Follow ups
Before school started we heard about a new peer tutoring program at McClure. How's that working out?
Before school started we heard that Whitman was going to dissolve their 7th and 8th grade Spectrum classes. How's that working out?
How is transportation going? All smoothed out?
Are the schedules for secondary students smoothed out? Do kids still need to fill their schedules with classes?
What about the school software? Is that working now?
Before school started we heard that Whitman was going to dissolve their 7th and 8th grade Spectrum classes. How's that working out?
How is transportation going? All smoothed out?
Are the schedules for secondary students smoothed out? Do kids still need to fill their schedules with classes?
What about the school software? Is that working now?
Comments
IHS mom
Dad disgruntled
SPS Parent
(Yellow buses aren't just for APP, I believe RHS runs one from Laurelhurst in the morning.)
Younger kid never got transportation. Emailed & called several times, finally today she was given bus, but only till 9/22?!? Back to the emailing.
Yellow bus from Laurelhurst to RHS? Things have changed. My friend lived in Laurelhurst, had to walk because not 2 miles away as the crow flies. Didn't matter that she wasn't a crow. Told her she should volunteer to be bused down south like me. Is SPS measuring distance in human terms now?
CCA
IHS mom
_Mystified
There has really been no homework yet and seems to be ramping up a little slow, but otherwise, no red flags yet.
Waiting
-RHS parent
Of course as a huge district with many employees things don't always come about as planned, but without external bird-dogging such as Charlie's, things often just disappear. While I can name several successful district initiatives and plans, I can also name same several that seem to have disappeared.
As these proposed plans and actions often require many hours of district and volunteer attention, it is a good thing that people ask, what about them? This discourages (one hopes) wasted effort and unfulfilled promises.
The Capitol Hill/Northwest Seattle shuttle is the same way, super crowded. Hopefully the district will add an additional bus to that route as well. The shuttles in the afternoon only go to Northgate or North Beach which is slightly easier than metro for connections to home. We were told that the buses are funded and there because of APP but anyone can ride, which makes it a super convient option for families.
IHS family
If the answer is "too soon to tell" then that's the answer. The answer could also be "wonderful!" or "horrible!" or even, "doesn't seem any different"
I agree that Ingraham is a pita to reach by Metro.
In what may have been the last summer that summer school was offered, my daughter needed to take a math class to catch up.
( she always got at least Bs in math, but she had started behind)
She was assigned to a class at Franklin, but the teacher didnt show up & it took several days for me to find out.
( Franklin kept giving the kids the run around , trying to make them believe it was always like that & would be ok)
Apparently according to the district it was too late to hire another teacher, so I had a fit until they opened up a few spaces for the kids at Ingraham, the only other school that was teaching summer school that we could afford.
Metro took hours to come from the south end.
I thought the district was going to work with metro to redo some routes to better serve the public?
kp
More About Volunteer Screening and Background Checks
Ann D
Kp
I do understand and appreciate the additional safety measure, but don't understand why it can not be performed at our local school vs. having to take time off work, to make it work.
-StepJ
I see a few Laurelhurst kids at the View Ridge metro stops in the morning, but the kids we know get dropped off at school by parents in the am.
RHS parent
ear muffs
In rare
cases when a person’s name matches too many results in the WATCH system, the Page 2 of 4
Washington State Patrol requires the school to acquire a thumbprint from the volunteer
and send the request through U.S. Mail.
I wonder if it would be possible for school employees to collect fingerprints and send them downtown?
In the link it says that parents have to go through the WATCH process every two years. If they have to drive downtown and stand in line to be fingerprinted every two years (and pay $43!), I don't think most of the camping programs at our schools will survive.
I agree with earmuffs, but I'm not sure training is enough. Principals need to consistently call people on gossip.
Good news is that she has pretty high standards for the all the kids based on her syllabus
That will just get worse with relaxation of FERPA and your kids personally identifiable information and educational records wide open to any volunteer with a password. The goal is to have your kid's info on a handy data dashboard. That's the Road Map Project.
Also, the same scheduling software issues that have impacted enrollment are also being felt in Transportation - some delays in route planning etc are because the correct info is not making it to all the necessary parties.
Baloney Mirmac1. That is not the goal.
