Space Available on Speakers List
There are still some spaces available on tonight's speakers list for the Board meeting.
I wanted to let you know because of the concerns, districtwide, over the introduction of changes to the Transportation Standards on the agenda.
Now is the time to pay attention.
I wanted to let you know because of the concerns, districtwide, over the introduction of changes to the Transportation Standards on the agenda.
Understand - changes to Transportation Standards means changes to bus schedules AND start times.
Now is the time to pay attention.
Comments
If this is true, then how can the board even discuss transporation tonight when the proposal shows some MS/HS starting at 7, some at 8and some a 9.
If you want to email/speak what exactly are you supposed to say?
- For some schools this is the 3rd change in 4 years.
- the neighborhood plan was supposed to save us money and we're in the red? That needs to be publicly explained how that could have happened.
- NO public engagement on this and that should be the non-starter for this issue for the Board. This issue affects thousands of SPS students and parents.
- ask parents for ideas to save money. Many parents here say there are many empty buses and, as Dorothy Neville has pointed out, the district doesn't revisit the schedule during the year and some buses run nearly empty all year.
Send out a letter when Open Enrollment is over that says "Your child is eligible for bus service. Do you plan to use the bus - all the time; some of the time; not at all." Who knows, but perhaps a number of families would opt for the "not at all" option, allowing some routes to be shorter and more streamlined.
It's funny, but there has been only 1 day this school year that our bus arrived in the afternoon at the scheduled time. Every other day, it's about 15 minutes late. Parents have adjusted and this is just the way it is. But the day it was "on time," according to my 8-year old, a substitute driver had skipped the first stop and taken a different route to our neighborhood. I asked what happened to the kid who gets off at the first stop, and she said it didn't matter because he/she never rides the bus anyway. So if this is true, all of our kids could be home 10-15 minutes earlier if the district modified the route based on actual usage patterns. But instead, the driver makes that stop every day, even though no one gets off there. (again, caveat: this is according to a kid and I've not followed up with Transportation).
SPITTING MAD. I AM "SPITTING MAD":
Put my K and 2ND GRADERS on a bus at 6:20 (no more guaranteed 25 minute rides, boy that lasted what? a year as a guarantee?)to get to a school at 7:10 for school at what? 7:20?!?!?! THIS IS COMPLETE BULLSHEEEEEEET.
THIS IS UNSAFE. Last year the Board SAID they didn't want kids walkin on the streets early because of darkness/rain. Global warming change the weather and dawn patterns?
How can this even be up for a vote? They've fired? the Transportation Guy right? Has the staff whoever that is even talked to a single parent? I don't even want a study because it is so clearly beyond the incompetance before me. Just show me A SINGLE PARENT that was approached with this stupid idea of a 7:10 bus arrival.
DO NOT TELL ME FOR A MINUTE this is to save us $$$$$$$$$$$. That's what you said last year when you upended our family at the last minute with scheduling. YOU COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO SEE IF THE STUPID 3-TIER SYSTEM WORKED. (AND IT DIDN'T.) NOW YOU WANT MY LITTLE KIDS UP AT 5:30 to CATCH A BUS THAT ISN'T EVEN ON TIME THIS YEAR? THE SAME BUS THAT DIDN'T SAVE THE DISTRICT MONEY?
And THEN you expect these kids to LEARN?!? (#$*..all they'll want is breakfast and a (@#*U@# nap.
This is YOUR problem SPS administration plus board or whoever. YOURS. DO NOT FIX YOUR INCOMPENTENCE ON THE BACK OF LITTLE KIDS.
Everytime I think SPS can't get worse, it does. OUTRAGEOUS. JUST OUTRAGEOUS. I bet 9 out of 10 affected parents have NO IDEA this is on the table. @)(#*@(#*(#&$#&$
Let me repeat that: (@#*@)(#(&@#&#
SPITTING MAD
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/hot-topics/backgrounder-later-school-start-times
Our board members and district administrators know this, but just don't care. Their excuse for not addressing the issue is that they need to save transportation money. But they are obviously not saving money with the 3-tier start times.
