Queen Anne school gets all cleaned up for its birthday

The Queen Anne school, one of the district's oldest, had fallen into disrepair. The roof leaked, the wooden exterior of one of the campus' two main buildings was in dire need of renovation and the playfield consisted of a gravel lot with weeds springing up around pieces of broken, cracked asphalt.


		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	From left, Bereket Teshome, Yabets Ayele and Haftom Abraha, who moved here from Ethiopia, walk to class at newly refurbished John Hay Elementary.

"It reminded me more of a prison yard," said Lepley, who lives in the neighborhood and serves as co-chairman of Friends of Old Hay, a group dedicated to preserving the school.

But the school, which now houses the district's Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, has received a face-lift -- just in time to celebrate its centennial Saturday.

Workers are finishing up installation of new cedar siding and refurbished windows for the school's older building, which opened in 1905. And the play area was spruced up in the past year, with a new sports court, better landscaping, a huge outdoor chessboard made of pavers and a "learning garden" that science teachers can use for hands-on lessons.



The John Hay School building, circa 1909. The school, at 411 Boston St. on Queen Anne Hill, was named for a former U.S. secretary of state.

"It was a blight in the community, and now it's a gem," Lepley said.

Bilingual Orientation Center students have been involved in the restoration efforts, and some earned service-learning credits toward graduation for helping set up the garden and improve landscaping around the school.

Principal Martin O'Callaghan credits Friends of Old Hay as the driving force behind many of the repairs. The group helped line up city, county and private grants to cover costs for the playground improvements, and lobbied the School Board to set aside capital levy money to pay for roof repairs, earthquake retrofitting and exterior renovations.

The bilingual school has no parent-teacher association, but Friends of Old Hay "have become the surrogate PTA for our school," O'Callaghan said.

Named after John M. Hay, who was secretary of state under Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, the school is the last historic school building in Queen Anne or Magnolia that is still in active use as a school, according to the Queen Anne Historical Society.

Others, such as the old Queen Anne High School, have been converted to condominiums.

Although the Old Hay buildings are beautiful, they do present some challenges for teachers and students, O'Callaghan said.

Both the older building and the "new" brick building, which was constructed in 1922, were designed for elementary school children, meaning the classrooms are a little small for the middle and high school students who use them now, he said.

The pipes in the buildings are old, as well, and have led to problems with contaminated drinking water. And the light-yellow paint around the brick building's outside windows is peeling off, but because it contains lead, repairs will have to be done by district maintenance workers instead of volunteers, he said.

In recent years, some BOC parents have lobbied the district to move the school to the city's South End, closer to where many of the families live.

But O'Callaghan said no immediate move is on the horizon, mostly because the BOC is holding out for a site of its own, rather than sharing space in another of the district's schools.

"We hope that our program would remain here for quite some time," O'Callaghan said.

Neighbors say they hope to keep the diverse school in the area, and ultimately turn it into a community cultural hub and gathering place.

The playground improvements made in the past year certainly help, O'Callaghan said. Students now play basketball on the sports court after school, and neighbors occasionally drop by on weekends to check out the garden, which features native plantings designed to attract birds and butterflies, he said.

The next step is to build some sort of grassy play field for soccer, baseball or other sports, said Charles Meding, a BOC teacher and one of the founding members of the Friends of Old Hay.

"Our kids love to play soccer, and asphalt's no place to play soccer," he said. "Even with a mini-field, our kids can play safely."

Volunteer Hossein Soleymani, a Queen Anne bank manager who has helped line up donations and pitched in for landscaping work parties, agreed the school needs a grass or artificial turf field.

He pointed out that many of the school's students are new to the United States.

"It's their first home in this country," Soleymani said. "We want to make sure they feel welcomed."

CELEBRATING A SCHOOL

Old John Hay Elementary will mark its 100th anniversary 1-4 p.m. Saturday with a community party, tours of the restored building and new learning garden, a historic photo exhibit, ceramic butterfly painting for children, birthday cake and a chance to play chess on the school's oversize outdoor chessboard. Current Bilingual Orientation Students will perform a skit about the opening of the school in 1905.

The school is at 411 Boston St. on Queen Anne. Former students are encouraged to visit the library, where the Queen Anne Historical Society will record stories, copy photos and provide an exhibit about the school and its students.

For more information, call Paul Lepley at 206-284-3994 or e-mail mlepley@seanet.com.

P-I reporter Jessica Blanchard can be reached at 206-448-8322 or jessicablanchard@seattlepi.com.

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