CCER Fan
please email to spsleaks@gmail.com
pg 62:
"Extensive data use has allowed us to bring focus to specific challenges and given us the ability to then target the work needed to achieve rapid progress. All of this information has been presented extensively to educators, parents, youth development organizations, business leaders, and others. We strongly believe in using data to drive improvement in student achievement and support the
engagement of stakeholders across sectors in the work."
pg 66:
"set the stage for a new data system to monitor student progress, including providing information on the quality of the educator workforce, monitoring and analyzing the costs of programs, providing for financial integrity and accountability, and ensuring the capability to link across data components statewide and by student, class, teacher, school, and
district. Assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, OSPI has been working on the state’s Comprehensive Education Data and Research System (CEDARS), a longitudinal data warehouse and integrated educational data system. The system will help educators assess student progress, will inform school districts, state and federal decision-makers, and will provide transparent
information to parents and the public. Inputs to the system will come from districts, who will report data on courses, students, and teachers. Student data includes demographics, enrollment information, schedules, grades, and program participation."
pg 134:
"Project Goals and Strategies...
4. 4. Make information available to parents, students, and community-based organizations. Parents and students will be able to access data through a specially built parent/student portal. This platform will be used to encourage collaboration among students, parents, and educators as they plan a successful program for students... Community-based organizations will use a specifically designed portal to access the information they need about students and to enter information useful to schools. Smaller organizations often do not have data analysts on staff, so a well designed graphic interface will help them understand their caseload, overall organizational data, and individual student data."
CCER Fan
Here is a recent account of a cyberattack on a parent portal in Kentucky.
Kentucky Parent Portal is Targeted in Unprecedented Cyberattack
"n unprecedented and coordinated worldwide cyberattack on part of the Kentucky Department of Education Infinite Campus, known to parents as the Parent Portal, targeted select small to medium-size districts in Eastern Kentucky this week.
If I don't want to give them access, do I need to send letter/ forn stating I don't agree to givevthem access?
CCA
The Road Map Project (RMP) told the DOE that the seven districts have all this philanthropy:
"Funding to support improvement in education in the Road Map region comes from many sources other than the public sector. A 2011 survey of education funders reinforced that our region has a strong philanthropic sector and nonprofit organizations dedicated to both providing and coordinating funding to achieve regional Goals. These funders typically invest over $23 million annually. Many are now aligning their investment priorities with the Road Map Project and are using the same performance metrics."
Of course the bulk of this is from us taxpayers. The FEL is specifically called out as a "community partner" in the RMP. The FEL service providers will have their own portal to your child's personally identifiable information. Who the heck will be looking at this information?!?
Yes, it is chilling.
SPS involvement in this scam is totally elective.
I walk that route with the dog sometimes and after the leaves fall that 3-block-long hill is covered with leaves and slicker than snot. (It's on the side and outside the fences of homes so I think homeowners just forget about raking.)
Uphill, it is a slog. I took it with the dog the other day and we were both panting hard all the way up. I'm old but the dog isn't.
Plus her arrival time is 4:18, pretty dark in the winter, with that uphill climb and 1/2 mile to go.
I asked for a new stop (nothing is closer, so it would mean re-routing) but was told nothing would happen until at least October, and maybe nothing period. So my question is: do I push for it or suck it up? I won't make her do that walk on her own and I am frankly not doing it twice a day to meet her, so I'll figure out a way to drive her if need be. But I wonder how hard to push for something better. Maybe this is the norm and we just need to deal.
Wondering Mom
new to hamilton
My impression is that this year is worse than usual. Probably due to the influx of 100+ new students over their usual cap. Their policy is that they will switch electives on a space available basis (stated on the HIMS website). There still appear to be numerous kids working on reorganizing their schedules so I would keep requesting on the assumption that kids are still moving around and the registrar is still in triage mode. My 7th grader has reported all kinds of weird scheduling anomalies among her friends - she was put in Spanish III from Spanish I but she finds the class accessible so will tentatively stay there.
hang in there
-squeaky wheel
Mirmac's comment is misleading, because it sounds as though SPS and CCER are passing information around when they are not entitled to do so.
There is a long list, by federal law, of entities who may view a student's individual education record without consent of a student's guardians. No permission is necessary.
These entities include but are not limited to law authorities, accrediting agencies, organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of a school, and agencies contracted to provide support services to students.
Perhaps Mirmac disagrees with this federal law and wishes to pursue a change. But SPS and CCER do nothing illegal nor unusual ---- at the local, regional or national level ---- in their handling of data.
A more productive discussion on the blog would be an education campaign on the many places student data is shared. I agree that most parents will be surprised, and some subset will be unhappy. Data privacy is a topic on which families will have varying sensitivities. However, given current law, sensitive families will have little recourse in prohibiting the sharing of data.
Your child's grades, classes, attendance, test scores, disciplinary record, special education and (or) advanced learning information and more information, may in fact be shared with non-SPS entities frequently.
But Mirmac's use of words such as scam and garbage do not promote a thorough discussion on the topic.
CCER Fan
Aren't y'all adorable!
