Town Halls Coming Up

From Councilman Conlin's newsletter:

SEATTLE RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND A COUNCIL TOWN HALL MEETING: JUNE 15th & 25th

These Town Halls are a public forum for community discussions. They will focus on prevention of youth violence, legislation to protect trees, and the City’s role in public education and Seattle Schools. The Town Halls will begin with brief presentations on the City’s work on these issues followed by discussion groups around each of the issues. The groups will then come back together to share their conclusions with the other groups and the Council. We are looking for your input on actions that the Council should work on.

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend one of these sessions!

Monday, June 15, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
Eckstein Middle School, 3003 NE 75th
See map

Thursday, June 25, 6:30 - 9 p.m.
The Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Ave SW

Also:

An education forum next week with key leaders in the 36th District: Rep. Reuven Carlyle, Michael DeBell, Romana Hattendorf (Pres. SCPTSA) and Lisa Moore (SSIA).
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
McClure Middle School Library
1915 1st Ave West
Seattle, WA 98119

Comments

Charlie Mas said…
I have proposed this before, and I still think it is a GREAT idea: I would love to see the City of Seattle take over the property management for Seattle Public Schools.

Here's why:
1) The District spends far too much time and energy on property management. It is 40-50% of Board votes. It is the topic of far too much discussion. This is not the District's core mission and it should not be such a distraction.

2) The District does a perfectly dreadful job of property management. They are bad at every aspect of it. They are bad at property maintenance, they are bad at property repair, they are bad at capital projects. Think of this, Seattle Public Schools is one of the biggest property-owners in the state with real estate holdings worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But if you had a real estate portfolio would you want Seattle Public Schools to manage it for you? I don't think so.

3) If the District were to lease all of their buildings to the City for $1 with no services provided and the City then leased them all back to the District for $1 - but WITH services (cleaning, maintenance, repairs, etc.) it would take about $35 million of expenses off the District's operating budget. It would completely close the budget gap. These $30+ million are the "greenest" dollars the District has. By that, I mean that the money doesn't have dedicated purposes; the District is free to spend it as they need.

4) There are a lot of opportunities for synergy between the City and the District with property management. Lots of parks or community centers are attached to schools. It would be easy for the guy mowing the lawn at the park to just keep going and mow the school playfield as well.

5) The current District employees who do this work could become City employees. This is also a positive because the District's labor relations is dreadful as well.
6/11/09, 10:19 AM
SolvayGirl said…
I'm reading that the City is trying to secure some District-owned property at the South SHore site to expand/renovate the Rainier Beach Pool and Community Center. I wonder how allt hat works?
6/11/09, 9:51 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
So what is happening at the RB CC is that it is attached to South Shore. The district couldn't wait for the City to come up with the money to do a joint-renovation which would have made a lot more sense. I have a feeling what Solvay Girl is mentioning is an outgrowth of that issue.
6/12/09, 8:33 AM
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