The McClure Middle School PTSA is hosting a free screening of the documentary “Race to Nowhere” on Wednesday night. Filmmaker and mother Vicki Abeles’ “Race to Nowhere” premiered at film festivals in 2009 before opening in select theaters in 2010; it highlights the stories of students “who have been pushed to the brink by over-scheduling, over-testing and the relentless pressure to achieve.”
A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the culture of hollow achievement and pressure to perform that has invaded Americaʼs schools. It is destroying our childrenʼs love of learning and feeding an epidemic of unprepared, disengaged, and unhealthy students.
This remarkable new film shines a light on the price our kids pay for this “race to nowhere.” Cheating is commonplace, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and ironically, young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
Race to Nowhere is a call to families, educators, experts and policy makers to examine current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become the healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens in the 21st century.
McClure Middle School is one of six Seattle public schools that has been recognized for “outstanding academic improvements in math and reading” – landing the school in the top 5% of the highest-improving schools in the state. This is McClure’s first year winning the award, which will be presented at a ceremony on January 24th at the Puget Sound Educational Service District headquarters in Renton.
Joining McClure in outstanding academic improvements are Greenwood Elementary School, Hamilton International Middle School, Jane Addams K-8, Mercer Middle School, and Wing Luke Elementary School.
According to Seattle Public Schools Superintendent José Banda:
“We are honored to have our six schools recognized with this prestigious award. It reflects the ongoing achievement of our students in math and reading, thanks to our strong teachers and instructional leaders.”
McClure and the other 5 SPS schools are also among 96 schools in Washington State that met the Schools of Distinction performance criteria for this school year. Congratulations to McClure Middle School’s teachers and students!
This Friday is the 27th annual Windermere’s Community Service Day. Our local Queen Anne associates will be taking the day off from their normal duties to roll up their sleeves and get dirty doing extensive landscaping and painting projects at McClure Middle School and the Queen Anne Community Center.
Other local projects in other neighborhoods include:
Green Lake – Daniel Bagley Elementary: development of the outdoor classroom including construction of a shed and benches.
Fremont – BF Day Elementary: grounds maintenance and the creation of paper “birthday crowns” for the student body.
Wedgwood – Theodora (HUD 202) Housing: projects as assigned.
Sand Point – Magnuson Park YMCA: projects as assigned.
Lake Forest Park – Ballinger (Low income) Homes: maintenance and beautification projects as directed.
Northgate – Olympic View Elementary: flower and shrub planting.
Oak Tree – Greenwood Elementary: maintenance and beautification as directed.
Local education non-profit Successful Schools In Action is hosting an open house fro 3 to 6 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, March 29 at McClure Middle School, at 1915 1st Ave. W. in Portable 1. SSIA invites commuting members to stop by and learn about the programs and plans the organization has in the works for the 2011-2012 school year.
Also coming up on the SSIA calendar:
Readers Workshop for Parents – Make reading fun – for you and your student! Every Wed. for five weeks beginning April 27th. Register Here
Spring Break Art Camp – Choose from Painting, Cartooning, Improv, and Plushie Monsters! Tues. – Thurs., April 19, 20, & 21, For 3rd – 6th graders. Register Here
Find more information on SSIA, its work, and programs in the community on the SSIA website.
Last week we reported on Zaw’s month-long fundraiser for neighborhood schools called Zaw School Days, coinciding with the shop’s one-year anniversary on the hill. On every Tuesday and Wednesday through the end of the month the bake-at-home pizza place will be donating $5 to the neighborhood school or PTA funding effort of your choice for every order of $20 and up.
Just one week into the fundraiser Zaw released its donation totals so far, and Coe Elementary and Queen Anne Elementary are two schools leading the way, earning 35 percent of the donations each. From Zaw:
Our first week was a great success, the families and friends of Coe and Queen Anne Elementary came out in force, but there are still three weeks left for McClure, John Hay and St. Anne’s to give them a run for their donation dollars!
In addition to donation checks for each school, we’re spicing things up thanks to a suggestion from a Zaw School Days customer this past week! Whichever school receives the largest number of $5 donations, Zaw will gift an extremely special auction item to the winning school – an all-inclusive Ultimate Pizza Party birthday package for up to eight kids (a up to $150 value)!
Queen Anne parents are invited to McClure Middle School on Thursday (10/21) at 7 p.m. to learn how to talk to teens about sex. Margit Crane and Amy Lang will provide parents with techniques, tips and tools for supporting kids through the teen years.
Crane is the author of the forthcoming book, How to Train Your Parents in Less Than a Week. She is a teen and family expert. More information about her here. Lang is the star of the soon to be released video, Birds + Bees + Kids: The Basics.
At approximately 3:48 a.m. today, Thursday, July 1, police were called to McClure Middle School, located in the 1900 block of 1st Ave W, by a silent burglar alarm, according to the SPD Blotter. Officers set up a containment while a K-9 unit began tracking the area. Officers then spotted two juvenile males exit the school and contained them while school security arrived and search the building for any damage or missing property, of which they found none. The two suspects, both 15 years old, admitted to entering the school and were interviewed by police before being released to their parents.
Windermere’s Queen Anne office will be donating a day of service to McClure Middle School and the Queen Anne Community Center this Friday, June 18, as part of an annual program dedicated to “making a positive change” in the neighborhoods and communities Windermere serves through a workday devoted to “local service projects and volunteerism.”
