Seattle Schools Updates
This can be an open thread on issues at your school. I've heard from several schools that have concerns about academics and growth boundaries.
UPDATE: I am also hearing that hours for nurses are being reduced at schools to about 1 day a week (or less). I'll have to check into this because while I love the idea of health centers at all the comprehensive high schools (and a couple of middle schools) via the F&E levy, I am dismayed that other schools will barely register a medical presence. Anyone hear anything about this at your school?
First up is Garfield. The president of the Garfield PTSA contacted Director Smith-Blum with worries over class assignments at Garfield. Apparently there aren't enough classes - in biology and Spanish - to help all the students trying to fulfill graduation requirements for college admissions. Some students only have four classes and want to have a full compliment of classes.
It seems to be a district issue as the principal, Ted Howard, has done all he can to shift his school's dollars around. Howard has asked the district for mitigation funds.
The word was that Garfield was to hear from Michael Tolley about these funds by last Friday, the 20th. I call tomorrow and see what happened.
Next is Hawthorne Elementary where they have grave concerns over the boundary shifts that would reduce enrollment at their school and change their middle school track.
They feel all the more unhappiness because Hawthorne, a formerly failing school, has really turned around. They also were approved to be one of the district's Creative Approach schools, and working towards being a STEM school. They told the district:
In 2009, Hawthorne was under-enrolled. Now, classes have wait lists and kindergartens are bursting at the seams with 29 in each class. Many parents join the PTA the year prior to their child entering kindergarten and help raise valuable funds for the library. This level of community support is possible because residents know that Hawthorne and Mercer and Franklin are “their” schools. This level of support is correlated with a 10% improvement in three out of four key categories on MSP tests last year.
The BERC Group Research Affiliate evaluating Hawthorne’s SIG success stated “Of all the SIG schools I have evaluated, Hawthorne is the best I have seen.” These changes undermine the investments to build a school model that is working.
When asked why our SIG process was a success by the many evaluators and reporters who visited our school, we answered, “It was a perfect storm of increased neighborhood enrollment, new funds that allowed for key support positions, motivated staff, parent engagement, and school leadership that was responsive to community and teacher input.”
To truly have neighborhood schools, the boundaries must be fixed. If boundaries change every three years, families will look to their future school with skepticism that they will ever actually go there, and hesitate to engage. It is hard to exaggerate how upsetting these changes are for families who have intentionally made a home in a community with schools in mind.
That last statement brings the Growth Boundaries into sharp focus. The boundaries might have stayed fixed (but for minor tweaks) if the growth had not come. But it has come and it is likely to continue.
So you had the cry of "neighborhood schools" but the district didn't clearly warn people that the first 10 years of new boundaries might likely see shifts.
I certainly can see Hawthorne's point of "why did we try so hard, only to have everything shift beneath our feet?"
Hawthorne is saying they do NOT want to be buffeted around because the district has capacity problems. Will the district listen to that argument?
And, here's the public notice of the Environment Checklist for the Genesee Hill project:
Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has prepared an Environmental Checklist, in compliance with State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) regulations, for the Genesee Hill Elementary School Project. This document provides analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the project. SPS seeks written comments on the SEPA Checklist by October 14, 2013.
There will be an informational meeting about the project which will take place at Schmitz Park Elementary School (5000 SW Spokane Street), Seattle, WA 98116 in the lunchroom. The meeting will be held on Thursday September 26, from 7pm – 8pm.
Copies of the SEPA Checklist are available for $12 by calling (206) 252-0110. A copy is available for review only at Schmitz Park Elementary School. Copies are also available at no charge from the SPS Web site, at:
http://sepa.www.seattleschools.org
Written comments regarding the SEPA Checklist must be submitted to the address below. The deadline for receipt of comments is October 14, 2013 at 5:00 p.m.
Responsible Official: Pegi McEvoy, SEPA Official
Seattle School District No. 1
P O Box 34165, MS 22-183
Seattle, WA 98124-1165
Telephone: (206) 252-0102
Fax: (206) 252-0626
UPDATE: I am also hearing that hours for nurses are being reduced at schools to about 1 day a week (or less). I'll have to check into this because while I love the idea of health centers at all the comprehensive high schools (and a couple of middle schools) via the F&E levy, I am dismayed that other schools will barely register a medical presence. Anyone hear anything about this at your school?
First up is Garfield. The president of the Garfield PTSA contacted Director Smith-Blum with worries over class assignments at Garfield. Apparently there aren't enough classes - in biology and Spanish - to help all the students trying to fulfill graduation requirements for college admissions. Some students only have four classes and want to have a full compliment of classes.
It seems to be a district issue as the principal, Ted Howard, has done all he can to shift his school's dollars around. Howard has asked the district for mitigation funds.
The word was that Garfield was to hear from Michael Tolley about these funds by last Friday, the 20th. I call tomorrow and see what happened.
Next is Hawthorne Elementary where they have grave concerns over the boundary shifts that would reduce enrollment at their school and change their middle school track.
