Tuesday Open Thread
What's on your mind?
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.)
Comments
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FHP
Ingraham parent
They have their Freshman orientation all day on the 27th -- my thought is that they will get schedules at that time.
Not sure how the other high schools are handling it.
-another (NEW) HS parent
FHP
Hale parent
Oompah
Oompah, I have already inquired to Communications.
FHP
That's fine but the district should tell them;
1) it needs to be on the website and in the office for parents don't use computers
2) it needs to be timely (like tell every school by August X, you MUST have info available)
I'm sorry but every single year, it's this question of schedules and orientation and every year, it's "the principals decide."
I think it just isn't very parent/student-friendly. It forces parents to have to keep up at the website or parent web group and for basic info like this, that's not very professional or helpful.
And then, hold them accountable by factoring it in, as part of school administration and family/school communication -- both of which should be things that go into a principal's evaluations. I agree that the current status isn't as parent-student friendly as it needs to be. I just want to get rid of the person downtown whose job it would be to write the rules for this and monitor them -- and move it to the schools with the understanding that it matters. What I hear above is not just "the principals decide," but "the principals decide, and no one cares what their decisions are." To me, those are different things.
this is the kind of stuff which should be kicked around through online surveys and some meetings with an exact deadline for a decision, and
ALL SCHOOLS WILL HAVE:
1. schedules for upper classes by JulAug___
2. Freshmen orientation will happen in august between __ and __
...
just collect input, pull out your King Solomon sword, cut the babies in half, and move on.
there are how many thousands of freshmen at how many schools - this kind of critical administrivia detail stuff shouldn't be run according to letting a thousand flowers bloom - get it done, clearly and efficiently, so people can figure out how to make more important things happen for the 14 year olds.
can't this district
DoAnythingRight?
Having said that, there should be a date by which all schools have necessary community and parent information on their websites. That is professional and courteous.
I can tell you that some principals are very tough with teachers having deadlines so there's no reason office can't have a few themselves. Schedules, class lists and other routine information should be available by an agreed upon date throughout the District.
These are the things that contribute to the District's less than stellar reputation for procedure and policy.
JMHO.
n...
FHP
Oh wait -- we were told this was mandated, but I see Roosevelt still has its own site RHSSeattle.org. And yeah, it looks like a pretty nice, useful website. Similar to the one we used to have at ballardbeavers.org. Notably, the entire music program website has been reduced to two paragraphs (no links) under "student activities." Of course athletics gets its own tab, but even that is seriously reduced in information capacity.
FHP, no, I think every school is in charge of its website. Some of them are managed through the district (if a school doesn't have a person who can do it and that's where you see even less information). Parents are not allowed to work on district websites (at least that is my understanding) and the school can restrict what parents ask to put on it, hence the PTA websites.
Again, every school website should have the SAME info on the home page. Address, phone, attendance office phone, hours, etc. It is silly to have to search through various websites to find basic info.
Thank you Melissa, count me in that bunch. If it's only on facebook it doesn't exist. Never ever going there for anything.
The thing is, there are so many other free tools and web sites that allow people to put public information online, why would anyone think it's a good idea to use facebook, a site whose entire business revolves around selling it's customers? Misleading them over and over, unilaterally changing their privacy policies until they might as well not exist.
In any case, I agree with Melissa, there should be some minimum standards as far as information that the schools need to have on their web sites, like dates for all school functions, including orientation days. Whether a building has their own private web site or not, the district provides web sites for every building now, so there's no excuse.
Not looking for trouble, just
- logging out
School staff can post items (usually on the Announcements page and calendar), but the majority of other items are taken care of by parents who sign on to be web administrators (which needs principal permission/sign off).
They do try to have some consistency from school to school, but SPS web folks are busy enough just getting the vendor to fix bugs. They are super helpful and run training sessions quite often.
As far as having a certain date for schedules and such, that is definitely a site-based decision.
See: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018926549_mckinney16m.html
Also known as wife to Rev. Samuel McKinney, Mrs. McKinney was a teacher and principal in schools throughout Seattle and worked with the District well after retirement. I had the good fortune to meet her a few times and she was passionate about her work. May she rest in peace.
Whatever name