Seattle Schools Community Forum

What school district seems to have been dragging their feet on releasing a long -awaited investigation report on a personnel issue at an elementary school?  It has taken months for this thing (never a good signal) and it's still not out.   It was supposed to be released a couple of weeks ago, a week ago, a day ago.  What gives? What's interesting is first the principal of the school takes a new job - in the middle of the year - in another district.  That new district then finds out about the pending investigation report and rescinds the job offer.  Principal goes back to old job and says he loves his school.  And, the superintendent of the first district is all the while looking for a new job.  Just as she's about ready to sign-off on a new job, well, the report is due out.  But it gets delayed - day after day. Makes you wonder.   Sometimes it seems like adults get more protection than students. 

Gee, a lot of local education news seems to be about specific individuals these days, like our own People magazine. We have Representative Eric Pettigrew (D-37) making yet more news for placing $3 million for Seattle Schools into the state house budget. There are a number of interesting bits about this story. First there is the obvious conclusion that he (and his backers) hope this will save his political future in the 37th District. Kind of like a celebrity donating to charity to save his reputation after getting caught in a scandal. Second is the characterization of the funding as a "gift" by the Seattle Times. Later today I'm going to present my children with the "gift" of food, clothing and shelter. Third is the lack of interest in the similar state funding for small, rural high schools. Isn't that also a "gift"? Will this money for southeast Seattle schools restore Mr. Pettigrew to the good graces of his local party supporters? How will the...

What's on your mind?

For the second time this month a teacher has stepped up to save lives. We learn this morning that a third student has died from yesterday's high school shootings in Ohio. What a tragedy. But it probably would have been worse if not for the fearless, selfless actions of a teacher/coach, Frank Hall, who chased the shooter out of the building. (When I heard this I thought, why would the shooter, who has the gun, run from the coach? But old habits die hard and the shooter probably could only think to run from the adult.) Bless Coach Hall his courage and the caring he showed for his students. We all know that many a teacher has motivated a life or encouraged a life in the classroom. That now we find them literally saving lives should not surprise any of us. Interesting article on why the US has more school shootings. I urge you to TALK to your older children. Ask them about what's happening at school. Ask them if it makes them feel safe to have fire drills and s...

From the Times, it has been announced that Dr. Enfield has taken the superintendent's job offered by Highline School district. From the story: “I will not let this community down,” said Enfield, the interim chief of Seattle schools. “I will work tirelessly on behalf of the students and staff here.” The job at the 18,000-student district would start July 1, the day after Enfield’s position in Seattle ends – a commitment she plans to keep, Enfield said. The contract would be for three years; salary terms have not yet been finalized. In choosing Highline, Enfield spurned advances from Bellevue School District officials, who were exploring an accelerated interview process with her for their superintendent vacancy. Enfield said she was impressed by Highline’s staff and school board. She made the decision after spending Friday interviewing at the district, she said. “I don’t think it’s so much what Highline has that Bellevue doesn’t,” she said. “I just thought the fit (was ...

The Times is reporting that Dr. Enfield has been offered the superintendent job in Highline. The Bellevue School Board is scheduled to meet tonight to decide whether to skip a search and offer the job to Enfield. She may have two offers in hand by the end of the day tomorrow and will likely need to make a decision by week's end.

There had been two conflicting SPS meetings on Wednesday but things have shifted. There is a Work Session on the budget from 4-5:30 p.m. Immediately after that there is an Executive Session on "labor negotiations/potential litigation" from5:30-6:00 pm. Members of the public are not allowed in executive sessions. Then there is another Work Session update on the Families and Education Levy from 6:15-7:00 pm.

