Friday Open Thread
Update: City Hall will be open to the public tomorrow from 10 am to 2 pm. They will have performances (acrobats, dance crew) as well as food trucks and adoptable dogs/cats. You can tour the Mayor's office as well as the City Council offices. It's a fun activity for kids and you get a little face time with the Mayor and City Council members.
The Times has a couple of interesting headlines. One is a feature story about Governor Inslee stating that while he likes the concept of "grading" schools, he thinks it needs further study. Apparently the Republicans had been counting on his early comments of support for the concept as support for their bill. I talked to the Governor's office weeks ago and they very clearly told me he did NOT support Senate Bill 5328 and, in fact, were not happy that some media outlets were linking that support to the bill.
I am pretty happy at his up-front stance because I don't believe a one-letter grade represents any school.
As well, Lynne Varner is again prattling on about how bad the WEA is and how great the struggling TFA-led Teachers United is. Do I think the WEA wants its members to toe the union line? Sure. Do I think they won't listen to new ideas? I don't know, maybe WEA members will weigh in. One thing is for sure - finger-wagging, over and over as the Times does with the WEA - is not going to change anything.
The Walton Foundation - they of the WalMart fortune - announced their Ed Reformers to Watch for the first quarter of 2013. Who's on their list? Lisa Macfarlane. Not a big surprise but it really cements her place as probably the top ed reformer in the state. Their announcement also says that she will be using a $10k grant to Ed Reform Now to push that agenda. Their Board of Directors? All investment managers.
No Board Director community meetings tomorrow but there is a Strategic Plan community meeting at Garfield at 10 am. (I'll write a thread on the one I attended. In a nutshell, I felt like it was a waste of time and filling out the survey online is the best option for input.)
What's on your mind?
The Times has a couple of interesting headlines. One is a feature story about Governor Inslee stating that while he likes the concept of "grading" schools, he thinks it needs further study. Apparently the Republicans had been counting on his early comments of support for the concept as support for their bill. I talked to the Governor's office weeks ago and they very clearly told me he did NOT support Senate Bill 5328 and, in fact, were not happy that some media outlets were linking that support to the bill.
I am pretty happy at his up-front stance because I don't believe a one-letter grade represents any school.
As well, Lynne Varner is again prattling on about how bad the WEA is and how great the struggling TFA-led Teachers United is. Do I think the WEA wants its members to toe the union line? Sure. Do I think they won't listen to new ideas? I don't know, maybe WEA members will weigh in. One thing is for sure - finger-wagging, over and over as the Times does with the WEA - is not going to change anything.
The Walton Foundation - they of the WalMart fortune - announced their Ed Reformers to Watch for the first quarter of 2013. Who's on their list? Lisa Macfarlane. Not a big surprise but it really cements her place as probably the top ed reformer in the state. Their announcement also says that she will be using a $10k grant to Ed Reform Now to push that agenda. Their Board of Directors? All investment managers.
No Board Director community meetings tomorrow but there is a Strategic Plan community meeting at Garfield at 10 am. (I'll write a thread on the one I attended. In a nutshell, I felt like it was a waste of time and filling out the survey online is the best option for input.)
What's on your mind?
Comments
I'll just say that every ad that pops up does not indicate support from anyone at the blog.
-TC
-The Annie E. Casey Foundation
-The Broad Foundations
-The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
-Carnegie Corporation of New York
-Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
-Fund for Educational Excellence
-The Joyce Foundation
-Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
-National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
-Rodel Charitable Foundation
-The Seattle Foundation
-US Department of Education
-Walton Family Foundation
I can see why they need a large chunk of taxpayer money as well.
http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2013040017#start=361&stop=624
Also, here is a story about Inslee's visit from the West Seattle Herald:
http://www.westseattleherald.com/2013/03/28/news/governor-inslee-tours-k-5-stem-school-west-seattl
And the West Seattle Blog:
http://westseattleblog.com/2013/03/happening-now-gov-inslee-visits-west-seattles-k-5-stem
Heck, if Region 6 Director McLaren refuses to advocate and sing the praises of this amazing school in her area, we, the families will do it for her!
- StringCheese
Really? Where did you hear this?
-TC parent
Dear Thornton Creek families:
As you know, enrollment at Seattle Public Schools is increasing, including in the Thornton Creek area. We need to build more capacity in the northeast region in order to ensure all of our students have a safe environment for learning.
The intent is to build a school on the Thornton Creek site to meet the growing enrollment. Previous review of the enrollment data indicated that we should build a neighborhood school. However, more recent analysis suggests that enlarging our school to 650 students may be a viable option.
Therefore, the district is proposing that our school move into a new building in September of 2016, which will give us new space and reduce reliance of portables. We will be working with the Teaching and Learning department, architects and construction managers to ensure that we can continue to optimize the school program and environment, as well as the current open space on our site.
