Seattle School Board Meeting for Wednesday, September 23rd
The Board has quite the lengthy agenda, given that they cancelled their last scheduled Board meeting due to the teachers strike.
Note: I'm putting an asterisk beside every item that has new spending plus where the money is coming from. I'll give you the total at the end.
Highlights:
Action Items
- Superintendent will be commenting on the status of the SEA CBA
- Board policy revisions to Policy 1010 with accountability of different broadly-grouped departments via the District Annual Operations Dashboard to be delivered to the Board each November plus at least four Work Sessions a year.
- Board policy revisions to Policy 1240 on Board committees. I think the language is more robust and may actually aid the Board in its oversight.
- Consent degree and settlement for the district to hire an Accessibility Coordinator for the district website so that parents and other can access information on accessibility. It includes other items for a total between $665,400 to $815,400. This is stemming from a lawsuit filed by a blind parent who could not access information on the district website.* (General Fund)
The district blames the webpage developer, Edline, and is suing them with a court date scheduled in Feb. 2016. They are trying to reach settlement thru a Consent Decree rather than a trial. (The two parties parted on not-so-great terms with Edline pretty much leaving the district in the lurch as far as the website. Cross your fingers they will do better in resolving this issue.)
- Highly Capable's Annual OSPI grant document. I always find this document hard to read. I wish there was a narrative. I had another thread on this issue. I urge you to write to the Board and ask that one of them take this OFF the Consent Agenda and put it on the Action Item list in order to have some discussion about it.
- Student Wellness Board policy - Superintendent has asked for this to be delayed to the Oct. 7th Board meeting.
-
- Staff compensation for those who are management staff at JSCEE. It's about 2% for this year (and starts, apparently, in September). This is a COLA. Then another 1.2% in September 2015 thru August 2017 for salary increase. Staff also "recommends a salary step increase for non-represented staff starting (you guessed it) September 2015.
The money will come from the General Fund and cost about $920,000 for this year.*
Also to note for your reference: these employees come in "one-of-three Management Salary Schedules: 260-day, 223-Day and 204-Day employees." So the next time someone says that teachers only work nine months a year, there are plenty of other employees who work that same amount of time.
- Resolution on Moratorium on Out-of-School Suspension for Elementary Students. Action item report.
The district will work with SEA on this issue. The cost is estimated to be $845,000 per year from the General Fund.*
- Authorization for a settlement with a construction company, Absher, for $500K. Capital Funds.*
- BEX IV - for the new schools at the Wilson-Pacific site, an MOU with Seattle Public Utilities for Licton Springs Flood Reduction Project. There is a current MOA and this adds over $400K to the over $1M in the existing MOA. From BEX IV funds.*
- Boards of Distinction application. It appears the Board is applying to the state directors association to be named a "Board of Distinction." It's can be both funny and interesting reading. One thing is for sure - it's hard to say there was dissension on the Board and yet they are applying for this award.
Intro Items:
- Middle School Social Studies Adoption
- MOU with OSPI for Sped consultant for $500,000 from the General Fund.*
- Transfer of money from the BEX IV Program Contingency Account for the Meany project in the sum of $4,470,621. It appears the the City DPD believes the project is a "substantial alternation" project now and it elevated the costs.
- Wilson Pacific projects are now likely to use all their total contract money as staff says there are "accelerated market escalation costs," impacts of integrating Licton Springs K-8 into the middle school building, the district didn't put in lockers and "the community of parents and teachers confirmed that these should be included," and .01% increase in state sales tax. They are also keeping $1M out there because the district believes they may have to pay for a traffic light to be installed at the SE corner of the site.
Total for items with new costs:
General Fund - $4,930,000
BEX IV 1,190,000
Total $6,120,000
And that's just in one Board meeting.
Note: I'm putting an asterisk beside every item that has new spending plus where the money is coming from. I'll give you the total at the end.
