SPS Calendar for the week of September 9
Here's what's happening in the District this week:
Tuesday, September 10
- Audit and Finance Committee meets from 4:00 to 6:00pm Agenda here.
- Meeting with Pinehurst K-8 community from 6:30 to 8:00pm
Wednesday, September 11
- Executive Committee meets from 8:30 to 10:00am Agenda here.
- School Board Work Session on Superintendent and Board Evaluation from 4:00 to 7:00pm Agenda here.
Thursday, September 12
- Audit and Finance Committee meets from 4:00 to 6:00pm Agenda here.
- Horace Mann - African-American Community Task Force meets from 5:00 to 7:00pm
- BEX Oversight Committee meets from 8:30 to 10:30am
Friday, September 13
- Lots of football games all around the district
- Due date for applications to the Equity and Race Advisory Committee
- Due data for applications to the School Family Partnership Advisory Committee
Comments
Tonight the issue of the EEU Bus Buddy program was added without notice. Based on the last board meeting, this matter is of some interest to a number of very concerned parents.
The resulting discussion follows what I expected. Last spring the board voted (and somehow forgot) to cut preschool transport to children not enrolled as students in SPS. The entire EEU preschool is not SPS, only the special-needs tots. The bus buddy program violates board policy, exposes the district to liability adn potential gift of public funds. The reset of this program's transportation shaved $250K off the transportation budget, so it was not a "no-cost" program.
Our district must guard its valuable capital assets VERY carefully. We CANNOT afford to lose a building to a boutique school.
The EEU also runs a very successful ECEAP program, that gets lots of minority students from West Seattle, the CD and RV. These are the kids who get recruited by private schools later on because they do so well. Many of these kids will not be able to come with no bus! All the ECEAP spaces will be taken by kids from families who are only temporarily poor (children of PhD candidates and post docs). One more door closed for minorities and poor, ugh. I think I shall hibernate until Veronica Mars comes back.
CCA
Treasuring EEU
mirmac where are you getting that charter conversion rumor? Did it happen to come out of the Pinehurst meeting? Or the Mann building ones?
The Center school is in rented space so if they "go charter" they would not take a SPS building.
NOVA would not want the Meany building and they don't possess the Mann building. So not sure what they charter threat is there?
QAE is happy as a SPS school with their beloved principal.
STEM? Do you mean Cleveland? Why would they go charter, they are doing so well as a SPS turnaround school.
Not seeing it.
The K-5 STEM parents seem frustrated enough to do it.
Lynn
Unclear to me why a "beloved principal" at QAE is a disincentive to go charter since they could take him with them (especially if he is old enough to retire from SPS and collect a pension and a charter salary.) I have only met one QAE parent and she, coincidentally, is a huge charter supporter on a national level. (I'm not saying she said she wanted QAE to be a charter. I met her well before charters were legal here.)
In August, I attended a workshop put on by the Washington State Charter Schools Association (It was about parental involvement in schools-which is one of my 'things.') There were about five people there from First Place which is on record as wanting to go charter (not a conversion). But there were also two women there from a SE Seattle organization (I didn't clearly hear its name, It may have been SESEC) who were just interested in charters. In passing, one happened to mention that she had a child at South Shore.
Just think of that gorgeous new building. Gone.
Trusted Board Members,
Last night I attended the Pinehurst meeting to discuss our possible closure, and was appalled to note that Supt.Banda did not.
I see this as very disrespectful of the families who came to share their experiences of Pinehurst and AS-1.
Our questions were answered for the most part by Ron English, or I should say, written down to be answered at some later date(?).
Our school's building was put on the chopping block last year, only one month before the BEX vote. We are the only program displaced by this BEX that has not been promised a home. We worked for solutions with Sharon Peaslee and Phil Brockman at numerous meetings last year. Banda did not attend any of these, or the community meeting early last year at our school.
Mr. Banda plans to make his initial recommendation about closure on Sept. 20th, even though he has yet to meet with our community.
Please try to talk to Banda and let him know how much our community is hurt by this lack of engagement.
Perhaps he will find a way to postpone his initial recommendation until after he attends our next community meeting at Pinehurst.
Did you get a feeling for First Place's plans? They do wonderful things - but I don't see how they could continue in a charter environment. They rely on contributions for much of the funding required for the services they offer. If they are required to enroll anyone who applies (attracted by those services and small class sizes) will the contributions support that?
I wonder too if Hamlin Robinson should/would consider a charter application.
Lynn
They seem to plan to continue on as they are going, but at a greatly expanded level (I'm thinking 200 students?). Their mission is to support homeless students and I expect they figure if they build their program around that it won't attract applications from families who aren't extremely needy. They seem to think they will still attract the same donations and volunteers, so the state money will just allow them to expand the number of students they serve.
Lynn