Updates

Short film competition at MOHAI - open to all ages - History is  ________.    Submissions through March 31.   There are several youth awards for students 17 and younger.

Shout out to MAP boycott leader (and Garfield teacher) Jesse Hagopian for his appearance in Seattle Met's "Perfect Party" group.  (See page 28 of the March issue.)  I appeared on one of these lists but I was grouped with Eddie Vedder so I was very happy.

Remember I was questioning why the Chief Communications Officer at Starbucks, Blair Taylor, was the moderator for the Michelle Rhee talk at Townhall?  As I previously mentioned, she handpicked him to do it.  (And as someone who has done a few of these things, I have rarely seen a guest be allowed to pick their interviewer.)

Starbucks media did get back to me and said that Mr. Taylor did this on his own.  I pointed out that the press release only mentioned his affiliation with Starbucks and NOT that he sits on Rhee's StudentsFirst board.  They said they did not write the press release but I did suggest that they might want to consider telling Starbucks employees - especially high-ranking ones - that if they are not clear about what they are doing as individuals and DO use the Starbucks name, people might think Starbucks is part of their effort.  I was told Starbucks is not investing in ed reform and has never given money to StudentsFirst. 

The district is looking for input on the new Strategic Plan.   The survey closes this Thursday, the 27th.

Who's applying for the Charter Commission?  A report from the AP via KOMO news.  

Education activists, teachers, lawyers, a PTA leader and a woman who used to work with charter schools in California are among the applicants to the new state commission that is expected to approve some of Washington's first charter schools.

The governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House have until March 6 to each appoint three volunteers to the new Charter School Commission for four-year terms.

There is no deadline for applying and their choices are not limited to those who fill out applications.

Some of the applicants include Jim Spady, a long-time Washington State charter advocate, Liv Finne of the Washington Policy Center (no and no), and Steve Sundquist.   Looking at the list (but without knowing who else applied), I'd say it looks like mostly charter supporters.  You'd expect that but I expect the Governor, Speaker and Lt. Governor to look for balance and those who can be objective.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Liv Finne and Steve Sundquist?

Just exactly who those of us who were watching expected.

Is there a way to write to decisionmakers to advocate against applicants, those two being top of the barrel, along with the PTSA person who insisted on pushing this devisive measure into PTSA territory, bringing down the reputation of the PTSA along with him?

DistrictWatcher.

Anonymous said…
I hope everybody who lives and breathes the consequences of the district's broken oversight of special education will fill out the survey and demand that any new strategic plan has concrete special education goals and objectives. Special education is not going to be fixed with mom and apple pie slogans about excellence for all. I hope that much is clear by now.

Nor has the current strategic plan been helpful to ELL. All the strategic plan has done has been to give administrators a bunch of slogans to fall back on, that have had no positive impacts on families and teachers.

Signed, hanging in there
A-mom said…
I couldn't get through the whole survey.
It just seemed to ask if I support the SPS jargon and slogans, or if I thought they'd lived up to their ambiguous goals.
A farce.
Anonymous said…
Yes! Filling out the survey brought home the farce of the "plan." It's all hat no horse. It has not organized a single person to perform better or think differently in the entire system. Agree with both a-mom and hanging in there.

reader
Has Sundquist Surfaced? said…
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020425120_charterschoolsxml.html

Seattle Times is reporting that a former Seattle Public School board member has applied for the Charter Commission. I'm guessing it is Sundquist.

It is essential for the public to know that he was charged with failure to oversee district operations and put public dollars at risk. Sundquist extended MGJ's contract despite a horrible auditor's report and cost the tax-payers one third of a million dollars in severence package. This must become public knowledge- Sundquist (or Maier) must NOT be allowed to oversee tax-payer dollars
I'm fairly certain that given what you have stated about Sundquist that he will not be selected for the Charter Commission. I think the 3 people doing the selections for the Charter Commission will be taking that into account.

I
Just saying said…
No one oversees the Charter Commission- I'm not feeling particularily confident with this group.
mirmac1 said…
The consultant "handling" the SP Task Force is the same one picked by the Alliance for the "HR Transformation" - which ended up being a bunch of jargon and meetings and not a whole helluva lot else.

Has Banda ever used this California outfit before?
Anonymous said…
Hagopian needs another run for SPS school board. If he unseats Kay Smith Blum, all the better.

South Capitol Hill

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