Open Thread Friday
So a new school year has started, the Superintendent wants to meet you, and there's a campaign to defeat the supplemental levy (Charlie and I are part of it with Dorothy Neville, Meg Diaz and Ken Berry.)
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
My email address is in my profile. Can you please forward the emails that talk about only aligned courses counting for credit?
I am very interested in this with respect to the levy. One of the things people LIKE about this levy is that it will provide textbooks for HS Science and Social Studies and middle school LA. BUT what needs to be advertised is that the Levy Resolution makes it clear that the $6M for textbooks includes curriculum alignment, textbook adoption and professional development. So, what they REALLY are proposing is continuing on the path of standardization for these departments, the same thing they just did for math and HS LA.
Is this what parents, students and teachers want?
Does anyone know anything about this?
Having said that, yes, why did they revisiting this? ARE they going to reevaluate her?
E-mail your Board member and ask.
Would that mean that all music instructors would have to teach from District approved/selected materials?
We have nationally recognized music programs. I don't want these already excellent programs to be tampered with/broken.
Race to Nowhere
Thursday, Sept 30; 6:30p
@ Nova
We're taking part in a national screening day, working to continue community dialogue about the nature of school, the role of education and our hopes for our children. Please help spread the word, we need to confirm 50 pre-sale tix by 9/20 in order to participate in this screening day.
Find a link to the film and our purchase a ticket at our Nova PTSA site: novaproject.my-ptsa.org
See the CNN piece on RtN on YouTube
If you'd like an e-vite or flyer to help us publicize, let me know. We'd appreciate it!
owlhouse88(at)hotmail(dot)com
(And, shout out to Mel and Charlie. Please check your spam comments folder, because one of mine is lost.)
But of course, many people either actually need to chase those dollars, or feel a need to...
I am betting that this is the meeting where they gave her a few grand for meeting a couple of targets.
Helen Schinske
Click on the date on the Board Calendar for the details.
It used to be that the District provided monies for a PCP instrumental music teacher starting in third grade.
I haven't kept up with recent budget ins and outs, so don't know if this is still true or not.
As I mentioned to another group of parents, I saw the 34th District Democrats (a group of well-informed liberals) endorse Yes on the Levy hands-down. Since some of them have heard of ed reform (and rejected endorsing Stand's candidate Mike Heavey), I can believe they choose to ignore the State audits and the district's mismanagement. All they see is "its for the kids" and "it supports the teachers."
I was happy to meet Ken Berry there passing out flyers.
I've been told that I can never get elected because I've told people I'm voting against a school levy. So be it. But I think time is on my side and what I said in my reasoning for my vote is going to be borne out.
It pains me that people don't believe that voting no is voting for accountability. We certainly haven't seen it any other way. We certainly haven't seen our district getting better. And, most of the money isn't going anywhere near the classroom.
"Recommendation 2: Conduct a comprehensive independent audit of the District’s new payroll system to determine the scope, causes, and severity of underpayment, overpayment, and non-payments, and take corrective actions to make it an effective and efficient
operation. Again this specific recommendation is not included in the Strategic Plan. However, because correct and timely payroll is important for employee satisfaction, we have been working to address this issue. The payroll system has been stabilized and an audit of the system is underway."
Yet the audit for the 2008-2009 FY Slams them for continued payroll screw-ups. AND at the audit committee meeting, Don Kennedy said that the payroll program predated him (by a wee bit) so that implies that it was not "new" in 2008, yes?
Don't forget, Mr Kennedy also said that to fix the payroll situation NOW, they had reassigned the manager and hired someone new, as of February 2010, IIRC. AND the staff went to Chicago for training.
At some point, though, one has to raise one's still, quiet voice in opposition. I can not vote to further bloat an already bloated central bureaucracy, when a teacher today hugged me for bringing half a dozen cheap compasses to his art classroom. This district does not know how to properly account for money spent, and so tons of money gets spent on useless, wasteful things, and kids in classrooms are starved for teachers, tools, and materials. No more.
Josh, I couldn't agree with you more. I see it everyday!
The District needs to figure out how to plan for the 2011-2012 22 million dollar shortfall (without impacting classrooms), address Audit- which will probably require hiring extra staff and cover the cost of the Strategic Plan.
Sorry folks, I don't see the district being able to do this.
I'm certain we will see classroom cuts in the 2011-2012 school year.
