Tuesday Open Thread
Is your 5th grade and up student looking for a great sport that offers individual achievement as well as the benefits of participating on a team? Seattle Canoe & Kayak Club is having an Open House on Sunday, April 27th and Saturday, May 17th from 10 am -1 pm.
Come
join us at the Small Craft Center on Green Lake at 9:45AM. Get to see
the competitive Junior Team finish their training session, meet the
coaches of this exciting sport and then climb into the boats with our
team members to get a feel for what it is like to be in an Olympic style
Sprint Kayak or Canoe. You need to bring a parent/guardian to sign the
waiver and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet! Questions?
Contact Tami Oki at 524-1116 or tamaraoki@wonderanimal.com or the Green Lake Small Craft Center at 684-4074.
Check out the website at http://www.seattlecanoeclub.org/recruiting. Beginner classes begin in April, the full schedule can be seen at Youth Kayak - Seattle Parks & Recreation https://class.seattle.gov/parks/Start/Start.asp Choose "Programs" then "Boating" then "youth-kayak."
Also the NIFTY film festival is starting this week on Thursday.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Melissa, the long WilPac document you posted yesterday was such a sales job/scam. All anyone needs to do is read the SDAT meeting minutes. And, naming Chris Cronas as the middle school planning Principal? Wasn't he just announced at a new school in the Fall? So much for planning. I think he attended one SDAT meeting.
If everyone could sign the petition, it would help get SPS's attention. The auditorium is just a starting point. There are many other issues with the project. This was identified by actual stakeholders as an item that could gain traction quickly. Please sign and please post on your Facebook pages asking people to sign!
http://www.change.org/petitions/jose-banda-wilson-pacific-needs-an-auditorium
Montlake Parent
I need to make a choice between Montlake and TOPS next year, so appreciate your insights. And I also want to know about Melissa Gray from other readers!
Montlaker too.....
I don't feel comfortable sharing our abysmal experience in front of SPS personnel, nor in front of other parents.
Thank you.
Mom
You may submit a written statement. I suggest you send it to mmperrigo@seattleschools.org or hand deliver it tonight or tomorrow.
You have provided an SPS email address. As you are a vocal advocate of public disclosure requests, surely you know that is not a confidential option. If you could provide a non-SPS address, that would be more helpful. I will not attend in person. Thank you.
Mom
I think Mom has a valid concern and that it would be a good idea to have a way for people to provide comments electronically without having to do it via SPS.
I hope that there is a good turnout at these open mics!
-parent
I would be willing to do so if you don't have anyone else and don't mind a total stranger seeing the details.
On discussions of principals in specific, I ask that everyone be judicious in their wording, remembering that your experience may not be generalized to the school as a whole.
No phone number? No non-SPS email? Instead we have to get up in front of parents and staff, write to a pta address that will be read by parents, or send it to an SPS address that can be searched by parents and staff?
The irony is rich - and sad. Is there really no other way?
Jaw Dropped
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/21/why-are-the-cops-punishing-common-core-opponents/
A school district asked the police to prohibit certain students from setting foot on school property because their parents had privacy concerns about Common Core-aligned standardized testing, and wished to opt their kids out.
The incident happened at Marietta City Schools in Marietta, Georgia….
“They are collecting data on our children,” said Mary Finney in a statement. “Now, with Common Core there is such a large amount of information and data collected on children. People don’t realize it. We don’t want to sound like we’re wearing tin-foil hats, but they want to track our kids from kindergarten through college.”
The Finney family attempted to opt out of the tests, but administrators were unsure whether they were legally permitted to do so.
And then — at West Side Elementary School — a police officer barred the Finneys from setting foot on school property.
If the kids weren’t going to take the tests, their presence at school was a “kind of trespassing thing,” according to the officer….(more)
-districtWatcher
Contact Tiers Form
Team member bios & email
dad
@ Dad - yes, besides being pretty private as an individual, I am quite concerned about retaliation. I think it is a valid concern and it would be one thing if it manifested itself on me - but on my child? No.
@ Jaw Dropped - yes, I was quite surprised that after all the talk about confidentiality by some SPEDvocates we are being asked to stand up in a room full of people. If I find that idea awful, I am guessing others might too. Part of the problem with the meetings is that I get embarrassed by my fellow parents almost as much as getting depressed about district actions. I guess I don't think that yelling and public meeting hostility from us parents is going to get us very far. But that's just me. I appreciate the advocacy but disagree with the approach a lot.
