SPS Committee Members Sought
The Family and Community Engagement Committee is seeking new members. I looked over who is currently on the list and see a lot of good names (including Charlie). Here's a link for more info.
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.)
Comments
Appellants in one of the four lawsuits filed to appeal the current round of school closures (Jan 29, 2009 closure decision) are today filing a motion asking for a summary judgment that the closures be stopped...
Their case is based on the fact that the District failed to adhere to State regulations and District policies regarding community engagement and review procedures in the closure process.
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Hullo All... Re Mass Complaint Campaign....
I'm wondering if there's anyone who would be willing to spend an hour or two on a couple of Sunday afternoons (or other times that suit better) filling out some of the 100 or so SPS District complaint forms that an involved parent kindly copied off for the Harium Martin-Morris/Broad meeting that went too long to begin on them, so that we can deliver them to the August 19th Board meeting... if we are really organised, we could dress up as Santa - or wear suits with scripted lesson plans written all over them - and get some media attention for the delivery...
I'm thinking of Sunday 9th and/or Sunday 16th August, say from 12-2pm??? I'm offering my (Greenwood, north Seattle) place to host this; equally happy to go somewhere more central... Kids welcome...
It would be great to get more than 100 complaints in, but 100 is a good number to aim for initially, I think...
It would also be good to score some speaking slots at that meeting, or get the issue of complaints or Broad or whatever, on the agenda....
Does anyone know how to get citizen-originated topics on the Board meeting agenda? I can make the time to find out myself, but thought I would try for a short-cut first!
Namaste
Sahila ChangeBringer
tel: 206 297 7511
I have an e-mail address that will be live for a bit longer so I'll give that out. Please contact me there on your topic.
melrhs@hotmail.com
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090806/us_time/08599191459800
Is this what we want for our kids? If not, how are we going to fix this problem of underfunding our children's futures?
You may recall that the pivotal question was the meaning of the word "school" in the law that requires a public hearing for a school closure. Does it mean the building or does it mean the program? Although everywhere else in the state law the word "school" means the program rather than the building, the District contended that in this law - even if nowhere else - it meant the school building. It was a pretty lawyerly explanation that relied on the history of the law and some statements about the law's intent from the legislators who wrote it.
I didn't take the day off work to go to Court and hear the arguments that day, and the media didn't report on the story, the District didn't issue a press release about it, and we didn't get a report about it here, so I don't know how it turned out.
Nor am I clear on what court process will be played out in next week's hearing.
Does anyone have an update on the status of this litigation?
4 lawsuits were filed.... ours is one of them...
And in the motion filed yesterday we are asking for a summary judgment...
I believe this motion will be heard around Sept 4th...