As part of the effort to bring Teach For America (TFA) to Washington in 2011, The Seattle Foundation will grant $250,000 to TFA and seeks to match that amount through donations from the community.
http://www.seattlefoundation.org/givingcenter/education/Pages/default.aspx
and this from the Capitol Hill blog:
By the way, the Alliance For Education awarded Garfield principal Ted Howard a $50,000 grant for outstanding leadership in March, which he can spend how he sees fit within the school...
http://capitolhillseattle.com/2010/09/09/capitol-hill-back-to-school-changes-at-area-public-schools#comment-3
Hire more teachers, perhaps? Maybe TFA recruits???
OK, talk me out of it. Tell me why funding has to be tied to accountability. Tell me why this will not affect future levies.
Seattle had a bad spot in the '90s when the levies failed but that was because they didn't make their case and they didn't provide accountability. Since then? Passed every levy.
Believing that failing a levy is the road to funding hell is up to you. Stats don't bear it out.
"I do want less spending centrally. I do want accountability. I think those things might be possible without tying everything to funding."
Ok Syd, let me throw this back at YOU. What accountability have you seen? How do YOU purpose to get accountability?
Schools First has said, time after time, levy after levy, "we will hold them accountable but AFTER we pass the levy."
It never happens.
And again I ask: are academics better in this district than, say, 5 years ago? Building conditions? I'll go out on a limb - what is better in this district than 5 years ago? Not what have they gotten done because, for example, the jury is waaay far out on something like the NSAP. What is better?
If your only reason to vote for the levy is fear, you should be worried. Fear is what is driving our Tea Party friends. Fear is partially responsibility for holding back our economy.
Fear is never a reason to vote yes.
This force includes national and state-level think tanks, Astroturf front groups, academic shills, university centers, political-training programs, fundraising clearinghouses, publications, lobbyists and various other units useful to their ideological cause. They spend freely on dozens of ideologically grounded right-wing groups to influence schoolteachers and high-school curricula, state and federal judges, lawyers and legal scholars, conservative policy thinkers and media producers, city-council candidates and local party activists.
Their aim is to shove the country's national debate to the hard right,
discombobulate the public's progressive wishes, and alter government policies to advance corporate interests ... Americans for Prosperity, the third-largest recipient of Koch foundation largesse, is the brothers' overtly political unit.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/school-outsources-teaching-india/
I am voting NO!
http://www.uncletomsclassroom.com/
WV = Knotion!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&feature=player_embedded
But here’s the thing. This levy isn’t for kids. This levy will pour more money into opaque, centrally-directed projects that give more power to the district management. The same district management that got dinged in the recent audit report for its poor management. The same district management that closed 5 schools to save money... and then announced plans to open 5 more in the same school year. The same district management that has been reluctant to be explicit about what, exactly, they will use this money for - not just this year, but for every year of the levy.
Voting yes is voting for more of the same, and what's happening right now is hurting kids, schools and the district.
If anyone has questions, I'd be happy to answer them, here or on my blog. And clearly Melissa, Charlie and Dorothy are answering away, too.
Why is the number of times I post on a row (mostly because its part of my morning routine to take care of matters in the cyber world before I get into the day/outside world) a problem on a blog which has no limit to the number of posts on each thread?
Its not like I am depriving other people of the chance to have their say....
Quick question: If the levy fails, and the district doesn't get the money they anticipate what will they do? Will they forge forward with the projects anyway and take the money directly out of school/classroom budgets - making an already bad situation worse?
They are applying for federal grants for the teacher evaluation process so that could come through.
If not, well, you'd have to ask the SEA and the district what they will do. The answer is probably, "postpone".
They can't take more out the classrooms, at least for this year, because the budgets are set. I doubt if would happen in the following years either.
However, the people to ask are not here. You need to ask the district. Their answer might surprise you because they can't go all Chicken Little on you because this is work that can be delayed.
I am trying to be clear to people (and am revising the flyer) that MOST school levies are crucial. The regular Operations Levy is 25% of the budget. HOWEVER, this levy is supplemental and unique in that way. THIS levy is one where people really should educate themselves and make their voting decision based on the merits of this particular levy. AND It is only about 2% of the budget.
Additionally, we are getting more people disgusted with the school district and cranky. I spoke with one man with kids who will be split in elementary school (younger one doesn't start K until next year) and besides that and the start time change he is furious and wants to turn down levy based on that, without knowing anything about the levy. He even apologized to me about wanting to do that and that he was being a one issue voter.
