Want More Horace Mann news?
Here's a link to a blog with more information on the activity around Horace Mann, including Twitter feeds you can follow and a Facebook page you can like.
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.)
Comments
What is the LEV role in the Mann occupation?
http://creativitynotcontrol.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/response-to-the-debate-about-the-acic-on-save-seattle-schools-blog/
http://creativitynotcontrol.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/parents-and-students-self-organize-at-the-horace-mann-school-building/
(It's an interesting site with opinions more in common with SSS than with LEV.)
2. A history of Mann, the closure of NOVA, and future fate of Mann. One can argue that having local community groups leasing, sprucing up, and maintaing the Mann building helped preserve Mann from vandalism and neglect. The drawback is the community effort and investment made them community stakeholders. Made the Mann building relevant to the community again. And for some people, that also made them takers.
http://crosscut.com/2009/07/02/neighborhoods-communities/19079/Can-we-save-old-Horace-Mann-School/
3. The local politics compounding the conversation. Scroll down to the Nov. 16 ,2011.
http://unite4youth.wordpress.com/
(The videos made by local teens are pretty compelling. Compelling enough that I hope they can find a comparble studio space to rent.)
What I find so sad is the purported goals of all involved, including SSS, are actually quite similar. The breakdown comes with who controls the process, what's in it for my kids, my community (ACIC, NOVA, CD community, greater SPS, the students whose needs aren't being met by SPS, Seattle political leaders and their detractors, and ed reformers), and the agenda of those outside the CD and NOVA communities. After the dust settles, NOVA back at Mann, community groups scattered, we still have the same sorry, recurrent statistics to throw out, to divide or rally around.
de ja vu
There will be a community meeting on Sept 21 to review the draft plan.
You can learn more about this community development project at:
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/completeprojectslist/unionjackson/whatwhy/default.htm
Ann D
I wonder if the Mann building is empty today?
Lynn
These folks are not constrained by any need to tell the truth.
I would love to attend Wyking's Black Education Summit next Saturday at the Horace Mann building - but aren't they supposed to be put of the building before then? Melissa mentioned that we risk losing state funds for the renovation if the building isn't available for construction by the 18th. Do you know how much money that is? And did the board approve the construction contract tonight?
Lynn
Educational Justice and the Horace Mann Building
The Nova Project Alternative High School is a democratically-run, all-city-draw, inquiry-based learning community that emphasizes social justice and the arts. We work to educate ourselves and take action around power and privilege and to make our school accessible and inclusive to all students and families. We also strive to maintain and develop a school where LGBTQ students, families, and staff, including LGBTQ people of color, can thrive.
We respect the unique importance of the Central District as the historic heart of Seattle’s African American community, and we recognize and oppose the recent gentrification and subsequent displacement of communities of color out of the CD. We also recognize that, historically, the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) has not adequately served African American and other students and families of color. We believe that both of these facts point to the need for long-overdue action on behalf of SPS to listen to and work with communities of color to meet the needs of all students.
Four years ago, SPS displaced Nova from the Horace Mann building and moved us to the Meany building. We fought to stop our displacement and to create solidarity among all of the programs facing closure. After over 30 years of making the Horace Mann building our school’s home, we were heartbroken by our forced move and have no desire for anyone else to be displaced. We do not support the forced relocation of the current programs in the Mann building and are working to explore other possibilities, including collaboratively co-housing with these programs or an alternative location for Nova.
For all of the above reasons, we, the undersigned staff and families of Nova, support an open community process to determine the future of the Horace Mann and other SPS buildings. We seek an inclusive dialogue that will best serve the interests of Central District communities as well as the students and families of Nova and other SPS schools.
That is lovely - but the staff, parents and students at NOVA do not have the right to determine how the district uses the Mann building. Are they aware that the programs being "displaced" were there for less than six months?
Have you talked to the principal at Madrona? There's a Central District School with space to share.
What was decided at last night's board meeting?
Lynn
The OED just updated its Only in Seattle Initiative towards creation of vibrant business districts.
http://www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment/OISI/
Ann D.