Seattle Schools Community Forum

In the second case in two years, the Supreme Court is hearing a case about a public school district's responsibility to pay for private school for students who seek special education services that a school district doesn't provide (but the family never sought out) . It could have major financial implications for school districts across the country including ours. Here's the issue (this from an article in the NY Times): "Legally, both cases center on the interpretation of a 1997 amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which provides that disabled children are entitled to a "free appropriate public education." That amendment says that parents of children with disabilities "who previously received special education" services in a public setting may be entitled to reimbursement for private-school tuition if their public school did not make free appropriate public education available in a timely manner. While most of the na...

Charlie, in his most recent post, susses out some of the nuances of the final assignment plan to be introduced at this week's Board meeting. Consider this an open thread on the plan; what do you see (or not see) that could be problematic? What are you happy about? Here are Charlie's thoughts (the bold-faced is mine so key areas are highlighted): "Regarding the New Student Assignment Plan, the Action Report states: "It is assumed that a majority of students will attend the school designated by their home address." Really? Is that what our current data shows? I see that The Center School and South Shore K-8 (formerly The New School) will both be classified as Option Schools . This throws enrollment at them open to all students throughout the city equally - except for those residing in the narrowly defined geographic zone around the school building. Cleveland's status - as an Option school or an attendance area school - is to be determined later by th...

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This is going to be one interesting Board meeting (and I have to miss it so people, take notes). The agenda is finally up and it is long (I think this will be a longer meeting than usual). What's on it? Carla Santorno, CAO, will be giving what is called a "science update" We lost not one but two lawsuits and now the district has to pay. One is this: "This law firm is defending the District in a lawsuit involving a former certificated employee who has alleged that the District failed to accommodate her disability and wrongfully terminated her employment. The contract modification from $245,000 to $295,000 will pay for defense costs in this case." No, I don't know what this one is about. UPDATE: the Times reports that the plaintiffs (the PIC parents) will donate $150,000 of the settlement to the Alliance for Education. That is very classy and shows the depth of their commitment to public education. Second case, well, they finally settled on a cost for t...

May 28, 2009 M E D I A A D V I S O R Y Seattle parents and students unite with teachers to stop educator layoffs. Seattle - On the same day Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson will receive her annual performance review, teachers, parents and students will rally and offer their pointed evaluation of district leadership and performance this year, petitioning against Seattle schools’ Reduction in Force (RIF) on the heals of the controversial school closures. To support district educators and children, the Seattle Education Association (the Seattle teacher's union) and ESP Vision (Educators, Students and Parents for a Better Vision of the Seattle Schools) have united their parent-teacher-student coalition to speak up against an estimated 165 teacher layoffs. The rally is a show of unprecedented solidarity between parents and the teachers' union, making a shift in Seattle's history of education politics in recognition of a shared responsibility to fight...

There is a group circulating a petition to grandfather incoming sibs to a current sib's school under the new assignment plan. It is called Keep Our Kids Together but I don't know who is organized by; there is no info available. There appears to be over 900 signatures mostly NE from the comments. As we have seen from the racial tiebreaker, you can be grandfathering kids for a very long time and the district's desire is to limit transportation costs so the district may stand firm on this one. World Environment Day June 5, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Myrtle Edwards Park Local themes: Save the Orcas! Save the Sound! and Celebrate Seattle Schools Green Action Heroes! A kids march, picnicking, entertainment, displays and booths. Sponsored by Seattle Schools Green Team Network, People for the Puget Sound, National Wildlife Federation, SAM at the Olympic Sculpture Garden, Island Wood.

So I'm out and about and listening to KUOW (they do a weekly round-up of news at 10 AM on Fridays). Usually, they have the same group but this week it was slightly different (yay). They had Nina Shapiro, an editor at the Seattle Weekly (who used to cover education there and was one person who seemed to understand a lot of issues in Seattle education), Joni Balter, on the editorial board for the Times and Josh Feit, the editor of Publicola, a local news blog . At one point, they are discussing the mayoral race and talk about how Michael McGinn had probably set out on the wrong direction including schools in his platform. They continued that the Mayor of Seattle has little intervention in schools so why bother? I called in and really, it was just to say that other cities, big cities, have had their districts taken over by the mayor (NYC and LA come to mind) AND Ed Murray and the Mayor had suggested it previously so maybe it's not so nuts. (And Michael's primary reason -...

