Seattle Schools This Week

A fairly quiet week in the district.

Monday, January 27th
Seattle Special Education PTSA General Meeting at 7pm. JSCEE Rm 2700.

Agenda includes program services and enrollment issues for 2014-2015.

Tuesday, January 28th
Community Meeting with Director McLaren from 8:45-10:15 am at Highland Park Elementary.

Thursday, January 30th
A day to note as the Washington State Charter Commission is to announce who passed muster to become part of the inaugural class of charter schools.  Spokane has already claimed one space so there are seven left.  The Commission does not have to fill all seven spaces but I suspect they will.  (A thread to come on the charter applicant forums I attended to come.)

Now what is puzzling to me, even as someone who knows the law, is if there are more than seven, will there be the run to the State Board of Education (where the approved applications are to be filed)?  And, if so, whoever gets there first, gets in.  I'll double-check with Charter Commission staff on this.

Work Session: Budget from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda (but no presentation available).
Well, as usual, there is a gap and they will have to figure out how to close it.  It's interesting because Director Blanford, who has been honest about what he doesn't know, stated at a Board meeting that he had no idea the district struggled with such a large budget gap.

I give him credit for admitting this but it is astonishing that he ran and had not looked into the budget for the last several years because then he would know this was the case.  I suspect his learning curve as a director is going to be greater than anticipated.
Work Session: Board Self-Evaluation from 6-7:30 pm Document.
In most ways, this effort is a good idea.  The Board has had issues of seeming confusion over their roles and who could blame them with both the Times and the Alliance for Education telling them what their roles are.  As well, there was a former director who stepped over the line, repeatedly for some unknown reason, in talking to the media about other Board members.

But this is a 24-page document that, on my reading, is just for the Board's use.  (Although I suspect it will be fodder for many an upcoming editorial in the Times.)  But I think this document is overwritten and I can't help but wonder if the Board didn't have a lot more important things to do.   But I hope they just approve this and move on.

Friday, January 31 
No School

Saturday, Feb. 1
Community Meeting with Director Peters from 11 am to 12:30 pm at Queen Anne Library.

To note there was to be an Advanced Learning Programs Task Force meeting this month but I could never ascertain when it was.  It is sad that these calendars are not part of the regular district calendar and are not kept up-to-date at their own webpage.   There is a Seattle Area Institute conference on Jan30-31 by Whitworth University's Center for Gifted Education at Shoreline Community College.  I suspect several Task Force members may be attending.

Comments

Anonymous said…
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Charlie Mas said…
The Board Evaluation document is just the rubric. There is no detailed information about actual board performance.
Peanut said…
There's a change.org petition for SPS school start times:

http://www.change.org/petitions/seattle-public-schools-switch-seattle-public-school-tier-3-school-s-start-times-with-tier-1-to-accommodate-elementary-school-children-and-parents-with-an-earlier-start-time?share_id=GuIwhdVjyH&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition
Anonymous said…
Any update on the Math Curriculum Adoption Committee's work? Were they not going to announce their top three picks over two weeks ago?

In the absence of any information or update, I am beginning to wonder if they received community input that was different from the direction they were going and if they are in the process of correcting? One can only speculate at this point since no update has been provided.

--Math speculator

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