Growth Boundaries Plan and Amendment 12 Vote

Amendment #12 - McLaren and Peaslee - Growth Boundaries will be reviewed annually (with a lot of input and data) PASSES
Patu - includes where it has to come to Board? Yes.
Carr - feels redundant - I know what you are doing but I feel like Tracy &Co are doing this already.
Peaslee - not directing staff but acknowledging concerns of public.
Discussion around this.

Vote - 4-3

Back to main motion for Growth Boundaries with all of amendments in place.  PASSES

Vote 7-0

Poke me with a fork - I am done for tonight and will review the tape for the rest of the meeting.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Melissa,

Thank you. For those of us who could not attend, this has been huge.

It does scream that engagement and transparency is still the biggest Achilles heel in this district.

Here's hoping that becomes the single highest priority going forward.

Where is that often promised communications strategic plan?

Leslie
Anonymous said…
Melissa,

I do not often agree with you but good work hanging in there last night. Wow.

-Been there
Anonymous said…
Any word on the TC pathway to SB K-8 amendment?
- wundering
Anonymous said…
TC got its preference to SB, without transportation.

- North-end Mom
Chris said…
Not that it matters obviously, but my Eckstein 7th grader is heartbroken. "It doesn't make any sense! Why can't the 7th grades just stay there?!"
Anonymous said…
I'm so confused. I thought the Growth Boundaries Implementation portion of Amendment 4 allowed current Eckstein 6th & 7th graders to stay there.

LCP
Chris said…
LCP - If that's true it would be awesome but I thought on the news this morning I heard differently?
Mimi said…
I am confused even though I watched the meeting online last nite. When will maps be posted showing the amendments and boundary changes for next year?
SB mom
Anonymous said…
Eckstein and Hamilton APP students will not be grandfathered next year. There was a discussion about it, particularly about Hamilton APP 7th graders, which is a group the district has moved around several times already.
However, the answer was that they didn't want to do a middle-school roll-up and that Hamilton is too crowded to keep those 68 7th graders.
I'm sad for my son too, who is going to be moved from Hamilton for 8th grade, especially as he struggles with school in many ways, while being academically gifted. The disruption of being in a brand new program in a brand new school for the last year of middle school will be tough. I'm worried that it will hurt the rest of this current year as well.
Momof2
Anonymous said…
No, all 6th, 7th and 8th graders living in the new JA area go to JA next year regardless of where they are now.

Same with APP/Hamilton. NE APP families will go to JAMS starting next year, even if currently at Hamilton.

This is the result of families rejecting the (other) idea of rolling up JA as just 6th grade next year. That would have left (at least some) current kids in place at Eckstein and Hamilton. But families, especially Eckstein, rejected this. So this is the result.

Seen It
Anonymous said…
Too funny. My word verifier for my previous post was ANDSHT.

Indeed.

Seen It
Chris said…
Agreed, momof2. My son is Gen Ed at Eckstein but struggles a bit too. I am also worried about a change like this the year before high school. Seems like the last two years were wasted - none of the new teachers will know him. And I worry he will give up now.
Anonymous said…
Thanks N-eM for the info. I'm not happy about TC continuing to get preferential treatment to Salmon Bay when the geo preference zone for that school excludes so much of the NW and the NE already has 2 K-8 schools. Oh well, just one more bit of bogousity in this whole mess. Do you know who voted how on the TC-SB amendment?
- wundering
Anonymous said…
I believe the TC preference to SB vote was unanimous (though I had stopped taking notes by that point), and there was discussion about making it a permanent part of the NSAP. It was said to be a programmatic thing, yet the TC community is evidently (still) opposed to becoming a K-8, so no programmatic continuum on their site, despite the larger building and spare building.

I personally think the School Board should change their name to the "Option School Board."

- North-end Mom


Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said…
Repost Anon from before because it has no name and it will be deleted:
"Won't some of the Hamilton and Eckstein teachers apply for JAMS positions? They can't all stay at Hamilton and Eckstein when so many students are leaving. How does it all work?"
Yes, some teachers have to leave from HIMS and Eckstein with the students to JAMS. I am not sure how this will work either and I don't think anybody has the answer to this yet.
- Really sad
Charlie Mas said…
The teacher shifts should be interesting. The schools losing staff will have to pink slip teachers based largely on seniority. The least senior teachers in each subject specialty will be let go.

JAMS will have to hire, but won't have to give preference to applicants with seniority and will be able to choose from a broader pool than just those released by other north-end middle schools. There will undoubtedly be applicants from other middle schools as well.

This isn't going to impact Eckstein and Hamilton exclusively.
Anonymous said…
North end mom

I like that: Option school board.

I've also been wondering why they aren't called charter schools. It seems they fit this definition:

"an experimental public school for kindergarten through grade 12; created and organized by teachers and parents and community leaders; operates independently of other schools
public school" -

Eden
Anonymous said…
I wouldn't expect any teachers to be RIF'd from HIMS. If you listened carefully last night you would have heard that HIMS will be completely FULL again next year, hence no grandfathering of 8th grade APP students.

So, sounds to me that with no reduction in students there will be no teacher attrition.

LH
Anonymous said…
Maybe some APP teachers (there are still a few left at HIMS) would like to follow their students. Would it be possible I wonder?
- Really sad
Anonymous said…
Dear Really Sad,

Yes there are teachers who are deeply committed to program integrity (and the socio-emotional needs of the kids having to make such a hard switch) who would go to JAMS. The new principal does the hiring, though. If you want an experienced APP founding nucleus PLEASE speak up.

open ears

Anonymous said…
Open ears:
I would speak up but it would be against my student's interest, who will (un)fortunately stay at HIMS next year.
This makes me even sadder...
-Really sad
Anonymous said…
Really sad, you can always opt to leave HIMS if it makes you so sad. I'm sure you'd be welcome at either JAMS or JAK8. There still is choice, especially at those locations.

reader
Anonymous said…
@Seen it:
Last year I observed 5th grade parents from the now JAMS region rejecting the idea of a 6th grade roll-up. And I understood (I would have preferred the 6th grade academy – and still do- but that was even less attractive to most). This year, I observed 6th grade parents from the JAMS region advocated against a geosplit (and I understood). But I have a 5th grader on the line now and I don’t like the idea of a MS 6th grade roll-up for any child. Do I live in the JAMS region? Sometimes I seem to, sometimes I don’t (right now I don’t but my children attend a JAMS feeder school). I would still prefer to send my child to a 6th grade academy, spreading the “pain”, and avoiding a geosplit. But that wasn’t an option. There just isn’t a good solution for this problem. We can all agree on that without assuming the worst about each other’s intentions.

And really, what could Eckstein parents have advocated for? A geosplit even if many would have disliked for their own children to attend a MS 6th grade roll-up? A roll-up because they knew their own children would have been “safe” regardless and it was the “nicer” thing to do? Please, don’t assume that parents who spoke up for the geosplit solution (I did) only wanted to “empty” out Eckstein. I know many of the 6th graders starting at JAMS (whether my child is one of them or not) and I didn't want them to carry the burden of starting a new MS all by themselves.


N Ravenna parent

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