Tuesday Open Thread
Do you have a teen in your home pondering college and career? Heidi Rozen, a pretty big deal in the tech world in the Bay Area, has this advice about work and career which I thought good for all but especially younger people thinking about the future.
What's on your mind?
What's on your mind?
Comments
And of course he knew going in that this would be a leverage point. After all, he trains superintendents in his retirement job. And of course the board, unless they are incredibly naive, also knew this would be the case.
Given that this is not a surprise, what do we want to do? Go with an OK, not awful, not stupendous candidate who used hardball negotiating tactics, or Go With What's Behind Door Number Two? Could be better, could be worse.
Appears there is a majority of the board not willing to gamble on Door Number Two even if for some of them it means going back on campaign promises of public inclusion and public indications that they were dedicated to the search.
Which is the bigger transgression?
1. The possibility of a worse hire, and the time/money spent on the search,
or
2> The knowledge that the board is shelving most public opinion as well as the search process, and also is setting up to approve a hire that will come about by a divided vote, which means doubt about Nyland's leadership from the get-go?
I suppose that's up to each individual voter to decide for himself/herself. The only definite I see is that the communication of Board intent was very very very badly handled.
EdVoter
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2025143850_brownopededucationfunding01xml.html
How did we make it to where we are now without this cradle-to-grave construct? Most of what these writers support are to remedy the economic failures of this country - hunger, no jobs, waste, discrimination. It looks to me like the early learning and post-secondary are wanting some of that McCleary money.
It appears clear that SPS is having none of what I am calling The Queen Anne Nonsense* (*SPS was wrong not to tell QA earlier and not to assuage the security fears earlier).
But...despite the FAQ information, the No Interagency Petition marches on. It now has more than 575 signatures. John Hay + neighborhood parents will be picketing tomorrow's board meeting. The petition is also organizing a letter writing campaign to Murray's office.
Some of the latest petition comments include these goodies:
This kind of school does not fit in this neighborhood.
Locate this school near the homes of the students who will attend it.
This is a rare, safe urban neighborhood where families feel good about their kids walking to school and around the neighborhood.
And now: this week's tied award for most heinous:
These recovery schools can be very dangerous to the very young and brings down neighborhood values. I am sure there are venues that these schools can be established besides prime residential neighborhoods.
I think Queen Anne has done it's share of supporting low income, transitional, and other types of housing and programs. How about placing a facility in Ballard, Greenwood, Crown Hill, or for goodness sake, Magnolia!!
Tuesday Incensed
Maybe we should start a petition for the opposite? I support the placement of Interagency on Queen Anne.
HP
I can think of at least 10 kids I grew up with (on Queen Anne) that have struggled with substance abuse issues as teenagers and young adults. One lived in a home two blocks north of John Hay. Two others (sisters) lived in a $1mill+ view home on the west side of the hill. The miracle of facebook means I'm still connected to these kids, some of whom I haven't seen in over a decade.
Queen Anne was a good neighborhood then, and is a better neighborhood now. If these guys think their Queen Anne kids are never going to be binge drinkers or drug users just because they grew up on Queen Anne, they're out of their mind.
northwesterner
The assumption that all the Interagency recovery kids must be from other neighborhoods, involved in gangs, etc is ridiculous. And it's scary if parents really think that a Queen Anne child could not become addicted. Addiction crosses all socioeconomic and neighborhood lines.
-DMR
Honestly I feel about as sick over those comments as I did with the Garfield rape case. And not to change the subject, but the denial of University of Virginia about the rape culture there and subsequent Title IX scrutiny is worth Googling. Entitlement is one part of the UVA problem.
Aghast
And spot on observations EdVoter, (as usual). I hope there are Board members who see that the biggest issue in this whole scenario is communication.
If SPS could get nothing right from now but to improve communication they'd be soooo far ahead of the game.
reader47
I don't know where the above posters live, but I assume random people from your neighborhood don't speak for you? I live on Queen Anne, and I don't consider myself to be ignorant and fearful.
According to City Data, the population of Queen Anne is: "Population: 37,871." Fewer than 600 signers is a tiny percentage of residents.