From the Occupy Seattle Public Education Working Group, and reprinted without edits: RALLY AND MARCH FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION March 1 National Day of Action for Education:  Full Public Funding and Full Public Control! On Thursday, March 1, Seattle will join cities across the country taking action to support Public Education. The Seattle events will start with a rally at Westlake Center at 2:45 p.m., followed by a 3:30 p.m. march to the Gates Foundation to support a ‘ Grade-In’ conducted by teachers from the Seattle Education Association and a teach-In about charters by UW Professor Wayne Au.  At 4:30 p.m.,  members of the group plan to challenge Gates Foundation policy analysts to a “ Policy Throwdown ” -- a General Assembly style open discussion of education and charter issues facilitated by Jesse Hagopian. The purpose of the action is to oppose charter school legislation being pushed by the Gates Foundation and other wealthy individuals against the wishes of voters...

The ad is out there. People will soon be responding. Then the committees will winnow the list of applicants to a set of semi-finalists and finalists. Seattle Public Schools will have a new superintendent. What are you looking for in a new Superintendent? Administrative skills - someone who will get the house in order Management skills - someone who will motivate the school staff and the JSCEE staff Fundraising skills - someone who can shake money out of Olympia, the Alliance, local businesses, and national foundations Communication skills - someone who will listen to the community and respond Perhaps it isn't skills. Perhaps you would like to see the District led by someone with a certain perspective. Pragmatism - someone who will put energy behind what works instead of an ideology Vision - someone who has an ideal and will work to implement it Centralized control - someone who will enforce District mandates De-centralized control - someone who will eliminate ...

So the on-going battle for the education soul of the Democratic party in Washington State goes on. Over at Publicola , WEA President Mary Lindquist shot back at heavy Dem donor Nick Hanauer over his e-mail to her. (She is right on one point; he made it sound like every single change put forth in the Legislature has been blocked by the WEA. That's just not true.) What puzzles me is who gave the e-mail to Publicola? At the end of the e-mail, Hanauer says " share this with the gang ." But you'd think he might not have wanted it shared publicly or, just maybe, he did . Maybe he wanted to test the waters of public opinion. The problem is that he wants to make this about the WEA versus ed reformers and that's sure leaves out a lot of other interested parties. The Times then writes an article that puts this all on display. What's interesting is they have Hanaeur, as well as some other wealthy donors, along with Lisa MacFarlane (holding down the DFER fort all b...

Monday, Feb. 27th Open Enrollment for Seattle Public Schools begins . Open Enrollment ends on March 9, 2012. Wednesday, Feb. 29th PTA Charter School Forum at Washington Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m. moderated by C.R. Douglas of Q13 Fox News. This should be interesting as it comes almost at the end of the legislative session instead of its original date nearer the beginning. Also, the charter bill(s) are in such limbo, I wondering if there will be any discussion of the bill itself. That would be a pity because the issue should be about this charter bill. You can have abstract but detailed discussions around charters but it's how charters would play out in our state that matters. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this event so I hope to see a lot of feedback from those who do. Also, there are two different Board events, both at the same time on Wednesday. One is a Work Session on the Budget from 4-5:30 p.m. and the other is an Executive Committee Meeting of th...

After pondering the events of my Yogi Berra thread where we learned that something is afoot about the charter school legislation AND that a better kind of "pilot program" bill has been reintroduced, I think there may be an opening here to get a push going this weekend. My belief is that the original charter bill is dead. I can't find a listing for it to come before the Legislature under any agenda for the next couple of days. But I also think there may be a truncated version somewhere just waiting to be tucked into a budget bill. I can't find it (and neither could the legislative help desk staff yesterday when I called) but it just might not have made it in yet. If you do not think charter schools are a good idea for Washington State, I urge you to contact the following legislators this weekend: rosemary.mcauliffe@leg.wa.gov frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov edward.murray@leg.wa.gov kathy.haigh@leg.wa.gov ross.hunter@leg.wa.gov Also, consider contacting your own legislator...

He did say so many great things but several of them apply to the latest in "As the Charter School B ill Turns" show. "This is like deja vu all over again." "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." But really, in this case, this one fits the best: "It ain't over till it's over. " I was unable to hear the discussion on The Conversion today on KUOW about charter schools. Luckily, you can hear the playback any time so I went to kuow.org and took a listen. It was a fairly scattershot kind of show with little bits of things thrown in here and there. Ross Reynolds cited the Washington Policy Center poll that said 60% of voters in our state want charters (but noting that it would be quite the switch given that voters turned down charters three times at the polls and legislators turned down charter legislation even more times than that.) Then they had Senator Tom, a spo...

