Tuesday Open Thread
Tell your kids about this - those Instagram photos? They don't own them once they are on Instagram AND they can be publicly shown AND someone can make money off them. From the Washington Post:
The Internet is the place where nothing goes to die.
Those embarrassing photos of your high school dance you marked “private” on Facebook? The drunk Instagram posts? The NSFW snapchats? If you use social media, you’ve probably heard a warning akin to “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your employer (or future employer) to see.”
We agree, and are adding this caveat: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want hanging in an art gallery.
Safe Routes to Schools needs YOUR help. Here's 10 ways you can make getting to school safer for students.
Great info-map on the relative size of Africa - show the kids.
Congrats to West Seattle High School softball coach, Trevor Leopold as Metro Coach of the Year. His team is on their way to state finals. Good luck, Wildcats!
What's on your mind?
The Internet is the place where nothing goes to die.
Those embarrassing photos of your high school dance you marked “private” on Facebook? The drunk Instagram posts? The NSFW snapchats? If you use social media, you’ve probably heard a warning akin to “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your employer (or future employer) to see.”
We agree, and are adding this caveat: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want hanging in an art gallery.
Safe Routes to Schools needs YOUR help. Here's 10 ways you can make getting to school safer for students.
Great info-map on the relative size of Africa - show the kids.
Congrats to West Seattle High School softball coach, Trevor Leopold as Metro Coach of the Year. His team is on their way to state finals. Good luck, Wildcats!
What's on your mind?
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| Madison Middle School's trophies (first/second place) at Music in the Parks in Silverwood, Idaho.The hotel manager noted that this was the most polite and respectful group of young people they have ever had stay at the hotel. |
Comments
Un-be-liev-able. That, coupled with the face slap from the Denny principal on students who legally opted out on testing. (See the thread below.) It's another headline week or should I say WEAK in how customer unfriendly - students, parents - this district is.
DistrictWatcher
Junior high students sexting nude photos
EdVoter
I have an update on the Denny issue - if they think this makes it better, I don't think so.
"Just to clarify:
53,074 is student headcount. It was adjusted (May 29 update) from the February number of 53,197 – that is a difference of -123
52,587 is AAFTE (Average Annual FTE) it was adjusted from the February number of 52,712 – that is a difference of -125
A HS student who may be only taking 3 or 4 classes does not get credited with 1.0 FTE, but rather 0.6 or 0.8
However, in headcount – that student counts as 1.
Headcount is important when planning for building capacity.
FTE is used for budget....
Hope this clears things up."
If you subtract High School HC from AAFTE you come up with -485 student equivalents and a commensurate reduction in staff. What the heck does SPS think all these high schoolers are doing with all that free time? Only 3 to 4 classes? Are they all that career and college ready?!
I'm pretty sure the biggest difference is the projected number of students who will move or drop out mid-year. This has been estimated based on each school's prior experience. It's shocking that we under-staff our high schools at the beginning of the year, assuming that some kids won't make it June.
For high school, you only get funded for the AVERAGE number of students from the prior year. This is different from K-8, where you are funded based on the October 1 head count. (and I think it is still the average of the last three years)
SPS applies a AAFTE factor of about 95-96% to high school, which is equivalent to how the State of Washington then funds high school. High school is really poorly funded.
* There is no additional funding to cover the complexities of a master schedule. In other words, the funding formula is based on every teaching having a perfectly full classroom.
* The on top of this, there is a 5% cut to the funding, with the presumption that there are fewer students at the end of the year. So high schools are supposed to front load the schedule so that teachers have too many students at the beginning of the year and the drop out rate, will bring them to a normal level.
Here are the projections by school.
The total number at the bottom of the page is 53,074 and there is NO line item for running start.
"Nickels for Nepal Campaign-June 3rd to 5th
Please donate your spare change to help those in need. A recent earthquake struck in Nepal and triggered an avalanche. Over 8,000 people died. Our goal is to raise money for those in need through UNICEF(United Nations Children’s Fund). UNICEF is sending supplies including tents, medical and hospital supplies and blankets. All collections net of expenses will be held in trust by Seattle Public Schools until disbursed to UNICEF a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. We would like you to donate your spare change to help people in Nepal."
What's up with that? I'm honestly NOT comfortable with this. I looked for more info in the district's website and couldn't find anything.
-Tired
kellie's correct that the average short-shrift is 5% for high schools. The outlier is Rainier Beach, that has its enrollment shorted by 7%. Oops, no money for an IB coordinator.
Thanks, Juno
Is there a way to report broken links?
- North-end Mom
HP
Seattle schools on right track to win back millions for special ed
reader47
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/06/02/kitchen-manager-fired-for-giving-lunch-to-students-without-money/
I am using the full link rather than a hyperlink, in case it breaks again as they are working on the new website.
http://sps.ss8.sharpschool.com/cms/one.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=15014
There are three new reports on this page - 2015-16 Projections by grade, by school and summary.
C'mon Leah
Was public education money used to fund the McCleary lawsuit?
Key Findings
1.. The Network for Excellence in Washington Schools (NEWS) has paid attorneys’ fees to fund the McCleary lawsuit from two primary sources of revenue.
2.. About $4 million has come from WEA union money drawn from teacher paychecks.
3.. Washington’s 30 largest school districts have contributed over half of a million dollars in public school funds to NEWS.
4.. Interest groups stand to gain financially from the McCleary court decision.
5.. Public school teachers and school districts have donated an extraordinary amount of money to the NEWS organization for the McCleary case, when the same money could have been used to provide “ample” funding for their students’ education.
--------------------------------------------------
In today's overly partisan atmosphere organizations that exaggerate and distort the truth lose credibility. Now few organizations have much credibility.
The Washington Policy Center apparently believes that a one time expenditure of 4.5 million dollars would provide "ample funding" for the education of Washington's students. This claim is so far removed from reality it is hard to believe that three people would admit to authorship (Travis Strawn, WPC Janet and Doug True Research intern & Liv Finne, Director, Center for Education,).
If the legislature and the Supreme Court only realized that $4.5 million would amply fund Washington schools no special sessions would be needed ... huhh??.
-- Dan Dempsey
Lassie
Jan
The enrollment reports are dated 5/29 and they are the current-projections. This means that they are the 5/29 estimate for the Oct 1 enrollment count.
If the number on the 5/29 report is 50 students lower than your schools enrollment that means that enrollment has projected that there will be a decrease of 50 students between now and Oct 1.
In spite of the overall growth district wide, there are still some schools that have a drop between open enrollment and Oct 1, so it is possible that the projection is a reflection of that.
One major thing that is missing from these reports is an risk-analysis of the schools where the Oct 1 projection is showing an expected drop between now and Oct 1, that is larger than a homeroom. There are still some schools where the arrival of 50 students more than expected would be inconvenient but manageable. However, with so many schools operating with razor thin capacity margins, that 50 students could be two additional homerooms that do not exist.
While imperfect, you can hire a teacher pretty quickly if needed. However, it takes many months to get a portable in place, planning, permitting, etc.
http://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/seattle-sets-high-bar-for-substitutes-by-requiring-teaching-license/
A new study names Seattle among a small crowd of school districts that require substitute teachers to have a complete teaching license.
McClureWatcher
Centralized control looks more and more suspect when it comes to k-12 education.
CCSS, SBAC, etc.
College Board Sabotages American History
-- Dan Dempsey
ScrawnyKayaker