Seattle Schools This Week

Tuesday, August 19th

Audit& Finance Committee meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm.  Agenda
Wonder if the Committee might consider where money was taken for the various staff members to go off on their preschool junket.

Update: Wonder no more, there is nothing on the agenda about the preschool junket or replacing those funds from the various sources that were used to fund it.

Lots of interesting items like:
- redirection of selected lease and rental earnings to General Fund (because, really, why do buildings need maintenance?)
- policy for unpaid holidays for reason of faith or conscience
- restrictive covenant agreement terms review
- downtown school financing options

Wednesday, August 20th
School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm.
I am aware that a rally over the Garfield field trip rape is to occur outside of headquarters right before the meeting at about 4 pm.  Supporters of the student and her parents are also likely to be at the meeting.

Agenda

Selected Action Items

There are a couple of items related to the starting-up of school including the renewal contract for fresh produce and contract for milk/juice products as well as ORCA cards.

One interesting thing about the ORCA cards is that the cost is about $2.4M but 95% of that comes from the state with the remaining 5% coming from the Operations levy and state general funds.  (I had thought the district paid much more of this cost.) About 7500 students use ORCA cards. Additionally, the new ORCA "Business Passport" is based on "actual student-per-ride usage from the prior year." 

Other start-of-school-year items include various contracts for services to students from Seattle Children's Hospital, various birth-3 years old agencies, UW Experimental Educaiton Unit, Fairfax Hospital, Overlake Hospital, and the Children's Institute.

There is also an Action item for the Public Works contract for purchasing, moving and setting-up of various portables.  I note that the original contract was for just over $876K and there were over $325K in change orders.  That's a pretty high number for change orders.  The contract was for 30 portables at 18 schools.

According to the change order document, most of the change order work was relocating 13 portables to seven schools.  And, for some reason in the contract, four portables were purchased but costs for locating them were not added in.  How do you miss that you'll be needing to install portables?

There is also an item about a new boiler at Broadview Thomson and new burners at 15 schools.  It appears this was partially paid for by an OSPI Energy Grant Fund.  It appears that Wilson-Pacific is getting one of the new burners.  That confuses me that they plan to tear down W-P and then, what? Save that new burner?

I also want to note that the district is NOT providing full budgets on these items.  I think a document that basically says, "This was the budget" with just the total, sales tax, etc. IS not a budget.

There is also the contract item for Dr. Nyland.  It is interesting because Dr. Nyland is asking to be paid a daily rate for actual days worked, rather than salary plus benefits.That daily rate is $1,537.41.  That daily rate is for 260-day year, minus 42 days for vacation, holidays, and personal days.  It allows for one sick day per month that can be cashed out if not used. 

The attached contract takes the annual compensation that Superintendent Banda received, including salary and employer paid benefits, and divides that amount by the number of days to be worked by district senior management. The annual total is 218 days, which reflects a 260 day year, less 28 days of vacation, 12 holidays and 2 personal days. Under this contract, Dr. Nyland will not receive paid vacation, sick time, holidays and will not receive any medical/health or pension benefits.

The contract is thru June 30, 2015.  If Dr. Nyland choose to leave, he is required to give the Board six months notice (but there is no penalty if he doesn't).

- Naming the new building at the Decatur site, Thorton Creek School.  This seems to have widespread school and community support.

Selected Intro Items

- amendment of Board policy 2015, on Selection & Adoption of Instructional Materials to include a beefier bullet point bias in materials:

Eliminate in all textbooks and instructional materials, including reference materials and audio-visual materials, bias pertaining to sex (gender); race; creed; color; religion; ancestry; national origin; age; economic status; sexual orientation including gender expression or identity; pregnancy; marital status; physical appearance; the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability; honorably discharged veteran or military status; or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability. 

- amendment of Board policy 6010, on School Funding Model.  This particular BAR is quite vague and less-than-fleshed out.  The amendment itself also has some less-than-clear wording like:

Provide the basic staffing for school - adjusted for substantive size differential considering non-instructional costs.

Would someone like to take a stab at what that truly means?

Then it includes "based on data," providing staff to aid with students in poverty, bilingual students, SPED students, highly capable and another category "academic performance levels."

I don't know what that last one means.

Then, there's this new line "Invest more resources in early learning (K-3).  Glad to see that the district is sticking to its core mandate that does NOT include pre-K.

And last:

Provide continuity of programs by attempting to retain core staff levels from year to year.  

- extension of the current MOU with the Alliance for Education until October 2014.  The Alliance appears to want to create a revised MOU by November and have it approved by the Board in December.  It does not say why they want a new MOU or what would be in it.  It states that there would be a "engagement process" (this under Community Engagement in the BAR) and I have to wonder if that would really happen. 

Still in the MOU:

The District currently reimburses the Alliance for the school account work, not to exceed 7.5% of the total school activity for the year. The current MOU raised the cap to not exceed 7.5% of the total school account activity for the calendar year. While the amount is expected to change each year, because it is based on total account activity, it is expected that annually this amount will fluctuate around $120,000. The funds for this reimbursement will continue to come from the District’s operating budget. This, as well as the 15% indirect rate for grant management, will be reviewed to determine if these rates are reasonable and should be continued. This motion would extend the MOU from September 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014. 

From Background information:

While the District and the Alliance are independent organizations, the intent of the relationship is to have long-term relationships with the Superintendent, other administrators, teachers, and the Board. The stability of this relationship can transcend the traditional personnel churn that is seen in urban districts and can provide assurance to funders and the business community that the District remains on track with our goals. Furthermore, the Board President and the Superintendent, as non-voting ex officio members of the Alliance’s Board, help ensure alignment between the Alliance’s projects and the District’s overall goals. 

Where to start?  

First, you'll note the neither the Alliance nor the district mention parents.  As well, the concern seems to be over the money the Alliance gets from "funders" and "the business community."  Well, that may be the Alliance's concern but that should NOT the district's concern.  PTA puts in thousands of dollars into the district as well and yet the district seems more concerned with its relationship with the Alliance.

"That the District remains on track with our goals."  The district is supposed to be on track with the Alliance's goals?  I continue to remain amazed at the aggressive nature of the Alliance in defining what the district should be doing.  

- C-CAP Plan and costs.

Thursday, August 21st
Operations Committee Meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm. Agenda not available.