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Snow Day Tomorrow as Well
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Seattle Schools will be closed tomorrow. Tuesday, November 23rd
As well, the John Stanford Center is also closed (the better to fend off unpleasant phone calls).
I'm reposting for Anonymous since they should be deleted—then I'll comment: A said: "I find your comment "the better to fend off unpleasant phone calls" offensive. There are hundreds of people who work in that building. People you have never met, who work very hard at their jobs. Much of the city is shut down today. Emergency officials recommend if individuals can avoid traveling today they should. I don't think it is unreasonable or malicious that the John Stanford building is closed."
Take a chill pill, Anonymous. Melissa was making a joke ~ nobody doubts that the worker bees at JSCEE are hard-working. Did you stand up for teachers when they're being bashed on a regular basis? Relax and enjoy your snow day. And if it's not closed tomorrow and you don't think it's safe to drive or be out in sub-freezing temps, take a sick day. No job is so important that you should put yourself at risk!
In order to avoid calls about the misleading 17% figure, Seattle Public Schools just announced that "due to snow" (ha!) there will be no one in the JSCEE building Wednesday to take your calls...or in any other building, for that matter!
I'm just a bit curious about the consequences of two half-days of "snow day" for middle and high schools. Will those schools have a day added at the end of the year, a day that WON'T be added for elementary and k-8 schools, since they were already out of school and therefore didn't miss any? Or what?
Anonymous said…
What about conferences? Are elementaries having more days off during which time they can hold conferences that were missed?
Inquiring Mind
Eric B said…
I'll admit I snorked at the comment about the JSCEE being closed. But then I thought it was a pretty low blow. And the real issue is that you want to be taken seriously as a reporter, and this will give people who don't want that an easy excuse to pitch your press pass application into the round file.
So can I start more sentences with conjunctions? Yes I can!
Josh- Good question about making up the missed days (actually its now 2 full days & one 1/2 day) for MS & HS.
It will be interesting to see how the district accounts for it at the end of the year, to still get to the required 180 days (actually 177 because Seattle has 3 waiver days).
In Shoreline district after their audit which came down hard on their non-instructional time being counted incorrectly, they were very careful to account for all the snow days & partial days. Will Seattle do this also?
In addition to the 3 day waiver for all schools (for PD), Seattle also has a 3 day waiver (from the 180 day rule) just for elementary schools specifically for conference time. I'm wondering how the middle school part of the K-8's got off 3 full days also for conferences? The MS part of the K-8's already are shortchanged by 1/2 hr. daily compared to the regular MS 6-1/2 hr schedules. Does anyone know how they can do this? Some regular middle schools have also wanted to take time off for conferences and were told that the waiver was only for elementary lschools, not for middle schools, so why does it extend to the middle school kids in K-8's?
I also wonder how so many middle schools are allowed to take 1 & 2 day "slow start" days off for the 7th & 8th grades at the beginning of the year? Doesn't the 180 day rule mean 180 days, and not just for some schools, but not for others...?
I just got a call from Seattle Public schools saying a 2 hour late start tomorrow, Tuesday. Is there or is there not school tomorrow for Seattle Public schools?
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.)
Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Here's the agenda for tonight's Board meeting. I note that people can no longer sign up to speak at a Board meeting by phone. It is strictly by online sign-up. Not good. Public Testimony seems to cover two topics. Apparently, the Chinese program at West Seattle High School is in jeopardy and there are several speakers for that issue. The other issue is, of course, school closures. There are six people on the waitlist. Here's the latest from the Times which says that " Seattle Could Close about a quarter of its elementary schools." First, that would be a heck of a lot of schools (17) and two, only elementaries? My cynical side is that the district is throwing out a big number so they can "generously" only close 10-12. The article claims that the district is taking "$32M from its reserves" which is not true; they have no reserves. I think the reporter means capital reserves. I'll be tuning in with updates. 4:15 pm and has the 4:15
Comments
A said: "I find your comment "the better to fend off unpleasant phone calls" offensive. There are hundreds of people who work in that building. People you have never met, who work very hard at their jobs. Much of the city is shut down today. Emergency officials recommend if individuals can avoid traveling today they should. I don't think it is unreasonable or malicious that the John Stanford building is closed."
Lighten up—she was making a joke!
FYI, no Anonymous posts.
No school Wednesday! Snow (job) day!
Inquiring Mind
So can I start more sentences with conjunctions? Yes I can!
Good question about making up the missed days (actually its now 2 full days & one 1/2 day) for MS & HS.
It will be interesting to see how the district accounts for it at the end of the year, to still get to the required 180 days (actually 177 because Seattle has 3 waiver days).
In Shoreline district after their audit which came down hard on their non-instructional time being counted incorrectly, they were very careful to account for all the snow days & partial days. Will Seattle do this also?
In addition to the 3 day waiver for all schools (for PD), Seattle also has a 3 day waiver (from the 180 day rule) just for elementary schools specifically for conference time. I'm wondering how the middle school part of the K-8's got off 3 full days also for conferences? The MS part of the K-8's already are shortchanged by 1/2 hr. daily compared to the regular MS 6-1/2 hr schedules. Does anyone know how they can do this? Some regular middle schools have also wanted to take time off for conferences and were told that the waiver was only for elementary lschools, not for middle schools, so why does it extend to the middle school kids in K-8's?
I also wonder how so many middle schools are allowed to take 1 & 2 day "slow start" days off for the 7th & 8th grades at the beginning of the year? Doesn't the 180 day rule mean 180 days, and not just for some schools, but not for others...?