I have heard teachers on curriculum night say, "Well this is my first period class, so they will not be able to cover as much material as the later classes. The kids are half asleep on the days they get here."
I wish a teacher would testify.
High School Parent
For at least 5 years now there has been a new solution that impacts families as well as doesn’t move the bottom line on costs.
And then, after failure to see what works/what doesn’t, the staff and board throws another moving part at the problem and again fails to do a professional analysis of problem and solution. And the cancer spreads.
The problem is compounded by a complete and total lack of commitment to customer service. Again and again bell times and transportation changes have come with- what – 48? 72? hours of notice to families before it appears at an obscure board meeting.
Here is a direct personnel criticism. Director Martin-Morris looked our community square in the eye 3 years ago and promised leadership and deliverance from staff of a Transportation Report because our school saw the immediate and potentially worse (which is where we are right now) problem of how student learning and student safety and equitable access to programs would be impacted if a thorough analysis didn’t happen. A few months later he started avoiding us. Later he told us he wasn’t going to act on that promise.
In the past 3 years he hasn’t lifted a finger toward resolving a huge identified problem. And what of Director Carr? She of Boeing Best Practices. And what of handwringing DeBell…who never actually demands data? Has Patu digested this? Has Peaslee? Have any of them? How could this latest proposal possibly pass out of committee and onto a board agenda?
Parents at our school have worked our collective tails off for four years, with 3 different belltimes, to find a transportation solution that works not just for our families but for the district as a whole. In fact we as a parent group proposed solutions that the district adopted. The leadership came from PARENTS. No analysis or solution has ever been proactively proposed by district staff or district director, although Kay Smith-Blum did step in to guide us when asked to do so. Thoughtful input on our problem-solving also came from the now-gone transportation director, but again – staff and the board failed us by not following up with operational analysis of cost and not giving ANY notice of proposed changes.
And now, because of this year’s “crisis” staff and board want our kids on busses as early as 6:25 every morning? And no one bothered to notify the community? Does no one in this district THINK?
It is not OK to ask parents to get their kids up at 5:30 a.m. every day. It is not OK to have little kids on the streets at 6:15 in the darkness of a Dec. morning It is not OK to ask kids to do their best in school when they are arriving at 7:10.
Yes, there is a transportation cost problem. So can district leadership FINALLY do a thorough analysis of problem and solution. (Hint…a 3-page unintelligible spreadsheet is not a thorough analysis.) And could district leadership actually talk to the community?
In short, please show some leadership, customer service and operational smarts. Is that really too much to ask of this district? Because this particular cancer is Stage IV by my reckoning.
"Aghast Mom"
That was the best post ever. I feel like this all the time. Brava, I say, Brava....
It is always on the backs of the children. I too am also tired of watching the children in this District pay the price for Administration's complete incompetence....
I pray every day for the Department of Education to take over.
They purposely did not notify the community or offer any community engagement as they know there is not a parent in this district who would support the 7:10 drop off.
Catherine
Their choice.
That's systemic madness, it seems to me. For one thing: What of families with children attending multiple schools? I think this happens fairly often doesn't it? Thinking APP, Special Education, grandfathered old assignment system kids vs. their siblings, etc.
I agree that the earliest start time should be thrown out and other options for cost savings be explored.
-skeptical-
-skeptical-
Mary
Not to be snarky, but I don't think it's an accident that that info isn't available. Besides, it could change anytime.
Childcare wasn't feasible and the logistics sunk us.
'It Happened to Us'
Childcare wasn't feasible and the logistics sunk us.
'It Happened to Us'
WHY oh why can't this district get its shiznit together? Seattle's a tough place, but it really can't be THAT hard to manage.
- ridiculously frustrated
For lack of the explicit documents that used to be there, look at the school start times here. You can guess Tier 1,2,3 by whether you are early, mid, late time. I agree though. What's there now has seemed subject to change with no notice year by year
DistrictWatcher
I have emailed the board. I also urge people to enst this information out to as many people as you know.
typing way too fast...
