Building Genesee Hill Elementary School
Building Genesee Hill Elementary School
Schmitz Park Elementary moved to the Genesee Hill Building during the 2016-17 school year.
March 2016, from the School Bulletin
“Today, it’s my pleasure to make an announcement on a question that has been outstanding for a long time. OUR NAME! We have been informed by Associate Superintendent Flip Herndon that next year we will open our new building as Genesee Hill Elementary School .
Last spring, the community participated in the naming process, with over 350 people responding to a survey. Nearly half of respondents supported the name Genesee Hill, and a third supported a change to Genesee-Schmitz Elementary School.
After the survey, our Building Leadership Team recommended that the Superintendent hold off on a determination could be made about the future of our current site so that we could make sure that the Schmitz Family name would not be lost. While there is not a certain plan about what will come of our current building, we know that the space will continue to be needed in the near future, and the facilities will be cleaned and restored starting immediately as we move up the street.
I’d like to thank our Naming Committee – Cheri Carl, Mark Wainwright and Jim Abernethy – for their work guiding this process for us. (By the way, we will still be the foxes, and our beautiful logo designed by alumni parent Erik Bell, is incorporated in silkscreens throughout the new building.)” – Mr. Kischner
January 2016, from the School Bulletin
“I want very briefly just to acknowledge what a watershed year I know this will be for our entire school community. Next week, our teachers will have a first opportunity to walk through the new building to start to envision how we will move in and who we will be in our new space. We want to be able to tell our students in September about how they will be able to learn and play and grow at the Genesee Hill building with a clear, confident message that says, “Welcome, we knew you were coming!”
The Building Transition Team, chaired by Ms. Dunn and Kelly O’Connor, is already hard at work laying out the protocols that will make ours a successful building opening and one that sets a standard for the rest of the BEX IV projects to follow. This is unprecedented work in Seattle Public Schools with a larger, more complex elementary building than we have ever designed before, and the thoughtfulness and expertise that the BTT members are bringing to this work will stand us all in good stead.” – Mr. Kischner