Open Letter to the District

I signed on to the open letter to the district complaining about lack of follow-up on the CACIEE report last year. It was published in the PI while I was on vacation. See the following articles for more details:

High-powered group issues budget rebuke to Seattle Public Schools

Letter rips lack of progress on school budget shortfalls

30 sign critical schools letter; Manhas cites district progress

And the full text of the letter is at: An Open Letter to the Superintendent and School Board

Comments

Anonymous said…
Although none of the news media that reported on the letter mentioned it, here is a relevant exerpt from the CACIEE's final report (page 44):

"TIMELINE
"We urge the Superintendent to act expeditiously and recommend the following timetable:

"• Superintendent issues response to Committee outlining plan of action within 30 days.

"• Superintendent introduces multi-year action package to Board for immediate approval within 45 days.

"• Superintendent and School Board present progress report to the community within six months.

"It will be critical for the Superintendent to introduce these reforms as a package with clear linkages between investments and expense reductions and between action and outcomes."

The letter came on the six-month anniversary of the CACIEE report and was, to a great extent, a consequence of the absence of a six month progress report. The absence of a six month progress report may be a consequence of the absence of progress to report.
8/15/06, 4:20 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

Seattle School Board Meeting, Wednesday, September 18,2024

Please let us know if you attend the rally before the meeting.  Seeing photos from Twitter; looks like a good crowd at the rally. The West Seattle Blog is there reporting.  I am going to attempt to live blog so you will see abbreviations, spelling/grammar errors, etc. I will clean it up but I think it is worth trying to do. I will be refreshing the page as I go.  I am sad to see that apparently President Liza Rankin is not even going to allow 10 people over the regular 20 to testify. Just five.  Also, right at the beginning, the Board has stuck in, after Board comments, a Progress Monitoring presentation. They could have put it at the end but they didn't. They think - in 45 minutes - they can do Superintendent comments, Board comments and this presentation. I doubt that public testimony will start on-time. Tone-deaf doesn't even cover it with Board leadership. To note, apparently the district scheduled the NE community meeting on closures on Rosh Hashanah which is October 2. I
Read more