Board Meetings of May 4, 2011

The Board is getting yet another Strategic Plan work session this afternoon from 4:00 to 5:30 before the regular legislative meeting that starts at 6:00.

The Strategic Plan work session continues to re-cover the same territory that the previous Strategic Plan work sessions (4/13/11, 3/23/11)have covered without exploring the ground that a lot of us have wanted to see covered. We want to see some explanation of how the Strategic Plan has changed over time. We want to see a budget for each project in the plan. We want some accountability for the total failure to fulfill the community engagement protocols. No one on the Board has spoken to any of these. The Board members still do not venture off the script that the staff has set for them.

The regular legislative meeting has three action items and twelve items for introduction. None of them had any community engagement done on them. Not even the homework policy or the promotion policy.

All of the actions before the Board should be rejected out of hand because they utterly lack any community engagement at all.

In addition, the Board Committee that approved the actions for addition to the Board agenda should be scolded and directed not to forward any future actions that are lacking in community engagement.

All of the committees that forwarded these action items for full vote by the Board despite the fact that all of them lacked any community engagement whatsoever, were elected in 2007. Director Martin-Morris chairs the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee, Director Carr chairs the Audit and Finance Committee, Director Maier chairs the Operations Committee, and Director Sundquist, as the Board President, chairs the Executive Committee. Each of them, by forwarding and recommending these motions for a vote without any community engagement at all, amply demonstrate their disregard (if not contempt) for community engagement.

Comments

Kathy said…
P. Maier attended a PTA meeting at Loyal Heights.

Regarding MAP- community members complained about (a) lack of technology support (b) Teachers are unable to correlate MAP information to lesson plans.

Grant dollars for teacher instruction (MAP) are gone.

The district graphs indicate 36% satisfication with technical support; 21% feel MAP is an effective guage to monitor progress. These results are consistent with LH's experience.

Yet, the district continues to go down this very expensive path- while eliminating student support.

Charlie is right, the district has failed to provide a sustainable, realistic budget for Strategic Initiatives. The district is not being held accountable for this.

Worse yet, the district showed complete fiscal irresponsibility for these initiatives during a time of historic state cuts.

The board and the district are bringing us down a non-sustainable and fiscally irresponsible path. Our classrooms will suffer.
Anonymous said…
Promotion Policy = Amazing end run around communication as well as engagement while avoiding the truth.

Holly Ferguson's Action Report written 3-17 but not on original Agenda published Friday but was added later. It is in error as it states Introduction for May 6th, but it is being introduced on May 4th.

"It is not expected that significant training will be needed as the revisions and repeals are already more in line with what is occurring in the buildings today."

That is true in regard to the fact that the new policy does not mention "interventions". The percent of students unable to score at level 2 or higher on the 4th grade math MSP was at 50% for Black grade 4 students effective interventions are not provided. Yet almost all level 1 scoring students are promoted.

"Typically students are promoted annually after meeting the standards required for that grade, spending one year at each grade level. Exceptions should be rare, but will be made when, in the judgment of the professional staff, retention or acceleration is in the best educational interest of the student. Retention or acceleration will only be made after a collaborative process between the school staff and the student's parent/guardians. However, the final decision regarding placement, promotion, acceleration, or retention will rest with the principal or, for students receiving special education services, with the student’s individualized education plan (IEP) team."

What an incredible lie this promulgates=> Typically students are promoted annually after meeting the standards required for that grade.

===============
So what are these "standards required for 4th grade"?

They surely have ZERO to do with the Washington Math Standards adopted in 2008, which were tested on the OSPI Spring 2010 MATH MSP, given the promotions from grade 4 to grade 5.

-- Dan Dempsey
someone said…
Rumor has it there may be a large contingent from the Petermann bus company attending tonight's - the board is due to discuss altering the contract to include only one bus carrier - might be livelier than anticipated ;o)
mirmac1 said…
Hey Charlie,

They might have heard you this time. The (yet another) format for the Strategic Refresh touches upon the three "pillars" of the original Strategic Plan (otherwise known as Broad's generic "insert district name here" template), the accomplishments to date (let's see, MAP, check, alignment, check, the rest, uh, "done but need's improvement!" according to Teoh), and staff recommendations with how to proceed.

No dollars or data offered, of course. But y'know it's all "data driven."

WV: aliessup
Anonymous said…
you little itty bitty complain-ie pee-on, you!

why did the rubber stamp quartet listen to and do everything the big bosses said to do?

because big bosses aren't itty bitty complain-ie pee-ons!

Get In Step!
Anonymous said…
The board approved a RIF tonight. Betty Patu abstained and was the only one who didn't vote for it (why not vote no, Betty?)

Keep in mind that the board approved RIFS over the last few years while at the same time budgeting close to $2 million for the small business development project that had nothing to do with the district mission. There is plenty they could have cut this time too rather than eliminating positions that are all related to narrowing the achievement gap.

When its time to knock on doors to get rid of four of these fools I'll be ready. Hope you'll all join me.

wv - diurr times for the achievement gap. We're going to either close our eyes or watch it grow.

annoyedonomous
Charlie Mas said…
The Strategic Plan review of May 4 looked like a re-run of the earlier Strategic Plan reviews. I don't believe that any new information was presented. None at all. It was a total waste of everyone's time.
Anonymous said…
Get rid of the bums!

I am so ready to campaign for viable candidates.

Dora
Salander said…
District iniative -TIF =Ed Reform- Here is the crap the District is using tax dollars to fund-
Welcome!

This is the first newsletter for the Career Advancement, Growth, and Support Initiative. We will be sending out monthly newsletters to let you know what is happening to support employees at all levels, and how to find out more. In this issue, you'll find information about what the Career Advancement, Growth, and Support Initiative is, career ladder opportunities for teachers, and what we have heard from teachers about our evaluation system.

(you may notice the teachers are anonymous or in another part of the country-also odd that negative comments weren't included- who falls for this propaganda?)

The Career Advancement, Growth and Support Initiative provides all of Seattle Public Schools' employees with the quality feedback and professional support needed to excel in their profession and increase student achievement.
(all we need to be great teachers is to have this feedback- which strangely all comes from one source- the ed reform movement)
The teacher and principal components are funded through the Teacher Incentive Fund (a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education) and the 2010 supplemental levy.
(There goes the levy money)
Our new Inweb site is intended to be the one stop for all professionals on information and resources including the Professional Growth and Evaluation program, career ladder opportunities for teachers, the new principal evaluation tool, answers to frequently asked questions and more.
(who even cares about this? It there a counter on the web page to see how many visitors)

Visit the new website at http://inside.seattleschools.org/area/humanresources/cagshome.xml
and give us your feedback.
MAPsucks said…
In light of the less than glowing principal MAP survey numbers, two Board members asked the head of Research, Evaluation and Assessment, Mark Teoh, if he had any input from teachers. He said no, but they could do that...! Actually teachers have been surveyed, a number of times. Maybe REA will keep surveying them until they like the answers they're getting.

The detailed survey comments were difficult to get a hold of. Guess I shouldn't feel bad, not even Board members are permitted to see them.

Winter 09-10 MAP Teacher Survey (marked for internal use only

Spring 2010 MAP Teacher Survey

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