So, if this levy passes and HQ does not change, then what? I was at the audit committee meeting where they were discussing how many of the findings from last year will they probably get dinged with this year. A lot, actually. Look at the Whole Audit with Exceptions (I posted it as a google doc, see my blog) and note the dates that the auditors discussed issues with staff. All last school year! But the board did not know about any of these until the audit report was public. Well, the board and the public learned about the American Indian Grant fiasco in the Spring. Perhaps staff daylighted that one because the FEDS were going to anyway???? They may finally have the payroll thing fixed, but that would only have been done in the Spring, so all of Fall and Winter could still raise audit issues.
So, next year's audit will have findings. Perhaps they are not as important because HQ is "working on improving" but people will be watching. AND Melissa keeps talking about that long delayed BEX audit. Does anyone seriously think that audit is going to make the district look good for managing BEX money well?
AND the economy is not improving, the state and county budgets are dismal. So before we know it, the operating levy will be up for a vote again. How many more people will be POed? How many of them will then say -- I shoulda turned down that last levy gosh darn it, but I am gonna say no now!
BUT by saying NO now, we can give a huge vote of no-confidence to the reform movement and Performance Management and all that HQ expensive projects with no transparency or clear positive results. So it could very possibly help change the direction downtown. And it would get people's anger out, so it would be easier to make the real Operating Levy clearly something crucial.
A 2% boost in budget is small enough that saying YES is a vote FOR the reform movement and showing confidence in HQ and the Super. A vote NO says enough is enough.
Anyway, I listened to This American Life last night and found it interesting and relevant. The second story was about police in NYC, and corruption that occurred AFTER the big push to reduce crimes by data driven methods --- publishing a lot of statistics. That worked, but in the long run, the push for reducing the numbers even further meant that lots of crimes were downgraded, so the precinct didn't look bad statistically. Like a rapist was caught and admitted that it was his 7th offence. Yet there had been no indication to anyone that there had been a serial rapist out. The detective was shocked, got enough details from the suspect that he found the previous police reports and all had been downgraded to things like criminal trespass.
I wrote this as a progress report on how the academic improvement is going.
http://www.box.net/shared/b0u2727fdx
Note those 2010 scores from "Discovering" an $800,000 purchase with $400,000 in professional development.
2008 (2009) 2010 for Black students’ pass rates:
Ballard: 25.0 (14.3) 26.9
Cleveland: *6.3 (*12.7) *5.7
Franklin: 17.4 (12.9) 16.7
Hale: 34.5 (33.3) 28.9
Ingraham: 13.0 (13.7) 5.4
Garfield: *22.5 (*29.8) *16.7**
Rainier B: 21.6 (*15.6) *3.9
Roosevelt: 31.0 (32.4) 28.1
Sealth: 28.8 (17.9) 10.2
W Seattle: 17.3 (15.2) 6.1
* UW NSF project assisted year
** AP Magnet
2008 (2009) 2010 for Limited English Speaking students’ pass rates:
Ballard: 16.7 (17.2) 11.8
Cleveland: *4.8 ( *0.0) *3.3
Franklin: 23.5 ( 9.4) 13.2
Hale: none
Ingraham: 35.5 (12.0) 3.0
Garfield: *0.0 (*16.7) *0.0**
Rainier Beach: none*
Roosevelt: 46.4 (15.8) 6.7
Sealth: 11.4 ( 6.3) 0.0
W Seattle: 19.0 (12.5) 6.7
==============
Great Spending. VOTE against the Levy.
Note: Sealth Principal and the Math department head both testified in favor of "Discovering" and how it was the choice to make. See Sealth scores above.
Boiled down it said our District had failed AYP towards its Improvement Plan.
Districts are evaluated on 111 items under NCLB. For 2009-2010 our District was on an Improvement Plan for 87 areas. We passed 57 and failed in 30.
What does this letter mean for the long term? Are you only allowed to fail x many years before - what? Replacement of the Superintendent, or ?
I would provide a link to the letter but on casual search of the District website I do not find it.
My limited understanding of the AYP thing is this:
ONLY Title One schools are federally affected by failing to meet AYP. This should tell us something from the get-go....Poor schools get to be "restructured"...
