Seattle Schools Community Forum

Superintendent Brent Jones had a call-out to the Cleveland Girls Volleyball team for being the 2024 Academic state champions. There were there in person and received applause. He also thanked voters for passing the school levies.  He also said this word salad about the Highly Capable update that was to come later in the meeting. He said that it would be "an honest rendering of what's ahead and give visibility to challenges and opportunities."  He also noted there is likely to federal changes coming because of the current U.S. administration and that "we are committed to values of SPS and its policies."    Public Testimony This portion of the meeting was largely divided between Highly Capable issues and the need to keep libraries open.  HC parents stated that services are NOT being implemented. They also noted the lack of resources for teachers and school administrators to do this work. A couple of parents asked if promised differentiation wasn't supposed to ...

I hope everyone read Part 1 because it gives you the outline of this story. Part Two will be even MORE information and why you should fight for your kids. Issues to Ponder: - It feels a bit like finger pointing among these governmental entities "that's THEIR job, not ours" but, in the end, who is accountable for this data? - There were several comments at the Times like this one: I have no idea how to take this article, the survey potentially saved lives, but someone felt the need to push hard to test how private the data ended up being. Did that person want the data to use, or just to make a point about privacy? What is an acceptable cost to saving a life? Can we ever ensure privacy in a public school setting anymore? Kids give up their privacy every single time they open their phone. So have students that were "identified" been harmed? Is that the concern? Again, this allows for a level of communication that can potentially circumvent a tragedy, how does that ...

Part One of this blog post will be about the article but in Part Two, I hope you jump in with a discussion about student data privacy, what's the line on with data collected to help students with mental health issues (and who gets to see it) as well as other issues with this kind of data collection happening in schools.  I do want to note from the outset that it was the Seattle Times who first filed for this information, not parents.  (All bold mine.)   This report is from The 74 and was picked up by the Seattle Times . Here's the headline: Seattle-Area Schools Say Deeply Personal Survey Saved Lives. Then They Released Student Data Since 2018, more than 36,000 students across the Seattle region have shared their hopes, fears and family secrets in an online questionnaire called Check Yourself.  Supported by a voter-approved tax levy, King County, which encompasses Seattle, has spent  more than $21 million on the program since 2018. The funds help pay for menta...

  Just a couple of quick updates before today's meeting. One, saw the election results and once again, some parents and most union folks apparently support the district. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the Legislature. I mean, now that SPS is flush with money again.  Two, if you are going to the Board meeting, do keep in mind they are having and Executive Session prior to the meeting. Last month, they did the same thing and that ES ran 30+ minutes over. So if you go, there may be a longer wait to public testimony. Three, the speakers list is full at 25 people , most of who are going to speak on the Highly Capable program. There are 14 people on the waitlist.  I notice there is one speaker who will be speaking on "community engagement of Dr. Brent Jones /multicultural communities perspectives in contract extension."  Four, the proposed contract extension for Superintendent Brent Jones . As of this hour, there is still NO documentation on this ite...

Shots were fired yesterday from a moving car in West Seattle and some hit Roxhill Elementary School where the school went into lockdown. This via the West Seattle Blog a statement from SPS: Students and staff at the SPS Roxhill building (9430 30th Ave SW) went into a lockdown today after shots were fired from a car into the campus. The campus quickly moved to a lockdown. All staff and teachers are safe. The campus was not the intended target of the incident. During a lockdown, classroom and exterior doors are locked. Students remain indoors and in their classroom until the lockdown has been lifted. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) was quick to respond and is currently investigating this incident. No students or staff were harmed, and the lockdown was lifted after SPD indicated it was safe to do so.  We asked SPS about damage at the school: “There is damage near the cafeteria/the SW Roxbury St & 30th Ave SW side of campus.” Again, this is the FORMER Roxhill buildin...

Let me preface this by saying that this district is exhausting. And I know it's not just me. I saw on a SPS parent Facebook page someone who was just trying to understand the enrollment procedure from reading the Enrollment page at the district website. Another reader chimed in to say that she had to call that office and be walked through it.  You have to wonder if the lack of transparency around how to do regular parent things in this district added to the enrollment loss. You know, like the straw that finally breaks the camel's back.  At this point in my life, the frustration is two-fold. First, to see so little progress in transparency and accountability when that is always on the menu but never served. Second, just trying to keep up. For example, the agenda for Board meetings.  If there is something of an emergency nature, of course you might expect something to be added at the last minute. But that's generally not the case. No, the crux of the new crop of items gene...