Tuesday Open Thread
It's less than one month now until SPS starts back up. Back-to-school resources from SPS.
Tonight we find out who cleared the primary for Mayor and School Board. Might make for some interesting analysis tomorrow morning.
What's on your mind?
Tonight we find out who cleared the primary for Mayor and School Board. Might make for some interesting analysis tomorrow morning.
What's on your mind?
Comments
-wondering
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/not-free-after-all-public-school-fees-add-6C10851880
On NBC news today. At Hale, the various booster clubs try to help out with fees as much as possible. A uniform for a cheerleader is around a $1000 making it impossible for some kids to even consider trying out.
HP
He sounds well informed and should be able to hit the ground running. I am a little concerned that he seems to have done consulting work for SPS? I went looking for a web site for his consulting firm (Lighthouse Consulting) to see his client list, but couldn't find one (not even linked from his
Linkedin profile) so I'm thinking it must be pretty small. (There is a huge snazzy Lighthouse Consulting based in the DC area, I think, but they don't seem related.)
Lynn
Really fascinating Steve Jobs talks about leadership, content, and process among many other things. From minute 23 to 33 there was an opportunity for the viewer to draw parallels to education.
Seems like the substandard to at best average leadership we see in most public education circles can be explained by Jobs insights.
His insights into how a great product is created illustrates that the Common Core State Standards movement is a lousy idea. He talked about how in 1995 Apple was on a glide path to extinction because of leadership decisions. In my opinion CCSS is an expensive glide path to create a worse educational environment.
Blanford would not talk to the blog during the primary despite requests. When I saw him at the Alliance event, I introduced myself and asked if we might meet.
He said no because our blog was telling mistruths about him. He said he himself never read our blog but "friends" told him that.
I said we could print a clarification if we could talk but he refused. I asked what the issue was and he said we said he supported TFA. (According to Charlie and other witnesses, he raised his paddle YES at the 34th Dems while Estey and Peters said NO.)
He said that he only said yes because TFA is now in the district and, as a Board director, he would be required to support it.
I was pretty startled. One, that he himself had read nothing we wrote. Two, that he would have the chance to clarify his position but didn't want to. Three, no, he does NOT have to support any program if he doesn't want to especially one with a contract (that is rapidly approaching).
I suspect there is more to it than just this one thing and he is within his rights to never talk to us. But he cannot accuse us of printing falsehoods because we haven't.
I know this because I went back and reviewed everything we wrote. The only negative really was the TFA thing and I pointed this out to a couple of his biggest supporters. They were surprised he would not talk with us and to give nuance to his stand.
In fact, we've said some pretty good things about him and his background.
Does not bode well.
HP
Fresh faces can offer a contrast to a board often polarized on opposite ends of policy issues. It does not mean smooth sailing for here on out but new energy coupled with improved board training can only help. From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s scathing 2012 report on the board’s dysfunction to the board’s own recent harsh self-evaluation, the argument for change has been made. And now here it comes. — Lynne K. Varner
So I'm confused. Varner has been the mouthpiece of DeBell claiming board churn is causing the disfunctionality (since DeBall, Carr and Martin-Morris walk on water), but now new members can only help?.
We can see, at any given point in the day, how many hits a given post gets. When I see a very quick spike on a post just put up, I know it's mostly single hits (not people coming back throughout the day). It's amazing the topics that get multiple hits in a short period of time.
Also, I know who follows us on Twitter so that's interesting as well.
HP, wow. Schools used to fund these uniforms simply because they weren't really affordable back then either. (But at my high school, we used uniforms for a looong time.) I can't believe students have to fundraise/pay for these.
One thing I always thought troubling is buying those graduation gowns. Why not have a gown donation (tried this at both my kids' high schools - no go). No reason for so many to have to buy these pieces of polyester.
Concerned, good catch.
Another one I saw recently is this term "civil rights." It's used for ed reform, charter choice, quality public schools, better teachers.
Which one of these IS the right "civil rights issue of our generation?" No one will tell me but they don't mind using an very sensitive and loaded phrase to push their agenda.
The new Executive Director for the Southwest region is Israel Vela of the Kent School District. (Announced on the West Seattle Blog.)
Voting Olu.
Jane
HIMSmom
http://genesee-schmitz.org/
http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/StateTesting/default.aspx
be concerned
CCA
relax
Yep, schooling must be sucking knowledge out of the brains of our youth!
HIMSmom (who appears to be suffering from summertime learning loss!)