Inaction As possible evidence that there seems to be a scramble on downtown, there is no agenda yet for next week's Board meeting. I generally find that it is up by Friday so that people can see what is on it and figure out if they are eligible to speak (per Board rules). I'll keep checking in see if it comes up by the end of the day. Action (This is a post I wrote from another thread but if this is to happen we need to get the word out now.) SEA Education Rally Wednesday, June 3, from 5 to 6 p.m. JSC, 2445 3rd Ave. S. I would support going to the the SEA rally simply because: - we are all concerned about the layoffs whether you agree with everything the SEA says - there are likely to be many teachers (i.e. bodies) - go to make the statement that we are unhappy with the direction of the district - it is one of the last times before school lets out to get a large group together There could be hundreds of people at the rally and it would really send a message. Also because it...

Hot off the presses of the district's News and Calendar page: "Over the past several days there has been speculation in our community that a decision has been made to move away from a K-8 at the Jane Addams building and to create one middle school (6-8) and a separate K-5 school. This is not accurate. Over the past year, our work with the community to address capacity management challenges has included discussion about needs at the elementary and middle school levels for north and northeast Seattle. The possibility of a comprehensive middle school at Jane Addams was discussed as part of our capacity management planning efforts, and a decision was made by the School Board in November of 2008 to create a K-8 school at Jane Addams. The work to develop our new student assignment plan and begin to create boundaries for schools is closely connected to our capacity management work. Our ongoing capacity management work requires that we plan for projected future middle school needs and...

The discussion on the blog has turned, once again, on how to be an effective agent for change in Seattle Public Schools. There are proponents of a variety of strategies and tactics. There are those who propose letter-writing campaigns directed at district decision-makers, meeting with district decision-makers, media campaigns, marches and rallies, WASL boycotts, litigation, influencing other electeds, summit meetings of advocacy groups, and still more ideas. I have seen some things work, and I have seen most things fail. Letter writing campaigns to district decision-makers. This sort of worked one time - when the District tried to eliminate Spectrum in 2001 the Board received hundreds of emails alerting them to June Rimmer's bad faith. They stopped her from dumping the program (she claimed that was not her intent) and ordered reform of Advanced Learning. A committee recommended a list of reforms, none of which were implemented. That is the greatest success I have ever seen from mas...

This article is on the PI website on the JA school. I am quoted a couple of times and yes, I pulled no punches. (The reporter, Nick Eaton, states that I am a blogger and co-president of the RHS PTSA but as I wrote to him this morning, I was not speaking for any PTSA.) From the article: "Jane Addams K-8 could be on its way to closing before it is even opened. And the future of students who are enrolled there this fall is already up in the air. Debbie Nelsen, the appointed principal for Jane Addams K-8, confirmed Tuesday that the district is working on a plan to create separate elementary and middle schools. In an e-mail to seattlepi.com , she said she did not know what schools would be established." When might we know? "Seattle Public Schools would not confirm details of the plan Wednesday. Responding to a request for more information on the plan, spokesman David Tucker said the district will post student assignment plan information to the district's Web site ...

May 22, 2009 Dear friends of Seattle Public Schools: The weather this month has been typical of Seattle in the springtime: warm and sunny one day, then cold and rainy the next. We know it will lead to summer, but sometimes it is hard to remember those bright, sunny days when it’s the middle of May and the skies are gray. Perhaps mirroring the weather outside, we’ve had a mixture of sunshine and rain clouds here at the Seattle Public Schools this month as well. On the bright side, more than 900 people showed their support for our schools by participating in the Alliance for Education’s 2009 Community Breakfast. But that good news has been tempered by the difficult decisions we have had to make recently to lay off teachers and other valued staff members in response to the State Legislature’s unprecedented cuts to K-12 funding. ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATION 2009 COMMUNITY BREAKFAST Our work in Seattle’s schools would simply not be possible without the support we receive from families, neighbors ...