Here is a link to the program placement decisions for 2012-2013 . All of the proposals from staff were accepted. All of the proposals from the public were rejected. In violation of the Program Placement policy there is no publicly available description of the process used to make these decisions. A number of other program placement proposals were made, but they are not discussed in this document.

The Seattle School Board will soon consider terminating the District's contract with Teach for America. There is disagreement about this on the School Board, so we are likely to hear a discussion of the question with Board directors advocating for each side. This is good and healthy. This is what democracy looks like. I welcome a full discussion regardless of the eventual conclusion. I will, however, be deeply disappointed if the discussion is not honest. We have already seen the start of a dishonest discussion. This dishonest discussion needs to be stopped and it is the other Board directors who need to stop it. They need to stop it by exposing the dishonesty the moment it appears. When the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee met and decided to advance this motion to the full board, one of the Board directors, Harium Martin-Morris, spoke against the termination of the Teach for America contract. Mr. Martin-Morris made one of the most loathsome and dishonest statements I ...

KUOW's The Conversation will be having a discussion of charter schools today at noon. Charter schools are currently not allowed under state law. Supporters say they should be tried in places where the public schools are failing. Opponents say charter schools "poach" funding from the public schools. What do you think? What's your experience with charter schools in other states? You can record your comments anytime this evening at Feedback Line: 206.221.3663 . Tomorrow the Live Call–in number is 206.543.5869 Or you can send email to: conversation@kuow.org The Conversation tends to truncate stories so this is likely to be a 12-minute segment sometime during the hour.  

First, a huge salute to the third-grade Bremerton teacher who helped to save the life of her student when the student got hit by a bullet from a handgun in another student's bag. Doctors are crediting the teacher with saving that girl long enough to get her to the hospital by stopping her external bleeding. Second, this news item was in the Times/Seattle's Child and may be of interest: In honor of National Children’s Dental Health Month, The Center for Pediatric Dentistry will offer free dental screenings for children ages 1 through 18 on Saturday, Feb. 25.  The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the center, which is located at 6222 N.E. 74th St. in Seattle. All children in attendance will receive a free brief dental screening to identify potential trouble spots in the mouth (no X-rays will be taken). Fun activities will include some of the 3D interactive exhibit “Attack of the S. Mutans,” which showcases virtual tour guide Dentisha battling mouth bacteria, an...

I saw that the Washington Policy Center (which is basically a right-wing thinktank) did a poll and they say that 60% of the people surveyed say they support allowing charters and 64% say they support allowing "low-income and minority children in urban neighborhoods" to attend them. They surveyed 400 adults statewide. It doesn't say when the poll was taken. The idea of changing state law to allow charter public schools found support in all areas of the state – 55% of respondents in Eastern Washington and 61% in Western Washington supported allowing charters, including 58% in King County and a slim majority (51%) in Seattle. The highest level of opposition was reported in Seattle, where 32% said they strongly o r somewhat oppose allowing charter public schools. Opposition in King County as a whole was 25%. Now they start their press release saying: Charter public schools are currently banned in Washington. No, they're not. They are not legally permitted and t...

I have turned off the word verification under Comments as it was driving me (and many of you - I heard you!) nuts.  However, that means we have no spam filter.  I hope this won't become an issue.  I also hope to hear from Blogger about this issue.  I did Google the issue and many other blogs are not happy so I hope they choose another way to block spam. My apologies for the irritation.

It's becoming apparent that those who fight for charters have their own agenda. I say that because they are not making the argument based just on the merits of charter schools.  And, they are certainly not fighting on the merits of this particular charter bill (on which they all seem strangely silent except to say "tool in the toolbox"  and "let's try them."  Those who are the leaders in this effort seem to be fighting on two fronts. One person is Nick Hanauer who believes he speaks for many Dems (and he may be but he offers no evidence). He blames the WEA and he blames Dems for being "stooges".  He says the union has not backed any initiatives or any legislation that would challenge the "status quo." I know this is not true. What is likely true is that the union did not back the measures HE thought they should. Now it would seem that people of good faith and in the same party should be able to sit down and find common ground and ...

