Seattle Times article on re-opened schools
Today's Seattle Times has a story about the re-opening of Rainier View and Viewlands. Director Maier is quoted.
District-wide enrollment fell from 2000 to 2007. It has been rising since then. Closures in 2006, after falling enrollment, might have made sense, but how does Mr. Maier justify the school closures that HE voted for since the enrollment has been rising?
District-wide enrollment fell from 2000 to 2007. It has been rising since then. Closures in 2006, after falling enrollment, might have made sense, but how does Mr. Maier justify the school closures that HE voted for since the enrollment has been rising?
Comments
Good he can be so blase about it all.
I love the enthusiasm that the neighborhoods around Viewlands and Rainier View are showing. (And Queen Anne Elementary had all its 4th graders do well on the HPSE.)
Mr. Maier sure is blaise about spending other people's money for a guy trying to get re-elected....
And, if the district had protected Viewlands better, we wouldn't be paying the cost to replace all the copper wiring that was stripped out by thieves.
And this was a cost saving idea.
Hmmmm....what the bleep is wrong with that picture. Is it that the Board starts seeing these large figures so often that it stops meaning anything to them, in the way it would to ordinary citizens? Because I have served on city boards before, and there's no way I wouldn't ask the question, BEFORE I voted to approve closures - "what if we have to reverse this decision, what's the estimate on those costs?"
taking deep breath and counting to ten because that just...boggles
JAN. 2009
Board passes the superintendent's closure plan
OCT. 2009
Seattle Public Schools proposed new boundary lines for all its schools Tuesday, marking a return to a neighborhoods-based assignment system that would guarantee students a place at a school close to home. As part of the new plan, the district also wants to reopen five closed schools.
That whiplash occurred in the space of one calendar year. Costly and idiotic and yes, devastating to the communities that were built around those schools.
Whatever money was allegedly saved by the closures of 2009 was most likely eaten up by the costs of reopening schools, some of them in great need of repair.
Btw, once again, the Seattle Times supported bad SPS decisions and cheered on these costly and short-sighted closures: Seattle Public Schools must take the tough vote and close schools
Meanwhile, over 1,700 people district-wide opposed the closures and signed this petition: petition to
SAVE SEATTLE SCHOOLS - We Deserve a Better Plan
Poor planning, poor management, and another case where SPS leadership ignored the facts presented to it by the community which told SPS that closures would be costly and these buildings were needed because enrollment was going up. We were right.
Time for new leadership for Seattle Public Schools. Vote: McLaren, Peaslee, Buetow & Martin.
Throw the bums out? I'm not so sure the new candidates are any better.
-reader
Melissa - where did you get this info? Can you provide a link?
thank you!
parent at Queen Anne
Viewlands neighbor
-Another "Duh" moment, brought to you by SPS admin and Facilities.
Don't you all recall that? Don't you recall being talked down to like a kindergartener by MGJ and Co. who were trying to save money to help kids? Now, of course, MGJ may never have heard of a "thermostat, valve, or light-switch," all which do a great job of saving energy and money, according to our local, state and federal governments, among others. But we should at least have expected our esteemed Board Members to have queried her on the subject.
So, why didn't they? Answer: Corporate Think-Tank inspired Education Reforms that prefer jamming as many kids as possible into one building and classroom (recall: "The research shows class size doesn't matter. The single most important factor is the quality of the teacher in the classroom." - MGJ), in order to more efficiently deliver curriculum. And "serving customers," and "students first" and "merit pay" and yada-yada-yada.
The Board voted as robots because they were put in place to act as robots. And, like robots, they acted without brains, and look where it got us.
Who, seriously, would consider re-hiring the gang-of-four, based on their record (besides the Times, of course)?
Just askin? WSDWG
Enfield on PR kick
L@L parent
"At three Seattle schools all of the students in at least one grade met or exceeded standard on the statewide tests in reading, writing, or math.
At Queen Anne Elementary School, a school that opened just last year, every student in grade
4 met or exceeded standard in writing. Principal David Elliott attributes the school’s excellent
results to “exceptional, committed teachers, particularly in reading and writing.”
At Montlake Elementary School, every student in grade 3 met or exceeded standard in reading.
Students throughout the school also improved their performance in math.
At McGilvra Elementary School, every student in grade 4 met or exceeded standard in writing,
up from 78.6 percent in 2009-2010."
Thank you - I was assuming the full scores for each school were already posted somewhere. Guess not.
parent at Queen Anne
"Truth in Numbers"
Seattle schools expect a big first-day crowd
(bold emphasis mine)
Interim schools chief Susan Enfield says it's a good sign that a handful of Seattle Public Schools are going to be bursting at the seams on the first day of school Wednesday — a sign that, after a disastrous year, parents are starting to have more confidence in the district.
A 'good sign'?
Overstuffed schools and packed classrooms?
This is an attempt to spin what is in fact an utter failure by SPS 'leadership' at capacity management, enrollment and demographic projections, poor planning, wrongheaded and costly school closures.
This smacks of preemptive spin control of what may be a repeat of last year's overcrowding debacle at Garfield and possibly district-wide, tomorrow.