This from the Times today: "Seattle School Board member Cheryl Chow announced today that she will not seek a second term in that post. In a prepared release, Chow said it was time to close the politics and public service chapter in her life. Chow has been on the school board since 2006, and she served on the Seattle City Council from 1990-1997. "I'm very proud of how far we have come in the last four years to put the Seattle School District back on the right path and lay a firm foundation to ensure the success of our kids," Chow said. "With the loss of my mom Ruby Chow, last year, I've come to realize that there comes a time to walk away from the public spotlight and focus my energy on other personal goals. Now is that time." Chow said she plans to continue working for the Girl Scouts of Western Washington as a low-income outreach program director, as well as leading the Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill team and coaching youth basketba...

Danny Westneat of the Times had a column today about CPPS's efforts on RiFed teachers. From the column: "But the decision this month to lay off 165 of Seattle schools' newest teachers in a "last hired, first fired" manner has got some of liberal Seattle suddenly sounding more like a conservative red state. More than 600 school parents have signed an online petition, at supportgreatteachers.com , that calls out the teachers union for causing "great distress and upheaval" in the schools. At issue is the policy of choosing who gets laid off solely by seniority. "Wake up and see how union refusal to consider merit is damaging the profession and our kids," wrote one parent. "We want the best teachers, not the oldest, teaching our kids," wrote another. "Teacher unions are an anachronism," said another. The organizers of the petition are a group of parents called Community and Parents for Public Schools. They agree wha...

This got brought up in another thread and someone asked about it. So the basic answer is that this district swung very far in the direction of site-based management. And now? We are swinging the other way. People don't like change and they particularly don't like change that challenges their way of doing things. We have had some discussions at Roosevelt (indeed, we invited LA department teachers to come in and talk to the members at our PTSA meeting last Wednesday). Now when our PTSA heard from the district earlier this year, we were told this was going to be phased in over three years. Teachers at RHS are convinced there will be changes as early as this fall. Basically, the district wants to align the curriculum from school to school for a couple of reasons. One is that there are enough students who transfer from school to school and find completely different things happening. Another is that the district wants to have some continuity about what is happening from schoo...

The District is looking to make a high school language arts (LA) material adoption similar to the high school mathematics material adoption. As with the math, this materials adoption will be in combination with a curriculum alignment. There are a number of questions around this. * Does this mean that all Seattle high school students will be reading the same books? * What freedom will high school LA teachers have to select texts? * How will LA classes be integrated with Social Studies classes? What impact will this have on integrated curricula across disciplines? Will all of the high schools soon have to offer aligned social studies as well? * Does this mean that ALO, Spectrum and APP middle school students will be using the high school LA curriculum and materials? Will they be eligible for high school credit? For more information, please see these district web pages: LA Adoption and Alignment 6-12 Reading EALRs (only 6-8 currently available) Grades 9-10 Reading Alignment GLEs

Staff told the Board, at the September 23, 2008 meeting of the Curriculum and Instructional Policy Committee, that integrated grading policy reform would be brought before them in January or February. Then it was delayed to March or April. Then it was supposed to be introduced in May for a vote in June. Now we learn that it has been deferred indefinitely as the District's technology isn't capable of handling the 11 point GPA or whatever. In the meantime, high school credit for classes taken in middle school has been unecessarily delayed along with the rest of the package. If the Board does not act soon to update their policy and bring it into compliance with state law, yet another year will pass when students will not get credit for their work. The state law, RCW 28A.230.090, requires districts to award high school credit to students upon request when their middle school class is similar or equivalent to classes taught in the high schools. In Seattle this is primarily world lan...

Below is information that is being sent out to RHS parents about upcoming development around RHS. Please pass it along if you know any high/school middle school parents who might want to know about it. I live in this neighborhood and I can tell you a few things about this issue. One, the amount of disrespect to our neighborhood by this land owner has been incredible. If you have ever been to Roosevelt, then you have seen the blight. To think that they could get a variance on the zoning heights (from 4 stories to 16) seems hard to believe. Two, this would have a huge impact on RHS. A 16-story building would dwarf our building, the parking issue would be huge and, of course, there is the assignment plan. There would be hundreds of apartments in the several developments planned. And, there likely would be families with teens. With that many teens living across or near RHS, it would probably narrow the boundaries and possibly shut out neighborhoods that have long sent students to ...

