A Couple of Interesting Items
There is a petition at Change.org, asking Superintendent Banda to end early dismissals at SPS. I have no info as to who started it (it only says F. Jacobs). It has over 200 signatures. It's fairly simple text:
Frequent early school dismissals are a terrible hardship on families. Parents under financial stress, working parents, multi-child families, single parents, and many other caregivers have no good childcare and/or transportation options to manage early school dismissals. We urge you to find a family-friendly way to provide teachers with the planning time they need.
As well, tomorrow the results of the 2012 Healthy Youth Survey and the federal Youth Risk Behavior survey will be released. I'll be attending a media event at SPS about these findings.
To:
Jose Banda, Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools
Jonathan Knapp, President, Seattle Education Association
Phyllis Campano, Vice President, Seattle Education Association
Please stop early dismissals at Seattle public schools.
Jose Banda, Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools
Jonathan Knapp, President, Seattle Education Association
Phyllis Campano, Vice President, Seattle Education Association
Frequent early school dismissals are a terrible hardship on families. Parents under financial stress, working parents, multi-child families, single parents, and many other caregivers have no good childcare and/or transportation options to manage early school dismissals. We urge you to find a family-friendly way to provide teachers with the planning time they need.
As well, tomorrow the results of the 2012 Healthy Youth Survey and the federal Youth Risk Behavior survey will be released. I'll be attending a media event at SPS about these findings.
Comments
Community meetings on boundary changes
Meetings are scheduled from 6:30-8 p.m. as follows:
• Monday, Sept. 23 - Mercer Middle School, lunchroom
• Tuesday, Sept. 24 - Nathan Hale High School, commons
• Wednesday, Sept. 25 - West Seattle High School, commons
• Monday, Sept. 30 - Meany Building, lunchroom, (Seattle World School, formerly Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center)
• Tuesday, Oct. 1 - Ballard High School, commons
a reader
Is this quoted from a handbook or press release? More serious than the child care issue is that the class days are so short nothing useful gets done. Child doesn't learn anything, yet still has to be in school. Stupid waste of time. Sometimes the school arranges for an assembly on half days instead of classes, and that's a reasonable use of the time, but a 20 minute period is just long enough to take attendance and then pack up to leave. I'm all for professional development, but why can't they take half as many full days to do it and let the kids have a vacation day? The parents who can afford the time could have a full day with the child, the parents who have to arrange child care would have just one day to arrange instead of two. Maybe the MAP and MSP testing days should be some of those half days, and the schools could use proctors for them while the regular teachers do their professional development.
Of course care when students are not in school is a parent's responsibility. But the school's responsibility is effective teaching, and half days aren't effective for teaching.
One reason I've seen advocated for doing the half days is that FRL students get breakfast and lunch on the half days, and might not get it at home. It's good to feed the hungry, but is taking up professional teachers' time and the rest of the class's time really the most efficient way to accomplish that?
-Lemons