Still Reeling, Yet Moving Forward, Nonetheless...
All of the stages of grief are present at this time throughout the SPS District. Mourning is extremely prominent in the emails and conversations of Summit K-12...I have yet to be back in the school building myself since the vote (stupid work schedule), and have only the highest regard for our teachers who continue to teach their quality classes as they, too, mourn for our community.
My oldest turns 13 tomorrow. I'm still stunned that he's that old. He doesn't know it, yet, but his mom has arranged to send some sugar-laden snack of some sort to school tomorrow as a surprise (his teacher said it was okay).
I am not the only parent with 3 children who have been happily in school at Summit K-12. This having to probably find more than one school is daunting, to start with, not to mention when the heck am I supposed to visit these other schools 'cuz I work full time for a social service agency? The fact that other parents are already through some of this process amazes me, as I know I'm not the only busy parent in Seattle. And I am extremely saddened for those parents who don't yet know that they need to find a different school for next year, and will find out whenever the letters arrive at our homes (still waiting, here).
Our next Parent Group meeting is this Thursday. Our primary focus for it is to share information with each other as we're all trying to figure out what we're going to be doing, and how to do it, too. When we get our notes from Thursday's meeting, I'll try to remember to post the info bits here so others from other "displaced" schools can benefit from our research, too.
So far, the District has said that all schools will need to have tour dates in February and March...and there are already schools telling our parents that they are done with their tours for this year. We anticipate that they'll be told to open more dates up, 'though I'm not holding my breath, as I've seen how well the District's promises are kept. I actually anticipate hearing "Oh, sorry - we must have missed that," instead of "Let me fix that right now," as that seems to be the MO.
Life is indeed a rollercoaster.
Sabia
My oldest turns 13 tomorrow. I'm still stunned that he's that old. He doesn't know it, yet, but his mom has arranged to send some sugar-laden snack of some sort to school tomorrow as a surprise (his teacher said it was okay).
I am not the only parent with 3 children who have been happily in school at Summit K-12. This having to probably find more than one school is daunting, to start with, not to mention when the heck am I supposed to visit these other schools 'cuz I work full time for a social service agency? The fact that other parents are already through some of this process amazes me, as I know I'm not the only busy parent in Seattle. And I am extremely saddened for those parents who don't yet know that they need to find a different school for next year, and will find out whenever the letters arrive at our homes (still waiting, here).
Our next Parent Group meeting is this Thursday. Our primary focus for it is to share information with each other as we're all trying to figure out what we're going to be doing, and how to do it, too. When we get our notes from Thursday's meeting, I'll try to remember to post the info bits here so others from other "displaced" schools can benefit from our research, too.
So far, the District has said that all schools will need to have tour dates in February and March...and there are already schools telling our parents that they are done with their tours for this year. We anticipate that they'll be told to open more dates up, 'though I'm not holding my breath, as I've seen how well the District's promises are kept. I actually anticipate hearing "Oh, sorry - we must have missed that," instead of "Let me fix that right now," as that seems to be the MO.
Life is indeed a rollercoaster.
Sabia
Comments
Helen Schinske
Salmon Bay has an elementary tour on Tuesday Feb. 24 and a middle school tour on Thursday Feb. 26. Both are at 9:30 am.
Please let me know if you are one such parent.
While not alternative, it does have Montessori mixed-age classrooms from K-5 (as well as traditional classrooms K-5)
From the website: February 26, March 5, March 19, and March 26 at 9:30 am. Please call 252-5110 to reserve your spot. An additional evening tour is being held on March 11 at 6:30 pm - no need to call in advance for this event.
We are also having an experiential learning Open House scheduled for March 11, I think, from 6-7.30pm...
http://71.18.68.20/?page_id=49
We also have a new website up (trying every day to have fixed the link from the District website)...
http://as1web.com/
It is still a work in daily progress, but is far more informative than the old pages that were there previously...
Not the same as in-person, of course, but a very good glimpse could be had of a school through modern technology.
Helen Schinske
Sad to say, there are a bunch of unemployed techies floating around the city...I wonder if some might want a project or two to keep their brains active and to add a little community service to their resumes?
(word verifier, I don't EVEN want to know what fancest is...)
We all know that AS1's collective head is nervously eying the chopping block, but if you're willing to chance it, give us a look: email me at josh (at) blarg (dot) net.
Given the sheer confusion in the district right now, it's hard for me to believe that ANY school is cutting off its tours in a week or so. Maybe they're already so darn full they don't care to add anybody.
And BTW, does the K-8 at Addams have a name, other than "the K-8 at Addams"?
It used to be Summit, but the Summit was violently blown off, and in its place grows a new school, a steaming hot pile of...lava.
(of course I jest about the "steaming hot pile" part; I wish the new school all the best, it's actually kinda exciting. It's just that I think it's terrible how Summit was blown away...)
http://www.seattleschools.org/
area/main/ShowSchool?sid=955
Thanks
The loss of the school is a huge blow, and the WAY this was handled was absolutely terrible: We need to building - You'll move; You'll move to RB; you'll move to Meany; you're closed.
WHAT is the rationale for not relocating Summit? There is none. There are other places for it, places that would help the NE capacity issue (use a part of Lincoln, use John Marshall, use, as a last resort, the WP campus...
By not keeping Summit open, we are throwing a good program out; we are adding to the capacity problem; by not using Lincoln or even (gasp!) reopening a closed building to meet capacity need, we are saying,"doesn't matter what's best, we said we wouldn't reopen buildings and darn it, we WON'T, which shows obstinancy more than best practice...
There is NO justification for closing Summit after it was told it would be moved. Since there is none, people are left to wonder if Summit either just wasn't liked, or whether there are other plans for other alternatives...
Unless someone can tell us why, exactly, Summit is being closed, we are left to wonder what's up.
www.as1web.com
we understand the District link is not working - we have been asking for more than a week for that to be fixed...
My aplology.
Isn't that predicting the future based on how one's kids do on placement tests?
(Get it? Get it?)
Just trying to lighten the mood a little!
I'm sure everyone can understand how frustrating it is to construct a whiz-bang web site and have the district ignore one's request to link it up. Yeah: it's like that.