Lynne Varner / Times editorial columnist

New hope for Seattle schools?

Every exasperated parent about to give up on the Seattle Public Schools should know that hope walks alongside the students.

Hope is visible at The New School at South Shore, where a large sign greeting visitors reads: "Whole Child Body Mind Spirit." The words are not feel-good fluff. They are embedded in a curriculum that goes beyond reading, writing and arithmetic to the building blocks good schools use to keep students focused and engaged. At the New School there is music, visual arts, technology, drama, yoga and swimming.

A reading test a year ago showed only 44 percent of students meeting state standards. The school hired a reading specialist to do nothing but work one-on-one with struggling readers. In last spring's Developmental Reading Assessment, 96 percent of second-graders and more than 80 percent of first-graders met or exceeded state standards.

Even the New School's site, at the corner of South Henderson Street and Rainier Avenue South — a block with an edgy mix of petty crime and heavy traffic — has not deterred parents. The school opens each fall with a lengthy waiting list.

I highlight the New School because in this time of tense district politics where officials grapple with thin budgets, angry parents and not-so-veiled threats of a state or city takeover, success stories serve as lights in a desert night.

Want hope? Look for it. I saw it Tuesday in the "State of the District" address delivered by Superintendent Raj Manhas. The schools chief reminded everyone of what is going right in the School District. He noted the uptick in scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. The grants that are trickling in again, including $800,000 from a sometimes-critic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

A lot was riding on Manhas' speech. He has moved too slowly on academic and financial reforms. Moreover, it ought to embarrass him and his administration that a wealthy and educated city like Seattle sends 15,000 of its school-aged children to private schools or schools outside the district's boundaries.

I suspect Manhas knew that he needed to come out with more than a recitation of good news. He needed to build a road map for academic progress in the future. And if he can pull off what was outlined Tuesday, we have a map.

Manhas and Chief Academic Officer Carla Santorno laid out a six-point strategy punctuated by key junctures in a student's life: kindergarten readiness, third-graders reading at grade level, eighth-graders ready for algebra and 10th-graders passing the WASL.

Manhas takes his show on the road this evening, launching the first in a series of "conversations" with the public. He ought to know he isn't just selling an academic strategy but also himself as the right person to combat a directionless board and a financially troubled system.

Many eyes are upon him, including some located at City Hall, formerly a benign backer of the district and now one of its boldest critics. Mayor Greg Nickels and former Mayor Norm Rice sat down with The Times Editorial Board last week and outlined the many ways the School Board and, indirectly, Manhas are failing citizens.

The duo had come in to speak against Initiative 88, a proposed property tax for schools. The tax is a terrible idea, with more for the teachers union than for the students.

Both Nickels and Rice were careful to reassure the room of editorial writers that a city takeover is not imminent. But they are clearly unhappy with the district's progress. They cited as barriers to success a micromanaging School Board and a superintendent who seems unable or unwilling to take charge.

I agree. This School Board is a problem that must be dealt with. Too few on the seven-person board understand the role of policymaker or can rise above petty politics. On matters that count, for example the recommendations from the superintendent's blue-ribbon panels on finance and school closures, the board opposed Manhas more than it sided with him. The schools union keeps forgetting it does not run the district. And the superintendent is so busy being likeable that he has yet to quell this rowdy crowd.

I once put my hopes in the district's fundraising arm, the Alliance for Education, but this organization has spent the past year or so searching for itself. My kindergartner will be taking driver's ed when this organization figures out its raison d'être.

Maybe Manhas' new vision will take hold. But nearly 100 schools and a bickering board make uniformity of anything a challenge. Meanwhile, hope shimmers like a beacon in places like The New School.