IF a school is Title One (a certain number of poorer students) THEN AYP has kick. (A side note: As has been discussed elsewhere on this thread, monies are hard to track around here, so ARE Title One funds getting actual services to the actual poor student? With the way things can be shuffled, I would say, "no.")
AYP:
Each school has a variable number of "cells," each representing a category, such as "Black" or Asian/Pacific Islander" or "Native American/Alaskan Native. Or Special Education. etc.
A typical school might have, oh, 25 cells.
IF a school does not show progress (not even no-growth, but progress) in just ONE of its cells, for instance if Asians fall back a bit in a given year, then the school is put on a list. I forget the actual names of the increasingly onerous levels, but if the school continues to have cells that don't show growth over, I think, four years, it is in the last year of non-AYP, and thus subject to all kinds of mean and nasty things, such as having the principal replaced, half the staff fired, and an outside education-management company brought in (KIPP, no doubt)
Nasty thing, AYP. I keep saying that schools don't fail, some teachers and some students fail, but NCLB's AYP tells us that yes, SCHOOLS fail. It's a way to tear apart existing public insitutions without having to actually pay for helping the particular group or individuals within the school.
Ballard High School is in its...fourth year, I think, on non-AYP. IF Ballard were Title One, it would be in danger of being federally restructured.
As a parent with a child in a non-AYP, Title One school, you are entitled to select another school, but I think the list is limited, and hey, the next school might not be AYP, either. You are also entitled to tutoring.
AYP is the bulldozer being used to flatten the concept of public schools. It is also a major shifr from local and state control of schools to federal control. And we all know who is at the helm federally: Arne Duncan, ex-"CEO" of Ariel Charter School in Chicago, a school "philanthropically" spun off of Ariel Investment Corp, a school where K-8 students learn in an environment themed around "Investment."
God save our students from not meeting "AYP."
A Baker
A Baker
The letter did not mention a specific school -- it just mentioned the District as a whole was failing.
As an example the group of ALL 3-5th graders did not advance in Reading Proficiency. High School grade 10 group of ALL did not advance in Mathematics Proficiency.
I'm wondering what happens when the District as a whole has been tagged as failing AYP more than one year in a row?
I thought the Addams building had a capacity around 700-800. Why the space crunch? I don't understand this. I thought Addams enrollment was around 500 or so.
A Baker
Have you considered adding the dismal results from the SE Initiative to your flyer? I think those results would support lack of confidence in MGJ reform packages.
JSIS is lucky that only 9 new first graders showed up. It could have been more.
In most schools, you could divide up these three especially large first grade classes into four more reasonably sized classes.
Unfortunately, the kids at JSIS are split between two Japanese classes and one Spanish, so splitting them into four equal classes won't be possible. And, of course, hiring an immersion teacher in September would be a bit of a trick as well.
JSIS has a specialized program that needs more stability than this to work well.
Incidentally, I can't believe how large the JSIS attendance area is.
It's too big now, and SPS seems to be in denial about the fact that once the boundaries have been drawn, families will move to be within those boundaries for this school.
JSIS is going to quickly run out of room for kids. Anyone in the neighborhood knows that this year (with four Kindergartens) isn't even the big year for incoming Kindergarteners -- next year will be even bigger.
It'd be nice if SPS could acknowledge this and do something about it now instead of three or four or five years from now.
I think the best choice is to make it an option school, *AND* work with parents to create more immersion schools ASAP.
They are supposed to be "restructured" but there is no definition for that word and there is no one enforcing it.
Look at Aki Kurose. It is a Title I schoo that has been at Level 5 for two years. Has it been "restructured"? The District claimed that the extended day at Aki and the principal who took over two years ago constitutes restructuring. That's the end of it.
And it has had consequences where the district has done things to avoid the onus of long-term non-AYP, such as "closing" Cleveland, and then reopening it with another cohort. We've had this discussion before, but will Cleveland continue on its previous standing in the AYP scale, or will it start fresh because it's "new"?
I agree with your take on this, Dorothy, and I will be voting NO on the levy too.
"Believing that failing a levy is the road to funding hell is up to you. Stats don't bear it out."
Are there any stats on this? Archives are not stats, they are research materials to provide stats.
"How do YOU purpose to get accountability?"
