Former Highline School District athletic director Jackie Lewis filed a claim Tuesday against the district alleging he was unfairly demoted from an assistant principal to a teacher because of the actions of former Evergreen campus athletic director Daylene Boehm.
Daylene Boehm is no longer on leave and has been reassigned as an elementary teacher, according to district spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers. Daylene Boehm has a continuing contract with the district. The specific elementary has not been determined.
"She still has a job in Highline," Rogers reported.

Rogers noted the investigation of Daylene Boehm has not been concluded.

Lewis has been reassigned to a secondary school, yet to be determined, according to Rogers. Lewis also had been assistant principal at Highline High in Burien.

In the claim, Lewis said Daylene Boehm's direct supervisor, Evergreen Principal Paula Montgomery was not significantly disciplined. Montgomery, one of the principals of three small academies on the Evergreen campus, also supervised Evergreen's athletic program last year.  read more »

The West Seattle Herald recently toured the refurbished Sealth International High School, now two and a half years into construction. Robert Evans, project manager for Heery International and sub consultant to DKA Architecture the Construction Program Manager for the project, and Principal John Boyd were our guides for the two-and-a-half hour peek at what they believe will be a world-class facility. Absher Construction is the General (primary) Contractor.

Other adults present were heard commenting that they wish they could go back to high school as they seemed in awe of the modernization.

A construction levy in February 2007 provided 125 million dollars for two buildings in the West Seattle area. One was the construction of a new Denny Middle School and the other was the renovation of Sealth. Denny was allocated funds to build a new school (75 million dollars) and Sealth was allocated 50 million dollars for remodeling. The work on Sealth is nearly complete and they will open this fall.

A complete overview of the project is available online at http://bex.seattleschools.org/chiefsealth.html  read more »

Seattle Public Schools made several announcements today regarding personnel, but the most significant for West Seattle was the naming of the new principal at West Seattle High School, to succeed the departing Bruce Bivins. They also named new principals for Alki Elementary and Madison Middle School.

Here's the SPS press release:
Ruth Medsker has been appointed interim principal at West Seattle High School.

For the past five years, Ms. Medsker has served as an education director for Seattle Public Schools, during which time she directly supervised nine middle schools and 10 K-8 schools in the district.

Prior to that time, she was principal and assistant principal at Seattle’s Mercer Middle School. In 2004, Medsker received the Alliance for Education’s Thomas B. Foster Award for Excellence for outstanding leadership. She also received two awards from the Association from Washington School Principals: as a Seattle Regional Distinguished Principal in 2004 and as a Seattle Regional Distinguished Assistant Principal in 2003.  read more »

Two unexpected speakers added extra drama June 23 to the Highline School Board's regular meeting.

Ayanna Brown, mother of 12-year-old Alajawan Brown who was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity in the Rainier Valley April 29, urged school officials to listen to at-risk students and provide them with activities to keep them out of trouble.

Burien resident Lorin Sandretzky, better known as "Big Lo, Seattle's biggest sports fan," requested district staffers find a better field for the Burien Bearcats youth football team.

Brown also supported the Bearcats' request, noting, "Kids need something to do" to keep them out of gangs.
"A 35-year-old gang member shot my baby," Brown declared.

She also spoke in support of The Movement, a nonprofit Tukwila-based group that works with high-risk youth through mentorship and personal development training.
Big Picture High principal Jeff Petty said the group has worked the past two years at his school "using the power of story to reach out to kids." Big Picture is an alternative high school that emphasizes learning through internships. It is housed at the old Glacier High building in SeaTac.  read more »

Following an investigation of the athletic program, Highline Public Schools administrators have posted job openings for a new district athletic director and Evergreen High School campus athletic director.

Jackie Lewis, the district's athletic director is on leave following revelations that Jayson Boehm, a substitute Highline Field stadium manager, had given physicals to male students without appropriate medical supervision. Boehm, who had been hired to provide first aid at athletic events, was not licensed to give physicals. The district fired him.

Daylene Boehm, Jayson Boehm's sister, was also placed on leave. The district is now advertising an opening for her former position.
The district is also advertising for a coordinator of athletics, which is a lower job classification than district athletic director, according to spokeswoman Catherine Carbone Rogers.

However, the job is a full-time position. Lewis served part-time as athletic director.
He was also an assistant principal at Highline High School. Whether Lewis returns to Highline High or the Highline district is on hold, pending the conclusion of the investigation and an athletic program audit.  read more »

The audience laughed heartily during Schmitz Park Elementary School's production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, Thursday night, June 17. The performers, and director and other behind-the-scenes crew were from Craig Parsley's fifth grade class. In the play, a man and his slave become mistaken for another man and his slave as both are identical twins. The four meet at the end and the confusion is cleared up. While the slave-owner actors, Vincent Paddon and Ryan Kimsey resembled each other, their slaves are real-life twins, Anna and Lea Zuckerman, a nice dramatic touch.

Highland Park Elementary School teachers were surprised by retiring fellow teachers, Debbie Richter and Marilyn Nelson, and administrative assistant, Margaret Young, with a party in the library, Wednesday afternoon, June 16.

Richter, a special education teacher, has taught 21 years at Highland Park.

"It's time to say goodbye, said Richter, a Bellevue resident. "I've seen many students come and go. I'm going to travel. I have a new grandchild. This is going to be the next phase in my life."

"I'm going shopping when the stores are empty, and traveling when it's not tourist season," effused Young, who lives near the school, and still has a graceful North Carolina lilt even though she moved here 40 years ago. She was an office assistant at Highland Park School for six years before she moved into the Administrative Assistant position which she has held for the last 22 years.  read more »

Possibly the most diverse senior class in America will graduate on Friday, June 11, at 7 p.m., in Tukwila's Werner Neudorf Stadium.
The Foster High School Class of 2010 attended the most diverse school district in the nation, according to the New York Times. This class, of 173 students, comes from 36 different countries, and they speak over 30 languages.

This class, as a whole, has many accomplishments, and made huge contributions to their community.
Seniors in the Advanced Placement Literature class competed to have President Obama speak at their commencement ceremony. They produced a video that depicts the ethnicity of the senior class and sent it to the president.

Foster Senior Adrian Quichochoa, along with several other students, created a video on the 2010 Census. They felt that this was an extremely important project that merited the time spent to inform Foster students, and the Tukwila community, how critical this information is for future funding of education.

Quichochoa joined State Rep. Zack Hudgins in producing a video and shared it with the community.  read more »

Sweet Pea Cottage Preschool of the Arts opens this Fall in the Unitarian Church's new location, a former church on California Avenue at Othello. The church recently purchased the building as the West Seattle Herald was first to report, here:

Sweet Pea Cottage is currently accepting applications and scheduling tours.

According to their press release:

All teachers are professional artists.
The Founder and Artistic Director began the program nearly 17 years ago from her own home and, by popular demand, grew into what now has 125 families at the Queen Anne location.
Sweet Pea is a non-profit organization.
Children experience visual arts, theater, yoga, French, Spanish, nature walks, cooking, dance, music, sports/exercise every week.
Guest artists are brought in on a weekly basis to share their craft with the children.
The curriculum is multi-cultural, celebrating a different country each week by teaching the children about the culture, language, art forms, and food.  read more »