Follow Up Update

Over four months ago the staff promised quick changes to the School Reports. The changes have not been made and no one talks about them anymore. The Board has yet to ask about them.

The interim superintendent and the Board have been promising more transparency and engagement since the change in leadership on March 2. Since that day not one action brought before the Board has had any community engagement. The new superintendent uses a new Board Action Report template that doesn't have a community engagement section. There's no noticable increase in transparency either.

The projected enrollments at schools used for budget purposes is significantly smaller than the projected enrollment at schools for the capacity management and enrollment planning purposes. The difference has not been explained.

There has been no report to the Board of program placement decisions for 2011-2012. It is long overdue. I know the decisions were made, but they were never reported to the Board as the policy requires.

Board meeting minutes now highlight the items for follow up. Is anyone following up on the assigned follow ups?

Comments

dan dempsey said…
"2. Since that day not one action brought before the Board has had any community engagement. The new superintendent uses a new Board Action Report template that doesn't have a community engagement section. There's no noticable increase in transparency either."

The increase in transparency is that this Superintendent likely tells the Board the truth more often. At least this superintendent has engaged 7 more members of the community than MGJ on most issues.
4/26/11, 11:31 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more