Seattle Schools This Week
Monday, March 24th
Seattle Special Education PTSA Meeting, at 7 pm, Rm 2700, JSCEE
Topic is Secondary Transition and plans in SPS to to bring the District into compliance with IDEA on secondary transition.
Wednesday, March 26th
Oversight Work Session on Athletics/Transportation from 4-6 p.m. I'm assuming from the length of it that these are two sessions in one. Agenda.
Athletic (sic) Presentation
- among the "strengths" - It is interesting to try to read between the lines. It almost sounds like this department wants to run more effectively and smoothly but needs help with technology and a clear direction on how to proceed from the top
- among the "weaknesses" - transportation, difficulties in communications and "inability to attract, recruit and maintain quality athletic coaches."
- "threats/risks" (an unfortunate column name) - "increasing responsibilities for administration of the Unified Special Olympics program within SPS." They also note that the SPS Unified Sports progra has received national recognition from the Special Olympics program.
And, there was this that I didn't know about: "During recent State Audits there were questions in regards to the Seattle Children's Athletic Trainer Contract. There is a need for a dedicated staff member to manage this $330K personal services contract for the safety of our student athletes."
There was also this:
Middle School feeder pattern programs have been receiving a lot of focus from the WIAA recently. This is an area that the district will have to focus on in the near future.
Transportation Presentation
One thing I see on page 4 is their list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats/risks. What I don't see is that parents are unhappy. That seems odd to me given the refrain I hear from many corners of the district.
Looking at benchmarking on page 11, I have to wonder about one of these columns and I think the directors should as well. It's "number of FTE" and it ranges wildly from 2.7 in Spokane to 32 in SPS to 126 in Anchorage. I'm having a hard time believing this is an apples to apples comparison.
Work Session on Families & Education Levy Update from 6-7 p.m. Wondering if there will talk of how important "data" is to all this work.
Thursday, March 27th
Another of the Strategic Plan Community meetings, this one is at Ballard High School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 29th
Community Meeting with Director Peters from 10-11:30 am at the Ballard Library.
Community Meeting with Director Patu from 10 am to noon at Cafe Vita.
Seattle Special Education PTSA Meeting, at 7 pm, Rm 2700, JSCEE
Topic is Secondary Transition and plans in SPS to to bring the District into compliance with IDEA on secondary transition.
Wednesday, March 26th
Oversight Work Session on Athletics/Transportation from 4-6 p.m. I'm assuming from the length of it that these are two sessions in one. Agenda.
Athletic (sic) Presentation
- among the "strengths" - It is interesting to try to read between the lines. It almost sounds like this department wants to run more effectively and smoothly but needs help with technology and a clear direction on how to proceed from the top
- among the "weaknesses" - transportation, difficulties in communications and "inability to attract, recruit and maintain quality athletic coaches."
- "threats/risks" (an unfortunate column name) - "increasing responsibilities for administration of the Unified Special Olympics program within SPS." They also note that the SPS Unified Sports progra has received national recognition from the Special Olympics program.
And, there was this that I didn't know about: "During recent State Audits there were questions in regards to the Seattle Children's Athletic Trainer Contract. There is a need for a dedicated staff member to manage this $330K personal services contract for the safety of our student athletes."
There was also this:
Middle School feeder pattern programs have been receiving a lot of focus from the WIAA recently. This is an area that the district will have to focus on in the near future.
Transportation Presentation
Looking at benchmarking on page 11, I have to wonder about one of these columns and I think the directors should as well. It's "number of FTE" and it ranges wildly from 2.7 in Spokane to 32 in SPS to 126 in Anchorage. I'm having a hard time believing this is an apples to apples comparison.
Work Session on Families & Education Levy Update from 6-7 p.m. Wondering if there will talk of how important "data" is to all this work.
Thursday, March 27th
Another of the Strategic Plan Community meetings, this one is at Ballard High School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 29th
Community Meeting with Director Peters from 10-11:30 am at the Ballard Library.
Community Meeting with Director Patu from 10 am to noon at Cafe Vita.
Comments
Topic is Secondary Transition and plans in SPS to to bring the District into compliance with IDEA on secondary transition.