Seattle Schools This Week
Tuesday, Dec. 16th
Audit&Finance Quarterly Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm. UPDATE: agenda.
A rather interesting document, Consolidated Program Review, is included in the agenda. (Charlie, don't get too excited; no, not all programs are reviewed.)
Items of interest from minutes from last month's meeting:
Directors asked about the Indian Education audits and Mr. Medina noted they are the focus of SAO. Kathie Technow confirmed there was a clean Indian Education audit for the first time in many years.
(I note that at last weekend's Board retreat, new committee assignments were discussed. It will be interesting to see who lands where.)
On testing:
1. OSPI Program Review: Ballard Staffing Allocations (Technow/Schiers)
Mr. Gotsch noted a letter issued from OSPI saying that the matter of staffing allocations was compliant. In addition, he noted that the State Auditor’s Office letter reported that they did plan on reviewing this item on this year’s annual financial audit. Mr. Gotsch spoke about how this citizen’s complaint gave the District the opportunity to closely review and reexamine District’s school SPED budgeting practices.
Native American Community Conversation w/ Supt. Nyland
6:00-8:00PM
Duwamish Long House
4705 West Marginal Way SW
Dr. Nyland is grateful to have this opportunity to meet and talk with our Native American Families and Community members about the educational issues that matter the most to you, your family and our Native American Community. Dr. Nyland looks forward to listening to your feedback and questions.
Wednesday, Dec. 17th
Work Session: Finance and Risk Management from 4:30-6:00 pm. Agenda (note: the presentation embedded in the agenda is for Business&Finance and Finance & Risk Management is part of that. Not sure if a more specific presentation is coming.)
Work Session: 2014-2015 Superintendent SMART goals, 6-7:30 pm. This might be interesting as we might finally get a hint of what the now-permanent Superintendent intends to do.
Thursday, Dec. 18th
Operations Committee Meeting, 4-6 pm. No agenda yet available.
Saturday, Dec. 20th
Community Meetings with board directors.
Director Blanford from 10-11:30 a.m. at Douglass Truth Branch Library
Director Patu from 10 a.m.-noon at Cafe Vita
Audit&Finance Quarterly Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm. UPDATE: agenda.
A rather interesting document, Consolidated Program Review, is included in the agenda. (Charlie, don't get too excited; no, not all programs are reviewed.)
Items of interest from minutes from last month's meeting:
1.
Alternative
Learning Experience (ALE) Program Audit update (Technow)
Ms. Technow spoke about the
work being done in the ALE audit.
Because of deficiencies in required documentation at Interagency, the
auditors will now review whether those students qualify as basic education. Directors noted that Alternative Learning
Experience schools and programs like Nova High School may be in a similar
situation and Ms. Technow spoke about independent courses that students take outside
of the classroom. Michael Tolley spoke
about the flexibility in scheduling that ALE allows for Interagency Academy, NOVA
and the Cascade Parent Partnership Program.
He confirmed Nova
High School has changed its practice to not take period attendance. Nova runs a variety of schedules, Interagency
Academy has twelve separate locations with an emphasis on online learning, and
the Cascade Parent Partnership Program allows for home instruction.
Ms. Technow summarized the
audit and reiterated that the Cascade Parent Partnership Program and Nova High
School had clean audits, but Interagency Programs audit outcome has not yet been
determined. Mr. Tolley confirmed that Cleveland is now a traditional high
school.
I thought Cleveland was an Option school but either something changed or I was mistaken in the first place. It's confusing because that means that only students in that area can access their STEM program.
Directors asked about the Indian Education audits and Mr. Medina noted they are the focus of SAO. Kathie Technow confirmed there was a clean Indian Education audit for the first time in many years.
(I note that at last weekend's Board retreat, new committee assignments were discussed. It will be interesting to see who lands where.)
On testing:
Mr. Medina confirmed school
year 2013-14 was the last of paper-based testing and this year would be the
first for online testing. Mr. Medina
noted there were early conversations around postponing the audit, but management
agreed on the importance of setting a positive control environment so it was
agreed the audit would proceed. The audit was designed to provide a high-level
analysis of the controls in place to prevent cheating.
On Sped:
Mr. Tolley noted of the 14 open special education internal audit items, 12 of them are directly related to the revised Corrective Action Plan with OSPI. Directors asked if there are internal audit items not in the OSPI Corrective Action Plan, and Mr. Tolley confirmed there are two.
Michaela Clancy
noted the online system for the Individualized Education Program (IEP) is being
updated to a paperless process. Ms.
Clancy confirmed a year would be reasonable for testing, implementation and a
complete data cycle review. She spoke
about work being done to change reporting processes. Directors asked about the practices of other
districts and Ms. Clancy noted that Seattle Public Schools had been using its
own personalized system for years and recently began using the recognized
program that other districts use.