***UPDATE*** This has now been confirmed by Debbie Nelson, the incoming principal of Jane Addams. See this story in the P-I. ***UPDATE*** It is possible that the District may have changed their mind about the capacity needs of Northeast Seattle. They may choose to re-open Sand Point as a K-5 elementary and convert Jane Addams to a comprehensive 6-8 middle school. This is - I repeat - strictly a rumor and not confirmed . If this is true, however, it raises a lot of questions about the District's processes for making capacity decisions. First, when all the world was telling them to do it that way six months ago, why didn't they agree? Second, how can they make these changes after open enrollment, after families have made plans and commitments? If you enrolled your child in the K-5 program at Jane Addams, how do you feel about the idea that the program will be closed in a couple years - possibly before your child leaves it? How do you feel about it if your child got a mandatory ...

Lots of Board Executive Sessions over the next week. First, there's a 3-hour one on Wednesday about "negotiations" which I take to mean the SEA contract. Then, on June 3rd, there's an hour-and-half session about the Superintendent evaluation (oh, to be a fly on the wall). Note: executive means just the Board and not the public. On Wednesday, June 10th, there's a Public Hearing on the Student Assignment plan at 6 p.m. (no site noted, I'll check). This is likely to be a good overview of where they are to date. That's the good. The bad is that they are unlikely to allow any discussion and maybe just some questions (ones you write down). I hope not but this is how many meetings are done. However, since it is a public "hearing", we might be able to stand up and say, "look, we want to be heard and we want everyone to hear". There should be some airing of grievances (okay, concerns) a la Festivus for parents.

I'd like to start posting summer camp info especially for free/low-cost camps to get that info out there as we approach the end of the school year. Here's one. Current sixth- and seventh-graders will have an opportunity this summer to learn how to design and program video games, build and race a car that runs entirely on solar energy, or learn how to make objects float. Cleveland High School will be hosting an “Eagle Tech” Camp from June 29 to July 16 for these and other technology and science subjects. Camps will be held from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. Technology classes include: DigiPen Project FUN , Project Lead the Way , and Pre-Engineering/Science. A selection of science classes include: Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Click here for the flier. For more information, contact Kelly Tagupa at 252-7814 or katagupa@seattleschools.org . If you know about others, please let us know.

So many public education advocates were very disappointed when Governor Gregoire, in signing the basic education bill, deleted the section on early education. The Times weighed in with an editorial about it today supporting her stance. Basically, she deleted it because (this from a Times article ) : "The governor vetoed two sections: one mandating preschool for at-risk children and the other concerning money for gifted education in districts that can't afford it. She said both ideas need more development and that all children deserve preschool, not just at-risk kids." She also said there was no funding which is also true. Now the Times goes out of its way to give many, many reasons why this is okay. To wit: "Nothing will be lost. Gregoire established the state Department of Early Learning and promises it will retain a focus on early learning, including broadening access and improving academic quality. At both the federal and state level, spending and efforts on ea...

CPPS has a petition against the RIFs in Seattle Public Schools. Here is the link. News that the district shortfall has gone from $25M to $34M (mostly due to state cuts). (Interestingly, I read that the district can use the interest from the capital fund for instructional purposes. I'll have to look into that and see if it could help get some of these teachers back into the class room. Naturally, that would be hypothetical because the district won't do it but who know? If they got enough pressure, maybe.) Seattle Special Ed PTSA General Meeting Tuesday, May 26, 7-8:30 p.m. John Stanford Center Auditorium, 2445 3rd Ave. South Keynote speaker: Superintendent Maria Goodloe Johnson will speak on the future of special education in the district, followed by a Q&A session. Seattle is College Bound! June 6; doors open at 8:30 a.m. (light breakfast); program starts at 9 a.m. Seattle University, Campion Ballroom (http://www.seattleu.edu/ces/­_docs/1032.pdf) All 7th, 8th and 9th-gra...

