one of its kind in the district. Noah Zeichner, a social studies and Spanish teacher, offers the course, which centers on water conservation and climate change.

Last semester students audited and reduced their own water consumption. Zeichner was astounded to find many of his students take 25-minute showers. They also plan to audit the school’s energy use and promote change on a larger scale.

“I want my students to feel empowered to make changes in their own lives and then become leaders in their own communities and in the world,” Zeichner says.

Bulldog Pride

Senior Ben Kusak has been looking for ways to unite his community since his freshman year at Garfield High School.

“I heard about the black Garfield and white Garfield, but I was blown away at how drastic the racial divide was when I got there,” says Kusak, ASB president and executive editor of the student-run newspaper The Garfield Messenger. “We’ve created a more unified Garfield in the four years that I’ve been here.”

Kusak says moving to the Lincoln Building until a remodel at Garfield is finished (fall of 2008) has fostered a “stronger sense of community and pride in being a Bulldog.”

They have a lot to be proud of. Garfield has the most AP courses in the district and an Accelerated Progress Program for highly gifted students. It produces the greatest number of National Merit Scholars. Garfield also has one of the premier jazz programs on the planet.

“Amazing” Students

Garfield and Franklin High School are among the most ethnically and racially diverse schools in the district. The “amazing student body” is what Franklin Principal Jennifer Wiley loves about her school.

“Franklin students are incredibly dynamic, intelligent, compassionate and creative,” says Wiley.

They develop a deep understanding of social justice issues, she says, through the nationally-recognized Mock Trial program. Students experience the legal system by acting as attorneys and arguing fictional cases. Franklin has placed among the top teams in the Mock Trail program for three years in a row. Count on them to dominate the competition in March.

The Best for Last

Why do I think Ballard High School is the best? It will be my kids’ high school. Beyond my Beaver bias, Ballard has career academies involving engineering, maritime, finance and biotechnology industries.

The biotech program integrates science, math and language arts. Dr. Dewey Moody, the lead biotech instructor, says his chemistry class for freshman is what most schools teach during a student’s junior year. The work is challenging, but students leave with a tremendous amount of confidence.

“You can go into any language arts class and say the word Shakespeare and nobody’s temperature goes up, nobody gets nervous, everybody’s okay,” Moody says. “If I say thermal chemistry, there’s a lot of angst and there shouldn’t be.”

He says the “juice” in his job is seeing students become comfortable with concepts that seemed foreign to them at the beginning of the school year.

Expert Advice

Every Seattle high school has something special to offer. Every Seattle high school has its share of problems.

West Seattle senior Zack Desmond doesn’t think where students go to high school is as important as what they do while they’re there. “Get involved in as many clubs and activities as you can. Do things outside your comfort zone,” Desmond advises. “What you put in is what you’ll get out.”

Linda Thomas is journalist/mom. Even though she’s supportive of Seattle Schools, she has a twinge of private school envy. What are her public school kids missing? Are you a public or private school mom or dad? She’d like to hear about your experiences. E-mail: linda@lindathomas.com.

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