The final tallies are in from Zaw’s month-long School Days fundraiser. Queen Anne Elementary took home the grand prize, raising $145 in donations from community members and winning an auction item from Zaw: An Ultimate Pizza Party for up to eight kids.

Between QA Elementary, McClure, John Hay, Coe, and St. Anne’s, a total of $340 was raised for local schools in the month of March through the school days fundraiser program.

Today is the last day of Zaw’s month-long School Days fundraiser, and it looks like the race for which school will win is pretty close.

Our last week of fundraising shows John Hay Elementary in the lead with a mere $5 donation with Queen Anne Elementary coming in a very close second. Coe comes in third with McClure and St. Anne’s tied for fourth place.

Want to help your school win the grand prize (an Ultimate Pizza Party auction item courtesy of Zaw), as well as help them raise more dough? Customers can tell Zaw which school they’d like to make a $5 donation to in their name on all orders over $20 for the rest of the day today.

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)!

The newest school in the neighborhood, Queen Anne Elementary, is hosting two meet and greets in the next few weeks for non-enrolled kindergarteners and their families. The new option school, which opened this fall with a tech-focused curriculum, hopes to help parents decide if QAE might be the right place for their student.

Do you know someone who has a child who will be entering Kindergarten next year or is considering transitioning their older child? To assist people in decision process, Queen Anne Elementary will be hosting two meet and greet events.  This is a great opportunity to talk with Principal David Elliott and meet the wonderful teachers to hear more about the philosophy and vision for the school.

The two meet and greets will be held on Tuesday, December 14 and Wednesday, January 5, from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Sponsored by QAE PTSA, the events will held in a home of one of the parents on Queen Anne.

If you or someone you know is a non-enrolled parent who would like to attend, please RSVP here (QAE would like to keep attendance at 40 people per night).

Please contact QAE Communications Co-Chair Anna Bertrand at annalbertrand@yahoo.com with any questions.

We’re diving into the heart of the Queen Anne Farmers Market season! Now all we need is for this summery weather to stick around… Check out the lineup for this week’s market on Thursday, June 24:

• 3 to 5 p.m. – Musical performance by pedal steel guitarist Hal Merrill
• 3 p.m. – Cooking Demo with Jon Rowley
• 4 p.m. – Cooking Demo and a Book Signing with The Newlywed Kitchen author Lorna Yee
• 5 p.m. – Chef Demo with Betty‘s Brittany Adams
• 5 to 7 p.m. – Music by Chantelle Tibbs
• 5 to 7 p.m. – Musical stylings of Vince Mtz. & The Great Blue Yonder
• 6 p.m. – Cooking Demo with Herschell Taghap from All Things Chill

The featured sponsor this week is Metropolitan Market, and the featured nonprofits are the Queen Anne Helpline and new option school Queen Anne Elementary. As always, the market will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. on W Crockett St. at Queen Anne Ave N.

On Tuesday, June 8 Coe elementary staff, students and parents gathered for goodbye BBQ for outgoing principal David Elliott, who will be taking up his new post as the head of the brand new Queen Anne Elementary this fall.

Flash Mob for Mr. Elliott from Alicia Burmester on Vimeo.

To show their appreciation, the Coe community organized a flash mob, getting everyone to say their final farewell through dance. Take a look!

Back in January the Seattle School District announced a number of principal changes around town affecting three schools in Queen Anne, John Hay Elementary, Coe Elementary and The Center School, which will all be getting new principals for the fall 2010 year. Yesterday, Wednesday, June 16 schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson announced her pick for the new head of Coe, Stacey (Tate) Loftin.

In a letter to the Coe community yesterday, Goodloe-Johnson outlined Loftin’s experience and her reasoning for choosing her for the position:

Ms. Loftin comes to Coe Elementary from the Edmonds School District, where she worked as an Instructional Intervention Specialist. She served her principal internships at Maplewood K-8 in Edmonds and Dearborn Park Elementary School in Seattle, and also completed an administrative internship in the Edmonds School District.

We believe that Ms. Loftin’s extensive classroom experience – including time as an elementary teacher and physical education instructor in the Northshore School District — makes her an excellent match for the Coe Elementary learning community. She also has significant experience working with special-needs students, a desirable attribute that was identified by the Coe community for their principal.

Ms. Loftin’s professional preparation includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in Norwegian and a minor in Social Science from Pacific Lutheran University, and a Masters in Educational Administration from the University of Washington.

Coe’s outgoing principal, David Elliott, will continue to play an active role in the school district and Queen Anne community as the first head of Queen Anne Elementary, a new option school with a “technology enhanced” curriculum.

