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
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