So I'm intending to do a private comment and also see about a lawyer, because my way of trying to be quietly forceful about my family's situation isn't working either. There don't appear to be good options in this district for getting results.
Thank you again fellow parents. I appreciate your helpfulness here a lot, including the other mom who offered to email for me.
Mom
-diane
kp
I haven't been able to access the SPS website or links to docs on the website this afternoon. It's not just you.
- North-end Mom
i've tried multiple browsers with my saved shortcuts. i also tried just typing www.seattleschools.org - nothing. what's the main URL for fusion?
i can get to any other websites fine. am i going crazy??
-diane
diane
[pause]
Or not: I can't get to seattleschools.org either. Seems like it's probably a JSCEE problem, although I to am in the north end (but geez, I'm not even trying to get onto my own fusion pages, just the district home page!).
It's another option, I guess. (Given my history as an AS1 hell-raiser, I doubt the district would hire me next year anyway, so I'm not real worried about retribution.)
Yer hilarious. How can anyone non-SPS assure anyone else privacy, when the info is going to an SPS consultant. TIERS does not work for parents. I'm not going to make a promise I have NO control over. My successful OSPI complaints with respect to protecting student data under IDEA have netted measurable results. And, in fact, if anyone wants to be the most effective advocate, one must be willing to step up. But whatever. I'm sure, Jaw, you're doing much more work on behalf of student data privacy. See you there tonight.
Chris
kp
TIERS Group
c/of Lisa Roberson
1900 Gravies St
New Orleans, LOUISIANA
You're welcome
Personally, I don't much worry about the consultant's home base. I know, for instance, that the professors in the UW COE SpEd Dept do not necessarily subscribe to Dean's Stritikus' puffery.
A reminder that there will be another session tomorrow night at Nathan Hale, beginning at 6:30pm.
North of 85th
I saw an article about the growth in Lake Washington and their needs. Amazingly short-sighted on the part of voters.
The electorates are speaking with their votes and it has little to do with party line. There's a real strong belief that there is much waste as to what taxpayers get back from their investment. People are more wary and fatigued coming off a recession. Not everybody is a new hire at SLU or developer. You are looking at frustrated middle class, urban, suburban, and rural voters who are losing ground and clout.
voter
parent
I think the bond issue is also valid.
I would be happy to email anything Sped parents need emailed but are worried to send. There are also sites like Guerrilla Mail, Mailinator, and Airmail that will allow you to use a "disposable" email address so you can share info without facing retribution.
CT
Why would they name Chris Cronas as planning principal for Wilson Pacific? If WP is going to be the home for APP and he doesn't like self-contained advanced learning, why would they choose him. He dismantled Spectrum at Wedgwood making families run to APP.
NE Mom
The delivery model for APP may change following the review of the task force. Perhaps they will no longer serve the students in a self-contained model. JAMS is certainly going to be doing something different. What that is, it isn't clear.
who knows
parent
Not all APP kids are ready for algebra in 6th grade.
Well, no, that's why the typical APP math pathway is Algebra in 7th grade. Very few students, APP or not, are ready for Algebra in 6th grade.
OSPI EOC results from past three years, with number of those 7th and lower taking Geometry EOC (meaning successfully completed Algebra in 6th):
2012-13: 11
2011-12: 3
2010-11: 11
There will be a bump in this year's numbers as last year HIMS lifted their ban on 6th graders taking Algebra.
Students working at an advanced math level should be given an opportunity to take advanced science classes, just as those advanced in LA should be given a chance to take advanced LA classes (even if they aren't advanced in math). But aren't we still talking abut access to ability based classes?
MSparent
7th and lower
# taking Geometry EOC
2012-13: 4
2011-12: 3
2010-11: 11
MSparent
If HIMS APP isn't preparing kids to move on to the AP history course they've traditionally taken in 9th grade at Garfield, and if the district's solution is to just make everyone take a lower level course instead--rather than work to ensure that HIMS APP teaches what these kids need and were supposed to be getting--then that pretty much says it all to me. The district's position is that APP doesn't prepare these kids any better than any other middle school program, so then why bother to keep it? The recent policy change at Garfield seems to provide the "evidence" they need.
(For those interested but not up to speed on the recent issues, refer to the recent APP blog conversations.)
HIMSmom