The new Queen Anne Elementary is having an open house at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 5, in the Coe Elementary gymnasium, located at 2424 7th Avenue W.

Bring the kids and meet other families, our fantastic teachers and Principal Elliott.

Hear an update on the latest plans and progress and ask questions.
Speak with parent representatives and find out how you can get involved.

The 5th Annual Boardwalk 5K, Walk of Champions and Carnival Activities, is this Sunday, April 25 at the University of Washington Husky Stadium. The event supports health and fitness programs in Seattle Public Schools and emphasizes serving “underserved” students. Participants of the Boardwalk 5K will spend the morning walking, jogging or traversing the scenic UW campus, all while raising money for PE programs in local schools.

Funds will be used to support and expand equipment for the Physical Education Equipment Resource Center (PEERC). PE teachers share everything from archery equipment to roller skates to unicycles. PEERC makes it possible for all students to have access to success-oriented fitness experiences.

Other events, including the Walk of Champions, Carnival of Activities and Physical Education awards ceremony are free and will be held in the stadium. Check the full schedule here.

Queen Anne residents interested in participating are invited to join the John Hay Elementary team, which has already raised $710 in pledges, $460 over their goal! From the John Hay blog:

All of your registration fees will come directly back to John Hay to support Mr. Sturm’s efforts to keep our kids active and fit!

This event is for everyone in your family. We had a sizeable group last year and our fundraising allowed Mr. Sturm to buy many items on his wish list! We hope to see you on April 25, proudly sporting your John Hay spiritwear or Move-a-thon t-shirt!

Other Queen Anne Schools participating include Coe Elementary (they’ve raised $680 so far) and McClure Middle School (they’ve raised $35 so far). The brand new Queen Anne Elementary doesn’t have a team yet, but it’s not too late to make one!

For more information on joining the John Hay team, contact Carol Brown at carolgbrown@gmail.com or Suzanne Cohen at suzcohen@yahoo.com.

Although online pre-registration has closed, participants can still register day-of. More information here.

Last month the Queen Anne Elementary design team announced that the new Option school’s curricular focus would be “technology enhanced/enriched,” opening up questions from the community concerning what exactly a tech-focused elementary program would entail.

whatawaste wrote in the comments to our last story,

great, a technology school. just what our kids need. more time in front of computers and screens—heaven forbid they’re not staring at a screen 24 hours a day. btwn TV, computers, video games, watching videos in the car, etc. etc i think our kids already get more than enough of the virtual world and need to learn about the real world. ANYTHING would have been better than a tech school. language-immersion, math/science, montessori, waldorf. a tech school seems much better suited to middle or high school age students, not elementary kids. have studies been done about how teaching kids “tech” at this age affects their learning and development? i can’t imagine that it would be good…

maybe_K wanted to know more:

Does “technology” include tools other than the computer? For example, those used in a science lab, such as molecular biology? I’m really curious.

In a series of emails sent out to the QAE Google group this week, design team member Heather Anderson attempted to clarify the focus of the school and why they settled on this track.

According to Anderson, of the 199 respondents (113 of which currently have potential students for the 2010-2011 school year) to a survey in February asking parents what programs they would like to see implemented at QAE, the vast majority opted for an International/language immersion curriculum.

Respondents were allowed to select more than one program type for the survey question regarding preferred program foci.  International/Language Immersion was the overwhelming first choice (77%), Montessori and “STEM” tied for second (42%), “Innovation (33%) and other (5%). On average, respondents indicated two instructional approaches of interest.

However, despite the fact that the top two selections were for International/Language Immersion and Montessori/STEM foci, Anderson said that neither of these options is possible within the current restraints from Seattle Public Schools. She wrote,

Following is some information that we had on hand from previous
meetings with SPS:

• SPS isn’t willing, this year, to entertain the idea of QAE becoming an International/Immersion school as it does not fit into the current roll-out plan for International Schools.
• SPS stated that International/Immersion could be revisited at a later date
• Both Immersion & Montessori programs need to be implemented over time and are therefore restrictive to older students entering those programs while technology is immediately accessible (‘come as you are’).
• Considering that elementary grades must focus on teaching fundamentals of reading, writing and mathematics, the more specialized focus of STEM was determined as not quite appropriate for this age range.
• Montessori proponents and others were concerned about staffing a Montessori program by fall. There is an extremely limited number of teachers in our area that have appropriate Montessori credentials and this is not something that you can simply earn over the summer, as SPS had originally planned.

Beyond this, the school district also would like any program begun at QAE to be able to be continued at the middle school level, and currently McClure’s curriculum does not support an International/Language Immersion or Montessori/STEM program. Technology, however, could be continued at the middle school level and beyond, according to Anderson. She’s says the new program could pave the way for a third curricular option in Seattle Public Schools.

