Odds and Ends

The first of the regional "Welcome Back" meetings with Dr. Goodloe-Johnson and CAO Susan Enfield are this week.
  • Monday the 20th is the Northeast meeting at Eckstein Middle meeting
  • Wednesday the 22nd is the Central meeting at Bailey Gatzert Elementary
  • Thursday the 23rd is the Northwest meeting at Hamilton Middle School
All the meetings are from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Community Meetings

Director Maier is having a morning meeting on Wednesday the 22nd from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Lake City Public Library, 12501 28th NE.

Board Committee Meetings

As previously reported, Audit and Finance is going to divide up their meetings to cover as much as possible. So there will be another Audit and Finance meeting (I'll check for which topic tomorrow) on Thursday the 23rd from 4-6 p.m. in the School Board conference room.

Also I checked the Families and Education levy committee reports and I think I know the source of the concern over the Family Support workers. In a Powerpoint dated 9/17/10 about the School Board priorities for the levy, it states:

Enhance health/wellness by replacing family support workers with elementary and middle school counselors.

Oh, so that's where it came from. However I asked Harium and he said he was puzzled where this came from but the Powerpoint says, at the beginning, "directors are well-versed in levy activities" and "work session held on August 25 to discuss priorities" and "all 7 directors were in attendance."

So either it wasn't actually discussed or Harium missed it.

What it would mean to have counselors versus family support workers is open for discussion. I know someone who did both so I'll ask her.

Comments

lendlees said…
And now that counselors are only funded at .5 they get to do two jobs? Hmmm half the pay and twice the job.

Silly.
joanna said…
Congratulations on the reversal of Board Policy regarding not allowing you to ask questions at a press conference.
seattle citizen said…
We need to fund more counselor FTE (back to last year's levels) AND make sure FSW are retained. If the district has any desire to make sure students are connected to community, and community to students, these positions are absolutely crucial. AND if they want everybody college/career ready, we need the Career Advisors back please.
seattle citizen said…
One carving station pays for 0.2 FTE Family Support Worker for a year.
Dorothy Neville said…
I am watching the Superintendent's board update from September 1st. It is excruciating, but interesting.

Betty Patu: If, as we claim, we have early learning a priority, why close the Ballard Montessori program?
MGJ: We are not closing that program, we just do not have room for it anymore.

Besides that surreal encounter, the thing that strikes me is the talk about the transparent budget process. MGJ says there will be a workshop in September for the board and district to dialog about how that will work. So, does anyone know about this workshop? Anyone going to one of these meetings and can ask her for that detail? Or who should I contact at the district to find out when this workshop will be (or if I missed it).
Dorothy Neville said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dorothy Neville said…
OK, try again. MGJ just corrected KSB and said that the budget development workshop is Wednesday the 29th and that it is four hours long. What time does it start? Who knows. But we can find out.

and apropros, WV says I'm "hyped"
Charlie Mas said…
Betty Patu: If, as we claim, we have early learning a priority, why close the Ballard Montessori program?
MGJ: We are not closing that program, we just do not have room for it anymore.

How is that different from closing it?
Dorothy Neville said…
Charlie, you are not supposed to ask questions like that! You are just supposed to enjoy the surreal answers that come straight from the super's mouth. Watch the video yourself. In fact, if Aunty Broad is still collecting video snips, check out the superintendent update for 9/9/10, at about 40 minutes in on part one, for this gem.
The Budget Workshop is Next Wednesday the 29th from 4-8 p.m. at the headquarters auditorium. I love these extra long slogs but at least it is on one subject.

Do keep in mind that the audience can't say anything (although Harium did say that there really aren't any rules about that) and that doesn't mean you can't e-mail Board members in advance and/or attend and slip them notes.

Yes, I did point out the Superintendent's "not closing, don't have room" statement previously. What is even better is that the space used was built for a pre-school program to be at Ballard and now that will get dismantled. Yet another one of those capital things that gets done and then undone.
Arnold said…
The Family Support Worker (FSW) at our school will attempt to work with families. However, if families are disengaged, FSW works directly with student. Loosing FSW would leave some without support. Tragic.
Travis Box said…
Melissa, I'm trying to reach you for a telephone interview on KOMO Newsradio today at 2:05pm...my e-mail address is tbox@fisherradio.com
Jan said…
Betty Patu: If, as we claim, we have early learning a priority, why close the Ballard Montessori program?
MGJ: We are not closing that program, we just do not have room for it anymore.

And, of course, the REASON they "don't have room for it anymore" is a direct result of the implementation of SAP boundaries with respect to Ballard. They clearly could have had room for it if they wanted (especially with extra space available at Ingraham).

Oh -- that the Board would ask the logical follow up questions!!!
Charlie Mas said…
Asking the logical follow-up question would require critical reasoning skills. They are not in evidence.
seattle citizen said…
Here's an "odd": League of Education Voters had a poster contest for students, to design a poster for their upcoming charter school speaker series. The winning entry was just announced, and you can see it on their blog: a photograph of Kevin Johnson on the court back in the days when he was NBA. Not only did the student who won just steal a picture (I see no copyright info on it, and it appears also on a shoe store website), but where's the art?

Isn't LEV "for the kids" anymore? Don't they hold kids to standards of creativity and against plagiarism?

Furthermore, of all the pictures one could choose from of Mr. Johnson (Mayor of Sac, leader of a charter school, mentor, ad astra ad nauseum) why choose one of him as an NBA star? Isn't the conference about education? Don't we have enough images of NBA players? Can't we have some statesmen?

I'm aghast. The winning "poster" is, evidently, a blown-up photo, un-credited, of a basketball player.

sigh.
resse said…
Charlie: do you think the reason they don't ask the logical follow up questions is lack of critical reasoning skills? I don't know. I guess I had assumed that in the case of 5, it was because they are aligned with her objectives, and certainly don't want to daylight the daily, weekly, monthly failures that are piling up as money is misspent, good programs are closed/gutted/ignored, and data continues to roll out suggesting that nothing that MGJ has done has improved educational outcomes in any meaningful way, while many things are worse, and much money has been spent.
As for the other 2 (new) Directors, I had thought maybe it was a toxic blend of Seattle "niceness" mixed with a hesitancy to rock the boat too early and be unfairly painted as unable/unwilling to work with others.
I hope that it is the latter; and I hope that Directors Smith-Blum and Patu will wake up to the fact that only their courage and willingness to fight for Seattle Schools will save what has not already been ruined/damaged to date. I also hope (but am not holding my breath) that if they grow spines, maybe DeBell will lose what appears to be his fear of an "unseemly row" and grow one as well.
If so -- THEN we will find out if there is ANY reason not to recall Carr and Martin Morris (Maier and Sundquist both appear to be beyond hope).
peonypower said…
What a joke- not enough room at Ballard for the Montessori school? Ballard's enrollment went down with the new SAP. Either MGJ is not informed about building capacity or there was another agenda.
Charlie Mas said…
I wonder now if it is a lack of critical reasoning skills, a lack of detailed knowledge, or simply a lack of interest.

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