Last week, Jose Banda, the new superintendent for Seattle Public Schools, announced a new principal appointment for Hamilton International Middle School, and that Chris Carter, Hamilton’s former principal, has moved to Mercer Middle School. Here’s Superintendent Banda’s message to the Hamilton community:
Dear Hamilton International Middle School community,
I am excited today to announce the appointment of Lucinda (Cindy) Watters as your new principal.
Ms. Watters comes to Hamilton International Middle School from Einstein Middle School in Shoreline where she has been serving as Assistant Principal. She is committed to providing supports and extending learning for all students, and she will be a great fit for the Hamilton International Middle School community.
Cindy Watters previously served as House Administrator for two years at Eckstein Middle School. She taught in Shanghai, China for three years. Before moving to China in 2005, Cindy taught in the Puyallup School District for 11 years. She earned a Masters of Education from the University of Washington-Tacoma and a Bachelor of Arts in Education at Pacific Lutheran University. She holds a Washington State Administrative Certificate.
Ms. Watters was selected after a hiring process that began with surveying the community on their desired principal characteristics and included extensive input from staff and families. The selection team was particularly impressed with her overseas teaching experience, which provides an appreciation of and preparation for the work of an International School. She also has strong instructional leadership experience and is dedicated to upholding and building on the Hamilton International Middle School goals and priorities.
Your previous principal, Chris Carter, has accepted the position of principal at Mercer Middle School. We wish him well and thank him for making Hamilton an excellent school. Thank you also to the Hamilton International Middle School community for your deep involvement in selecting your new principal.
Please join me in welcoming Cindy Watters to Hamilton International Middle School!
Sincerely,
Jose Banda
Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools
Good riddance! Mercer can have Chris Carter and his TAF’ers, and perhaps we can get some qualified teachers at this school to help restore some solid academic values. Hamilton is at the bottom of every academic list, and so many of my son’s friends have transferred from this school to Eckstein (now there’s a REAL school). These kids have been getting a sub-standard education for years, so perhaps now they will finally get the educational opportunities that they’ve deserved all along.
Hamilton isn’t perfect, but I seriously doubt that it’s at the bottom of any acedemic list. Eckstein? Really? That place is a total dump.
Oh sure….Hamilton has a pretty new building to look at, but at least Eckstein has qualified teachers. In the NE cluster, academically, it doesn’t get any worse than Hamilton.
If I were forced to send my kids to public school, I would feel that my kids were being educated better at Eckstein than Hamilton. Period. Eckstein isn’t great, but it’s a lot better equipped to educate children than Hamilton.
And that’s why we chose private school.
My kid is a student at HIMS. Is every teacher there great? Of course not. But there are some amazing and gifted teachers there. Enjoy paying for private school. We’re happy w/ HIMS.
Scores aren’t everything, but the school reports do show Hamilton and Eckstein as roughly equivalent.
We’ve been pleased with most of the teachers at Hamilton. Keeping in mind that all the schools are stuck with the same lousy math curriculum the district foisted on them, I don’t see how Eckstein can be noticeably better.
TAF?
yow.. look at the test scores available on OSPI site and SSD sites.. they tell a lot; go into the school and talk to a secretary.. efficient, helpful, organized. The good picture starts here.
@HIMS Parent… have you even looked at the two schools’ scores? HIMS out-scores or ties EMS in 6th and 7th Grade MSP… There are a heck of a lot more parents in the Eckstein area that choose to send their kids to private school because of the rumor that it’s an “awful” school. I think some people just need an excuse to spend $15,000 plus on private schools.
Here’s the link to compare the two schools. Make your own decisions…
http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/SideBySide.aspx?schoolId=1&OrgTypeId=1&reportLevel=State
Thanks for the link tri-p. In 6th and 7th grade, HIMS outscores Eckstein in every category. You can’t judge the quality of a school or its principal or teachers based solely on test scores. In this case the data does not support the conclusion that HIMS is a bad school. Parents using “test scores” to rationalize their decisions is nothing new. In this case, however, they are woefully misinformed.
If you bothered to look closer, you’d see those are not current scores….
Hey Wallyhood, I seem to remember you posting something withing the past 6 months showing data from schools here in our area. What I recall is Hamilton being lower than everyone else also. Where can we find that info?
@2cents – Do you have more current scores? These look like the latest ones reported by the state.
I think the data you’re referencing was from a staff satisfaction survey. Which, as a measure of school quality, is even more dubious than test scores.
@Fruitbat…
It’s actually TFA (Teach For America), not TAF.
It’s a program that Chris Carter was a large proponent of, and worked to bring to Hamilton while he was there.
They hire college grads to serve as teachers for 2 years (no qualifications beyond a college degree required). Lots of controversy, no real statistical numbers. You can google it and make your own decisions. Hopefully the new principal will focus on getting good educators in there. Right now it is dismal. My 7th grader speaks more fluent Japanese than the Japanese teacher at Hamilton, and it is supposed to be an international school.
ahh Kathy, did your child learn japanese from John Stanford through the Immersion program? It is tough to get native speakers to work in junior highs.. and JSIS has had many very talented fluent native language teachers.
@Kathy Can you tell me more about Japanese teacher at Hamilton? If the Japanese teacher doesn’t speak Japanese, how can she teach the language? Does she/he do the class in English? I am planning to send my daughter to Hamilton, and I don’t want my daughter to continue if the teacher doesn’t speak the language.
I do not believe there are any TFA teachers at Hamilton. Can you name them, or at least subjects? I’m opposed to the TFA in Seattle, but understood that all the assignments (to date) were on the south end.
That came out wrong–it’s not any better if TFA is in the south end schools, I just question that there were TFA teachers at Hamilton.
There are probably NOT TFA workers at Hamilton.
I have been in Seattle education a long time.. Hamilton had very high teacher performance and skills.
Go back to the comment about the Japanese teacher- it isnt very likely that this teacher does not KNOW or speak Japanese.. it is possible though that the teacher has studied it and taught it a long time BUT not lived in Japan for extended time and thus misses some ‘street’ and colloquial language.
Ive substituted at the other 2 north end middle schools, and worked briefly with a federal testing situation. Middle school children are essentially the same in those schools- bright, noisy, fun, sometimes distracted, generally more polite compared to middle school children who one might encounter in much lower income schools and districts.( Ive worked in some rough situations and schools- some subs refuse to return to- I do not mean N Seattle)
One of my biggest frustrations with the math at Hamilton is that kids there get fewer math options than they would get at another school. It is just like the problem with spectrum at various schools around the city. Why is the principal able to override the AL department’s recommendations? Why do kids at Eckstein and Whitman get a higher math than the kids at Hamilton do? It’s because Chris Carter put a cap on it.
It’s worth noting that Chris Carter was himself a TFA alum….
Perhaps the new principal will be a breath of fresh air.
@2cents (and anyone else interested). You can access the current school reports here:
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=218215
2010/11 is the most current for each school.
Gerlitz is following Carter to Mercer!!
This is great news and should improve the climate for APP at Hamilton!