- Baffled
I think it all comes down to a simple question:
Are you going to allow the transportation department to dictate the learning schedules and family schedules of 48,000 families?
Transportation is one thing the District does that is actually measurable and can be subject to real cost benefit analysis. Goodloe Johnson and now Enfield have been so busy trying to put a number on teacher quality that they couldn't be bothered to ask staff to produce a analysis that tracked the impact of changes in assignment and busing. And now once again, staff is trying to slide significant changes that directly impact students past the community at the last minute.
Maybe someone could use her email or that community comment space to urge her to do something substantive for once like cover this transportation snafu. According to her, it's the micromanaging board that will kill the district and Education Reform that will save it. Looking at this latest start time issue I say to Varner: Hardly.
SavvyVoter
- Hamilton and John Hay parent
- Tier 3 parent
Oh, but that might impact after school sports, you say? So make the practices before school, or make them a PE class in the last period of the day.
Use the best teen learning hours for academics. Start school at 10.
If you start late enough, sports can be before school & then kids will really be awake for their first class.
High school parent
- sick of this s**t
Hence, the "get the word" out to both parents and the Board now.
Seattle parent
-MS parent
(despite what the Action plan lists) ALL HS & MS will be in Tier I which means busses will arrive at 7:10am (and most likely all middle schools & high schools will start at 7:30 am)!!!
This clarification was direct from the Board's office this morning (contact tel.given on the Action report), and confirmed with transportation. This means ALL MS & HS students will be dismissed at 2:00pm---
Aditionally, this was brought up at a high school meeting this morning, and apparently the principals have not yet been informed of these changes, despite a principal's meeting held last Tuesday! More importantly, principals have not even had the chance for input on these drastic changes and the impact on individual programs, metro schedules, etc.
Please contact the Board members about this before tonight's meeting- it needs to be tabled until time for a proper review is possible with ALL stakeholders, including families.
For Portland, for example, it shows a "first bell" of 7:00, but darn if I can find a Portland school actually starting at that time. The K-8s seem to start anywhere from 8:00 to 8:45 and K-5s anywhere from 7:50 to 8:50, 6-8s that start at 9:00, high schools at 8:15, it's just all over the place, but the 7:00 is just an anomaly.
annoyed
Just because they assign a budget number to transportation doesn't mean that number can't be adjusted upward.
As many people mentioned, I don't think it's appropriate to keep a spot for a kid on a bus or continue going to a stop if they don't commit to riding it. They could allow green cards to stops in use for kids who need it a few times a year.
This is insane. No organization that I'm aware of deals with budget issues this way.
There are other ways to bridge the budget gap.
And a real transportation analysis needs to be done: where's the money going? What happened to the anticipated savings?
--Not a fiasco lover
Signed Sped Parent who hates delayed start days because they remind me...we are treated differently
Sped Parent
How is that legal?
Also, how does this new transportation plan affect special education families? Has there been talk among yourselves? I don't see any discussion here before your comment and I now realize of course that it is another important piece.
Ed Voter
-think they'll bite?
It might be cheaper to pay for the few buses that serve secondary schools than for the extra after school programs.
High school parent
Don't throw a pox on me please ! : )
(middle school mom)
What?! and take away from the taxpayer-supported Burgess Largess and Mayoral Campaign fund?! Not very likely!
We can afford the $100 and would pay. But I wonder about other families.
--FedMomof2
Right now my son's high school doesn't get out until 3:00 making it nearly impossible to get to any after school activities or jobs.
Mother of Three
Thanks!
North End Mom
That may be true in rural districts without choice. In a district like Seattle, where "option" students are given transportation to learn whatever their option, that no longer holds true. For SpEd students, we are often not given an option. It is "well you can either go to this failing school that has appropriate services, or go to your neighborhood school like your peers but have NO services." Is that a choice? Should we have to hump our kids to distant schools to get what is afforded under their civil rights? This can be expanded and expounded any number of ways.
North End Mom
SPED parent