News about QA Elementary
From the QA and Magnolia News online, a story about QA Elementary. Lots of interesting quotes from the principal, David Elliott including:
We are trying to encourage families that are hemming and hawing about this decision to make it," Johnson said. "It puts everyone at the school at a disadvantage if families wait until the end of the summer to enroll."
Elliott, who was principal at Coe Elementary for more than 10 years before making the move to Queen Anne, agrees that making the decision soon is better for the school.
"I would love people to make up their minds soon. The best thing that I can do is to hire great teachers, and I've done that," he said.
Johnson said the design team had a "very causal initial conversation" with the district asking them to stop enrollment, but haven't heard any response. By stopping enrollment, the design team could create a waitlist, and then open another classroom if the waitlist grew long enough to accommodate it, Johnson explained. However, at this point enrollment is still continuing.
"We'd love to get bigger," Elliott said of Queen Anne Elementary. "But I'd love to get bigger in a way to that doesn't put is in a bind." He added that he is not "overly concerned about it," and has experience managing those kinds of issues.
It's an interesting dilemma about wanting the school to fill but not after registration because then it would be difficult to staff.
Also in the QA/Magnolia news (on their home page), poll results of their question, "How is Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson doing?" 10% - great, 10% ok,, 79% not good. They don't give actual number of votes.
We are trying to encourage families that are hemming and hawing about this decision to make it," Johnson said. "It puts everyone at the school at a disadvantage if families wait until the end of the summer to enroll."
Elliott, who was principal at Coe Elementary for more than 10 years before making the move to Queen Anne, agrees that making the decision soon is better for the school.
"I would love people to make up their minds soon. The best thing that I can do is to hire great teachers, and I've done that," he said.
Johnson said the design team had a "very causal initial conversation" with the district asking them to stop enrollment, but haven't heard any response. By stopping enrollment, the design team could create a waitlist, and then open another classroom if the waitlist grew long enough to accommodate it, Johnson explained. However, at this point enrollment is still continuing.
"We'd love to get bigger," Elliott said of Queen Anne Elementary. "But I'd love to get bigger in a way to that doesn't put is in a bind." He added that he is not "overly concerned about it," and has experience managing those kinds of issues.
It's an interesting dilemma about wanting the school to fill but not after registration because then it would be difficult to staff.
Also in the QA/Magnolia news (on their home page), poll results of their question, "How is Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson doing?" 10% - great, 10% ok,, 79% not good. They don't give actual number of votes.
Comments
Many families have decided to not send their kids to these schools because of what looks like a huge lack of support by the District.
But unless their choice is within the district, there is no incentive to notify SPS that their child is not attending the school where they assigned to.
Why bother?
The district does not respect the families, why should the families respect the district?
Of course, they forget that by not letting the district know, other families might be affected.
I hope someone writes a good article about the new schools, the cost per student is really, really high. Will they ever fill up? Or will the District just keep on dumping programs (ELL and special Ed at Sand Point, for instance) to beef up the numbers?