Friday Open Thread

Back from the (un) Walking Dead (4 days of a massive migraine culminating in a trip to the ER to get relief - hence, my lack of engagement here).

Anyone attend any Board Committee meetings this week?

Reminder that Director DeBell and President Smith-Blum both have community meetings tomorrow morning.   (Director DeBell's has been postponed.)

Superintendent Banda issued a thank you to Seattle voters for the overwhelming support for the two school levies this week.  He also said thanks to FACMAC, the BEX Oversight Committee, volunteers and staff.

Did you know The Source got updated?  Here's info.

What's on your mind?

Comments

Dora said…

Architecture 101 for Kids Spring classes are now available on Saturday's starting in March for students in grades 3 through 5.

Thanks for the thread.

Dora
2/15/13, 11:19 AM
Dora said…
typioVAnd one more while I'm here:

Michelle Rhee-form protest in Seattle. Join us.
2/15/13, 11:21 AM
Jan said…
Melissa -- as one who has walked the road of four-day migraines, I am so sorry! I hope you are feeling better.
2/15/13, 12:45 PM
Anonymous said…
District calendar shows DeBell's meeting as postponed and there's another for next week.

Updatey goodness
2/15/13, 1:14 PM
mirmac1 said…
The SAO entrance conference was yesterday. Lots of things on the SAO plate this year, including revisiting the failure to accurately "excess costs" for providing IEP services to students at Ballard.

2/15/13, 1:35 PM
Anonymous said…
Anyone know when Winter MAP scores will be on The Source?

-Score Info
2/15/13, 2:19 PM
joanna said…
Melissa, I am very happy to hear that you are feeling better.I attended a bit of the Audit and Finance Committee Meeting. There are those who have, no doubt, followed this committee more closely than I, since Operations is the one I usually attend. I was a bit late and had to leave a little early. Can there be a rule against having two committee meetings at the same time, especially since Ops and Audit and Finance have discussions that are related to each other? I am only going to note the highlights while I was there, not details.

An outline of the Federal and State Grants and the difference in expected 2013-14 revenue were compared with this year. Sherry asked if there was a process is place to monitor the use of grant money and if there was a District policy on this type of reporting. The answer seemed to be that cuts to central staffing have degraded the tracking and monitoring, and that no, there is not a policy and maybe should be.

The discussion of the BEX III Debt Service and Property Tax Analysis was one that reminded me of why sometimes the District has sometimes been frustrating to watch. Of course, this is related to the interest on the bonds for the Stanford Center. The timing of the Districts collection of funds from tax has not been correlating well and were insufficient. Also the interest the District expected to be received had been estimated to be higher than it is. Around 1.5 million was transferred from CPE for the short term to meet payments. Eventually all the BEX III taxes will be collected. Another million will be set aside from BEX III in case if it is needed. Sherry did point out that the District refinanced the debt on the Stanford Center that helped lower the total, but that it is still not solved. Since the time of the original financing of the Center the Board has put policies in place that would not allow them to use that type of financing again. I heard Tracy Libros say that she had little to report and that this is the first time ever that her department is fully staffed. I had leave.
2/15/13, 3:22 PM
joanna said…
Relating to scheduling of community meetings, perhaps it is good the DeBell rescheduled his community meeting so that it does not coincide with Winter Break. That should be a consideration.
2/15/13, 3:47 PM
Anonymous said…
MMJ works for my migraines.

CC
2/15/13, 3:57 PM
Anonymous said…
melissa - sorry about the migraine. i get them, too, though never for 4 days. :/ i haven't eaten gluten for a year now and my migraines have been cut in half. i did make a bunch of dietary changes at once, though, so hard to know... another thing i did was start taking extra magnesium. glad you're better.
fellow sufferer
2/15/13, 4:26 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Joanna, I had a feeling they would be talking about the JSCEE and its heavy bond burden. What a mess.

2/15/13, 4:37 PM
uxolo said…
joanna said "The answer seemed to be that cuts to central staffing have degraded the tracking and monitoring, and that no, there is not a policy and maybe should be. "

Grants typically have to include funding for the monitor of the grant- does that mean we have unused funds or misused funds?
2/16/13, 5:14 AM
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