First Day of School
Over at the KUOW Public Insight Network, they are doing a story on your first day of school experience. Here's a link if you are interested in reporting out what your day was like.
Also, if you feel like writing here as well, please let us know how it went for you and your child and any info on what the day seemed like at your school.
Also, if you feel like writing here as well, please let us know how it went for you and your child and any info on what the day seemed like at your school.
Comments
School construction is in the last phase, and it should all be over by March, 2011.
A moment ago I got a robo call from the District telling me about a procedure in place the first week of school that could delay elementary buses for an hour. Kudos for this bright moment of good communication. Knowing this in advance I have no reason for a freakout until much later this evening. Oh yes, and my 8th grader finally has a cell phone, so I can track her myself.
And yes, my daughter was also excited and nervous today. She started at a new school, but she has two friends in her homeroom, an enthusiastic new teacher that we got to meet last week, and we are all cautiously optimistic that she's going to have a good year. Despite any kvetching on my part about the district, I still have faith in things at the local level.
So a big thank you to all the teachers, staff, and parents who made this a great first day of school!
What happened to the 180 days required by state law for all schools (already shortened to 177 for Seattle by waiver)? Will those schools not get FTE allowances for those kids not showing up today? Oh, that's right, the law only applies to some of our kids, some of the time!
I wonder how schedules are working out for kids in the overenrolled HSs?
My 3rd grader (who has some medical problems, so perhaps we worry a little too much sometimes) was confiding to us that "they seemed to split all the best friends up into different classes"... Spouse replied "Oh, that's too bad honey...". 3rd grader "I think they just want us to focus on learning...". LOL, and OMG - I had to wander down the hall while I tried to decide whether to cry or laugh. In third grade I was not focused on learning, that's for sure!!!
Last spring, when the SAP was put into place, the District had charts on the numbers of freshmen they expected to enroll at each high school -- based on the boundaries they had drawn (with assumptions built in for the numbers that would go to option schools like STEM, Center School, etc.). They also had data for the "functional capacity" of each school -- basically, what they were targeting as its optimum max, I think) and the current numbers of students, broken out by category. The last time I went looking, I could no longer find the charts. I don't know if they are gone, or whether I just cannot remember where to find them.
Many people were concerned about the validity of the assumptions for option schools, etc., but the number of students affected by those things was relatively small. What concerned some of us is that the attendance boundaries for some schools (including GHS) were HUGE compared with the "geographic tiebreaker" boundaries from past years. It was alarming because we feared that their data was VERY flawed, and the actual number of 9th graders who would show up would VASTLY exceed their estimates -- which is what has happened.
Because I can't find the old chart, I can't recall exactly how many freshmen they had last year, but my recollection is that the entire school was less than 1400. Assuming some attrition from 9th to 12th grade (but not a lot, because kids apply to transfer every year), I was assuming somewhere between 350 and 400 freshmen were "planned." I had initially heard 150 extra, but if the "real" number is 630, then I think it is probably more like 200+ additional freshmen. If it gets much higher, they will be at about double projected numbers. Either way, it is an alarming failure by the District to foresee the effects of the SAP at the high school level. They have no plan for this. The SAP contains no mechanism for relieving this overcrowding -- and any decisions they make now would be unfair to any students moved from the building who enrolled based on the promises made in the SAP.
If you can search the comments, look for one in another thread by PurpleandWhite, who evidently is someone at GHS (either paid or volunteer) for more details on students milling around in the commons with no class space to go to, teacher shortages, etc.