Friday Open Thread

Heads up on some traffic news for this weekend - closures at Aurora and N. 85th, Mercer Street at South Lake Union and westbound South Spokane Street from I-5 off-ramps to Hwy 99.  The Times reports that an average of 140,000 vehicles pass through these three areas in a weekend. 

Nothing at the Times about the Creative Approach Schools (Brian Rosenthal has been moved to reporting on the campaigns for this election season so there's a new person.)

What's on your mind?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Carryover from previous thread: Does this mean all the schools lined up to be Creative Approach schools stop in the middle of their applications? I have heard there are many lined up and waiting.

SavvyVoter
7/6/12, 8:25 AM
Story available said…
Story on Creative Approach School decision:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018614556_creativeapproach6m.html
7/6/12, 8:31 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Savvy, don't know. The ball is in the Board's court. Yes, it stops the process as the MOU is not valid under its current conditions.

As I posted elsewhere, the Board could amend it in August, go to SEA for a vote on this one change in September and be approved by the Board in late September.

It's really up to the Board and the SEA.

The Times' article says:

"The board hoped school applications would be approved by November and the first programs start in fall 2013."

If you follow my timeline, that's still possible.

I would hope the Board would NOT appeal this decision as the RCW is fairly clear. They should, if they want to keep this idea, amend it with them having oversight.
7/6/12, 8:45 AM
Anonymous said…
Tired SPS Mom and Taxpayer
says...
Another reason to think twice about approving more funds for SPS this spring...the newest state audit report...which says the district doesn't place a priority on keeping track of what it already has. Thousands of dollars of waste. And a separate troubling thing: paying for general ed teachers with special ed funds. Wow.
7/6/12, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said…
Unfortunately, this was one McLaren fumbled due to pressure from DeBell and Knapp. Hope she grows a backbone.

gnarly
7/6/12, 8:54 AM
Jack Whelan said…
Here's the article in the Seattle Times about the MOU ruling: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018614556_creativeapproach6m.html

Jayne Fraser has the ed beat for the near future.
7/6/12, 9:01 AM
Jack Whelan said…
BTW--It should be pointed out that two of the appellants, Lina Brown and Rita Green, have their own CAS application for Rainier Beach HS, and still felt strongly enough about how wrong this MOU was that they joined the suit. It's not about CAS; it's about the larger governance issue.

jw
7/6/12, 9:16 AM
mirmac1 said…
On Twitter:

"Great news! RT @secstatewa Backers of WA charter school I-1240 have submitted over 350k sigs to SecState, far more than required minimum."
7/6/12, 9:24 AM
Maureen said…
Did Robin Lake ever set a date for her proposed coffee? I listened to a CRPE webinar about Central Office structure last week and have some questions.
7/6/12, 9:26 AM
Anonymous said…
Mirmac1 posted this in the Creative Approach schools thread and now it's on the Times story comments and oh good grief-
read this public disclosure.

It shows once again Sara Morris at The Alliance for Education, Holly Miller at The Mayor's Office, Burgess, Stand for Children and LEV working in a tight little subgroup to map out this city's education future and policies.

And PS: They didn't like the Creative Approach Schools one bit, apparently.

DistrictWatcher (who Intensely Dislikes the Behind-the-Scenes EduBorgs)
7/6/12, 9:53 AM
StopTFA said…
Renton wants to start a love affair with TFA too!

Renton TFA emails
7/6/12, 9:59 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I only had to read the first e-mail where Hill says TFA's "standard fee" is $5k (this to Renton). Hey Renton, they are charging SPS $4k and Federal Way $2k.

Disappointing but really, to be expected.
7/6/12, 11:28 AM
Anonymous said…
The Weekly skewered the District on its sloppy audit.

And they didn't even get into the special education issues, which I understand are very bad, including misspending of SPED $$ at Ballard. Isn't Marni Campbell, the principal at Ballard, the SPED director who was moved out of that position last year? And now she is not managing even one site's SPED program correctly? Principals have a huge, hard job, but really...unimpressive.

SavvyVoter
7/6/12, 12:34 PM
Anonymous said…
Marni Campbell is the Executive Director for the NW region. Keven Wyncoop is the Ballard principal. Marni was a principal at Eckstien and Hale before her stint as Sp Ed Executove Director last year. Keven was an AP at Ballard for several years.

ITK
7/6/12, 1:25 PM
mirmac1 said…
An AP under...our new grand poobah Phil Brockman. I believe the creative accounting at Ballard started some years ago.
7/6/12, 1:45 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more