The West Seattle Herald recently toured the refurbished Sealth International High School, now two and a half years into construction. Robert Evans, project manager for Heery International and sub consultant to DKA Architecture the Construction Program Manager for the project, and Principal John Boyd were our guides for the two-and-a-half hour peek at what they believe will be a world-class facility. Absher Construction is the General (primary) Contractor.

Other adults present were heard commenting that they wish they could go back to high school as they seemed in awe of the modernization.

A construction levy in February 2007 provided 125 million dollars for two buildings in the West Seattle area. One was the construction of a new Denny Middle School and the other was the renovation of Sealth. Denny was allocated funds to build a new school (75 million dollars) and Sealth was allocated 50 million dollars for remodeling. The work on Sealth is nearly complete and they will open this fall.

A complete overview of the project is available online at http://bex.seattleschools.org/chiefsealth.html

On August 4 the staff moves to the new building from their interim location at 5950 Delridge Way SW where they've been since construction began. On August 23 teachers will have access to their classrooms. On August 30 they will hold their first professional development joint Sealth/Denny meeting. The opening ceremony for Sealth is set for September 7 and classes start the next day.

There will be a series of events in conjunction with the opening we will cover more completely in a later story. Events will include a "sneak preview" for a limited number of people with a $50 admission to help fund the arts program. Other events include Homecoming, the "Huling Bowl," and the "Gathering of Neighbors" on November 6.

What's new at Chief Sealth International High School?
While the footprint of the school is the same, much has been upgraded or replaced.

The Auditorium
The auditorium or large theater on site is similar but it has been remodeled and upgraded with new lighting, sound, a new catwalk, new rigging, and an extension has been added to permit the stage to either extend or be used as an orchestra pit. A new curtain has been installed that will permit the space to be divided to allow a more intimate theater experience. Many of the seats that were in the previous space have been retained in the rear of the space while new cloth style theater seats are being installed for the main floor area. The auditorium also has a new sound mixing board in the booth and one down on the main floor. The space will seat 800 people.

The Galleria
The largest indoor space on campus is the Galleria which will serve primarily as a shared dining area for both Sealth and Denny (though the area will be divided by a barrier for this purpose). This amazing space features massive angular support beams that make a design statement as they ascend to the high ceiling. The kitchen, now part of this new area, is well equipped and the concession area is equipped with flat screens showing the menu items available. All these are controlled and set up by nutrition services. The floor of the Galleria is embedded with a metal grid that supports plastic tubing, through which hot water will be pumped. This radiant heating system is capable of heating the main Galleria structure without forced air.

What you'll remember is the same only different
The glass cone entrance, added during a previous remodel, remains though it has been refurbished and will now contain international flags. The 100 seat “Little Theater” has undergone major earthquake retrofitting. Many of the classrooms, also earthquake retrofitted, have new windows, doors, ceiling fans, carpeting, electrical work, and for efficiency and environmental concerns each classroom will have its own whisper-quiet heating unit with a fan at a low 32 decibels. Each classroom will have wireless ceiling speakers to allow students to address the class and have panel discussions. The old cafeteria has been converted to four regular classrooms, and two specialized classrooms for music and video production. The music rooms feature individual practice rooms.

Smartboards
There will be "smartboards" in 22 out of 50 classrooms, large interactive screens that function like monitors but also do much more since they permit the instructor to highlight areas using a ‘Smart Pen’ that triggers switching into a surface they can write on, even converting handwriting into text that can be saved or sent. High speed internet was previously part of the school's infrastructure but it has been enhanced and made more secure and integrated into the school district's control systems.

Athletics
The main gymnasium has gotten some major upgrades. "They built the walls on the ground and craned them upright. They were really concerned about them falling in an earthquake. They built 'shear walls',” Boyd said, “You'll notice in the corners that they've installed steel bracings. They had to dig down past the foundation of some of these walls to make sure they are solid. That was a big part of what they had to do to bring this facility up to code."

