Photos from Last Night's Meeting

As I get all my writing together for my upcoming threads, I thought you'd want to see some photos from last night's jumpin' Board meeting.  I want to thank and credit all the children who came and, to a kid, were well-behaved and attentive.  I felt for them when one woman went off; I'm sure it was quite shocking to young kids but that is civics.

 The latest from Mann; gate closed and chained with these broken crates lining the fence.  This is at both gates. 
 Wedgwood was there in force.
 Pinehurst was there in force including a cute robot costume.

 Woman shouting to the Board and the room about inequity.  Despite President Smith-Blum's requests to security to escort her out, it took a good three minutes and the Board nearly left the room themselves.
Kimball out in force, advocating for their Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Eckstein sign (sorry, couldn't get it to rotate)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Why no pics of Maple Leaf/OV? They were out in force, too, and are already smarting that they are being ignored while Wedgwood is getting all the attention. (And what's being proposed for OV is far more destructive to the community than what's being proposed to Wedgwood: splitting the OV/Maple Leaf community 3 ways for middle school, shifting boundaries so that most kids come from west of I5, when there's only 1 route across to OV from the proposed area, making kids who are 5 blocks from the school move to Oly Hills which is about 2-3 miles away...)

Thanks.

-ML Mama
11/7/13, 7:38 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
You know what you could have done - taken a photo and sent it to me. I put up more photos than the Times and really do my best. But I am one person.

Think about it.
11/7/13, 8:06 PM
mirmac1 said…
Melissa,

Word.
11/7/13, 8:29 PM
mirmac1 said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
11/7/13, 8:30 PM
Anonymous said…
Thanks Melissa. I was actually home sick (had planned to attend, but couldn't). Will bear that in mind for the future, though. And you do brilliantly, by the way (loved your testimony, and Charlie's - watched the video today).

On the Maple Leaf issue, tho', the community is suddenly waking up to the proposals and how much they affect this neighborhood. There's a facebook group with lots of action / discussion, but a lot of the families don't even have kids in the system yet, so it's all new to them and they are trying hard to play catch-up and get some strong advocacy going. I live in the neighborhood but my kids aren't at the neighborhood schools, so while I empathize, I'm somewhat outside the churn.

-MLMama
11/7/13, 9:41 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more