The school district brought this on themselves by not informing and educating the neighborhood. The same thing is happening now with Nyland - people do not like being surprised in this way. It makes people think the worst and think that the district is trying to get away with something or that they are trying to sneak something through. We have all seen the district use tactics like these before. Yes, some of the people in the neighborhood have written ignorant comments, but the district has trained people to expect the worst from them.
Ignorant comments from a few residents, does not mean that the district handled this in the right way. The FAQ about the Interagency school mentions that this will be the first school of its kind in Seattle. How could the residents possibly have known what it was to look like without telling them?
-QA
How embarrassing for those communities. How distressing for the rest of us.
NW mom
The petition signers are downright ignorant. Read the article in my next post.
Been There
By Amy Roe
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Wealthy, accomplished and ambitious, Mercer Island youth appear to have it all — more money and, according to a new study, more problems, too.
Island teens show far more cases of anxiety, depression and rule-breaking behavior than the norm, according to a new study by Suniya S. Luthar, professor of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Luthar, a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on resilience among at-risk youth, was hired to conduct the study by Mercer Island Communities That Care, a communitywide initiative to reduce underage drinking and drug use funded under a two-year Department of Health grant.
"Because Mercer Island is a particular demographic, we thought it would be really helpful for this process to bring someone in who had a knowledge of affluent communities," said Project Coordinator Suzanne Tedesko. "She could address specific risk factors."
Results of a communitywide survey Luthar did on Mercer Island replicated many of her earlier findings on affluent youth and substance abuse. It showed a steep jump between junior high and high school in the percentage of students who used alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. A lack of contact with their parents contributed to distress among youth, according to the report.
Mercer Island High School students were far more likely to display anxiety, depression, withdrawal, trouble sleeping, social problems and rule-breaking behavior than the norm, the survey said.
Boys were more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior than the norm, while Island girls were slightly less so.
The fact that affluent teens are seen to face any particular adjustment risks is partly the result of Luthar's earlier work on the subject.
About 15 years ago, while studying resilience among inner-city youth, Luthar compared them with a sample group from an upper-middle-class area. She found the upper-middle-class adolescents reported far more incidents of substance abuse, anxiety and depression than those in inner cities and the general American teen population, thereby redefining the notion of who was truly "at risk."
In two subsequent studies on children and affluence, Luthar describes how isolation from adults, the erosion of family time and intense pressure to achieve contribute to a community of stressed-out, hypercompetitive youth who display anxiety, depression, sleeping problems and aggressive behavior.
To allay their anxieties, some turn to drugs, alcohol or other self-destructive behavior. Others may use the substances because they're bored, the substances are easy to attain and because they perceive few consequences for such actions, Luthar said by phone from her home in New York.
Pushed by themselves and others to excel in all aspects, "these youngsters start to feel their sense of self-worth is tied up into their accomplishment," Luthar said. This is exacerbated by feelings of guilt for being depressed or anxious in the first place — the feeling, Luthar said, that "with all that you have, what do you have to complain about?"
The attitude that the problems of rich kids aren't worth studying has turned up in the academic and social-service communities, making it difficult to find funding for research, she said.
Luthar recently embarked on a study of mothers (www.momsaspeople.com) to see if anxiety from the parent with whom children tend to have the strongest bond and most contact is being transferred to children.
But it's not just parents, teachers or peers — "you've got the broader American culture, which puts material wealth as the root to long-term happiness and well-being, and the way to get there is through a top-ranked college. This message is ubiquitous," she said. "I don't think any of us can get away from it."
Been There
No, the district was its usual tone-deaf self in communicating with the Queen Anne neighborhood but those attitudes? Home-grown. I'll bet not one of those people would have the courage of their convictions to come to a Board meeting and say that stuff outloud.
"You should have received a letter last week about this Wednesday evening's open ALO forum, which will be held in the library from 6:30-7:30pm. If this topic interests you, we hope you will join us to hear about the recent updates to our ALO plan and report card practices, which were approved by the Office of Advanced Learning. You will also have an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of our teachers and administrators. As a staff we are excited about the possibilities this gives us to add rigor for all as we continue to deepen and differentiate instruction at every grade level."
