SPS Meetings Week of Jun 20-24, 2011

Tuesday
  • Joint Town Hall with the Superintendent and Mayor at South Shore K-8, 5:30-7:30 p.m.  (it's a two-hour event; I wonder how much of it will be Q&A.)
Wednesday
  • Public Hearing on the Budget from 4-5:00 p.m. at  headquarters.  You know folks, it IS worth your while to speak out and go on record.  Whatever your concern or unhappiness with the public, register it.  (I believe you can also send e-mails which will go into the record but I will check.)
Thursday
  • Operations Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m.  No agenda released yet.
You'll note that I didn't put in the Last Day of School times.  That's because the district website reflects something different from what information I received directly from Communications.   Also, reviewing the information from Communications, it is unclear to me which day middle school is releasing on.  They have it listed on both June 21 and June 23rd.

I'll check but the word in the "labels" is how I feel about this issue.

Comments

Confused said…
I've been under the impression all year that school lets out 1 hour early on the last day, June 22, at least for K-8.
Nope, I think it's the 21st but you see my confusion. I'll get it cleared up tomorrow.
Chris S. said…
We got robo calls - elementary last day is tuesday, but middle school last day is thursday. Because of transportation, the one hour early dismissal will occur on tuesday for both levels.
Chris S. said…
Oh, and Melissa, you're really missing out being off the robo-call list this year. Enfield and McGinn alternating sentances was a real giggle.
Confused said…
Ugh, I actually did mean the 21st. Tuesday! I'm not helping, am I?
Dorothy Neville said…
Curriculum and Instruction committee on Monday? Rumor is there is a presentation on Walk-to-Math, but this is just a vague rumor. Don't remember where I heard it.
Dorothy Neville said…
Wait, they changed it. It was listed as the 20th, now I see they moved it to the 27th. Confused.
Sue said…
Well early release is Tues and Thursday UNLESS you are a high school, where finals are occurring, in which case there is an early release on Thursday only. Except for one high school, but I cant remember which one now.

I am sure the schools are being driven crazy at this point by the district.
Anonymous said…
To answer Melissa's question...According to the Rainier Valley post, the Town Hall meeting is supposed to be primarily Q&A. Each is scheduled to only speak briefly, then the floor will be opened for questions.
SolvayGirl
mirmac1 said…
Wow, the district's communications department is really working out great, huh...
Anonymous said…
Buget- received this reply to my email to the board about budget.

Thank you for your email and for your comments. I can respond specifically to your points:

- The cost of central administration has been cut by 1/3 over the past two years and is now commensurate with the levels of regional districts. That excludes HR. For HR we benchmarked our levels to similar sized districts and made cuts there too (for next year)
- Our staff, at the request of the Board, did benchmark other school districts both regionally and nationally. All conduct assessment testing and many use MAP as the tool. We did note that the frequency and grade span is less – we are looking at what that approach might mean for SPS.
- Most of the money spent on investments in academic improvements was money that came from grants specifically for that purpose. The Board and Dr. Enfield went through a line item review of the strategic plan work and made specific decisions to continue/slow/stop on each item.

SPS teacher
I hope this helps to clarify where we are relative to the two topics you identified.

Best,


Sherry Carr
Director, District II
(206) 252-0040
dan dempsey said…
About the Sherry Carr response of ..
"- Most of the money spent on investments in academic improvements was money that came from grants specifically for that purpose. The Board and Dr. Enfield went through a line item review of the strategic plan work and made specific decisions to continue/slow/stop on each item."

It seems that a necessary step for analysis of "investments in academic improvements" ... would be to find out if academic improvements are being produced.

The UW CoE Math Education Project help is apparently free to the District.... but the results are horrific. Just because it nicely blends with the misguided ineffective SPS k-12 math program does NOT make this freebie worthwhile.

Adherence to Tribalism is no substitute for results.

For over a decade the SPS has been focused on Math improvement ... the results have been abysmal especially recently for High School students ... after $800,000 for new Books and $400,000 for professional development.

Now in response to poor results, we are told the Board will make "math" an area of emphasis......

So how will this emphasis be any diffferent than the recent $1.2 million emphasis that produced "diddly squat".
Does Sherry know this for certain or was she told this by staff? Because staff says a lot of things which are later mistruths or half-truths.

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