The Washington Trails Association will be having an "Alternative Spring Break" for teenagers.   It can be a day or a week and they earn service learning hours while improving trails.  They also have Saturday once-a-month work parties.  These activities are for students 10 and up. 

There are two SPS high schools that will represent at this year's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC in May.  It's not who you might think. This year the honor goes to Roosevelt and Ballard.   Garfield, a long-time winner and participant, was not on the list. Congratulations to both Roosevelt and Ballard.  This is testament to the hard work by students, parents and band directors at both schools.  That we now have a third powerhouse jazz band in our district is great news. 

I want to give notice to the reports from Syria that several journalists were killed yesterday.  Among them: Veteran Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin French photographer Remi Ochlik several journalists including a video blogger, Rami al-Sayed Syrians who want to flee cannot; there are snipers everywhere.  From The Guardian : Ms. Colvin's last report: "I think the reports of my survival may be exaggerated," she wrote. "In Baba Amr. Sickening, cannot understand how the world can stand by and I should be hardened by now. Watched a baby die today. Shrapnel, doctors could do nothing. His little tummy just heaved and heaved until he stopped. Feeling helpless. As well as cold! Will keep trying to get out the information." Sayed's last posting: On Tuesday night, Sayed also lodged a final missive. "Baba Amr is being exterminated. Do not tell me our hearts are with you because I know that. We need campaigns everywhere across the world...

At noon, KUOW's The Conversation will have Rob McKenna on to talk education.  Mr. McKenna has huge plans for public education if elected but hasn't quite explained how he would pay for it.  His website reflects four top issues: jobs, education, government reform and higher education.  Under "education": Invest in expanded career skills opportunities for high school students across the state, keying on the high-demand for machinists, electrical workers, and other workers in the skilled trades. Fund more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs like Aviation, Delta, and Marysville Arts & Technology High Schools, as well as International Baccalaureate and other AP/Honors programs. Permit and encourage highly innovative charter schools, drawing on the most successful models from around America such as KIPP , Rocketship and Harlem Success Academy. Provide incentives to state colleges of education to increase admissions standards and ra...

Last night, the 43rd LD Democrats passed a resolution against charter schools.  It passed overwhelmingly with just a couple of nays.  The 43rd, the district that Michelle Buetow and I both live in, is the district that Speaker Frank Chopp, Senator Ed Murray and Rep. Jamie Pedersen represent.  I'm sure the leadership in the 43rd will let them know about passage of this resolution.  I do hope they will take into consideration in these last weeks of the legislative session.

A reader asked about the Arbor Heights Elementary charter forum last week.  It went well.  There were about 35 people there, mostly from Arbor Heights but some from other surrounding schools.  The principal, Christy Collins, was there along with several of their teachers.  (What was really nice is that some of the PTA leaders from Olympic View, who had also put on their own charter forum a couple of weeks back, came to this forum and stayed for a tour of the building.) It was well-organized (with little Halloween candy packages for all). As per Olympic View, I was the fact-checker with Beth Sigall, pro side (from the Lake Washington School district) and Kristen King, con side.  Both of them had very good PowerPoints and I think the audience appreciated that. (Note: I did an update as I misspelled Beth's name and got her district wrong in the first version.  My apologies.) What was somewhat different from the Olympic View charter forum was Beth's empha...

Over at Publicola, the jousting goes on.  Firing back at the letter that WEA President, Mary Lindquist, wrote yesterday, Knight-in-Shining Armor, Nick Hanauer writes a long reply. What is somewhat funny is he agrees with her on nearly all the reasons why as a "lifelong Democrat and committed progressive" he shouldn't want Rob McKenna as governor.  But then, speaking of education, he says that "McKenna is on the right track and we are not."  Keep in mind, McKenna is not on the ed reform train - he looks like he could be the engineer.  Vouchers, anyone? Alert! New ed reform talking point, speak of Washington State: We may be headed in the right direction, but we aren’t in the right lane. and It is not classroom teachers who are afraid of change and innovation—it is their union. But, clearly the union is backed by its members so the union IS the teachers. Then Hanauer does what so many do,  "I'm not a teacher but...",  and regales...

