Washington Middle School (Seattle, Washington)

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Washington Middle School is an ethnically diverse school located in the central district of Seattle.

It is the only middle school in Seattle with APP (or the Accelerated Progress Program). It is fed into by Lowell Elementary and the APP students are guaranteed entrance to Garfield High School should they choose to attend it instead of their local school.

The Washington Middle School's music department has been mentioned in the Seattle Times and Seattle-Post Intelligencer, as well as many other media sources for the Senior Jazz Band, which has won numerous awards at National Level under director Robert Knatt. Mr. Knatt is retiring after the 2007-2008 school year. He is currently 59. As Recently as 2005, the band took first place at all four major music festivals they entered.

The 8th grade students participate in an annual Worlds Apart, HeARTS Together program sponsored by the University of Washington, where students from South Africa travel to the school for three weeks in April to learn about American culture and teach the students about their own culture. To kick off the program in 2006, Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Washington Middle School to speak to the students about diversity.

The sports teams are very successful, and Washington Middle School's boys and girls basketball teams have won three championships in a row.
The Head Coach of the boy's team is Craig McKinney, and the Assistant Coach is Danny Cage.


The current principal is Jon Halfaker.

Contents

[edit] History

Washington Middle School began in 1906 as the Benjamin Franklin School, with "an impressive old-world style building" housing grades 1-8 and a high school annex. The latter became known as "Washington High School Annex", then as Franklin High School. The elementary school closed 1909–1912, but was restored there when the new Franklin High School opened in 1912. In 1938 the building became a 7th and 9th grade center; 9th graders were added in 1946, and it became George Washington Jr. High. That building closed as a school 1963. It served several other purposes, including as an annex to Seattle Central Community College, before being demolished some time after 1967.[1][2]

The present building was opened 1963. It operated as a junior high school until 1970, then as Garfield Annex B until 1978, and since that time as Washington Middle School.[1]

[edit] Music Programs

2008 achievements: Reno Jazz Festival: Big Band: 1st Place 2007 achievements include:

Senior Jazz Band

  • Bellevue Community College Jazz Festival: 1st place as a group and solo awards for trumpet, tenor saxophone, and trombone
  • Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival: Big Band: Adjudicator's Mention, Combo: Adjudicator's Mention
  • Reno Jazz Festival: Big Band: 3rd Place, Combo: 1st Place, Combo: 3rd Place, Solo Award: trumpet
  • NW Jazz Band Festival: Big Band: 1st Place, Combo: 1st Place, Combo: 2nd Place

Multiple Groups

  • Anaheim Heritage Festival (May 17-20):
    • Choir: Gold Award (above 90 points), 1st place (concert choir, middle school division)
    • Sr. Orchestra: Gold Award (above 90 points), 1st place (orchestra, middle school division), Adjudicator’s Award, Outstanding Orchestra (best in festival), invitation to Invitational Heritage Music Festival for ensembles in New York City next year
    • Sr. Jazz Band: Gold Award (above 90 points), 1st place (jazz band, middle school division), Adjudicator's Award, Outstanding Contributions by individuals for piano, trumpet, and trombone
    • Sr. Band: Gold Award (above 90 points), 1st place (concert band, middle school division), Adjudicator's Award, Outstanding Band (best in festival), Outstanding Contribution by an individual went for flute, invitation to Invitational Heritage Music Festival for ensembles in New York City next year

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b (Thompson & Marr 2002): Washington.
  2. ^ Thompson, Nile & Marr, Carolyn (2002), Building for learning - Seattle Public Schools Histories, 1862-2000, Seattle: Seattle Public Schools, <http://www.seattleschools.org/area/historybook/index.dxml>. Retrieved on 9 December 2007 . Apparently no ISBN. Available online as a series of PDFs.

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[edit] External links

Washington Middle School Handbook

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