The public is invited to attend a June 2 symposium regarding gang violence in Puget Sound. Keynote speaker will be the Hon. Richard A. Jones, U.S. District judge. National and local experts, community leaders and involved citizens are also scheduled to attend to discuss the growing problem and work toward finding real solutions. The event is free. For more information, contact event organizer the Thomas C. Wales Foundation, at (206) 233-2801. Seattle Public Schools' Safety and Security Department is a co-presenter of the event. Click on the links for the Web page and flier. Gang Violence: Real Problems and Real Solutions for Puget Sound Tuesday, June 2 7-9 p.m. Seattle City Hall, Bertha Knight Landes Room 600 4th Ave.

I watched the discussion of Every Day Math consumables from the May 20 board meeting last night, and I saw mostly good news. Yes, a half a million bucks a year in K-5 consumables strikes me like plank in the face - but there are two things to consider about this: First, as Ms delaFuente reported, there are annual consumables - presumably with similar costs - for the two material sets that the OSPI recommmends (she will follow up with more information after making further investigations). So while this price seems stiff, it may just be what these things cost. Second, it isn't really a half a million dollars a year. The consumables for years 1 and 2 came with the original purchase. This is for year three. We will also pay for year 4, but years 5 and 6 will be free. So the actual price is not $500,000 per year, but $1,000,000 for years one through six, or, on average, more like $170,000 per year. That's something of a relief, but the best news wasn't either of these two items...

So I missed the annual Alliance for Education breakfast yesterday. According to an op-ed in the Times, there were 900 people which is a great turnout for public education. Not content with just an op-ed, there was also a Times editorial touting it. Do not get me wrong; I think the revamped Alliance for Education is doing some good things and is being a lot better run than it used to be. So I am not here to say I don't like the Alliance. However, they do tend to fall into the same cheerleading camp as the Seattle Council PTSA (another group I like). And that's okay except that I truly believe it would help if the district heard some hard truths from both groups occasionally. But that never happens publicly and frankly, that's where it would count. So the editorial was all a-glow. Here's why: "Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson gave a compelling outline of the system's successes, including improved test scores. But the spotlight, and proof of her words, rested ...

The title of this editorial was Dropout Factories and naturally, it was about American high schools. Despite what we know in Seattle, there were still frightening stats. "About one in five American students drops out of high school today, and there are some schools where students have only a 50-50 chance of getting a diploma." But here's the kicker: "To solve it, federal, state and local governments will all need to focus intensely on the relatively small number of troubled schools that produce a majority of the nation’s dropouts. " "According to Robert Balfanz, of Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center, just 12 percent of the nation’s 20,000 high schools account for half of the country’s dropouts and almost three-quarters of its minority dropouts . Seriously? They know where the most troubled schools are that produce the majority of dropouts? Do Something! If ever the feds needed to trump states' rights on education, this would be it. The...

A request was made for a thread on assignments for this fall as the letters were (hopefully) mailed yesterday.

You can read the School District's Annual Report to the Community for 2009 on the District web site. I just have some random notes. * If this is an annual report, where is the report from last year? I don't remember seeing it. * The report is a weird mix of things that were actually done, things that are in progress but not done, and things that have been promised but not started, all of them written about as if they have all actually been done. This is a common, if transparent, deception by the District. They announce goals as if they were achievements. * The report mentions how there is additional rigor at "Rainier Beach high School with a focus on science and technology and at Cleveland high School with a focus on visual and performing arts." They got them switched. This has been fixed. * They continue to confuse WASL pass rates as WASL test scores. I hate that. * The report claims that they have already made the cuts to save $4 million in administrative expenses....

I wrote an op-ed that will run in today's Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009239078_opinb20kwatinetz.html Many of us are upset to see yet another round of layoffs where, due to the current agreement with the teachers union, the decisions do not take performance into account at all -- only straight seniority.  Would any of us run our own businesses this way? This is one of the big reasons CPPS (www.cppsofseattle.org) has been trying to put a spotlight on the contract negotiations that are going on right now.

The Executive Session from 4-4:30 has disappeared. The Work Session on the Assignment plan starts at 4 p.m ., not 4:30 as I previously posted.

