Live Blogging from School Board Meeting

Welcome to Superintendent Banda. He announced that Indian Heritage Middle College will NOT be moving from Wilson-Pacific for 2012-2013. The room is packed with many supporters of this school and I think it is making a difference to the Board. He said the entire Middle College program needs to be revisited and he would be working with all the communities involved.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Promising start!
I'm glad to hear they won't be moved right away.

-CT
7/3/12, 5:26 PM
Po3 said…
And he's off and running...
7/3/12, 7:24 PM
Disgusted said…
DeBell tied the Family and Education Levy to the "Strategic Plan". Tranlanslation: "Dear Colleagues, We must continue to fund MAP testing".

MGJ and Enfield are gone, but Burgess continues their work.
7/3/12, 8:32 PM
mirmac1 said…
Great turnout for the American Indian community, and also great that one of Banda's first moves is to place dislocation of Indian Heritage Middle College out of Wilson-Pacific on hold, meet with community members, and review the decision. : )
7/3/12, 11:07 PM
Charlie Mas said…
Once again, non-traditional high schools (NOVA, South Lake, and The Center School) get shafted in the budget.

Notice that the projected enrollment at Rainier Beach High School next year is 320? Yet that school gets all of the staff that WSS dictates. NOVA, projected to have 308, gets significantly less funding.

This is not the special funding for ELL students or for students with IEPs, or even LAP money for under-performing students. The non-traditional schools are cheated out of the basic funding that the District says every school needs just to operate.

Spending on Basic Education teaching for 320 students at Rainier Beach (pdf page 75) comes to $1,369,012.

Spending on Basic Education teaching for 308 students at NOVA (pdf page 247) comes to $1,225,786. The District provides RBHS with an additional $143,226 to teach 12 more students.

The real inequity, however, comes in the other basic spending for every school.

The only other money provided to NOVA to operate the school - not counting funding for special needs students - is $257,731. RBHS, however, gets $825,760. That's $568,000 that NOVA is denied because... well, for no reason at all.
7/4/12, 8:52 AM
Charlie Mas said…
Students from NOVA frequently testify before the Board about this and the Board says how much they appreciate the testimony, but then they forget all about it when the time comes to act on it.
7/4/12, 8:53 AM
Carol Simmons said…
I was only able to watch one hour of the Board meeting last evening. Did the word Racial get put back in the Race and Equity document? Good grief......this is what this committee was all about. I can't believe that in this day and age, the NAACP Education Director needs to testify that this is necessary. For those of us who have served on these disproportionality committees too many times for too many years, it is incomprehensible that this should be an issue. Also, the Native students, parents and community members were reminiscent of the Bernie Whitebear days when the Native community played their drums welcoming in a new Superintendent and searching for a home. We have come full circle and are back to where we started. Superintendent Banda's decision was a good beginning regarding the Native community and the Board is to be credited for selecting him.
7/4/12, 10:14 AM
Anonymous said…
Charlie, are students at NOVA still attending school 4 days a week instead of 5? Are they still using the ALE model where the state gives less funding than for a traditional school? Are they offering a sports program that includes WIAA sanctioned sports or activities that would reflect a need for an AD? NOVA has chosen a path that is different so I do see why there would be an expectation that it be funded the same as a school that is using the traditional model, especially if students aren't attending classes full time and the district is getting less funding per NOVA student than per comprehensive student.

IMHO
7/4/12, 11:08 AM
Unknown said…
Carol S,
The word Racial was not put back in the title of the document. Sharon Peaslee and Betty Patu were the only two directors who advocated that it be put back in the document. As for Harium Martin-Morris's monologue.... all I can say is what a great disappointment. Sadly, it didn't come as a surprise. I say we send mass emails to the directors voicing our opinions.
7/4/12, 12:50 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
And Carol, several speakers advocated for it to be put back in. I left so I, too, missed the discussion but I'll have to go back and listen.

Harium gets more and more detached. It's very odd behavior to watch.
7/5/12, 8:07 AM
Carol Simmons said…
Dear Unknown,

I have sent an email to the Directors and to Bernardo Ruiz stating it is imperative that "racial" be added back to the policy's name to reflect the original intent to eliminate institutional racism in the district. Many thanks to Directors Patu and Peaslee for advocating for this.
7/5/12, 11:37 AM
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