First stop: MathFest, the largest math event in Seattle. It’s kind of a game show cum festival of numeration held in the Rainier Community Center. This year, over 800 children, parents, teachers and volunteers attended the event designed to develop children’s interest in mathematics.

 Explorations in Math Executive Director Stephanie Cherrington says there is a real math crisis in Washington state where only 45 percent of 10^th graders can pass the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) math test required for high school graduation.  Her solution? “More math but in engaging, fun and creative ways.” She explains, “One of the key elements in being successful in math is having the opportunity to practice math. Just like with literacy twenty [to] twenty-five years ago where we were told…‘Read to your kids, read to your kids, read to your kids, read to your kids.’ And the literary rates have gone up…It’s really important to give our kids the opportunity to do math.”

Next stop: the Dearborn Park Elementary school’s Explorations in Math Club. Teacher Andy Russell has sixty kids signed up and a waiting list of 25 others for his afterschool program that explores mathematics in exciting and creative ways. See how you can learn logic using popsicle sticks!

Three years ago, Seattle Police Department Detective Denise “Cookie” Bouldin was looking for an activity that could be used to prevent youth violence in the Rainier Valley. “I was going to do a basketball game with the kids playing the officers,” recalls Bouldin. The kids, however, were unenthusiastic about her idea. So she asked them for other suggestions, figuring they would say a pool party or a barbeque. Much to her surprise, the children suggested a chess tournament. She was reluctant but agreed. She picked the Rainier Beach library as the site for her tournament since that neighborhood had been wracked by violence.

Now Officer Cookie’s Chess Club is a huge ongoing success. Kids, parents and volunteers fill the library on Saturdays to play chess and learn non-violence. Detective Boudlin says, “I teach anti-violence to the kids showing them different ways that they can deal with situations and I relate them all to the chessboard. On the chessboard you have to look at all your surroundings. You have to look at protecting your king and taking one step at a time to see where you are going to go. What they have learned is that, in chess, one mistake can cause your king to tumble—as in real life, one mistake can cause your life to tumble. So the kids are learning consequences—consequences of your actions.”

Detective Bouldin says that chess is also building the children’s self esteem. She always asks the children why they haven’t played chess before. A common answer is that they weren’t smart enough. After some basic instruction, they discover that they are smart enough to play chess. Bouldin says, “Those same kids are coming up to me and saying, ‘Officer Cookie…I’m smart, I can play chess. I love this game. Thank you for having chess.’ That makes me so happy.”

Bass vs. Smith-Blum

Bass is running on her eight-year record—which has included frequent dissents. “If you look at the track record of the stances I’ve taken, they’ve been on point.” She cites the examples of her early support for ending the school district’s racial tiebreaker and her consistent advocacy for a student assignment plan based on neighborhood schools. Smith-Blum is running as an innovator. “Can we educate our children fully?” she asks. Her ideas include adding foreign language instruction to all elementary schools and the elimination of middle schools in favor of K-8s—schools that have students from kindergarten to eighth grade.

Chin vs. Patu 

Chin and Patu differ in their view of Seattle School Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson. Patu, a retired 32-year district employee, says, “My vision of what I’d like to see happening in the Seattle Public Schools is not exactly on the line with what Maria Goodloe[-Johnson] is doing. I congratulate her for the good work that she has done but there needs to be a lot more supervision” from the School Board. Chin, a long-time school volunteer, is more supportive of the superintendent.  Goodloe-Johnson “is a very strong educator. She has faced some very significant challenges in her first three years. She has addressed many of those,” he says. Chin also mentioned that he liked that Goodloe-Johnson could admit when she had made mistakes. 

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The Times also reports that a group of parents protested the new assignment plan because it does not guarantee that younger siblings would attend the same school as their older brothers and sisters. Some of these parents have formed an organization called Keep Our Kids Together.

The Ballard News Tribune reports that the School District will now develop specific geographic boundaries for each of its 92 schools. A draft map of the school boundaries will be available for public comment this fall.