Ed News Updates

The hearing on 1497 (allowing the mayor to appoint 2 school board members) will be in the House Education Committee on Tues., Feb. 3 at 1:30pm in the House Hearing Room A in the John L. O'Brien building.   I would encourage anyone who cares to send in a message to your legislator or even come on down. 

On the Federal Reserve building, apparently it DID go the eBay way. The Times is reporting that there were six bidders with the top bid being $7.6M.  We only know for certain that SPS is one of the bidders.  But the deadline - which was yesterday - has been extended because auction rules state that "the bidding continues until the highest bid goes unchallenged for 24 hours."  

At this point, I can't imagine the district will win just because I'd be willing to bet that their own independent appraisal didn't come in below $8M.  SPS said they would only bid 10% higher than their own appraisal.  Then again, maybe someone with big pockets came in to help (and I hope that is the case if the district wins because, otherwise, it means the district spent the $5M in BEX plus other capital dollars to buy this building.

Update on Federal Reserve building; the first bid started at $1.9M on 1/27 (I suspect this was the district but I don't know) and seven hours went by before a second came in at $5.8M. There has only been one bid from each of the six bidders.  It appears that the auction may end today at 6 pm Central time (if there are no new bids).

End of update

In other news, we again see the musical chairs of principals.  The principal at Cascade Parent Partnership, Treena Sterk, is moving to Eckstein as principal.  This is to happen within a couple of days.  

Eckstein's principal, Sherri Kokx is now moving to the district as School Operations Manager and Cascade is seeing their "administrative intern," Owen Gonder named as Head Teacher with formerly retired principal, Terry Meisenburg, as interim principal.   

Mr. Gonder is currently a 4th grade teacher at View Ridge and the district will replace him with a "permanent substitute."  

This is all just three weeks before Cascade moves to their new building on Queen Anne.  

Fairly shocking for all parents, I'd say.   

 I have no information about why or how this came about. 


Comments

mirmac1 said…
Dam, for a "LEAN" operation there is a surfeit of managers at JSCEE. Thought Misa Garmoe was Mgr or Dir of School Operations. I guess she needed someone to delegate to.
1/29/15, 12:33 PM
Anonymous said…
The biggest problem with this round of principal shuffle is that it's taking place mid-year. It's bad enough that Cascade is moving across town in the middle of the year, two weeks after the semester has started, but to pull our principal right before the move? Why couldn't Eckstein simply get an interim principal until the end of the year? Is Eckstein so much more important than Cascade? This staff shifting disrupts the education of hundreds of kids. What for? So JSC can have one more?

Cascade Pare
1/29/15, 2:36 PM
Anonymous said…
" Is Eckstein so much more important than Cascade?"

I think you have your answer there

SnowflakeCentral
1/29/15, 3:17 PM
Charlie Mas said…
Cascade is an Option School, right? So, in accordance with the Alternative Education Policy, C54.00, "School community participates in the selection of instructional, support and administrative staff."

That means that the school community must have significant input in the selection of the new principal.
1/29/15, 4:23 PM
Anonymous said…
" Is Eckstein so much more important than Cascade?"

Is Cascade so much more important than Mr. Gonder's class?

NE Parent
1/30/15, 8:02 AM
Anonymous said…
NE Parent, absolutely not.

The Cascade community was not consulted on the choice of Mr. Gonder to be slated as principal. Most parents do not know him at all. We would never advocate for the disruption all of these changes are causing.

Cascade Parent
1/30/15, 9:38 AM
Anonymous said…
Cascade Parent,

Cascade is an Option School, right? So, in accordance with the Alternative Education Policy, C54.00, "School community participates in the selection of instructional, support and administrative staff."

Perhaps your community should have a say in taking a teacher out of his classroom mid year to put him in an administrated position.

NE Parent
1/30/15, 10:05 AM
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