Transportation in the Times; Board, Are You Listening?
In answer to some questioning here about whether the Board is getting feedback, I can accurately say, YES. Hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, phone calls - yes, the message is being received so keep it up.
To the Times' story which is pretty good and accurately points out the following:
And I think they could come up $1M like hey, in the Community Schools fund. To whit:
The account is within the Capital Eligible Projects Fund of the Capital Fund and the Board acted “to set aside and restrict the use of $18,700,000 within such fund, and the investment returns on such amount after September 1, 2011, to such uses asare expressly approved by the School Board.”
The Board Action report goes on to state, “It is anticipated these funds may be used for the World School, for temporary loans to other capital eligible activities and for unexpected needs of the District.”
Is this not a pressing need?
I give the last words to a parent quoted in Times and to a student who wrote the Board.
"It's incredible," said Bruce Gray, the father of a third-grader at Orca K-8. "I can't believe the board would consider changes with impacts this big for thousands of kids when there is so much confusion and so many unanswered questions."
A third-grader at Orca K-8:
Dear School Board,
I do not think kids like myself should have to get up at 6 am to get to school. Because then we would not have enough sleep. And if we don't have enough sleep then we would not learn as much as we would if school started at 9:20 or 8:20b ecause we would be too tired to learn. And I know that from personal experience! I live close to school so I can walk . But it would be dark and dangerous most of the year. And what do you care about more: a million dollars or a kids safety? And it would be even harder for our teachers. They would have to get up at 5:00 to get to their school and get ready for the day. And also us kids would not get to have a good, healthy breakfast. Do you want us to be unhealthy? And if we have after school activities, we would definitely be too tired to participate in them. We would be cranky, not happy. And we would hate school. Do you want to take away our happiness?
Just something to consider.
Go get 'em, tiger.
To the Times' story which is pretty good and accurately points out the following:
- The one-year plan was developed without public comment.
- It was announced weeks after the end of the open-enrollment period, a violation of district policy.
- More than 1,500 parents have signed an online petition against the plan, citing sleep deprivation, student safety and the strain put on parents with children at schools with vastly different start times.
- It was expected to save $4 million, but saved only half that, mainly because not as many buses could be taken out of service as expected.
- Some teachers worry that the proposal could lead to longer hours, said Olga Addae, president of the Seattle teachers union.
- But officials say any plan to shave bus costs will upset some parents.
- "Education is our core mission," said Duggan Harman, the district's top financial officer. "We're to the point where we cannot make any budget reductions without inconveniencing students."
- This year, School Board members told transportation staffers in February to identify $1 million in new savings. The staffers say the late request — the budget must be finalized in a few weeks — forced them to rush.
- District staffers said they could not solicit community comment because of the short time frame the board gave them, but some parents said that is not a valid excuse.
And I think they could come up $1M like hey, in the Community Schools fund. To whit:
The account is within the Capital Eligible Projects Fund of the Capital Fund and the Board acted “to set aside and restrict the use of $18,700,000 within such fund, and the investment returns on such amount after September 1, 2011, to such uses asare expressly approved by the School Board.”
The Board Action report goes on to state, “It is anticipated these funds may be used for the World School, for temporary loans to other capital eligible activities and for unexpected needs of the District.”
Is this not a pressing need?
I give the last words to a parent quoted in Times and to a student who wrote the Board.
"It's incredible," said Bruce Gray, the father of a third-grader at Orca K-8. "I can't believe the board would consider changes with impacts this big for thousands of kids when there is so much confusion and so many unanswered questions."
A third-grader at Orca K-8:
Dear School Board,
I do not think kids like myself should have to get up at 6 am to get to school. Because then we would not have enough sleep. And if we don't have enough sleep then we would not learn as much as we would if school started at 9:20 or 8:20b ecause we would be too tired to learn. And I know that from personal experience! I live close to school so I can walk . But it would be dark and dangerous most of the year. And what do you care about more: a million dollars or a kids safety? And it would be even harder for our teachers. They would have to get up at 5:00 to get to their school and get ready for the day. And also us kids would not get to have a good, healthy breakfast. Do you want us to be unhealthy? And if we have after school activities, we would definitely be too tired to participate in them. We would be cranky, not happy. And we would hate school. Do you want to take away our happiness?
Just something to consider.
Go get 'em, tiger.
Comments
I look forward to not have to be so cynical...
parent
Banda's current solution is not our future solution. NO SPS KIDS ON BUSSES BEFORE 7:15 AM. (Unless you'd like them to be yours?)
-skeptical- (soon to be
-insurrectionist-)
And no doubt neither one will apologize to the community for this disaster.
The dysfunction of JSIS is staggering. Truly staggering.
-critical-
I did email Betty Patu and she replied that our concerns are being heard, at least by her. Also that she disagrees with the lack of transparency and professionalism.
"Education is our core mission."
"We are to the point where we cannot make any budget reductions without inconveniencing students."
Why does't he be honest and say, "We are to the point that making any reductions in Central admin. will never happen as students need to pay the price for our lousy decisions.'
They just riffed 16 counselors.
Remember, Success for central admin. pocket books and nothing less.
Just widen the acheivement gap.
That is all they do.
RIF Central admin.
FHP
My argument to the Board is that we can't just ask how we can cut money form the Transportation budget. We have to think about how we can make Transportation benefit student success. If you just looked at money, we wouldn't have STEM, language immersion, etc. For all of those programs, the Board looked at benefits and decided that the cost was worth it.