At tonight’s School Board Meeting, the Board will vote on awarding a construction management services contract to build a new elementary school at Thornton Creek. The School Board Action Report is at http://bit.ly/BoardReport04032013
Our staff will work closely with the District and construction crews to ensure our school site remains a safe environment for students during the construction. As soon as we get an updated timeline, we will communicate this to our community.
For more information and to view additional documents related to this item, please visit http://bit.ly/SPSCapitalProjects.
I will continue to keep you informed as developments occur.
I love TC, but there is no way I would send my children to a 650 kid version of it. Then you get all the drawbacks of a traditional neighborhood school, with none of the benefits.
TC parent
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=51bba0b5a4a9844bb19f2ea2247bda29&pageid=211190&sessionid=51bba0b5a4a9844bb19f2ea2247bda29
I actually like option #3. Having a new attendance boundary at the area would have been insane. The Thornton Creek program always turns away students. And now it gets a new building rather than watching a mega school go up in its face.
-TC
-TC
Tc parent
How is that? I don't understand.
Thanks for daylighting this because I missed it. I have to wonder why it wasn't more widely announced as it is a significant change.
During Wednesday's School Board meeting, the Board approved the building of a 650-seat school at the Thornton Creek site, with the intention of growing the Thornton Creek option program to fill the building. TC students would be housed in their current building until the new building is ready. They intend to demo the old building.
To make up the capacity shortfall of having only one building on the TC/Decatur site, they plan to open up Cedar Park School. The Cedar Park building is small, and is landmarked. It can provide only 11 permanent classrooms, so they plan to place 4 double portables on the site to add 7 classrooms and library space. With the portables, the estimated capacity of Cedar Park would be 400 students. From what I understand, Cedar Park is slated to be used as an interim site for Olympic Hills, before housing a permanent K-5 school.
Feasibility studies were performed for Cedar Park as well as Lake City School. Lake City School would yield more classrooms (20 permanent), but was estimated to be a more expensive renovation. Staff recommended opening Cedar Park, and the Board approved this recommendation.
-North End Mom
HP
WW mom
Making TC bigger allows it to exist, with its current educational program/philosophy. Otherwise, it was endangered. Not because of program quality. Because of huge general ed capacity needs. And that would have been an awful reason for a wonderful school to disappear.
Plopping a 2nd, gen ed, school on the TC fields, just because it was the only property available to SPS, was the height of bad program planning. It would have meant the eventual end of TC anyhow, because at some future point someone would have had the bright idea to "annex" TC for gen ed needs. Anyone who has watched SPS for a while knows this is what would have ultimately happened. And before that happened, redrawing attendance boundaries in the area would have been a political disaster. And then there was the issue of the neighbors mounting a fight against the district for putting an ill-thought-out facility on the last "open" green space in the area.
The plan was a boondoggle start to finish.
Do not mistake me - the Cedar Park "fix" is bad too. Very bad. But not quite as bad as the original property plan.
Should the district have publicized this in a more methodical and widespread manner? Of course. But look at this BEX process start to finish and there is no surprise here, either. It is the nature of the beast. Not to mention that the District can legally do anything it wants with BEX money now that it has it. No obligation to stick to previous plans.
Capacity Wonk
NW families deserve more access to the one alternative school in their neighborhood.
I was surprised by the results. For 3 years in a row our scores were in the 4.5 range (aka good). But last year our overall achievement score dropped to 2.6 (aka fair, but just .2 above struggling). We got 1s in every category for Writing and Science.
https://eds.ospi.k12.wa.us/WAI/IndexReport/schoolcode
Last year our principal implemented a new multi-age program (all classes except kindergarten are splits...every class is a 1/2 or a 3/4/5 combo). These scores make me wonder if the switch to this program was the right choice.
Does anyone here know if anyone at SPS looks at these results...particularly for schools that are ranked at the bottom rather than the top? Given the switch to multi-age I'm particularly concerned about the large drop in our school's scores. I think this is at least an orange flag and hope it is not going completly unnoticed by those charged with overseeing our school.
Concerned Mom
I essentially agree with you on your points. The TC plan was untenable to start and the Cedar Park "solution" is mythical. I simply can't imagine how they will get 8 portables on a landmarked site.
However, TC has "stepped up" and grown significantly over the last few years, just like every school in the NE. Historically, the school held under 300 students as it is a tiny building. They have added 5 homerooms in the last few years and they will be adding more portables next year.
The "issue" the school has raised is having so much of the school capacity in portables. The building was originally a K-2 and has minimal core facilities.
As for annexing them for "gen ed" needs. That has effectively happened. With the geo-zone in place, effectively only students from the geo-zone (Wedgwood and View Ridge) are enrolled. This makes TC now just as much of a neighborhood school as all the other schools.
Your best bet is to talk with your principal about what you noticed and ask if he/she has any concerns. After that, I would also talk to your region's Ex Director and cc your district's Board Director.
Then, it's on everyone's radar and no one can say they missed it.
-Eckstein parent
HP