So I was trying to get up to speed on the new Assignment Plan. At the Assignment Plan page , there is an FAQ page. On the FAQ page, there are FAQs relating to different topics as well as a " As Heard on the Grapevine " page to help dispel/clarify what you might hear at the supermarket or at the playground. Each section comes with a Comment box to send in new questions. Good stuff. Among the interesting things I learned: - Spectrum will be available at all comprehensive middle schools. - According to this page: At the School Board workshop on March 25, we will seek guidance from the Board on the variables that should be considered when updating attendance area boundaries. Based on that guidance, we will produce initial options for school boundaries. That clearly didn't happen; we still don't know the boundaries. - There will be an English language-based program within all international schools for families seeking that option; this program will run in parallel to...

CPPS ANNUAL MEETING Featuring Marguerite Roza, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor University of Washington College of Education Center on Reinventing Public Education TUESDAY, MAY 26, 7:00 P.M . Montlake Elementary School 2409 22nd Avenue East JOIN US. Be a part of local grassroots parent movement to engage and empower Seattle Public School parents by attending the CPPS Annual Meeting on Tuesday, May26, at 7:00 p.m. This year’s meeting features a special presentation by nationally recognized education reform leader, Dr. Marguerite Roza. GET EMPOWERED. Parents can and must lead the revolution for meaningful education reform in Seattle. Learn how community members and parents can get involved in this movement. Find out how parent priorities can drive positive change in our schools. ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE. Dr. Marguerite Roza has investigated spending patterns among schools within urban districts and documented how district, state and federal spending practices impact student learning an...

Folks, we are coming down to the wire on the Student Assignment Plan. Neither Charlie or I did post on the last community engagement (and somehow it just got away from me and I will try to this week) but what I came away with is that Tracy Libros, head of Assignment, want to know what is confusing to parents in the plan. Again, she wants to know what is confusing in the plan . That says to me that the plan is hardening and that there may be no major changes to the preliminary outlines. I urge you to go to the district website and consider all the materials there. We are heading into summer which is a parent down time (I don't blame anyone for wanting a break). However, work at the district goes on and when we head back to school in the fall, the Assignment Plan will have its final look complete with boundaries. And that's when the shouting will start. If there are things beyond boundaries that you care about, read up and let Tracy know NOW. A Board Work Session is schedul...

So an article on NYC schools, a dialog with a mayoral candidate and a petition have all got me thinking. First, the article was about a reauthorization in NY of a law that gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg control over NYC schools. Under this law, he has made sweeping changes, some good and some not working. Test scores have gone up. From the article: "The Legislature is scheduled to reauthorize the law this summer. It would do well to leave the heart of the statute — mayoral control — intact. But some legislators are rightly seeking more parental input, greater transparency and at least some checks on the mayor’s considerable powers. In most cities with mayoral control, the mayors appoint all or a portion of a school board. They often do so in consultation with other branches of government. The board then chooses the top school official. In New York City, the mayor chooses both the schools’ chancellor and a supermajority of a board that serves at his pleasure." So, Mayor Nickels...

A number of principal moves have been announced. Schools with design teams are in bold. Roy Merca from Summit is moving to AS1 Ernie Severs from AS1 is moving to Sanislo Debbie Nelson from Sanislo to Jane Addams Chris Carter from Jane Addams to Hamilton Katie Cryan Leary from Hamilton to Leave Dewanda Cook-Weaver from Lowell (SpEd) to McGilvra Jo Shapiro from McGilvra to Assistant Principal at Hamilton Wayne Floyd from JSCEE (he was working on the Southeast Initiative) to Loyal Heights Cashel Toner from Loyal Heights to Leschi Jo Lute-Ervin from Leschi to TOPS Clara Scott from TOPS to retirement Mia Williams from Aki Kurose (interim) to Aki Kurose (permanent) Kim Fox from Bryant (interim) to Bryant (permanent) Linda Robinson from Bryant to Whittier Cothron McMillian from Whittier to Brighton Beverly Raines from Brighton to Lawton Ed Noh from Lawton to... ??? Greg King from T T Minor to Lowell Julie Briedenbach from Lowell to Thurgood Marshall Winifred Todd from Thurgood Marshall t...