Banda Visit

The district is confirming Superintendent Banda's visit to SPS on Wednesday.  He will be at the Board meeting for the vote on his confirmation.  Immediately after that vote, there will be a break and media will be able to talk with him, DeBell and Enfield briefly.  (So there's your break time

Media can continue to speak with him after that in the Board conference room.  What question do you think is the most important to ask at this point?

Thursday, he will be touring Arbor Heights.  Boy, is this a possible break for them in their quest to get moved up in the timeline for BEX IV.  The school is in horrifically bad shape and help can't come too soon.  However, they are nearly at the end of the timeline for BEX IV (I think it could be adjusted for sure).

My hope would be that Banda will be appalled to see this and maybe, when he gets here in July, nudge the BEX staff to push this up.  Credit to the district for picking out a poor-quality building (but with high-quality and high-energy staff, parents and students) for him to visit.  


Comments

Anonymous said…
Yes and a good question re: AH would be why? Why and what happened to all the BEX/BTA money up to this point? Did the district use the money wisely, with good accounting and bidding practices in place?

-accounting for common cents
5/15/12, 12:22 PM
Anonymous said…
What challenges came up in Banda's current district around special education and inclusion, how did he deal with them, what mechanisms did he have in place to hear from special needs families and teachers, does he consider himself to be responsive to special needs families, what does he know of the challenges here in Seattle (and please don't let him chalk it all up to resource shortages).

Parent
5/15/12, 12:26 PM
mirmac1 said…
To that last point, no. Cap Proj staff have finally admitted that use of the GC/CM project delivery method has been a boon to contractors (to the tune of up to 30% premium on OH, markup, negotiated support services, risk reserve, and nickel & diming every "change".

Re: AH and Roxhill. Let's not celebrate too soon, now that Roxhill has been saved from merger with AH. Once a 650-kid school is built at AH, there will be even MORE pressure to dissolve Roxhill.
5/15/12, 12:41 PM
Anonymous said…
I would ask him to look into the current math curriculum. There has been so much criticism of the discovery type of math and the district has spent millions of dollars trying to make it work. It has not helped and past superintendents did little to change things.

In my opinion, math is the weakest part of SPS academics. I would love to see Banda change it but he needs to hear this from parents.

S parent
5/15/12, 3:50 PM
Anonymous said…
So happy Mr. Banda is coming to West Seattle! We love Arbor Heights Elementary. Our buiding is broken but our kids, teachers, parents, community, and school leadership are fantastic. I am inspired that he chose to visit AH Elementary. I hope he is also inspired by his visit and sees the value of moving the construction of the new Arbor Heights building up the BEX IV timeline. Bravo!

Grateful AH
5/15/12, 7:23 PM
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