SEA Candidates Coffee Chats: Friday, Feb 24th, 9:30 am to 11 am Neighborhood: Capitol Hill: Cafe Presse -1117 12th Avenue   Saturday, Feb 25th , 9:30 am to11am Neighborhood: Georgetown: All City Coffee, 1205 S Vale St (between S Corson Ave & S 12th Ave) Sunday Feb 26th, 9:30 am -11am  Cafe Fiore, 5405 Leary Avenue Northwest  More info: Eric Muhs, ericmuhs@comcast.net or www.socialequalityeducators.org

FirstThursday Seattle, an advocacy group for black and small businesses, is having a Town Hall meeting on charter schools on Thursday, March 1st at noon .  (I know, that's not an easy time to make if you are working.) It's at the Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club, 4520 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S.  Bring your own brown bag lunch.  There will be drinks made available by the FirstThursday Board of Director.  RSVP at: info@firstThursdayseattle.org. For more information go to the FirstThursday Seattle web site: www.firstthursdayseattle.org or call the FirstThursday Seattle office: (206) 280-9941. What's on your mind?

We have a presidential election coming up (if you haven't noticed). President Obama is running for the Democratics and the Republicans, well - they'll pick someone, eventually. My biased take is that I hope the Republicans tear each other to shreds and that someone staggers out of the Republican convention, dazed and bleeding. Why? Well, if you care about public education, you'd wonder would happen to public education if any of these candidates are elected President. We know what would happen with Santorum who likes to lecture people on why parents should all be homeschooling. Really? He loves the idea of the "one-room schoolhouse". He says it's "weird" for kids of the same age to all be in the same classroom. Actually, I like Montessori teaching which DOES encourage multi-age learning. But a classroom where all the students are related and taught by a relative (usually their mom) is better than a classroom with trained teachers? An...

Over at Publicola, they report that WEA president, Mary Lindquist, wrote an open letter based on what Nick Hanauer had to say about public education in the state of Washington. You can read the whole thing there but she says several things I find I can agree with her on: And yet, in a single email, he has managed to align himself with a politician who is antithetical to all of those progressive values. First, it must be clearly understood that it is the voters of Washington – not the WEA – that have rejected charter schools on three separate occasions in recent years.  Voters know that for charter schools to be imposed, advocates like Hanauer would need to poach funding from local neighborhood schools and districts. In the 2010 legislative session, WEA pushed the adoption of SB 6696. Now we are engaged in a collaborative process with districts across the state to pilot new evaluation systems. We see signs this system will make a real difference for students. We look f...

There's an article in today's NY Times entitled, "States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations."  I invite you to peruse the article - I'm not sure anyone would call them "quirks". It opens with a scene probably familiar to all - a high-school LA teacher explaining what irony means.  The principal was there to assess this veteran teacher's abilities.  He says it was a "good lesson."  BUT he had to give her a 1 (lowest score out of 1-5) because she didn't break the students into groups.  He had seen her do it in the past but in her professional wisdom, she didn't feel the need to do it for this lesson.  But the principal had to follow the rubric guidelines.  He said: “It’s not an accurate reflection of her as a teacher,” Mr. Ball said. That's just one assessment of what sounds like a perfectly fine teacher.  And yet, she got dinged.  But it's not just the teachers: Principals in rural Chester County, Tenn., are st...

It appears that the district is running on the old habit of "a need to know basis" with parents.  That is, they'll let you know what they think you need to know when they think you should hear it.   So it is with the Superintendent Search.  The information has been sketchy and confusing.   Here is the webpage .  Let's compare that with Highline's or Spokane's or Bellevue's .   (Also, as an update, Bellevue's says they will decide, by Feb. 27th, on what their final process is to be.  I think this means they have decided on Enfield, they will stop their process.)  Spokane had multiple focus groups with teachers, support staff, parents, community members and students.   Here's what happens in Spokane after they pick their finalists: The three finalists will each spend a full day in Spokane for meetings with staff, interview/feedback groups and a community open forum. Here's what happens in Highline: The forums...

