This school year West Seattle is home to five high schools, including South Lake High School, which will occupy the old E. C. Hughes School for the next two years while a new building is constructed for the school in Rainier Valley.

Meanwhile Cleveland High School began its second and final year of residence in the Louisa Boren School in Delridge while its own building near Beacon Hill is renovated.

Of course, West Seattle is the permanent home of Chief Sealth, Seattle Lutheran and West Seattle high schools.

South Lake High School has a small student body of about 130 students. It's an alternative program that's been housed in the former Sharples School near Rainier Beach High School.

For the next two years, South Lake High will occupy the old E. C. Hughes Elementary School on 34th Avenue Southwest at Southwest Holden Street. The school has been closed many years and is occasionally used as a temporary location for other schools awaiting reconstruction - a function much like that of the Louisa Boren School on Delridge Way.

South Lake High School students include teens who've fallen behind in credits, become parents, or "opted out of traditional high school," said Principal Barbara Moore. She recently spoke before the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership, an anti-crime group of West Seattle residents who meet regularly with Seattle Police to discuss crime issues.

The organization's president, Desi Russell-Seefeld, told Moore there are concerns about the arrival of South Lake High School because there was an increase in "student-on-student crime" in West Seattle last school year. There also are worries about possible gang rivalries due to the presence of an additional high school in the community.

South Lake Principal Barbara Moore said she's aware of the worries about having yet another high school in West Seattle, but she defended her school's academic program and the teens who attend it.

"We don't have bad students at South Lake High School," Moore told members of the West Seattle Community Safety Partnership. Some students have made mistakes in life, she acknowledged. "We've all done things we're not proud of," she added.

There's one teacher for every 15 students and, according to South Lake High School's annual report, 70 percent of its graduates go on to two- and four-year colleges.

South Lake draws students from all over the city and some come from Auburn, Kent and other places outside Seattle.

Students are tested first to determine what subjects they need help with. The curriculum is then designed to meet those needs. Some South Lake students enroll able to read at only the third-, fourth- or fifth-grade level, Moore said. Nevertheless South Lake High School has a goal to "guarantee" every student be able to read at the college level.

There's also an emphasis on writing and its application to history, science and math. South Lake students tutor elementary school kids too.

The school also operates an after-school program that previously included some job training, instruction in technology, the arts, hip-hop and other subjects. However since most of the students live outside West Seattle, many of them might not be staying long after school, Moore said.

South Lake has no athletic program but some of its students play on teams for other high schools.

New asphalt was layed on part of the E.C. Hughes School grounds for parking. Students will be issued permits to park in the lot. Other students will be taken to E.C. Hughes School each day by a bus that will pick them up at South Lake's regular site near Rainier Beach.

Named for an attorney and former School Board president, E. C. Hughes School was built in 1926. The Seattle School District closed Hughes in 1989 due to age and a district desire at the time to close five schools. At the time it had kindergarten, fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Most Hughes students were reassigned to the then-new High Point Elementary while most of the rest went to Roxhill Elementary.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.