The primary gymnasium will get all new glass backboards, a new scoreboard, a brand new sound system, all new bleachers and the floor has been totally refinished. The final Sealth/Denny facility will have three gymnasiums all built to high school size which will permit tournament play. The Weight Room is totally remodeled and $100,000 of Hammer Strength and Life Fitness equipment has been added. All new coaches' offices solve the problem of cross gender coaching by taking them out of the locker rooms and putting them adjacent. There's a new 'Multi-Purpose Room’ that can be used for academic purposes during the day or for team meetings, to break down game footage, have pre-game chats, and everything is accessible through each locker room. The new Sports Medicine area is adjacent to the Galleria. It will serve as a classroom for sports medicine and athletic training but it will also be fully equipped much like a professional sports medicine clinic with hot and cold stainless steel whirlpool baths, an ice machine, and beds for relaxation and rehab.
The locker rooms are completely remodeled with new private showers, new lockers, new laundry rooms and updated lighting, flooring and plumbing.

After the existing Denny Middle School is torn down a new park will take it's place. They will replace the six tennis courts and the softball field lost with the co-location of Denny. You can see a rendition on the district's website for this project. http://bex.seattleschools.org/chiefsealth.html

Tackable surfaces or notice boards are being installed in the hallway areas outside each classroom and display cases are being added. The YMCA will add murals to enhance the visual experience for youth.

New and different
Completely new is a pre-engineering facility that is part of "Project Lead the Way" in which students will have access to a CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) system and a prototyping system that will build a small scale model of what they designed. The model can then be used as a guide to build the real thing. This area will be shared by Sealth and Denny but each will have separate classrooms and separate computer labs. Project Lead the Way teaches students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

The music classrooms will have recording and sound mixing equipment that will permit students to produce their own music.

A new "Transition Room", for special education students is intended to teach them life skills like doing laundry, do basic cooking, and other training that will help them transition into society. "It will be like a little apartment," Boyd said. It will be right across from the main offices.

Giving depth to the "international" part of the school's name is the Confucius Institute, developed in cooperation with the Chinese government. It is equipped with a kitchen for cooking demonstrations and tea ceremonies. It's adjacent to a courtyard. This Chinese themed courtyard is one of several that include a Japanese courtyard and a Hispanic courtyard.

Many of the plants for each of these areas had to be carefully chosen both to reflect those cultures and also to adapt well to our climate.

All the science classrooms have been upgraded to be state of the art with the proper gas capabilities and lab equipment.

Sealth has had a Teen Health Center for some time but not like this.
The new one, just adjacent to the Galleria, has space for nurses, nurse practitioners, beds, counselors and obviously health education, plus a lab for doing blood and urine samples. They can do full physicals on site. Mental health counselors will have space here too.

Teachers sometimes need to take a break and the new Teacher's lounge is expansive and shared between Sealth and Denny. It too is part of the Galleria area.

Both Chief Sealth and Denny are getting a $70,000 grant from the State of Washington to "showcase our Native American heritage and our namesake," that will be part of the entryway for the facility. The schools were told that the local tribes had "Welcome Totems" that will be true to the history of the Duwamish Tribe. "We really want to honor the Duwamish," Boyd said.

Green features
The school will have a "green roof" that will collect water and that is planted with different kinds of grasses. "Part of what they put into the design is our proximity to Longfellow Creek,:" said Boyd, "so there are rain gardens, or swales where water will be absorbed.” The parking lot has been designed to collect water and not just dump it. The landscaping is all drought resistant, requiring less watering. On each side of the Galleria there is a four inch tube where water, instead of coming down a gutter will free flow around a chain, "When it rains it will be kind of like a waterfall," said Boyd.

The staff is larger
Running the school on a day to day basis will require 120 to 130 staff members. This includes custodial, kitchen, and itinerant personnel. This number represents an increase of 20 to 25 new staff members. " As our school has gotten more popular we've had to add people to handle the larger number of kids," Boyd said. How many students? Initially the projections as to a larger student body, relative to the boundary changes announced by Seattle Public Schools, were high. There are six elementary schools that will feed into Denny Middle School and ultimately that will feed into Chief Seatlh "but the school board made a decision to allow High Schools to go to their ‘functional capacity’ or up to 25% of what they can fit into the building," Boyd explained. That decision took projections back to where they were previously. That means Sealth will serve somewhere between 1000 to 1050 students.

What's next
"We're going to do a lot of friend building, get the alumni in, get the community in, so we can build interest. It helps us in so many ways to get people back into the school to get people donating and volunteering so we're going to make a big effort," Boyd said.

"The bottom line for me," said Boyd, " is that I think our kids are just going to be excited. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they walk in the building and see it for the first time. I think it's going to do wonders for how they feel about being part of the school."