I attended Michael DeBell's community meeting.  Did anyone attend Sharon Peaslee's?  If so, let us know about the discussion. DeBell's meeting was interesting with the majority of participants from McClure Middle School.  They had a variety of concerns including less-than-stellar science program, loss of students from "good" elementaries like Coe, John Hay, etc. from elementary to middle school (thus creating funding issues for McClure) and issues around discipline at the school.  (You may recall that I mentioned in the SB meeting wrap-up that a mother from McClure had expressed some concerns around discipline as well.) DeBell gave the group an update on the SB meeting.  He said the MOU that passed had been an addendum to the collective bargaining agreement.  He said that 15 schools had expressed interest in the idea.  He was fairly blase about it so I mentioned that the vote took oversight away from the Board and left it all in the hands of the Su...

No district meetings this week because of the Mid-Winter Break.  (At Michael DeBell's community meeting, he noted this is the last long one SPS will have as it goes to a shorten one starting next year.) Charter Legislation One meeting to put out there: the 43rd Dems will be considering on a resolution to oppose charter schools at their meeting this Tuesday night that starts a 7:00 p.m. (this resolution is at the end of the meeting). That makes the 34th, 36th, 37th,46th, King County Dems and Washington State Dems have passed resolutions against charter schools.  And, adding to PTAs that have passed resolutions against this charter legislation, is the Loyal Heights PTA Board.  They crafted a beautifully-written and detailed letter to Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles as well as Frank Chopp, Speaker of the House. Speaking of Chopp, he's MY rep, and I hope to be meeting with him soon to discuss the charter legislation.  As I pointed out to his staff, I am a constituent a...

I received messages from staff from Sharon Tomiko-Santos and Eric Pettigrew stating that there is NO Town Hall for the 37th LD tomorrow at Garfield.   I received this information via the Washington State PTSA and I made the mistake of not independently verifying it.  My apologies.

DeBell Community Meeting   from 9-11 am at Cafe Appasionato Peaslee Community Meeting   from 10:30 am to noon at the Lake City Library I am torn about going to talk to DeBell and ask him why he continues to feed conflict on the Board.  I understand that during the discussion about the CAS, he said some on the Board wanted "control." It's not about control; it's about oversight.  I never in my life thought I would quote Ronald Reagan but their role is "trust but verify" to voters.   They gave it away with this MOU. Also, I still have not heard from him about why the superintendent search seems to be a mystery.  There is finally a webpage on the search but it has the vaguest of timelines (with no mention of public input or ability to meet the finalists) and no mention of the the two committees.  Where's that transparency? 

Watch this video and see what looks like a community of happy kids and dedicated staff.  Inspirational. Green Lake Elementary Rocks!

This evening the Board Curriculum and Instruction Committee met as a committee of the whole. Five board members were in attendance. A majority of them want a motion to terminate the district's contract with Teach for America. The motion will appear as an introduction item at the March 7 board meeting and as an action item at the March 21 board meeting. The deadline for terminating the contract for next year is April 1.

The District's program placement practice used to be something of a mystery. A committee, the Program Placement Committee, used to meet, discuss the program placement proposals, and make recommendations to the superintendent. Then the superintendent would decide which proposals to accept, which to reject, and which to amend. We didn't know who was on the committee, when they met, or what they discussed. I once requested committee meeting minutes as a public document and they stopped keeping minutes after that. In short, the entire process was secretive, corrupt, and political. In 2007 the district wanted to split middle school APP. The decision, however, was a clear violation of the Highly Capable Student Program policy D12.00. The policy prohibits the creation of additional sites. The Board gave the policy an interpretation that was VERY sympathetic to the district administration and determined that the split could go forward after Board review. The Board delegated the Stude...