Considering Bryant
"I DO NOT WANT DRUGS AROUND MY GRANDN SON OR KIDS WHO USE THEM! THE LOCATION IS NOT APPROPRIATE"
Another from Kelley Goldmanis:
"This is ridiculous. Stop this now!"
In my imagination, she is referring to the petition itself.
And from Aaron Merhoff, who I imagine as resembling Thurston Howell, III:
"There is a reason we choose to pay significantly more money for housing and property tax to live in Queen Anne. It is a wonderful, safe community, inhabited primarily by responsible, successful, and socially affluent people". SMDH.
"But...despite the FAQ information, the No Interagency Petition marches on. It now has more than 575 signatures. John Hay + neighborhood parents will be picketing tomorrow's board meeting. The petition is also organizing a letter writing campaign to Murray's office."
Ignorance is never pretty.
"Maybe those Queen Anne residents who worry about an invasion into their neighborhood should move to Mercer Island"
Mercer Island residents just have more expensive drug habits...;)
564 Ward St, Unit A
Seattle, WA 98109
Sally Allen
Nonamenocredit
She is one of savviest navigators of informal networks and connections. Truly fascinating to see how she has used that skill to her advantage throughout her career.
And yes, this article Melissa linked to is very good.
northwesterner
EdVoter
EdVoter
Tier 2 parent
It's money over students' education.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/249065741/NEW-October-1-2014-P223
https://www.scribd.com/doc/249065683/Oct-FTE-Adjustment-Matrix-V3-20141015
@Mirmac https://www.scribd.com/doc/234820667/Start-of-s-School-Procedures
WOW
Truly disturbing.
Precious "equity" has TOTALLY FLOWN OUT THE WINDOW!!!
Forget the WSS, apparently, staffing schools with teachers is a matter of personal value judgements. Why bother having the WSS then?
FINALLY, the basis for 2014-15 teacher FTE pulls/adds is 'revealed', via a public records request (why weren't they just made public with the announcement? WTF?)
What can the rest of us lowly schools do to get the "Hazel Wolf" treatment?
Madronna K8, with 290 children, was overstaffed by 3 teachers, they got to keep 2 extra teachers. 2/290 is .007 teacher extra per child.
Garfield with 1,586 students (really?, whatever), was overstaffed by 2 extra teachers, they got to keep 1. 1/1586 is .0006 extra teacher per child.
Drum roll please... and the winner is.... Hazel Wolf K8 with 711 students was/is overstaffed by 1.5 extra teachers, they got to keep them all! 1.5/711 is .002 extra teacher per child. They win!
Stevens, Sandpoint, McDonald, Highland Park, Lafayette, Madison, all got to keep .5 FTE extra.
Sansilo and Concord both got 'gifted' extra .5 FTE. Huh?
Who got screwed?
Mercer got short sheeted 1 FTE, and Middle College got shorted by .5 FTE.
Look at BF Day and Emerson, both schools have high F&RL, they were both suppose to get a 1 FTE pull, and, they both had a 1 FTE pull. Compare that to Hazel Wolf, suppose to get a 1.5 pull, but instead got given that 1.5 to keep. (On the "Equity Factor Points", BF Day is a 4.0; Emerson is rated a 5.5, Hazel Wold is rated 0.5)
Makes it seem like the rumors about favoritism shown by a certain Board Director are true after all. Depressing. How else can this happen, where poor schools without a patron saint Director face the WSS data-driven rubric, but other schools get to deke out of the rubric and keep extra FTE? Extra FTE without any extraordinary circumstances (like Schmitz Park, having to run a school in a shanty-town portable farm)?
Do we schools need to hire a paid lobbyist to curry favor with Michael Tolley and Shauna Heath? Is it just a free-for-all wild-wild west? How do we get the...
Hazel Wolf Treatment
(of course, it occurs to me that if they would just lightening up the Big Dollar Suits in the glass palace, you know, ditch the Deputy Super, etc, they would have the money to keep all of the FTE in the schools in front of the kids -- where it counts)