What's On Tap This Week
Tomorrow, Monday the 8th, is the SE Regional Meeting on the NSAP. It is at Rainier Beach High School from 6:30-8:00p.m. I hope someone goes and reports back because I'm sure each meeting will have its own regional tone. (And I hope after this meeting that the district will post meeting materials.)
Also on Monday is the Audit Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. in the Board conference room at the headquarters. This is probably the 4rd meeting solely to continue going over the issues and findings of the audit. ( It sure is taking a long time for what some seem to consider an inconsequential audit.) They will also be talking about a plan to monitor progress of the findings. They will also be discussion the audit website as well as creating a place for a public member of the committee.
Then on Wednesday is the Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. Boy, I wish I could go to this one. Topics: "Financials" (no idea what that is), public health contracts, the VAX, the infamous Small Works Business Development Program, percent of reserves, etc. So many topics, will they be able to cover it all?
As a reminder, the Small Works Business Development program was the one that started as a way to make sure the district did outreach to small/minority businesses and morphed into a 40-class program for those contractors and ended up helping many other governmental agencies but provided very little for SPS. The spending got to nearly $1M per year and now the Operations side will have to pay back $2M into Capital. (So we lose $2m out of Operations on top of the looming cuts from the state.) There is quite an interesting backstory here as both the head of this program AND the head of facilities left at nearly the same time after this issue was discovering during the "not so bad" audit.
The NE Regional Meeting on the NSAP is on Wednesday, the 10th, at Roosevelt High School from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Also on Monday is the Audit Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. in the Board conference room at the headquarters. This is probably the 4rd meeting solely to continue going over the issues and findings of the audit. ( It sure is taking a long time for what some seem to consider an inconsequential audit.) They will also be talking about a plan to monitor progress of the findings. They will also be discussion the audit website as well as creating a place for a public member of the committee.
Then on Wednesday is the Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. Boy, I wish I could go to this one. Topics: "Financials" (no idea what that is), public health contracts, the VAX, the infamous Small Works Business Development Program, percent of reserves, etc. So many topics, will they be able to cover it all?
As a reminder, the Small Works Business Development program was the one that started as a way to make sure the district did outreach to small/minority businesses and morphed into a 40-class program for those contractors and ended up helping many other governmental agencies but provided very little for SPS. The spending got to nearly $1M per year and now the Operations side will have to pay back $2M into Capital. (So we lose $2m out of Operations on top of the looming cuts from the state.) There is quite an interesting backstory here as both the head of this program AND the head of facilities left at nearly the same time after this issue was discovering during the "not so bad" audit.
The NE Regional Meeting on the NSAP is on Wednesday, the 10th, at Roosevelt High School from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Comments
The name "Small Works Business Development program" is incorrect. It is called the Small Business Assistance Program. It used to be called the 'regional small business development program'. The regional program is the "infamous" program, as you put it. Why again was so much money going to this small business program instead of going to the classroom to help future small business owners?
You asked the $64,000 question. Why, after year one, didn't anyone upstairs say to themselves, "Why are we spending $1M on classes for contractors to be able to win contracts with SPS? This program didn't cost this much before." The program manager didn't just decide to spend $1M all by himself. Someone upstairs had to okay it. Question is, why?
I think the district wants this to all go away but something tells me it's not going to. And this all happened on Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's watch so maybe she'd like to explain it.
State of the District: Tuesday, November 9, 6:00 � 7:30 p.m., Mercer Middle School Cafeteria
I would like to invite you to attend the State of the District Address on Tuesday, November 9. At this event, we will make our second annual District Scorecard public, and for the first time, a School Report for every school in our system will be available. Publication of School Reports is an important step � and it will kick-off a community wide dialogue about how we can work together with our parents, families, organizations, and community members to support the academic success of our students.
From 6:00 p.m. � 7:30 p.m. on November 9, I will be delivering the State of the District Address at Mercer Middle School located at 1600 S COLUMBIAN WY Seattle, WA 98108. The purpose of this presentation is to share data on district progress and successes, and also discuss areas where persistent challenges remain. I will provide an overview on which elements of the Strategic Plan have been implemented and what milestones lie ahead.
The event will begin with a meet and greet from 6:00 to 6:20 p.m., the presentation from 6:20 to approximately 6:50 p.m., and another opportunity for informal dialogue immediately following the presentation. A series of regional community meetings, to focus on the District Scorecard and School Reports, are scheduled beginning on November 29.
The presentation will be taped and posted on our website. I will send a link out to you when it is posted.
Working collaboratively we will accelerate progress in reaching our 2013 student academic goals as outlined in Excellence For All Strategic Plan.
Thank you for all that you do to help our students achieve!
Sincerely,
Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D.
Superintendent
Honestly, I don't know why they keep saying this. There have always been annual school reports.
The new report looks better in some ways, worse on others. It's nice that it gives break downs based on various sub-groups, but it looks like it drops a lot of data as well -- at least if their example report is indicative of the final format.
The older annual report had more information about student achievement on state tests for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. The example report has more selective reporting (3rd grade reading, 4th grdae math). It also had information about the budget for the school and programs offered by the school.
Looks like the new format drops the comparison between district and state results which is too bad.
What I'd like to see, instead of a new format on the old data, is the publishing of the school and district-wide MAP data. I'm not sure why that can't be made widely available.
The testing data in these school reports is already available in a more comprehensive form from the state's website.
After all the SPS PTAs fund 35 FTE in this district (and I don't even know how many half-time places). I'm sure this is info parents would like to have.