Quick Updates
One, the recommendation from the Advanced Learning Task Force Committee about APP elementary north will be posted sometime today by Bob Vaughan (head of AL). It seems there have been personal issues and traveling and time commitments that led to the delay of this information.
Update: It appears I did not get full information about this appointment; I am waiting for confirmation from the district.
Two, it appears that the district has a new Budget Manager, Joe Paperman. Interestingly, Mr. Paperman was a volunteer on the Audit & Finance Committee (and well-liked by Sherry Carr). How this turn of events came to be, I don't know but I was told by parents who attended the A&F meeting yesterday that this was announced.
Update: It appears I did not get full information about this appointment; I am waiting for confirmation from the district.
Two, it appears that the district has a new Budget Manager, Joe Paperman. Interestingly, Mr. Paperman was a volunteer on the Audit & Finance Committee (and well-liked by Sherry Carr). How this turn of events came to be, I don't know but I was told by parents who attended the A&F meeting yesterday that this was announced.
Comments
-Finally Some Good News
Do you know if all the recommendations are finally going to be made public, or just this one?
- Member ATLF
(waiting for Banda)
Waiting until Supt Banda starts might seem to be a reasonable strategy but making a decision in the summer after the school year is over essentially kills the MCHS-South.
Is that the plan?
What is the scoop?
--Old School Music
It's now Thursday, June 14, and I see no announcement.
Time's up.
The ALPTF was led into a mire. Rather than making a clear recommendation, such as "We recommend that north-end elementary APP be placed all together in the Wilson Elementary building when constructed." or "We recommend that north-end elementary APP be placed in two comparably sized cohorts in two buildings equitably distributed in the north-end." the committee recommendation, drafted by Dr. Vaughan, Dr. Thompson, and the facilitator was a sort of mush that weakly suggests that the District consider, y'know, the needs of the students when doing whatever they want with APP.
There was never any effort to debate the central question: one site or two.
There was never any effort to even determine if the committee was supposed to name buildings.
There were members of the committee who were opposed to the idea of considering the actual buildings in the district's inventory as the basis for a recommendation. They, instead, wanted to create some sort of theoretical recommendation and leave it to Facilities to determine which buildings best fit the desired outcome - even if that ideal simply was not possible with the district's actual buildings.
The committee leadership was absent and it would have been inappropriate for any member to step up and fill the leadership void.
DeBell has the AUDACITY to claim those who request public records have an agenda. NO, I'm exposing those who drive the agenda in our district: your monied and powerful friends, LEV and the Alliance, Burgess and buddies.
Just clean up your act and those public records disclosures will no longer be necessary.
Yes, that's right. That gift to TFA that was inserted in last years budget continuing provision, may be codified into law. Read about the issue here and write to the members of the committee.
Where I'm scratching my head is the lack of discussion around the AL programs as a whole. Not knowing the vision of AL and the future of Spectrum/ALO, how can it boil down to where APP ends up? North End APP placement and size are related to the strength of neighborhood Spectrums and ALOs, so looking at it in isolation seems like a futile effort.
Where do we go from here? Is everyone just waiting for Banda?
fp
NEM
There were many on the committee who came to the table to talk about ALL the issues of Advanced Learning.
fp
Apparently, even Superintendent Enfield is waiting for Banda. What the heck IS she doing. And Bob Vaughan,...nice person....but over the years (about 12 now) I have many times wished that with his knowledge base, he would be a stronger advocate right up front. That the ALTF report is LATE and of little use is so disappointing. Any staff involved should have their pay docked!
Two years to go
P.s. Love those public records requests and how they put the pressure for accountability on!
Then you get Mary Alice's last-ditch attempt.
Renton School District ramping up recruiting efforts for traditionally-certified applicants while continuing conversations to include Teach for America applicants for 1 or 2 hard-to-fill positions
Committee on Appropriations
Democratic Subcommittee Members
•Senator Tom Harkin (Chairman) (IA)
•Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)
•Senator Herb Kohl (WI)
•Senator Patty Murray (WA)
•Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)
•Senator Richard Durbin (IL)
•Senator Jack Reed (RI)
•Senator Mark Pryor (AR)
•Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD)
•Senator Sherrod Brown (OH)
Republican Subcommittee Members
•Senator Richard Shelby (Ranking) (AL)
•Senator Thad Cochran (MS)
•Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX)
•Senator Lamar Alexander (TN)
•Senator Ron Johnson (WI)
•Senator Mark Kirk (IL)
•Senator Lindsey Graham (SC)
•Senator Jerry Moran (KS)
What's not OK is backroom dealing and shoddy district operations, both of which have been rife for at least a decade.
In short, DeBell and his Civic Buddies can take his ongoing campaign against legal public participation in government and public schools and stuff it. He wants a different system? Plenty of countries offer less-forthcoming democracy.
Washington isn't even unusual. If DeBell was in Florida, with even more access to government records - which education advocates are successfully using open records acts to put a damper on Corporate Ed Reform for Filling Private Pockets, he'd really have his knickers in a knot.
DistrictWatcher
Because all those people who helped him write that new Board Policy don't?
All those people who got Lynne Varner to write an editorial - who got Crosscut to smear his fellow board members - they don't have "an agenda?"
Ohhh... HIS agenda is ok but not the one where the voters, all the voters not just the ones with deep pockets, are at the table - that agenda is bad.
