Seattle Schools This Week
Tuesday, September 30th
Meet Superintendent Nyland from 6 pm - 7:00 pm at New Holly Community Center,
7054 32nd Ave S
Wednesday, October 1st
Meet Superintendent Nyland from 8:30 am-9:30 am at John Muir Elementary,
3301 S. Horton St.
School Board meeting, starting at 4:15 pm (note: there is to be an Executive Session on Potential Litigation from 8-8:30 pm
Agenda
On the Consent Agenda are various Board policies that have been revised. Of note is that the Board will not be posting their agenda three "working" days before the meeting but three days. Under the old policy, you could see the agenda on Friday (with Friday, Monday and Tuesday being the three "working" days) but under this new policy, you may not see the agenda until Sunday.
Action Items (partial)
Race to the Top money for Pre-K-3.
Parents, we need to have a very serious talk soon about the district's PreK-3 Action Plan. I did not know this existed until today (and it's in its fourth year of five). I think I mistook these funds for RttT for K-5. (To note, the SPS Early Learning Department has quietly changed its name to Pre-K-3 Early Learning. Almost as if pre-K (except for Sped Pre-k) is a district duty under state law.)
While I do support curriculum alignment as well as access to quality preschool, I'm putting out the warning flare right now.
I'll write a separate and more complete thread but understand that in the City's Prop. 1B, a partnership with Seattle Schools is THE linchpin to it working. The City needs SPS space and needs it very desperately. Why?
1) Schools are everywhere in our city and dealing with one entity (SPS) would make it a lot easier for the City.
2) If the preschools are in school buildings, it makes alignment with K-5 easier (in terms of staffs working together).
3) The City would NOT have to work with regulations that other private preschools HAVE to, both for facilities and staff. If SPS is the sponsor of the preschool, even if it is in a building that the district doesn't own, the City would avoid these regulations.
What does this mean to you?
And we are facing down a high school capacity problem.
Hiring of consultant for Special Education C-CAP.
Contract for Seattle World School @ TT Minor project.
What's interesting here - for those who wonder why there isn't money for high-level maintenance - is that this budget has more money in it from BTA II ($5.5M) than BTA III ($1.8M). How is it that more than a decade after it passed, BTA II STILL has money in it?
Board Governance Priorities for 2014-2015
There are no Board community meetings on Saturday.
Meet Superintendent Nyland from 6 pm - 7:00 pm at New Holly Community Center,
7054 32nd Ave S
Wednesday, October 1st
Meet Superintendent Nyland from 8:30 am-9:30 am at John Muir Elementary,
3301 S. Horton St.
School Board meeting, starting at 4:15 pm (note: there is to be an Executive Session on Potential Litigation from 8-8:30 pm
Agenda
On the Consent Agenda are various Board policies that have been revised. Of note is that the Board will not be posting their agenda three "working" days before the meeting but three days. Under the old policy, you could see the agenda on Friday (with Friday, Monday and Tuesday being the three "working" days) but under this new policy, you may not see the agenda until Sunday.
Action Items (partial)
Race to the Top money for Pre-K-3.
Parents, we need to have a very serious talk soon about the district's PreK-3 Action Plan. I did not know this existed until today (and it's in its fourth year of five). I think I mistook these funds for RttT for K-5. (To note, the SPS Early Learning Department has quietly changed its name to Pre-K-3 Early Learning. Almost as if pre-K (except for Sped Pre-k) is a district duty under state law.)
While I do support curriculum alignment as well as access to quality preschool, I'm putting out the warning flare right now.
I'll write a separate and more complete thread but understand that in the City's Prop. 1B, a partnership with Seattle Schools is THE linchpin to it working. The City needs SPS space and needs it very desperately. Why?
1) Schools are everywhere in our city and dealing with one entity (SPS) would make it a lot easier for the City.
2) If the preschools are in school buildings, it makes alignment with K-5 easier (in terms of staffs working together).
3) The City would NOT have to work with regulations that other private preschools HAVE to, both for facilities and staff. If SPS is the sponsor of the preschool, even if it is in a building that the district doesn't own, the City would avoid these regulations.
What does this mean to you?
- It means that our district has been working on finding space and building pre-K capacity in our district with the City and LEV for four years.
- It means that with preschool in a building, it must have its own bathroom and play area.
- As well, it seems the district has been giving in-kind "donations" of staff time to these efforts.
- All of this as parents and staff at the schools have struggled with issues of overcrowding and lack of capital funds to fix many facilities problems.
And we are facing down a high school capacity problem.
- Do you want staff attention taken away from these capacity issues?
- Do you want district dollars expended for a role that is NOT in its state mandate?
- Do you want space taken from your school especially if you are a K-8 or K-5. But, to note, Ballard was built with a dedicated preschool space. It was run by a Montessori program that also had dual-language with a program where the Ballard students would work with preschoolers. That got ended when Ballard said they needed the space.
Hiring of consultant for Special Education C-CAP.
From the RC-CAP document, Activity 4.3 states that SPS shall retain an educational consulting group to assist in implementation of the Revised C-CAP and leadership development and that consultant shall be contracted by 9/30/14. Sped is also required to include the status of this contract in the first quarterly report due to OSPI on 10/10/14.
Contract for Seattle World School @ TT Minor project.
What's interesting here - for those who wonder why there isn't money for high-level maintenance - is that this budget has more money in it from BTA II ($5.5M) than BTA III ($1.8M). How is it that more than a decade after it passed, BTA II STILL has money in it?
Board Governance Priorities for 2014-2015
- Stewardship of Resources; District Systems and Internal Controls
- Bell Times Analysis
- Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
- Special Education: Implementing the Revised Comprehensive Corrective Action Plan (C-CAP)
Comments
The original idea was it was a place where teen mothers could drop off their children and attend high school in the same building. When they were done with class they could walk over to the preschool room and pick up their kid.
I don't know if any teen mother from Ballard ever actually took advantage of the space while also attending Ballard. But that was the idea.
northwesterner
--- swk
In fact, that's what I said in my piece and did not say that City preschools "would not have to comply with rules and regulations that private preschools do."
--- swk
ss parent
Note: Reading and Math results for this school are being reviewed. Final results for this site will be refreshed on September 26th.
wondering
EdVoter
chris S.
I have to say, I'm glad it's not KIPP (although they don't really do high school).
To note, Summit (coming soon) and Green Dot both flew out parents currently in their schools, paying them to speak. So they have a lot of dollars to invest in expansion and growth.
As well, Green Dot's application (the first round) stated that they like to have their schools collaborate and so they like to stay in one region. They will expand throughout the Puget Sound region.
Is it your job to enforce policy? He will say that it is.
How do you enforce policy? He will give some BS response.
If a policy violation is reported to you, can we be assured that you will take enforcement action? He may waffle a bit.
Will that enforcement action include holding staff accountable for violating policy? He will definitely waffle.
How can we be assured that you will hold the members of your staff accountable for violating policy? This is where we learn that the box is empty.
Maybe you should just jump to the last question.