Seattle Schools Community Forum

 This event is tonight; sorry, I just saw it.  The film is available on YouTube . From t he Seattle Times: Can public schools better serve students if there are more options and fewer constraints in the classroom?  Former Seattle public high school teacher Kaci Salnick has been exploring this question as a doctoral student at Northeastern University. She’s conducted dozens of interviews with educators across Washington state for her research and has homed in on Highline Public Schools, which points to some intriguing answers.  On Sept. 28, Salnick will share “ One Thousand Steps ,” a 40-minute documentary on her findings so far, followed by a panel discussion with Highline educators and administrators moderated by The Seattle Times Education Lab. The free community screening at 7 p.m. at Central Cinema in Seattle will be followed by a feedback-sharing session to help inform Salnick’s work.  All ages welcome. The pandemic highlighted a well-known fact among educators that a h

  King County is creating a "Youth Bill of Rights" and wants to hear from your child. From Seattle Special Education PTSA:

 Reviewing Part 1: - By law, the director regions must be reviewed after each Census. The directors had a lot of lead time to get to this work but, for whatever reason, are giving the public just a month to give input. - There are currently seven director regions and that will not change. - To note, in the primary, candidates are running ONLY in their districts. From the primary, the two top vote getters will then run citywide.  The impression I have always had is that all directors represent the entire district. But they are "experts" on the schools in their region to help guide other directors who may not know that region or its schools well. In the last several years, directors have been moving away from community meetings and the notion that they will, at least, inquire about issues in their school in their regions. The Board is moving further and further away from the people who elect them.  I looked at all three scenarios. Visually, it appears that both the southern d

I was aware that, by law, the boundaries for DIRECTOR regions (not schools), had to be examine after the Census occurred. Indeed, at the last Board meeting, Director Chandra Hampson, in talking about the upcoming Executive Committee meeting, mention that this would be the first time there would be scenario maps available. This will be a two-part post as I want to put all the maps up on my computer, side by side, as well as the current boundaries map to get a good visual. The one thing I can see upfront is that if you live in the Central district, boy, you'll be on easy street with the fewer number of schools in your district. Meanwhile, in the SW and SE, you'll have twice the distance and twice the schools to cover.  I tried - for nearly the entire week - to get this documentation but, unlike previous times, the Board office was not responsive. I see Director Vivian Song Maritz just put up this information yesterday. My impression is that the Board is CLEARLY not interested in

  This notice of a groundbreaking event at Rainier Beach High School came across my radar late. This notice is not at the district's website nor RBHS's webpage. It is also not on the Board calendar. I have to assume a private group put this together but hopefully the students will be allowed out of class for it. I note that work began on RBHS in June 2022 according to the district's webpage. I was on Twitter this morning and some teachers were discussing if and how the pledge of allegiance is used at their school. It suddenly came to me that the Board no longer opens their Board meetings with it. I recall several years back when a class of students had come to do a pre-meeting show and they had been seated with the audience afterwards. When it came time for the pledge, I never saw so many panic-stricken faces because some clearly didn't know it - I guess SPS schools allow the principal to make the call.  The Board president now notes that the JSCEE is sitting on land

The teacher, Darren Hunter of Madison Middle School, was charged in early Feb. 2022 with third-degree rape for an event that occurred in August 2021. The incident did not happen on district property nor during school hours. I had been tracking this story since a reader alerted me to it and, luckily for me, the West Seattle Blog has actual journalists who tracked down the entire story quickly. Beyond the obvious issue of the actual crime is the fact that SPS didn't know about it until this week (and I suspect that was me asking questions). According to SPS Communications: The individual who has been charged is currently on administrative leave, which means they still are an employee. A determination of future status will be made once the case is concluded. However, just to note, that means that Hunter was in the classroom from Feb until just this week.  The district has an agreement with local law enforcement to work together on cases involving child sexual abuse or assault. In all