Seattle Schools This Week

Editor's Note; there are two important groups of meetings over the next three weeks.  One is for the Feb. 2016 renewal levies for Operations and BTA IV, the other group is for Bell Times Analysis.  If both issues are important to you, plan accordingly.

I would love for staff not to eat up 30+ minutes explaining the levies and just give an overview and have more Q&A for the ENTIRE group (not just 20 minutes and then force everyone to ask any further questions one-on-one.)

Monday, September 21
Community meeting on Operations and BTA IV levies
Martin Luther King Jr. lunchroom from 6:30-8:00 pm

Wednesday, September 23rd
2-Hour Early Dismissal

School Board meeting, starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda 
I'll do a separate thread on the agenda.  It is a large agenda with a fair amount of money going out the door for various settlements.  (I believe that the district should have to put a * next to every item that costs new money to the district.) 

Thursday, September 24th
Community meeting on Operations and BTA IV levies
 Ingraham High School from 6:30-8:00 pm

Saturday, September 26th
School Board Retreat, 9:30am to 2:45 pm, JSCEE

Monday, September 28th
Community meeting on Operations and BTA IV levies
West Seattle High School lunchroom

Director McLaren community meeting from 6 pm - 7:45 pm, Delridge Branch Library

Tuesday, September 29th
Community meeting on Operations and BTA IV levies
 Roosevelt High School lunchroom

Community meeting on Bell Times
Chief Sealth High School from 6:30-7:30 pm

Wednesday, September 30th
Community meeting on Operations and BTA IV levies
 Bailey Gatzert Elementary

Community meeting on Bell Times
Ingraham High School from 6:30-7:30 pm 

Thursday, October 1
Community meeting on Bell Times
MLK, Jr. Elementary lunchroom from 6:30-7:30 pm 

Friday, October 2
Community meeting on Bell Times
Washington Middle School from 6:30-7:30 pm 

Editor's note; it is highly unusual for the district to schedule any meeting, no less a community meeting, on a Friday night  

Comments

Linh-Co said…
There is a Seattle School Board Candidates Forum hosted by League of Education Voters on Thursday, September 24 from 6-9pm at the First AME Church.
9/20/15, 9:26 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Linh-Co, that's an odd thing.

I had checked at LEV's website last week and there's nothing about it. I checked right now. Nothing. There is also nothing on their Facebook page.

Other sponsors: Tabor 100 (business), Seattle Alliance for Black School Educators, Coalition of Immigrants, Refugees and Communities of Color and A. Phillip Randolph Institute/Seattle - zip.

So I'm sure Linh-Co is right that there is a forum but they either want it unattended, attended by a select crowd or it got thrown together quite hastily.

Here's their list of possible topics:

College and Career readiness
Achievement gap
Disaggregated data on all students
Achievement gap
Disaggregated student data
Common Core and assessments
Disproportionality in school discipline
Inclusion and diversity
Recruitment of educators of color
Special education and gifted programs
Other

They have two data categories which is intriguing.

You also have to RSVP to go. Also odd.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seattle-school-board-candidates-forum-tickets-18293510382?aff=efblike
9/21/15, 8:45 AM
Watching said…
"They have two data categories which is intriguing."

I'm finding the data category intriguing, too. There is one candidate that is all about data. This candidate has not made their positions known regarding testing etc.
9/21/15, 9:11 AM
Anonymous said…
Watching, do we have to guess? Can't you just tell us?

Voting Parent
9/21/15, 2:48 PM
Linh-Co said…
It is an odd thing they are not advertising it. The request for attendance from LEV was August 27th. It wasn't a last minute thing. There's also nothing on the event on the First AME church's website.
9/21/15, 11:19 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Again, Linh-Co, they want a certain audience and want to know who is coming.

That's not a public forum.
9/22/15, 8:14 AM
Anonymous said…
It's interesting, because I was told directly by LEV leadership that LEV is not interested in school board elections. I was told LEV is now working at the city counsel level and state rep level.

Now, it turns out they want to hold a secret hush hush forum to possibly see which candidates might be with them. I wonder if this is because of the strike and the public lash out at the current board and administration?

Why would non LEV candidates even bother to attend?

Can we just show up to the meeting, if so will they let non LEV people in?

Walter

9/22/15, 5:30 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more