Sorry - democracy is messy and often uncomfortable. Respectfully, deal with it, Mr. DeBell or get out of public office ;o)
The House Appropriations Commmittee marks up its version of the bill on June 20th. Remember, it was Rep George Miller, CA who slipped in the love note to TFA winter 2010. Write the members to preserve the true definition of "highly-qualified"
Democrats
•Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
•Nita M. Lowey, New York
•Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
•Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
•Barbara Lee, California
Republicans
•Denny Rehberg, Montana
•Jerry Lewis, California
•Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
•Jack Kingston, Georgia
•Kay Granger, Texas
•Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
•Jeff Flake, Arizona
•Cynthia M. Lummis, Wyoming
Conduct unbecoming a school board president - Stop publicly disparaging your board colleagues
To Michael DeBell and whomever else this concerns,
I formally request that you stop disparaging your democratically elected new (and existing) board colleagues, and give Ms. McLaren and Ms. Peaslee a chance to assume and perform their duties in what is only their second month in their new positions.
The repeated, tiresome accusations or ominous predictions of "micromanaging" from various school board incumbents and like-minded members of the local media and corporate ed reform organizations are off the mark and unbecoming reasonable professionals, from Director Carr's strange comments about the ides of "micromanaging" at her swearing in, to the parroting of a similar refrain from editorialists at the Times and Crosscut, and insinuations that Marty and Sharon -- and by extension we the voters who elected them -- are somehow to blame for the abrupt and unexplained announcement by Interim Superintendent Susan Enfield that she has decided to leave SPS.
If it is a mere coincidence that multiple members of the media are repeating this theme, I recommend you advise these editorialists to cease and desist, because it potentially undermines the cohesion and productivity of the school board and reflects poorly on you. Because you are the one who is quoted by the media, Michael, it appears that you are the source of these comments or sentiments. If not, it would be helpful if you would clear that up.
Susan Enfield: Is the Schools Superintendent Leaving Because of Board Micro-Managing?
First skirmish erupts in finding a new Seattle schools chief
(continued)
What's more, it would appear that some members of the board and ed reform crowd have confused due diligence and democracy with "micromanaging." But guess what? We the voters want our elected representatives to ask questions, be alert and engaged participants on the school board.
We the parents and voters of Seattle do not want any more passive, incurious rubber-stampers on the board like we've had these past four years with the previous board and the evasive, unethical Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson. That style of abrogated "leadership" has been hugely damaging to our children, their teachers and schools and the reputation of the district as a whole, as you well know. (In fact, Michael, I thought you also wanted to see changes to the "Strategic Plan.") That type of weak leadership is precisely what led to all the waste and scandals of the last few years, from the costly and wrong school closures and splits at a time of growing enrollment, the purchase of a faulty math text book over parent opposition, the acceptance of false data from "Broad residents" Brad Bernatek and Jessica DeBarros (which led to the "17 percent" lie and the purchase of the costly MAP test in a no-bid contract, among other debacles) in the face of sound data from parent analysts like Meg Diaz, as well as the sale of district property to the lowest bidder, the behind the scenes politically motivated approval of the least qualified TFA, Inc. trainees for our neediest children, to the Silas Potter scandal which led to the firing of Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson. Yes, the list is long, and its time for this to stop.
This is not merely an activist's or parent's point of view. This style of AWOL leadership is what the state auditor cited the district for -- including the board itself.
I for one believe this new board configuration offers a great opportunity for greater accountability to the community and a chance to move the district forward in a constructive direction. So I am appalled by the various efforts by people and forces in the so-called "ed reform" community to undermine the credibility and cohesion of our new board.
Sharon Peaslee and Marty McLaren are intelligent, conscientious and valuable new members of the board with wisdom, experience and the support of thousands of voters who clearly were not happy with the direction of the district under the previous board. They are your colleagues.Therefore I ask that you respect the will of the voters and accord these new members the respect that they deserve and start acting with the fairness and responsibility of a board president.
I also ask that you respect your existing colleagues, Betty Patu and Kay Smith-Blum, who have also been disparaged in the press lately by name or insinuation. I hope that you have contacted David Brewster at Crosscut and firmly admonished him for his appalling suggestion about "putting a scare into" Kay Smith-Blum and Betty Patu.
(...) A similar potential for escalation exists in Seattle Schools, where the reform coalition is angry and embarrassed about being blindsided in the past election. One obvious way to fight back would be to make the next election, in 2013, a well-funded effort to retake the majority of the school board, putting a scare into Kay Smith-Blum, the hard-to-read new leader of the majority, and Betty Patu. (...) from Two big shockers for Seattle schools and cops
(continued)
One more point: stop blaming Marty and Sharon for Susan's departure. She alone is responsible for her decision. If she is incapable of working with our democratically elected board then she is not suited to the position, because working with the board is a key part of the superintendent's job. Also, unfortunately, Enfield's departure only reinforces the concerns of voters like myself who wondered about her commitment to Seattle's schools ("Why Seattle Public Schools should conduct a thorough superintendent search (and why it can’t afford not to") and her ability to stay in any one position for more than a few years. Like her summary decision to fire Principal Martin Floe, she has given no clear reasons for this decision. And those who would like the board to fall to its knees and beg her to stay are asking the board to put itself in an unseemly position and make Dr. Enfield herself appear indecisive and capricious. Those are not traits we should want in our superintendent.
It is time to stop the hand-wringing and smears and move forward as a productive, cooperative district management body that respects its colleagues and respects the will of the voters.
Why would ANYONE put TfA infront of the most vulnerable students? Shameful.c
Regarding DeBell: His MO is to blame others to further his agenda.
I Stand with ALEC (Baldwin, that is)
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