If you ever think your voice, your input doesn't matter - it does (see below). I
have found the State Auditor's office to be especially responsive and
helpful in school district matters.
Mr. Gotsch noted a letter issued from OSPI saying that the matter of staffing allocations was compliant. In addition, he noted that the State Auditor’s Office letter reported that they did plan on reviewing this item on this year’s annual financial audit. Mr. Gotsch spoke about how this citizen’s complaint gave the District the opportunity to closely review and reexamine District’s school SPED budgeting practices.
6:00-8:00PM
Duwamish Long House
4705 West Marginal Way SW
Dr. Nyland is grateful to have this opportunity to meet and talk with our Native American Families and Community members about the educational issues that matter the most to you, your family and our Native American Community. Dr. Nyland looks forward to listening to your feedback and questions.
Wednesday, Dec. 17th
Work Session: Finance and Risk Management from 4:30-6:00 pm. Agenda (note: the presentation embedded in the agenda is for Business&Finance and Finance & Risk Management is part of that. Not sure if a more specific presentation is coming.)
Work Session: 2014-2015 Superintendent SMART goals, 6-7:30 pm. This might be interesting as we might finally get a hint of what the now-permanent Superintendent intends to do.
Thursday, Dec. 18th
Operations Committee Meeting, 4-6 pm. No agenda yet available.
Saturday, Dec. 20th
Community Meetings with board directors.
Director Blanford from 10-11:30 a.m. at Douglass Truth Branch Library
Director Patu from 10 a.m.-noon at Cafe Vita
Comments
Of course there isn't a lot of money for new programs (well, except those generated by JSCEE staff). And Proyecto Saber has repeatedly been in danger of being cut.
If Nyland is saying that he created a program in Marysville only because he had the money, that's discouraging.
What I think I'm hearing from district headquarters is that THEY want to solve the opportunity gap their own way BUT what needs to happen is for Nyland and senior staff need to listen to community leaders in groups that are doing poorly. That means listening to the Native American parent community, African-American parent community, Latino-American community, etc.
Next up: Prek.
"That means listening to the Native American parent community, African-American parent community, Latino-American community, etc."
This type of talk is highly offensive to all students.
So, you are saying that no white students are missing opportunities?
Charles Barkley
But I'm saying the district would be wise to listen to what different communities have to say.
I think SPS is confusing OPPORTUNITY with an OSPI mandate. The district does not investigate any allegations, because if they did they would NOT "deny" 99% of the allegations made in Citizens Complaints and hire outside attorneys. If SPS would investigate before hiring attorneys they would see for themselves the validity of the allegations most of which OSPI find to be valid.
SPS is still playing games with staffing these violations have been documented and sent on to OSPI and the DOE. The main issue is using non-certified IAs to provide SDI and using non certified IAs to fill-in as substitute teachers in Sped classes and using non sped certified teachers.
Draconian SPS
I believe Michael Tolley was saying that Cleveland (while still an option school) is not an alternative learning experience school.
An option school may not follow "traditional" assignment procedures, but some, like Hazel Wolf K-8, K-5 Stem, and presumably Cleveland, use a traditional curriculum and traditional school day structure, just with a emphasis on science, math, etc... They don't fall into the Alternative Learning Experience school category.
"Option" is an assignment term. "ALE" is a curriculum term. It gets confusing. Which schools, besides Interagency, Cascade Parent Partnership, and Nova are ALE schools? Are language-immersion schools considered ALE schools? How about schools like Thornton Creek and Salmon Bay?
- North-end Mom
http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/Business%20&%20Finance/2013-14%20CPR%20Response%20Submitted.pdf
(P.S. when originally posted on the district website, this document was improperly redacted. It took TWO parent reports to get that fixed.)
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=392-121-182
Some of the confusion is around SPS vs WA State terminology. I'm pretty sure SPS option schools are still traditional schools in the eyes of the state, where traditional means they have the same education requirements and funding structures as neighborhood schools.
-parent
A school can be designated a Creative Approach School by the district. A CAS can be an option or attendace area school. The first of ours were authorized at a board meeting in February 2013. (Here's the link to the agenda.) I don't know if any others have been authorized after that point - or if any have lost the designation.
I guess I don't know what Tolley meant. Are traditional schools all those that aren't ALEs or CASs?
There is also a board policy on Alternative Education - C54.00, which is different from ALE schools. The idea behind the Creative Approach schools was an attempt to create a new version of the Alternative Education Policy, while also addressing issues with SEA over hiring exceptions and some other rules. However, there is no board policy on Creative Approach Schools, nor on how a school could go about becoming a creative approach school. Board policy C54.00 is the only board policy addressing alternative education, other than the state mandated ALE policy.