I propose pressuring the board to do it's job. It is clear that the Sup is not doing hers. Charlie and Meg in numerous posts have laid out very persuasive fact-based arguments showing that both the Sup and the board are not doing their jobs well. This has been much augemented by Melissa's and Charlie's board meeting posts showing specific instances in real time.
We can't affect the Sup directly. We have no cards to hold over her. She serves at the will of the board. We can affect the board. We can remove them from office. Perhaps effort is better spent on removing board members from office.
DeBell said that he could dismiss one expression of dissatisfaction as being sour grapes, but he couldnt dismiss four....
I think the only way the community has any leverage here (against the forces behind all this) is to confront it from all angles...
we would be well served to have groups come together to work on various aspects (depending on what is your passion)... levy, lawsuits, countering the pro-deform agenda (such as attending this event:
Democrats for Education Reform invites you to a conversation with education reformer and former NBA All-Star, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Democrats for Education Reform National Executive Director Joe Williams
a. Where: The LeVine’s House: 1535 9th Ave W. Seattle
b. When: 5-6:30PM
c. Who: Anyone interested in improving education in this country
d. What: Please join local education leaders and reformers for a conversation on education reform.
e. How much: THIS IS NOT A FUNDRAISER – just a chance to discuss education reform efforts across the country and here in Washington
f. RSVP to dferwa@gmail.com or 415-690-5401), challenging LEV/A4E/OSC/S4C etc, committing to countering Seattle Times and Crosscut propaganda etc...
There are groups in other communities experiencing the same conditions as we are here in Seattle... they're joining together as Parents Across America - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123352677681840&v=wall&ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=148970815124891&v=wall
Read the Board Action Report for the levy. This was made AFTER the financial audit was public. Read what the staff wanted the money for. Maier was right, $6M for textbooks and $42M for reform efforts. Mel said she testified warning them about the risk of asking for this money for this purpose right after the audit (I haven't verified her exact testimony). But the board still believed in the staff could do no wrong, they believed in the "reform" efforts that were going to put Seattle on the Forefront of Innovation. It was business as usual. The staff showed incredible hubris asking for what really ought to be emergency money to continue their opaque HQ games. Had they no shame from the audits? Have they no sense of responsibility to their mistakes? To the schools that have cut budgets and need basic services? And the Board voted for this unanimously.
The no confidence vote AND the organized protest of the levy helped shake things up. Charlie pointed out that DeBell's list of issues, the lawsuit, the audits, the no confidence vote AND the levy protest all together are what's revealing the big need for change. (At the time, remember, they poo-pooed losing the lawsuit.) Are they finally seeing how angry both teachers and parents really are? And how right we are for being angry? That's what they need to see. How many of us write letters and point out issues and rationally explain what's wrong and why we are angry? I know a LOT of us do! Parents AND teachers. Did that do a thing? No.
You really cannot look historically for what might happen if the levy fails, because no other levy has been like this one, has it? This is a TINY levy, would add about $15M dollars to a budget of about $600M. The ordinary Operations Levy brings in $150M annually. I know it is too simplistic to say (because some of the coaching is useful) but just cutting the coaches from the budget would provide the same amount as what this levy would provide.
You can add my name to the list of people against the upcoming levy. I also could never imagine saying that but that's where we are right now.
And yet, the pull of the good public face/gotta support the Superintendent is too great for them.
We stand at a time and a place where our district is not moving forward in a visible way. And if you fall into the group that is willing to wait to see the fruits of the Superintendent's work, okay. But there are those of us that have waited (in fact, they waited me out).
Test scores up? No.
Building condition better? Nope (and the head of Facilities said it will get worse before it gets better.)
Satisfaction with the Superintendent? SEA, no. Parent survey, no.
Is there a recall of the Board going on? yes.
Is there a Board election next year? Yup and there is organizing going on to find candidates to challenge each of the 4 people up for reelection (should they choose to run).
And Syd, with all due respect, no, I don't have "stats" on whether failing levies mean no levies pass again. I find it interesting that you expect me to prove my POV to the nth degree and yet you offer nothing in return.
Vote your heart but there is nothing to support it from another other view.
The result - a steady decline in enrollment as the culture of the school changed and the snow ball of more families leaving because more families were leaving. There is still great things happening at the school and the focus on "traditional" academic instruction will help the kids at the schools whose parents aren't uber educated and homeschooling their kids in out of school hours. The downside is that its the latter families that are leaving (along with their time and resources) so the school is becoming economically depressed on top of having fewer kids (the lost more than 100 kids when they first lost all city transportation and then lost transportation to NW seattle).