Southie
You confuse "legitimate educational interest" with Arne Duncan's corruption of a Federal Law that, in fact, has not changed; only his twisted and far-fetched interpretation of it.
Your benign listing of entities that were previously considered to have a legitimate education interest, did not include parties like FEL service providers. Their inclusion was only in Arne's and BMGF/CCER's wet dreams - supposedly agents that are conducting "studies and research". Agencies that do NOT have internal controls to ensure your child's personally-identifiable information (PII) does not land in the hands of a Jerry Sandusky can now, by virtue of signing onto the City's rather scattered FEL implementation, make that data available to un-vetted employees and volunteers.
Interestingly, the data CCER used to prepare its RTTT taxpayer handout, was provided before Arne undermined FERPA privacy regulations. Too bad the officials paid by us to enforce federal protections are too lazy or bedazzled by BS to do their job.
Weighted words? Appropriately so. What about "varying sensitivities"...? You wish to blow smoke into parents' eyes.
The YMCA does not have a "legitimate educational interest."
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2021820440_schooleditorialnotebook14xml.html
Ending a hard week with high hopes :)
-Reader
My Garfield APP child did not get yellow bus transportation, and the Metro trip is a three bus, two transfer, 1 hour and 10 minute trip. We live in the south end.
It sounds like there are different rules for different neighborhoods.
Should we talk about Othello station in the dark or pedestrian crossings on MLK? Nah, aliens we be.
district 9
I certainly would not want my child waiting there on dark winter mornings or evenings. When you ride the LR south from downtown, you pass Danny Vega's Hair Salon as a constant reminder that the area is not safe after dark.
Solvay Girl
Here's a link to the transportation service standards. Pages 5, 9 and 10 list situations where a high school student might receive yellow bus transportation.
Home
Lynn
Transportation
Lynn
Lynn
Very twisted comment from CCER Fan.
It is the folks with dollars and influence that create laws to take away our children's privacy.
Blanford supports the CCER agreement and Estey has worked on Road Map project.
High Schools - High School students who live within the boundaries of the Seattle Public
School District and who live more than 2.5 miles from their assigned school are eligible for
an ORCA card.
Exceptions are allowed in the following areas:
a. Students who require specialized transportation services as determined by their
Individualized Education Program (I.E.P.).
b. Students requiring medical transportation as approved by District Health Services.
From this information I still can't explain the differences for QA and Seward Park/Lakewood APP students, never mind the students who are riding because there is a bus coming that way anyway (my interpretation of this post: QA/Mag am IHS yellow bus shuttle takes the students to IHS regardless of which program they attend: regular, IB, IBX. Otherwise the students would need to to go downtown and change there to the bus to IHS which could take more than an hour plus would make the Metro buses more crowded. They use the Metro in the afternoon though..
IHS mom)
** It helps too if you have many savvy parents bugging transportation for a yellow bus service**
~squeaked wheel
Maybe there are less than 20 students going to Garfield from your area?
See Anon at 10:25AM.
IHS mom
Besides all the students riding the QA bus would have to have either an IEP or a medical exemption to qualify for bus service at all.
I don't see how limited Metro bus service applies in the service standards, although I do think riding the 50 to Rainier, transferring to the 7, riding to the transfer station at McClellen, and then transferring to the 48 seems as difficult as the route you have described. Again, not sure how that comes into it. It is not even a good reason for an excused tardy when missing one or more of the transfers let alone reassignment to a yellow bus.
I don't get it.
SPACE AVAILABLE TRANSPORTATION:
1. The granting of space available will be at the discretion of the Transportation Specialists.
I see how it is.
Ingraham students residing in the SW portion of the Ingraham attendance area, west of 15
th
Ave
NW, shall receive District arranged transportation service to school. ORCA cards shall be
provided for afternoon transportation requirements.
3. Ingraham students residing outside the Ingraham attendance area may receive supplemental
District arranged transportation to augment ORCA cards as required.
Reading is fundamental.
Maybe you should sweat the details too. You'd be surprised how much your kids would appreciate it.
-Save your snark
There is a "custom Metro" bus, for private school students, the 994, which goes from Magnolia to Ballard. You can't get on it with a regular Orca card.
Magnolia Resident
They assigned my kid to a route based on our home address, not his address for childcare purposes. So far, I have been able to pick him up and drive him, but that is not sustainable in the long term with my work schedule.
It looks like a business opportunity for Metro to me, but maybe the numbers don't add up.
What I heard was "SPS kids are a money-loser". Yeah, well, in general public transit is a money loser. Taxpayers carry the bill so take care of our kids.
Next year things are going to get a lot worse.
Two cars