Seattle Schools This Week

Basically, not much.

No meetings scheduled for the district except on Saturday, August 31st, Director Patu has her Community Meeting from 10 am to noon at Caffe Vita. 

I have no new updates from the teacher contract talks but I assume there will be a vote on the newest (and, according to the district, last) offer either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I feel confident both sides will find agreement before the start of school on September 4th. 

Upcoming threads:
- more unraveling of ed reform
- FERPA and protecting your student's data

Comments

Anonymous said…
There will be a vote today. Recommendation is to vote NO. The phony concessions the district has made (e.g. not increase class sizes) were never going to happen anyway. They threw the SEA a bone on that one. As for the ESAs, increasing the number of staff is NOT a concession either. There are still no caseload limits which means some ESAs will have up to 60 IEP'd students to serve. Any parent with a student on an IEP knows that's just not right. Any wonder there are always so many ESA positions open at the start of each school year? Any wonder why so many corrective actions from OSPI?

I will be voting NO on the proposed contract. However, I will also vote to start school on time (work without a contract) if that is an option. Students and their families should not bear the brunt of the districts bad behavior.

Sped Staffer
8/26/13, 8:38 AM
Anonymous said…
Thanks Sped Staffer, but what's the point? If you aren't willing to go on strike, then you will get what you get. If you're going to make a point, you need to back it up with something. And we parents will support you. As to ridiculously high caseloads. If corners need to be cut, then that is a fine place to cut them. Really? School psych's? Do you EVER use anything they put out? Even once? Do you say, "Wow, that's a suggestion I wouldn't have thought of!" Yes you need their recommendation to qualify students for special ed as a formality but they've got little else to offer. That would be true if their caseloads were limited. And therapists. Well, I guess it's good they have them, but money is much better spent on actual teachers. Maybe you're talking about counselors. Mileage varies A LOT there. Great ones are truly great. But mostly there is no accountability.

Sped Parent
8/26/13, 7:28 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, grief, that is to come fro
Read more

MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors

 Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.  In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.  - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Read more