If it had any integrity, the district would give its own administration a VAM evaluation, with the same enthusiasm its insisting that teachers be held accountable for students' academic performance...
Judging by the District's long history of poor performance, it hasnt been following staff performance evaluation and firing procedures ...
Seeing it uses the budgeting-related RIF process to get rid of teachers (expecting our children to just live with the effects of that decsion), it could use the same budgeting-RIF process to justify getting rid of bodies at central admin...
Central admin's performance is abysmal already... it couldnt possibly be worse if they had to do with fewer bods at desks...
And maybe the dollars saved could be spent on a transportation schedule that actually serves our childrens' best interests...
- No on 10:00 start times
Anonymous said...
As a parent who found out about the bell time change at our school on the first day of school this year(by overhearing a teacher wondering why so many students were late-no official notice was given to any of the families at our school) I am furious about this proposal. In addition to all of the research of sleep, ability to pay attention, etc in our kids, the school system's thought to make such a major change without really considering the impact on the families is astounding. No only is it not good for our students, but it also greatly effects the work and family lives of our community!
I did email Betty Patu and she replied that our concerns are being heard, at least by her. Also that she disagrees with the lack of transparency and professionalism.
5/10/12 4:59 AM
Where is documentation that 10 a.m. start times are being proposed?
EdVoter
10am Start is Just Plain Stupid
Elementaries: 9:00-3:30
Middle schools: 8:15-2:45
High Schools: 7:30-2:00
parent
Since Transportation is driving the bus; let the District have their three or four (or however many) tiers of start times, but create a NEW New Student Assignment Plan that allows for school choice based on start time.
Harder at the HS level, but you could have 3-4 elementary schools in a cluster, each with different start times, and let families choose which schedule fits their needs best. (e.g parents work early and need to drop off early - choose an early start, kids sleep late - choose a late start, need to coordinate pickup/dropoff of kids in different schools - choose two different start times).
Since all neighborhood schools are theoretically providing equivalently good education (under NSAP), there aren't many reasons to choose one school over another (option schools and special programs notwithstanding). They could even use this choice to drive more families to schools perceived as "less desirable". (i.e. you can have the start time you want, but you have to go here).
I'm half-serious here. Not because I think it couldn't work, but because I wouldn't trust SPS to manage it.
- No on 10:00 start times
What makes me so mad is that Stevens used to be a school where most kids walked. When the district redrew the boundaries, they made the Stevens area a few blocks wide and several miles long. I assume this was done to increase racial and socio-economic diversity since the boundaries don't make much geographic sense. I'm fine with increasing diversity, but now it takes lots of buses to get all the kids to their "neighborhood school".
Hopping Mad
The documentation on 10am start times isn't out yet, because Transportation isn't releasing the proposal until after 5pm on Friday. However, Transportation outlined this proposal two days ago to a Tier 3 school representative. - 10am Start is Just Plain Stupid
Can you elaborate on this new proposal from Transp - did they just address potential Tier 3 or what about the brutally early 7:25AM start time proposaed for MS/HS Tier 1 - was there any update to that proposal? I would like to hear from anyone who knows whats happening, at this pt, next wk is the Bd expected to approve the original proposal; table it; or vote on a different set of bell/bus times? THNX for any feedback.
- MS parent
What is the Board expected to do on this issue? There's a big problem for them.
On the one hand, it is getting LATE to be figuring this all out. Our district lives for a crisis and it works out for staff to get their way ("it's late", "it's costly", "we'll do better the next year").
On the other hand I know the Board is hearing this outcry, loud and clear. There is no ignoring it and they might be very careful with their response.
I will point out that this issue will not go away. With BEX IV and the reopening/opening of old/new schools, clearly boundaries will be redrawn and we may possibly revisit this issue.
So start with elementary schools at some reasonable time--say 8 AM. Then middle school and THEN high school.
Parents can go to work at a reasonable time. Why doesn't this work? Why do HS starts have to be first?...cliff
One thing to consider: if high school and middle school end before elementary, an older sibling can be home when their elementary sibling comes home (no need for child care).
Jane
http://ekc.k12northstar.org/about/school-start-time
another skeptic
Those same HS and MS siblings who you note are often aftershool caregivers would also be out of the house much earlier than their younger siblings. And if elementary schools aren't starting until 10am or so, that childcare gap is just shifted from afternoon to morning.
Bussed Off
- flabbergasted
Are they trying a divide & conquer approach - have tier 1 families duke it out with tier 3 families to see who gets the short end of the stick?
Don't know if that is the intent, but it certainly can be the impact (if it's not already).
The script looks like this -
Staff: We have to cut money, sorrry folks - we have no easy choices. So here are three crappy ones.
Parents: Ok fine, but don't make MY school start too early/too late - give it to somebody else.
Grumble, grumble, grumble....
The script doesn't have to be written this way. Workable alternatives are being offered. Instead of telling the district what we DON'T want (based on their ridiculous "proposals"), let's please continue to tell them what we DO want and what could be workable.
Now, whether they listen or not....that's something else entirely. Considering they're still saying "we had no idea enrollment would go up" re: the school closures after years of being proven wrong, I don't have much faith. But I'm trying, Ringo - I'm trying reeeeeeeeal hard.....