Seattle Schools This Week
It's a fairly light week but given the seriousness of the Board meeting on Wednesday, perhaps better that way.
Wednesday, November 20
School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda
As I previously mentioned, this will be a long (and hard-fought) meeting to slog through. I can't say for certain, one way or another, if the speaker list will run long again.
On the subject of the Growth Boundaries, I would say that, for the Directors, it is likely all over but the shouting.
However, there are other items - like the Special Ed Corrective Plan - that many parents will want to speak out on.
So even if the public testimony list is 20 people, I suspect there will be questions on the Special Ed issue and Pinehurst (both of which are right before the Growth Boundaries). I don't think the Board will get to the Growth Boundaries before 6:30 p.m.
What will happen is that the motion will be made to accept the Growth Boundaries. From what I recall from previous issues that had many amendments, the amendments will then be discussed so that the Growth Boundaries item can be voted on with amendments. Charlie, am I remembering that correctly?
Either way, each director will read his/her amendment and then there will be discussion. There are 15 amendments (and since some conflict with others, I suspect if some pass, that will negate others and they will be dropped). I think this whole discussion could take an hour or more.
The Board also has an Intro/Action item - the CBA for the principals - on the docket. This should be rejected because there has to be a true emergency for this kind of action and this doesn't meet that criteria (or we surely would have heard about it sooner and there has not been a peep).
Thursday, November 21st
Operations Committee meeting from 3-5 pm in the Board conference room. No agenda yet available.
I suspect there may be an update about the Mann Building during this meeting but I will wait for the agenda to check and be sure. I know this issue has been passed along to SPD so it is now clearly up to the City to decide when they will execute the no-trespass response.
There is also an Executive Session that day to start evaluating the Superintendent so the Operations Ctm meeting will have a hard stop at 5 p.m.
Saturday, November 23rd
SPS Family Symposium from 10 am to 3 pm. at Garfield High School.
Wednesday, November 20
School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda
As I previously mentioned, this will be a long (and hard-fought) meeting to slog through. I can't say for certain, one way or another, if the speaker list will run long again.
On the subject of the Growth Boundaries, I would say that, for the Directors, it is likely all over but the shouting.
However, there are other items - like the Special Ed Corrective Plan - that many parents will want to speak out on.
So even if the public testimony list is 20 people, I suspect there will be questions on the Special Ed issue and Pinehurst (both of which are right before the Growth Boundaries). I don't think the Board will get to the Growth Boundaries before 6:30 p.m.
What will happen is that the motion will be made to accept the Growth Boundaries. From what I recall from previous issues that had many amendments, the amendments will then be discussed so that the Growth Boundaries item can be voted on with amendments. Charlie, am I remembering that correctly?
Either way, each director will read his/her amendment and then there will be discussion. There are 15 amendments (and since some conflict with others, I suspect if some pass, that will negate others and they will be dropped). I think this whole discussion could take an hour or more.
The Board also has an Intro/Action item - the CBA for the principals - on the docket. This should be rejected because there has to be a true emergency for this kind of action and this doesn't meet that criteria (or we surely would have heard about it sooner and there has not been a peep).
Thursday, November 21st
Operations Committee meeting from 3-5 pm in the Board conference room. No agenda yet available.
I suspect there may be an update about the Mann Building during this meeting but I will wait for the agenda to check and be sure. I know this issue has been passed along to SPD so it is now clearly up to the City to decide when they will execute the no-trespass response.
There is also an Executive Session that day to start evaluating the Superintendent so the Operations Ctm meeting will have a hard stop at 5 p.m.
Saturday, November 23rd
SPS Family Symposium from 10 am to 3 pm. at Garfield High School.
Comments
There is, again, an item for introduction and action on the agenda, the collective bargaining agreement with the Principals' association.
It is bad form for the Board to introduce and act on motions at the same meeting. Doing so robs the public of the opportunity to offer input on motions and robs the Board of the value of that input. It is contrary to the Board's stated values of transparency and engagement. It also robs the Board of additional needed time to consider motions.
It should only be done when the action is extraordinarily urgent and immediate action is in the best interest of the District. Even in those cases, the Board owes the public an explanation of the urgency and a justification for the short-cut. No such explanation or justification is offered in the Board Action Report. In fact, the BAR doesn't even make reference to it.
There is no urgency here. The principals are not going to walk off the job if their CBA goes another couple weeks before it's approved. There is no urgency, and the motion should not be introduced and acted upon at the same meeting.
Principal evaluation and accountability are a keen concern for the public.
There is a summary of the changes in the Principals' Collective Bargaining Agreement.
I'm not impressed. This accountability is not nearly as sharp as the accountability for teachers or students. With this agreement it will be frozen in this state for three years while principal accountability is rapidly evolving.