Highlights:
Action Items
- Superintendent will be commenting on the status of the SEA CBA
- Board policy revisions to Policy 1010 with accountability of different broadly-grouped departments via the District Annual Operations Dashboard to be delivered to the Board each November plus at least four Work Sessions a year.
- Board policy revisions to Policy 1240 on Board committees. I think the language is more robust and may actually aid the Board in its oversight.
- Consent degree and settlement for the district to hire an Accessibility Coordinator for the district website so that parents and other can access information on accessibility. It includes other items for a total between $665,400 to $815,400. This is stemming from a lawsuit filed by a blind parent who could not access information on the district website.* (General Fund)
The district blames the webpage developer, Edline, and is suing them with a court date scheduled in Feb. 2016. They are trying to reach settlement thru a Consent Decree rather than a trial. (The two parties parted on not-so-great terms with Edline pretty much leaving the district in the lurch as far as the website. Cross your fingers they will do better in resolving this issue.)
- Highly Capable's Annual OSPI grant document. I always find this document hard to read. I wish there was a narrative. I had another thread on this issue. I urge you to write to the Board and ask that one of them take this OFF the Consent Agenda and put it on the Action Item list in order to have some discussion about it.
- Student Wellness Board policy - Superintendent has asked for this to be delayed to the Oct. 7th Board meeting.
-
- Staff compensation for those who are management staff at JSCEE. It's about 2% for this year (and starts, apparently, in September). This is a COLA. Then another 1.2% in September 2015 thru August 2017 for salary increase. Staff also "recommends a salary step increase for non-represented staff starting (you guessed it) September 2015.
The money will come from the General Fund and cost about $920,000 for this year.*
Also to note for your reference: these employees come in "one-of-three Management Salary Schedules: 260-day, 223-Day and 204-Day employees." So the next time someone says that teachers only work nine months a year, there are plenty of other employees who work that same amount of time.
- Resolution on Moratorium on Out-of-School Suspension for Elementary Students. Action item report.
The district will work with SEA on this issue. The cost is estimated to be $845,000 per year from the General Fund.*
- Authorization for a settlement with a construction company, Absher, for $500K. Capital Funds.*
- BEX IV - for the new schools at the Wilson-Pacific site, an MOU with Seattle Public Utilities for Licton Springs Flood Reduction Project. There is a current MOA and this adds over $400K to the over $1M in the existing MOA. From BEX IV funds.*
- Boards of Distinction application. It appears the Board is applying to the state directors association to be named a "Board of Distinction." It's can be both funny and interesting reading. One thing is for sure - it's hard to say there was dissension on the Board and yet they are applying for this award.
Intro Items:
- Middle School Social Studies Adoption
- MOU with OSPI for Sped consultant for $500,000 from the General Fund.*
- Transfer of money from the BEX IV Program Contingency Account for the Meany project in the sum of $4,470,621. It appears the the City DPD believes the project is a "substantial alternation" project now and it elevated the costs.
- Wilson Pacific projects are now likely to use all their total contract money as staff says there are "accelerated market escalation costs," impacts of integrating Licton Springs K-8 into the middle school building, the district didn't put in lockers and "the community of parents and teachers confirmed that these should be included," and .01% increase in state sales tax. They are also keeping $1M out there because the district believes they may have to pay for a traffic light to be installed at the SE corner of the site.
Total for items with new costs:
General Fund - $4,930,000
BEX IV 1,190,000
Total $6,120,000
And that's just in one Board meeting.
Comments
HF
Was there
I note that none of those salary schedules seems to include the head honchos -- max salary on any of these is under $70K. So the people making $100-150-200K are not getting this raise.
The comments on lockers at W-P is particularly annoying, since I was assured at least two years ago that lockers were back in the plan and the District was going to knock the architects' heads together to get them. I'm pretty sure that was before contract signing for construction. There you go, I guess.
Just Curious
Distinction right