“Technology Enriched” is a term we are applying to describe the vision for Queen Anne Elementary. It is a combination of STEM and Innovation where technology empowers learning. It is a collaborative educational approach that promotes the development of social skills. It is teaching 21st century skills in a 21st century learning environment. It embraces the ability to explore critically and analytically by allowing technology to facilitate learning. It is not children plugged into a computer all day. It is not a library full of Kindles and no books. Rather, it is a collaborative environment that allows the integration of computers and other technology to enhance learning. It is teachers and students working together to co-create knowledge, rather than the 20th century model of only the teacher delivering knowledge to students.   It is about asking how engaged are our kids at school, and using technology to engage them as learners. It is taking the best practices from other Innovation and Technology models around the country and the world and applying them.

The first year, this school will continue to evolve. At this time, we
do not know how many computers or other means of technology we will have. We do not know if we will be a PC or Mac platform or a combination of both.  It will not be a dual-track curriculum.

David Elliott will be hiring a staff that will not be in place by the
end of Open Enrollment. He is recruiting teachers from within the SPS that are grounded in the fundamentals of elementary learning but that also desire the opportunity in integrate technology and embrace innovation. These teachers will thrive in a collaborative environment and work together to create learning models that will evolve and change as needed while still teaching our districts mandated curriculums.”

The Queen Anne Elementary design team will be discussing the nature of the new “technology enriched” platform at an open house this Saturday, March 20 from 10 a.m. to noon at Coe Elementary, located at 2424 7th Ave W. Community members are invited to come meet Principal David Elliott and discuss the future of the “technology enhanced/enriched” elementary. For more information, or to take part in the discussion, check the QAE Google group topics.

After several design meetings and a community survey on the future of Queen Anne Elementary, the QAE Design Team has come up with the focus for the neighborhood’s newest Option school: Technology. Its motto: “Nourishing a Solid Foundation for a Lifetime of Growth.”

Queen Anne’s Old Hay was renamed Queen Anne Elementary back in January, in preparation for its reopening for the 2010-2011 school year as part of the new district-wide Student Assignment Plan. QAE will spend its first year at the old Lincoln High School, located at 4400 Interlake Ave. N., while the Old Hay building is prepped to house the new Option School in the fall of 2011.

The QAE Design Team is encouraging parents interested in sending their kids to QAE to attend the school’s Open House this Saturday, March 6 from 10 a.m. to noon at Lincoln.

Because QAE is an Option School, it does not have an “attendance area” boundary. Students throughout the city may apply during Seattle Schools’ open enrollment period, which began on Monday, March 1 and continues until the 31st. For more information on the QAE, download the school’s brochure (.pdf) and contact the Design Team.

The Queen Anne Elementary Design Team has been tasked with the job of heading up the academic programming of the new option school in Queen Anne, formerly known as Old Hay.

In order to clarify some data, the design team has sent out a survey regarding QA Elementary programming that will begin at the new school, which will open in the Lincoln building for the 2010/2011 school year, moving to the Queen Anne building in 2011. They ask parents and community members invested in the development of the new school to take the quick survey online here.

Successful Schools in Action will be hosting a community meeting next Monday, February 1 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., to discuss the future of Queen Anne Elementary, formerly Old Hay. 

The meeting will be held in the McClure lunchroom, located at 1915 1st Avenue W. The Program Design Team will be giving an update and hosting a Q&A on what is planned for the newest school on the hill.

(Thanks to Heather for the tip!)

The Seattle School Board finally decided on a name for Old John Hay – reopening as an option school in Queen Anne for the 2010-2011 school year – at last night’s meeting, approving the title Queen Anne Elementary by a 6-0 vote.

Old Hay was named after former Secretary of State John Hay, also the namesake for fellow Queen Anne school “new” John Hay Elementary, explaining why the school district opted to pick a brand new moniker for the school’s reopening. Our news partner, the Seattle Times, is reporting that the title Queen Anne Elementary was a second choice to renaming the school after Caspar Wistar Sharples, a former School Board member and physician who died in 1941.

Sharples had previously had another Seattle school named after him, which was then renamed in 1999 after someone else. At that time the school board promised to find another way to honor Sharples’ name in the future, offering up Old Hay for the occasion. According to the Times, Sharples family declined the offer earlier this month due to concerns that the city would be unable to remove the name John Hay from the building, which is a historic landmark and thus more difficult to rename. You can read the full story here. In the meantime, what do you think of the name picked for Queen Anne’s newest (old) elementary school?