Is the restructuring to blame for AS#1s troubles? No, but it definitely demonstrates that the districts attempts to help a school are completely misguided. They ignored all the BLTs priorities for spending during the budget process.
I'm increasingly suspicious that there are more powerful forces at work, over time, directing Broad and McAdams agendas and finding great success. They've convinced the public that mere WASL scores can be used to "restructure" schools, they've convinced the public that a regime of packaged curriculum towards those "standards" is the way to go, they've convinced the public that there is a serious, serious problem with "teacher quality" (whatever THAT is, they haven't said) and they've evidently shanghied many "influential and important" polticos to follow their line and speak authoritatively of the need for "reform": Burgess for Our Schools "Coalition"...Sacremento's Kevin Johnson for the "League" of Education Voters...OBAMA for the Department of "Education"...
And we learn more everyday about how far back this effort goes, and how school boards are being led by Broad graduates to support Broad superintendents to finagle Broad agendas...Many, many of the changes we see in Seattle are Broadite driven, and are laying the groundwork for increased privatization of schools. Many on our board have evidently been on board with this for at least the last few years, and perhaps, with city, state, and federal power players whispering in their ears, many board members have been in cahoots with McAdams, et al, for further back than we might imagine.
And we few are supposed to somehow convince these people of the error of there ways? It's way, way beyond that, we need a mass uprising. Our catalyst for this uprising is the evidence-strewn trail of back-room politicking, of mis-information, of conflict of interest, swollen bank accounts and general neer-do-well-edness of the relevant players. It's all there (unless I'm absolutely nuts, which I don't think I am); if it is made public in a way that shows the gravity and craptitude of the situation, I'm very hopeful that we can stop this train wreck.
But to continue to "work to change the board"? That's standing on the platform watching the train speed away.
Are you angry with me personally? Your posts seem to have an edge that perhaps I am misreading. I apologize if I am.
I am not asking you to prove anything. I just want to know if there are stats. Someone must have looked into this. I don't want to recreate the wheel.
I don't to wait for improvement either. We have one kid in the APP program at Garfield, one at Graham Hill in 2nd grade, and 1 one year old. They grow up really fast. From personal experience I know it is not to early to start worrying about middle school for the 2nd grader. I have toured Mercer. If there are not changes there - including facilities and program - I'll consider moving. And geez, my 1 year old will be assigned to Hawthorne. Most of the people I know who would have at least looked at public school for elementary are freaked by the idea of Hawthorne.
Good point Sahila - maybe it should be a multipronged effort. With three kids, one a toddler, I am really just trying to decide where I should focus my efforts.
I do hope you find suitable change (via existing or modified education at Garfield, or elsewhere if you must move) and know that is your focus, as it should be. I'd ask that, if you have any energy left you put a note on your refridgerator (and facebook it to all your friends to do likewise), reminding yourself that public schools need you for the long haul.
While it is extremely understandable that parent/guardians become aware of public schools when their children enter them, that they keep a certain focus on the part of the public schools that directly impacts their child, and that they move on to paying attention to their child's career or college or other minor aspects of adulthood, it is an unfortunate fact that many parent/guardians don't seem to carry the same zeal (or have the energy to) for public schools in general. THIS is how Broad got to where it is.
Sooo...I hate to preach (okay, I don't!) but I wish everybody would remind everybody that the idea of public education is something that is very, very important for our country and our children. If energy is available, all hands have to be on deck at all times, kids or no.
So I would ask you to (1) tell me how to better hold the Board accountable (and no fair saying vote them out next year) and (2) if you have no real evidence that voting down a levy permanently damages a district's ability to pass future levies, then why the hesitation?
Am I correct to say funds were taken from our most vulnerable students (sp. ed., low income etc,) to pay for something not related to sp. ed. etc.?
By the way, these funds totaled almost 1.5 million dollars.
Do note that later in the audit, the district was dinged for making so many of these sole-source contracts without following procedures or maintaining paperwork justifying that. And that's a very naughty thing that the federal government doesn't like because it doesn't ensure best use of funds.
link to SEA contract
Just saw this on the district's website. It announces a press conference about the new teacher's contract. SPS leaders and others will be there to comment and ask questions. Again, I have tried and failed numerous times to provide links therefore:
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/news/releases.htm