Seattle Schools The Week of October 24-29, 2011

Monday, October 24th
Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee Mtg, 4-6 p.m.  
The agenda includes:  review of Alternative Learning schools, some sort of resolution for Cleveland to have a 150-hour requirement, graduation requirements, and Board policies "C" (curriculum and instruction) and "D" (students which includes placement, records, rights, discipline, etc.).

Wednesday, October 26th
Director Sundquist Community meeting from 11 am - 12:30 p.m.  Delridge Library, 5423 Delridge Way SW

Oversight Work Session: Finance from 5:30-7:00 p.m.   This is some sort of update on organization for financial oversight.   It's one big overview but to what end I'm not sure.  (They also need better proofreading for these PowerPoints.)

Work Session: Budget Goals from 7:15-8:15 p.m.

Saturday, October 29th
Director Patu Community Meeting from 10 am to noon at Tully's, 4400 Rainier Ave South

Other meetings of interest this week:

Wednesday, October 26th
Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle,  from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Plaza 600 bldg, 600 Stewart St., Suite 205)  a public education panel discussion about teachers. Panelists: Olga Addae, Jonathan Knapp, Sue Peters and Melissa Westbrook.

Discussion of cluster grouping model for Spectrum by Dr. Dina Brulles.  This event has been moved to Nathan Hale High School Commons to accommodate more people.  The event starts at 6:30 p.m.   This event is sponsored by Wedgwood Elementary.

Comments

Opportunity Knocks said…
To all interested parties: the Wed presentation by Dina Brulles will be de facto the only public forum in recent memory on Spectrum. perhaps the district will provide some insight into their intentions regarding the program.
TraceyS said…
Charlie - will you be there on Wednesday to hear Dr. Brulle's presentation? You have done a lot of committee work on AL issues over the last ten years, and your institutional memory would be invaluable.
Charlie Mas said…
Man! That agenda for the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee is really ambitious.

It allows ten minutes for the review of the ALE schools.

It allows fifteen minutes for the annual approval of schools.

There's just five minutes for discussion of stepping Cleveland up to 150 hours of planned instruction per class.

There's just twenty minutes to discuss graduation requirements.

There's just forty minutes to discuss all of the policies in sections C and D.

They are going to have to either talk really fast - which ain't gonna happen - or they will have to make only general remarks about each of these.
Eric B said…
The Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee (FACMAC) will meet 12:30-2:30 at the John Stanford Center.
Anonymous said…
Eric- Where does the capacity committee meet & are outsiders allowed to attend?

wondering
Wondering, the FACMAC meeting is on Tuesday and is open to the public. I'm not sure what room it will be in, Eric?
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Eric B said…
The last FACMAC meeting was in Room 2700, but there is some discussion about making a videorecording of the meetings. That may mean that the meetings are moved to the Board room on the first floor. The receptionist at the entry can point you in the right direction. If the meeting is in 2700, you'll need an entry code from the receptionist to get into the stairwell/elevator.
dan dempsey said…
OFF - TASK breaking news
State Auditor's Oct 24 report on MLK school sale is HERE=>
http://www.sao.wa.gov/auditreports/auditreportfiles/ar1006619.pdf

In April 2010, the Legislature appropriated $1.5 million for acquisition of the school property in addition to the $1 million appropriated in the 2008 state capital budget. The total set aside for the purchase was now $2.5 million.

District concerns about a new Request for Proposal (RFP)

Starting on April 16, 2010, the Property Manager expressed his concerns about the proposed legislative intent language, the lack of any statement of support from the Legislature on the reopening of the RFP, concerns about allowing a late bidder into the process, and concerns that the District was expected to proceed with a new RFP without legislators acknowledging they had requested this action.


Quite a tale to read about how despite a big tax dollar shortfall facing the state in 2010.... legislators were willing to throw more money into the buy the Seattle School pot. -- UGH!!!

This needs a thread.
Anonymous said…
Are ALE schools the same as ALT schools?

confused
Chris S. said…
I believe ALE schools are the secondary ones = Nova and Cleveland.
Dorothy Neville said…
ALE is a state term for a school that doesn't follow ordinary rules, such as seat time. Homeschool resource center is also ALE. There's a middle school that qualifies (but only because of instructional hours and they are changing their schedule to NOT be an ALE) and in addition to CHS and Nova, Interagency is ALE. (This is from memory of recent A&F committee meeting, but I am not checking notes, so may have the details wrong here regarding schools.)

