Seattle Public Schools is looking to the community for opinions on its middle school language arts curriculum. From the SPS website:

Parents, families, students, teachers, staff and the community are invited to review and provide input on the instructional materials being considered for Middle School Language Arts.

The materials will be available for viewing from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from Monday, May 2 to Friday, May 6, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 7 at McClure Middle School, located at 1915 1st Ave W.

For questions or more information on the curriculum and instructional materials under review, contact SPS literacy manager Dan Coles at (206) 252-0231.

The Seattle Department of Transportation is hosting a public open house on the Elliott Bay Seawall Project from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. today, Wednesday, January 19, at the Seattle Aquarium, located at 1483 Alaskan Way.

Attendees will have the opportunity to take a virtual tour of options for the seawall, meet the project team and learn how the Seawall Project is coordinating with other waterfront projects.

Officials say attendees will be able to “help design a seawall that supports and protects Seattle’s waterfront, including critical utilities, transportation corridors, recreation and tourist destinations, and thousands of businesses and homes,” meet the project team, and learn more about the intersection of the Seawall project, the Central Waterfront planning process, and the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project.

Input from the public will be used to define alternatives to the project. Officials ask that community members submit comments by February 1, so that the Mayor, City Council, and project team may identify preferred alternatives to the seawall project, which they expect to do by April. Construction is currently scheduled to begin in late 2012.

The seawall protects Seattle’s waterfront from wind driven storm waves and the erosive tidal forces of Elliott Bay. Major utilities, Alaskan Way and SR 99, the ferry terminal, and rail lines also are supported by the seawall. Since its construction between 1916 and 1934, the seawall has deteriorated significantly; it does not meet current earthquake standards and must be replaced. The Seattle Department of Transportation is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on this shoreline protection project.

More information on the project can be found here, at SDOT’s seawall project website.

Mayor McGinn is searching for a new chief of police and has asked the public to help develop the selection criteria. Former Chief Gil Kerlikowske left the Seattle Police Department upon his appointment as the nation’s drug czar by President Obama last year. The Seattle Police Chief Search Committee, a 26-member citizen panel, has been tasked with the job of narrowing the pool of potentials down to three finalists to recommend to the mayor in May, in the hopes of making a final selection by June.

The search committee is posing the following questions to community members:

• What qualities are you looking for in a new Police Chief?
• What is the most important public safety issue in Seattle?
• What does the Seattle Police Department do well?
• What changes would you like to see?

To encourage community input the city has set up three ways for those interested to respond – by attending one of three upcoming public forums, visiting the new website or dialing into a dedicated phone line set up for the search.

The first meeting will he held tomorrow, Wednesday, February 10 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Northgate Community Center, located at 10510 5th Ave NE. The first two hours of the meeting has been allotted for public comment, with the final hour reserved for the search committee “to begin developing competitive selection process and assessment criteria.”

The next two meetings have been set for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 17 (at Franklin High School, located at 3013 Mount Baker S.) and Friday, February 26 (at New Holly Gathering Center, located 7054 32nd Ave. S.) Language interpreters will be available at the third and final meeting in the following languages: Tagalog, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotian, Amharic, Oromiffa, Khmer (Cambodian), Somali, and Tigrinya.

For more information, see the search committee website. Download the meetings flyer here (.pdf). Can’t make it to a meeting? Answer the committee’s four questions online or over the phone by calling 206-684-CITY (206-684-2489).