Seattle Schools This Week

Monday, August 12
Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee Mtg, 4-6 pm.  Agenda

A lot of BARs for various partnerships with outside entities for services.  One, for Special Ed services via the Northwest School of Innovative Learning, caught my eye because I know they were being sued in 2011while a student in the Puyallup School District was in their school.  The student's family alleged physical mistreatment.  Might be good if the Directors know the outcome of that lawsuit.

Also, some discussion scheduled for Policy 313, Student Assignment, Policy 2015, Selection/Adoption of Instructional Materials and Policy 2415, High School Graduation Requirements.  

Wednesday, August 14th
Executive Committee Meeting - 8:30-10 am.  Agenda
Review of the upcoming Board meetings for August 21st and September 4th.
Discussion around amending Policy 1400 and Policy 6114, and the next Board Retreat.

Policy 1400 is "Meeting Conduct, Order of Business and Quorum."  I find this interesting because this one has already been tweaked so I wonder what else there could be to do. 

Policy 6114 is around "Gifts, Grants, Donations & Fundraising Proceeds."  I suspect this may be about the updated policy around PTA fundraising during school hours and a percentage of the proceeds to be given to the school's ASB fund.  (I still do not know for certain who controls the direction of those funds.) 

District VI Community Meeting - Growth Boundaries, hosted by Director McLaren
6-7:45 pm at the West Seattle Library, 2306 42nd SW (note: this is not a formal district meeting but a drop-in one with Director McLaren).  I give her credit for trying to reach out to her district early on this topic.

Thursday, August 15th
Operations Committee Meeting, 4-6 p.m.  Agenda
Several BEX and BTA discussions and acceptance of work done.  Also, review of Policy 3432, Emergencies as well as discussion of "naming of BEX IV schools."  

Comments

Unknown said…
The Northwest School for Innovative Learning received $500,000 in the past year for contracted services for students with disabilities.
CHILD (Children’s Institute) received $90,320, Overlake Specialty School received $26,000, and Waterfall Canyon Academy (Utah) received $126,000.

What the "Hospital Services" are that are references in this agenda could be any number of things.
8/11/13, 7:49 PM
Dora said…
I have an "event".

SEA will be holding a press conference this Wednesday regarding class size as a contract bargaining issue.

For more information, see
Class Size and the Seattle Education Association Contract Negotiations
8/11/13, 7:55 PM
Charlie Mas said…
I notice that the Advanced Learning policy has dropped off the C & I committee's parking lot.

I notice that none of the Board Committees are following up on the Equitable Access Framework. That project appears dead.
8/12/13, 9:11 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
I urge people to write to the Board about the Equitable Access Framework. The district (and Board) have gone on and one about this and it ties in with boundary work. I am baffled but since this is Michael Tolley's area, not surprised.
8/12/13, 9:18 AM
Anonymous said…
McClure's idea of equitable access is to automatically enroll all 8th graders in Algebra 1 for the coming school year, ready or not:

http://mcclurems.seattleschools.org/

I enthusiastically agreed to this challenge citing that the change was necessary and just.
-J. Johnson, McClure math teacher

A summer note from the McClure math teacher states the decision was made with S. Pritchett prior to her appointment as Executive Director. Evidence from other districts has shown early Algebra placement of unprepared students can actually lower EOC pass rates and performance in future math classes. It's especially concerning if there has not been a concerted effort to prepare students for skipping a year of math.

Thoughts?
8/13/13, 11:34 AM
Charlie Mas said…
McClure, like all other middle schools, has been assigning students to algebra in the 8th grade whenever they believed that the student is ready for the class. They have not found every student to be ready. For them to assign ALL students to algebra in the 8th grade is to assign students to the class even if the staff knows that the students are not ready to succeed with it.

How is that a good thing?
8/14/13, 1:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

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.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more