They feel all the more unhappiness because Hawthorne, a formerly failing school, has really turned around. They also were approved to be one of the district's Creative Approach schools, and working towards being a STEM school. They told the district:
In 2009, Hawthorne was under-enrolled. Now, classes have wait lists and kindergartens are bursting at the seams with 29 in each class. Many parents join the PTA the year prior to their child entering kindergarten and help raise valuable funds for the library. This level of community support is possible because residents know that Hawthorne and Mercer and Franklin are “their” schools. This level of support is correlated with a 10% improvement in three out of four key categories on MSP tests last year.
The BERC Group Research Affiliate evaluating Hawthorne’s SIG success stated “Of all the SIG schools I have evaluated, Hawthorne is the best I have seen.” These changes undermine the investments to build a school model that is working.
When asked why our SIG process was a success by the many evaluators and reporters who visited our school, we answered, “It was a perfect storm of increased neighborhood enrollment, new funds that allowed for key support positions, motivated staff, parent engagement, and school leadership that was responsive to community and teacher input.”
To truly have neighborhood schools, the boundaries must be fixed. If boundaries change every three years, families will look to their future school with skepticism that they will ever actually go there, and hesitate to engage. It is hard to exaggerate how upsetting these changes are for families who have intentionally made a home in a community with schools in mind.
That last statement brings the Growth Boundaries into sharp focus. The boundaries might have stayed fixed (but for minor tweaks) if the growth had not come. But it has come and it is likely to continue.
So you had the cry of "neighborhood schools" but the district didn't clearly warn people that the first 10 years of new boundaries might likely see shifts.
I certainly can see Hawthorne's point of "why did we try so hard, only to have everything shift beneath our feet?"
Hawthorne is saying they do NOT want to be buffeted around because the district has capacity problems. Will the district listen to that argument?
And, here's the public notice of the Environment Checklist for the Genesee Hill project:
There will be an informational meeting about the project which will take place at Schmitz Park Elementary School (5000 SW Spokane Street), Seattle, WA 98116 in the lunchroom. The meeting will be held on Thursday September 26, from 7pm – 8pm.
Copies of the SEPA Checklist are available for $12 by calling (206) 252-0110. A copy is available for review only at Schmitz Park Elementary School. Copies are also available at no charge from the SPS Web site, at:
http://sepa.www.seattleschools.org
Written comments regarding the SEPA Checklist must be submitted to the address below. The deadline for receipt of comments is October 14, 2013 at 5:00 p.m.
Responsible Official: Pegi McEvoy, SEPA Official
Seattle School District No. 1
P O Box 34165, MS 22-183
Seattle, WA 98124-1165
Telephone: (206) 252-0102
Fax: (206) 252-0626
Comments
Funny thing, they are each Spectrum schools, but I don't see how it will make sense for Hawthorne to be the Spectrum school for the Aki Kurose service area, being at the extreme north of the zone. And Wing Luke, for that matter, is awfully far south in the new Mercer service area to be close to where the students live in that service area.
In fact, if Hawthorne and Wing Luke were close to where the Spectrum students live in their old service areas, then they are no where near where the students live in their new ones.
Coe Mom
friendly reminder
I realize a 1-yr difference isn't that big of a deal if there's differentiation occurring in the classroom, but so far that doesn't seem to be the case. Based on parent impressions from curriculum night, that doesn't seem to be in the plans, either. Kids who ended up in the lower level class feel like they're being forced to repeat a grade, and kids in the upper level feel like they won't learn much this year. Unfortunate. It's also interesting to see that while the board is pushing international schools, the already limited middle school "immersion" program is being weakened.
On a related issue, several parents have also come to me with complaints about the lack of coordination between the middle school and high school language tracks. It seems that most kids who take a world language throughout middle school are placed in level 3 language in high school--whether or not they are immersion students. If there is no expectation that attending an immersion school for K-5 would give you a leg up in terms of learning the language, what's the point of all these immersion schools? Or if the expectation is there but the performance is not--which is what I suspect--it would seem time to seriously reconsider our elementary immersion delivery model.
In the meantime, however, wouldn't it seem reasonable to expect a clear pathway for immersion students to place into a higher level course in high school, with intentional efforts on the part of the middle school to ensure they are covering all the prerequisites?
HIMSmom
I was asking these questions years ago as the district lolly-gagged along without any pathways after K-5.
DeBell's insistence of MORE K-5 language immersion while there are real issues at the middle and high school levels is troubling.
I'm also trying to look at the big picture here. If the district is going to be so gung ho about expanding access to language immersion, I thought it would be helpful to point out some of the current challenges the program is facing. If HIMS is in the process of implementing a newly reconfigured language series, this seems the perfect time to address this fairly simple issue. Nobody is asking for the moon here...
HIMSmom
"We received an additional .8 mitigation staffing for GHS. This means we will be hiring for a new Spanish teacher. We will also be working with the Science department to level classes and assess where we can best offer an additional Biology class. I will work with HR to advertise the positions tomorrow. We will be seeking applicants for both positions. I would like to thank our parent community for rallying around our Student Body. I appreciated all your emails and letters of support. Without your help the Garfield community wouldn't have been able to provide a quality education for all our students who wanted to take a more rigorous schedule. Thanks again!!"
I find it sad that a thriving and full program like Garfield's has to beg to be fully-staffed for its students.