Tuesday Open Thread

Off the next Charter Commission meeting on Thursday - looks like they still don't have an Executive Director.  Maybe they'll have more info on the charter lawsuit (as it pertains to their work).

FYI, there are a couple of open seats coming up on the State Board of Education.  Mary Jean Ryan's (Position 6 - our area) will be expiring in January 2014 as does Judy Jennings( private school rep), Phyllis Bunker Frank (Eastern Washington), Isabel Munoz-Colon (Position 3) and Peter Maier (our area).  If you are interested, details here.


Comments

I deleted a comment about two opinions at the so-called Our Schools page because it was in the wrong thread.

It is about class size.

http://ourschoolscoalition.org/
Anonymous said…
The link at the end of the post is broken.
Just put in Our Schools and you'll find it. (I'm not helping these people, now or ever.)
Anonymous said…
Thanks for reposting Melissa, and sorry for not waiting for the open thread.

I know you don't want to help them, and I understand, but it's such a stupid idea for the district to raise class size that I want these pieces to be seen.


-west seattle
Anonymous said…
Melissa, the link regarding the open SBE positions is broken.

--- interested
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
There are six people signed up to speak at tomorrow's board meeting about the MOU between the district and Self Enhancement Inc for servoces at Rainier Beach. They seem to be doing good things in Portland public schools - BUT they run a charter school AND the founder of this nonprofit is paid almost $250,000 a year.

They anticipate spending $400,000 per grade served - for RBHS's 448 students that's about $3,600 per student.
I'd like to know why the superintendent has pulled the MOU from the agenda.

Lynn
mirmac1 said…
Lynn,

Probably because members of the board were adamant that the source of funding for this MOU be transparent, not:

SEI North has received indications of interests and is presently in funding discussions with U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, The Ballmer Family Foundation and Microsoft. The remaining funds will come from individual and corporate donors that have made contributions to The Danna K. Johnston Foundation over the past five years.

Likewise, I expect Mr. Banda pulled the STR MOU because the budget for this new initiative (yet another) has not been prepared for the board's review. That is asking the board to approve something with no knowledge of what it will cost!

I commend Mr. Banda for responding to the board's concerns.
Anonymous said…
Anyone heard about problems between the staff and principal at Montlake? Another parent indicated that the teachers have all been moved to different grades. Lots of director changes.

Montlake Parent
Anonymous said…
Helpful site for parents looking for programs and activities.

https://www.sigby.com/

PSP
Anonymous said…
In consideration of the discussion on class sizes I have some questions about how the District is going about planning for the future. We have a very limited stock of school buildings, extremely over-capacity enrollment in some areas, and a plan to add even more portable classrooms to campuses across the city.

Now think about the McCleary ruling, the legislature's plans for increasing funding to expand full day kindergarten offerings, and then also prior, unfunded commitments to reduce class sizes in the early grades.

If funding comes through ever the decrease in student:teacher ratios results in a net increase in required classrooms.

If we have three classes of 28 students per class in a school with three classes in the grade now (84 students ) now, and we reduce the number of students per homeroom to 24, we end up with an extra 12 students in need of an additional homeroom.

How is the District preparing for the increase in classroom space? Or will reduced class sizes never happen in Seattle? It seems like their plans are all around today's needs without any planning for the future.

CHM
Anonymous said…
CHM,
The state is thinking about the issue. The link below should take you to the WA State OSPI website and a report titled "Educational System Capacity to Accommodate Increased Resources."

http://www.k12.wa.us/LegisGov/2013documents/CapacityforIncreasedResources.pdf

Lynn
Anonymous said…
Anchorage School District dumps EDM -- wish SSD would follow suit:

Anchorage School District New Math Curriculum

-Math Geek
Anonymous said…
A comment from the article on ditching EDM:

If your child is falling behind in math, then it's your responsibility as a parent to step in. I didn't like the "problem solving" focus of Everyday Math, so I spent time with my daughter at home teaching her straight-up math and letting her make her own connections for solving problems in real life.

As a result, she has excelled through hard work on both of our parts.


That's our story as well. In our case, we didn't like the "multiple methods" that obfuscated the standard pencil and paper methods for doing arithmetic. We taught adding/subtracting the old fashioned way, scoffed at the lattice method, and made sure long division was taught the traditional way.

SeattleParent

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

Who Is A. J. Crabill (and why should you care)?