Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting. In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance. - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Comments
Well- I have to say G-J is walking her talk
Based on my son's experience at Marshall, I'm completely supportive of G-J's decision. I hope this is the beginning of strong, meaningful changes. WenG
For years Joe Drake's incompetence was covered up by his friend Mr. McWashington.
I hope that things do not stop with Marshall, and the Dr. G-J and Carla Santorno are serious about making the changes needed to help all at-risk students.
Here is a thought: instead of having one high school director handle all high schools, and one middle school director handle MS and K-8s, add a third director position for director of alternative programs.
I think that having someone dedicated to alternative instruction (heck, it would be great to know what is and is not an alternative school around SPS!) would go along way to not having these programs be after thoughts.
The report was pretty clear about how Seattle has not supported their alternative schools, so this recommendation might be accepted.
I looked on the SPS website and did not see the report on-line -
Did anyone else see it there? Where was it listed, if so?
Ironic that it's easy to get from the newspaper but not from the source?