We got dinged in the recent audit about reporting ALE numbers properly, I think for HRC. Additionally, the state has changed the funding so that ALE students do not get fully funded (well, given that the state doesn't fully fund high schools, you know what I mean) which is probably why CHS wants/needs to change their schedule in order to avoid ALE status.
SP said…
ALE's also have very strict reporting requirements both to OSPI and to the SPS Board which are labor intensive. Plus ALE's require ongoing mentoring/participation of both teachers and the families, written student learning plans, intervention plans, etc. I don't see how Nova keeps up with it... Cleveland's first annual report was Oct. 2010 so another is due this month.
I wouldn't be surprised that it was way too cumbersome for Cleveland to follow, along with all of the STEM requirements.

Aditionally, Dorothy is correct that all ALE's will be funded 15% less per FTE for this year so that cuts into the bone as well. I haven't seen any mention of this in the district's budget plans, with Cleveland once again drawing down funds from all other schools in the district.

If the district wants to remove the ALE status for Cleveland, then they need to change their bell schedule (currently 4 periods per semester ie 8 credits per year) because it will take witch's magic to make that schedule produce 150 hours per credit!
Anonymous said…
What will be the focus of the teacher discussion occurring on Wed? I'm interested in hearing the discussion but it falls on an early dismissal day.

- 2nelem
TraceyS said…
Chris Cronas' letter says it will be on Schoolwide Cluster Grouping, which is what her book with Winebrenner covers. Brulles runs a consulting firm that offers these teacher workshop/parent presentation seminars for a fee, and this is one of her standard offerings. I am guessing it will be along the lines of what she advertises on her website.

You can find out more about her and her business here: http://www.giftededucationconsultants.com/index.html
TraceyS said…
Oops, my mistake, 2nelem. You were referring to the Metropolitan Democratic Club of Seattle meeting at 1:30, and not the Brulles presentation later that evening. Sorry, my bad. I agree that it would be interesting to find out more about that, but I cannot go either, for the same reason.
seattle citizen said…
ALEs DO require intensive SLPs (student learning plans.) I don't see a parent-conference or sign-off on them as necessary, according to the state. But they require losts of documentation of seat time, materials, etc, for each student. I believe that in some of the "safety net" schools, at least, some of this can be boilerplate, inserted into each student's SLP. I understand the need to do this, but believe that the intention of the SLP is great: Address the needs of the student as an individual (wouldn't it be nice to have such attention paid to each student everywhere?) and to use boilerplate sort of takes that wind out of that sail...

Here is the Alternative Learning Experiences (ALE) main page;
here is the Program Guidance for ALE page; and
here is the Written student learning plan
Note, interestingly, that the Program Guidance and WSLP pages are under a web address that reads "digital learning...ALE support..." It appears that the state, which fully embraces digital learning, has put ALL ALE, at least niminally, under that umbrella.

Consider this in relation to the previous thread on Silicon Valley leaders sending their kids to technology-free schools...
Charlie Mas said…
Was anyone at the C & I meeting? Can we get a report?
Charlie Mas said…
I heard that the district is having trouble meeting the requirements of the ALE law at Cleveland. Instead they may seek a waiver from the law that requires 150 hours of planned instruction for each credit.
SP said…
Charlie- you're right that Cleveland is dropping the ALE status and is going to apply for a waiver from the 150 instructional hour requirement. The applications will be submitted as an action & intro at the next board meeting. Apparently they are losing approx. $10,000/week (not retroactive) because of the cuts to ALE funding which were approved in late May by the legislature (but the district didn't get the waiver ball rolling until now).

C-SIP news- the district says they have reviewed all of the updated C-SIPS from all of the schools and they are all now online. It looks like none of Cleveland's goals were met last year, and yet they now want a waiver to continue with the lowered instructional hours?

All the C & D Board policies are moving forward to introduction, except for 2190 (ex-D.12.00) Advanced learning (postponed until "phase 2"), plus many changes including: brand new 2340SP (Religion & Religious Accommodation), an all new policy & prodedures 3510 & 3530 (ASB and student fundraising), and a new huge 20 page superindendent procedure 3231SP Student Records....among other changes...all for intro at the next Board meeting.
Thank you SP for braving the traffic. I was not willing to make the trip at the end of the day and face down some unpleasant traffic.
NLM said…
I'm really looking forward to the cluster grouping discussion and hearing some explanation as to how walk-to actually works with 20+ kids (vs. forming a single class) and how differentiation is accomplished for kids id'd as needing more challenge mid-year. Hopefully Ms. Brulles can share some best practices in this area.
Charlie Mas said…
Here's a link to the CSIPs for all schools.

Yes, they are even there for Viewlands and Rainier View. That's the good news.

The CSIPs still do not make any mention of the advanced learning programs at most schools.

The CSIP for Cleveland STEM says that it is an ALE. It's part of their Vision.

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