All day on Friday agents and staff from the Windermere Queen Anne office will be working outside, landscaping and reconstructing the entrances to both McClure and the community center, including painting of all the doors and entryways and planting of 40+ native plants.
Many neighbors and local organizations have made contributions that make the project possible, including Leanne Goulding from Terra Design, Dan Soria from Soria Structural Steel, Candi Nicholson and Gretchen DeDecker from the Seattle School District, Cedar Grove Composting, Swansons Nursery, and Amber Soria and Rene Stern from the Windermere Queen Anne office.
The Queen Anne Community Council‘s monthly meeting is happening at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, June 2 at the McClure Middle School cafeteria. On the agenda for tonight’s meeting:
7:30 p.m. – Adoption of Agenda, Approval of Minutes, Treasurer’s Report
7:35 p.m. – Open Forum, Comments
7:45 p.m. – McClure Middle School update- John Loacker, Greg Bjarko
8:00 p.m. – Denny Triangle Report-Craig Hanway
8:30 p.m. – Committee Reports:
Parks Don Harper
LURC/Planning Craig Hanway
Communication Michael Lapin
NAC Kirk Robbins, Jim Smith, Ron Mason, Don Harper
District Council Mike Warren
Transportation
Social Issues Kirk Robbins
Police & Crime Allen Panich
9:15 p.m. – New Business
9:25 p.m. – Adjournment
And just so you can plan ahead, here are upcoming meeting notices for the QACC and its committees over the next month.
QACC: July 7, 7:00 p.m., Queen Anne Community Center
Parks Committee: June 8, QACC, 7:30 p.m.
LURC/Planning: June 21, QACC, 7:00 p.m.
Transportation: TBA
NAC: June 16, Port Headquarters
District Council: June 14, QA/Mag Neighborhood Service Center, 7 p.m.
Keep up to date on QA Community Council happenings on the QACC blog.
Alexis Artis is a lifelong resident of Queen Anne. This Saturday, May 1 Alexis will be hosting an aluminum can drive to raise money for save her dog, Jada, a 2-year-old Afghan Hound who was diagnosed with Chylothorax a few weeks ago. Chylothorax is a very rare disease where excess fluid fills the space around the lungs and can cause impaired breathing by limiting the expansion of the lungs in inhalation.
According to Alexis, Jada had to have emergency surgery to save her life, but the cost of the procedures and treatments has been so extensive, she can no longer afford to cover Jada’s medical bills, much less continued treatment. In the hopes of raising enough money to save her pup, Alexis has turned to the community for support.
A few weeks ago Alexis took the campaign to UW and collected cans from students, faculty and passerby on campus. She’ll be collecting in the McClure parking lot from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, and asks anyone interested in donating their recyclable cans to a good cause to stop by. All of the proceeds, she says, will go toward Jada’s medical costs and any excess will be donated to charity.
“All the funds that I have raised so far will be going to her medical bills and anything extra will go to the Seattle Humane Society. My goal over the next few months is to gather about 500,000 aluminum cans,” Alexis wrote.
This Saturday, April 24, is the annual Comcast Cares Day at McClure Middle School. Volunteers from Comcast, City Year, McClure staff, students and parents, and community members will work together to transform McClure and the Queen Anne Community Center through a day of service.
From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. volunteers will be working on landscaping projects, fixing up individual and community rooms, assembling shelving units and benches, and painting murals.
Community members interested in volunteering a few hours of time are encouraged to show up and lend a hand. For more information, download the event flier (.pdf), or contact City Year Corps Member Trisha Yalong at (206) 766-0056 or tyalong10@cityyear.org.
Queen Anne resident and 36th District Rep. Reuven Carlyle has been throwing support behind House Bill 2561, which if passed would raise $850 from a state bond and allocate it to clean energy construction improvements to schools and universities statewide and create 38,000 “well paying jobs.”
Yesterday he spoke on the House floor in support of the bill, citing a current pilot project at McClure Middle School that he helped secure a million dollars in funding for last year. The project called for an energy audit of the school that identified energy and cost-savings improvements that will begin to be made to the 1960s era building after the current academic term ends this summer. According to Reuven, these improvements are not only necessary to maintaining the infrastructure of Seattle Public Schools–they also provide an extreme value add for the state. Here are some choice excerpts from his speech.
“This is a city that is a net exporter of education tax dollars, in fact in state property taxes received 37 cents for every dollar that it sends to Olympia. And we have a school–600 kids–who walk around in jackets. And they’re cold.”
“Parents and community leaders and students and faculty and teachers and the principal, Sarah Pritchett got together and sat down…and they did an analysis of this very building, McClure Middle School, and that analysis found that for a million dollar investment we could get a return on investment from a financial perspective that was extraordinary.”
“This pilot project is successful. It’s a return on investment that makes sense.”
Read more on the McClure Middle School pilot project here.
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A concerned mother turned filmmaker aims her camera at the culture of hollow achievement and pressure to perform that has invaded Americaʼs schools. It is destroying our childrenʼs love of learning and feeding an epidemic of unprepared, disengaged, and unhealthy students.
Alexis Artis is a lifelong resident of Queen Anne. This Saturday, May 1 Alexis will be hosting an aluminum can drive to raise money for save her dog, Jada, a 2-year-old Afghan Hound who was diagnosed with 
