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Here's a brilliant story from the West Seattle Blog about Director McLaren's community meeting in West Seattle.
This line struck me though, that "the last round of school closures [are] widely acknowledged now as a massive mistake."
I actually haven't seen a lot of discussion, especially from those school board members who were around at the time, of the last round of school closures being a massive mistake. In particular, I haven't seen much public discussion of the Board's role in that decision and what specific changes have been made to keep it from happening again. Did I miss it?
The acknowledgement that the last round of school closures was a massive mistake has been made by everyone who did not have a direct hand in it.
Those who did have a role, most notably the board members who voted for it, have yet to acknowledge that it was a mistake. They contend that the closures were the right choice based on the information available at the time.
This is, of course, hooey. The information they got from the staff - or, to be more accurate, the misinformation they got from the staff - was countered by information from other sources. The Board chose to disregard all other data.
Also, to be fair to the Board, the closures were done primarily for political reasons. There were some members of the state legislature who wanted Seattle to close schools. They saw any excess school capacity as wasteful and were threatening to cut education funding. The District was responding to that threat more than any actual belief in excess capacity.
There were other reasons. Summit was closed to save the transportation cost. AAA was closed because the test results were so bad. Cooper was closed to provide a building for Pathfinder. Pathfinder needed a building because the District gave their capital budget to Southshore. Southshore got Pathfinder's place in line for a new building because the New School Foundation wanted it. Viewlands was closed to provide some cover from accusations of racism.
There was not a single school closed for actual enrollment reasons.
disgusted said…
Thanks for the link to WSB. That article sums up pretty much all of the problems with SPS: Lack of foresight, lack of engagement, lack of transparency, constant churn of schools (I'm sorry, "programs", a very important distinction to everybody but normal people just trying to send their kids to school), lack of accountability, lack of competence, did I miss anything? Oh yeah, constant weasel-word noncommittal responses.
I hate to say it, but by their behavior SPS is helping make the argument for charters, and for voting against the levy.
Mark Wainwright said…
Hello Charlie and others -
I live in Schmitz Park Elem area, have a student there, and am involved with the PTA. We received a letter from your group this weekend on our front porch.
I am confused at the overarching purpose of the letter. The Schmitz Park Community loves our school. The potential move to a new facility seems to be an excellent option for our growing school population. Many people, including our community, have been involved in many discussions about the various pros and cons for different scenarios.
Does your letter support the Feb 2013 levy? It's not clear, but it seems to raise enough questions about things that someone may interpret this as a reason not to vote for the levy. As a Seattle resident who sees the need across the city for this levy, can you please clarify your letter?
Eric B said…
I'll go one step further than Charlie. The demographic data provided by staff as background to the school closures clearly showed that the capacity at Viewlands would be needed again in roughly 2-3 years. It re-opened 3 years later. It was a straightforward case of the staff recommendation not matching their own data.
Mark W, that sounds like it could be the work of Chris Jackins. It's his MO and his committee to save schools has a similar name to this blog. But he does not participate in anything internet, so will not read your query/complaint.
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.)
Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Via the SPS webpage: The public is invited to attend or stream this forum for candidates for appointment to the District 2 and 4 School Board Director seats. All finalists will have the opportunity to share why they are interested in serving on the Seattle School Board and answer questions selected by the Board and Student Members. More information about the appointment process, including a timeline and candidate webpages, can be found on the appointment process web page . SPSTV Streaming: The meeting will be live streamed on SPSTV and broadcast on television on Comcast 26 (standard-def) and 319 (hi-def), Wave 26 (standard-def) and 695 (hi-def), and Century Link 8008 (standard-def) and 8508 (hi-def). The agenda reflects the above wording - the meeting will be two-and-a-half hours. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 27th at the Performing Arts Center at Lincoln High School, 4400 Interlake Avenue North from 6-8:30 pm. The Board's schedule reflects announcing
Comments
This line struck me though, that "the last round of school closures [are] widely acknowledged now as a massive mistake."
I actually haven't seen a lot of discussion, especially from those school board members who were around at the time, of the last round of school closures being a massive mistake. In particular, I haven't seen much public discussion of the Board's role in that decision and what specific changes have been made to keep it from happening again. Did I miss it?
Those who did have a role, most notably the board members who voted for it, have yet to acknowledge that it was a mistake. They contend that the closures were the right choice based on the information available at the time.
This is, of course, hooey. The information they got from the staff - or, to be more accurate, the misinformation they got from the staff - was countered by information from other sources. The Board chose to disregard all other data.
Also, to be fair to the Board, the closures were done primarily for political reasons. There were some members of the state legislature who wanted Seattle to close schools. They saw any excess school capacity as wasteful and were threatening to cut education funding. The District was responding to that threat more than any actual belief in excess capacity.
There were other reasons. Summit was closed to save the transportation cost. AAA was closed because the test results were so bad. Cooper was closed to provide a building for Pathfinder. Pathfinder needed a building because the District gave their capital budget to Southshore. Southshore got Pathfinder's place in line for a new building because the New School Foundation wanted it. Viewlands was closed to provide some cover from accusations of racism.
There was not a single school closed for actual enrollment reasons.
I hate to say it, but by their behavior SPS is helping make the argument for charters, and for voting against the levy.
I live in Schmitz Park Elem area, have a student there, and am involved with the PTA. We received a letter from your group this weekend on our front porch.
I am confused at the overarching purpose of the letter. The Schmitz Park Community loves our school. The potential move to a new facility seems to be an excellent option for our growing school population. Many people, including our community, have been involved in many discussions about the various pros and cons for different scenarios.
Does your letter support the Feb 2013 levy? It's not clear, but it seems to raise enough questions about things that someone may interpret this as a reason not to vote for the levy. As a Seattle resident who sees the need across the city for this levy, can you please clarify your letter?
What letter? I don't recall writing a letter.