Seattle Schools News Update
Coming fast and furious.
The District is have a press briefing right now over the staffing cuts (with less than an hour's notice to reporters - I could not have made it down there). I'll let you know what is reported out by other media sources.
Second, there's this new Bell Times schedule possibility,dated Oct. 13. 2015, but I have no time to really review it. It is three-tier and labelled "cost neutral."
Discuss among yourselves.
The District is have a press briefing right now over the staffing cuts (with less than an hour's notice to reporters - I could not have made it down there). I'll let you know what is reported out by other media sources.
Second, there's this new Bell Times schedule possibility,dated Oct. 13. 2015, but I have no time to really review it. It is three-tier and labelled "cost neutral."
Discuss among yourselves.
Comments
West
Curses
-sleeper
Maybe there are good reasons why the handful of schools on tier 3 need to be that late? For example, I've heard it argued that since APP at Lincoln kids have long bus rides, an early start might be a bigger challenge.
HF
Sounds like staff is doubling down on blaming the state, taking no responsibility for their choices, and marching forward with their actions. Oh, and they don't have an actual list of their decisions but "they'll let us know."
An uprising is in order.
West Seattle
-sleeper
I have kids in all three levels and the sacrifice in ES is worth it for the extra sleep.
Thank you all for your work on this. I feel this is a worthy change!
-Thanks!
Clearly, they are unwilling to acknowledge that something down at JSCEE could have been "sacrificed" so that this upheaval didn't get dumped on the kids.
bleahhh bleah I say!
I'm glad Title I schools get the early start.
I would love to know how the 20 mins will be added later on.
-LM
http://westseattleblog.com/2015/10/teacher-cuts-final-word-going-out-to-schools-district-media-briefing-at-1230-pm/
Thanks
SPE Parent
-StepJ
NEmom
NEmom
As for the ridiculous super v board document: How dare staff propose to limit the timing and depth of my board members representing my and every other voter's concern.
North of 85th
http://sps.ss8.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/committees/Operations/2015-16/20151015_Agenda_Ops_Packet.pdf
- North-end Mom
NE Mom of 3
Here's the link:
http://sps.ss8.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/committees/Operations/2015-16/20151015_Agenda_Ops_Packet.pdf
It is the best proposal we've seen so far, though not perfect; it goes a long way to putting way more kids in biologically appropriate tiers than any previous plan. I had heard there is a possibility of tightening up the tier spacing by 2017, which will help offset any additional time in the school day.
I'm still in shock that a schedule change like the extra 20 minutes was done without an iota of community engagement, or any data as to why this is the top priority negotiating item for the district. I also don't know where they will get the money to fund it.
-guessing
However, my really big concern is that they are ripping neighborhoods apart by putting some elementary schools at 8 am and some at 9:40am, which is a really big gap. We lobbied to keep NE Seattle schools together so that kids could engage with each other and share after school activities. In the original 'final' recommendation every single one of our close by neighboring schools had been assigned the 8 am slot, except us. We asked for and managed to get 8 am, but now half the schools in the area have been scheduled at 8 am (Wedgwood, Bryant, Thornton Creek and Sand Point Elementary) and half are at 9:40 am (Laurelhurst, View Ridge, APPLincoln/Casdadia).
I imagine that some of the schools asked for the later time, but I wish we had been consulted as a group so we could discuss the impact on our community. Hopefully there will still be some consultation on this.
SPE Parent
The first three are color-coded by tier: Tier 1=yellow, Tier 2=green, Tier 3=red
Current 2015-16 bell times, by tier
Proposed "modified flip" for 2016-17, by tier
10/14 Super’s proposed plan for 2016-17, by tier
The next three are color coded by type of school (Elementary=green, MS=yellow, K-8=red, HS=blue)
Current 2015-16 bell times, by school type
Proposed "modified flip" for 2016-17, by school type
10/14 Super’s proposed plan for 2016-17, by school type
SPE Parent
SPE Mom, the previous schedule for the NE had Sand Point as the ONLY elementary to have a different time from the others which was really unfair. This is at least a little more balanced.
This seems to be the same process we see in boundaries; put up a proposal, people complain, put up a new one, different people complain, etc until the clock runs out. Wouldn't a values driven discussion make a lot more sense? There are hard choices to be made, not everyone will be happy- but knowing the why would help a lot.
and thanks to Garfield mom, who is an absolute data wizard!
SPE Parent
HIMSmom
1. They used the May 2015 projections of October 2015 enrollment as their 2015/16 projection, rather than the current actual October data. So are the projections are built upon a current year enrollment of 51,745 rather than the 52,399 we actually have. Why start with data you know aren't accurate? Maybe because the lower number helps hide the capacity crisis?
2. Hamilton shows 1068 for the current year, when it's actually close to 1100. Next year's projection is a whopping 1172--so that might be closer to 1200 if they started with the current true count. In either case, there's no way all those kids can fit. Good luck with that!
HIMSmom
In the year before Lincoln HS reopens, Garfield is projected at 2274, Ballard at 1972 and Roosevelt at 1805. Can those schools handle that?
HIMSmom
You can take a gander HERE
reader47
NEmom
No science involved
Download these in .xls format and do some analysis. That's more than Brent Kroon did.
"In the year before Lincoln HS reopens, Garfield is projected at 2274, Ballard at 1972 and Roosevelt at 1805. Can those schools handle that?"
NO.
FACMAC told the district to build a high school at Wilson Pacific and convert Lincoln to the middle school, Hamilton to the elementary school. It would have been a fast, economical, and efficient. The cost difference was about $20M, which the District and Michael DeBell and Sherry Carr howled at as being way too much, and yet now, the same District says, "whoops, did we say we needed $19M for Lincoln? No, I mean, $40M? Well, we really meant $80M. Zing! Gottcha!
FACMAC was the only conduit to keep the District honest. The Board needs to demand the Super gets them focused on how to make capacity work.
Those projections are why high school is going into shifts, even though they won't tell you that. They want to get your the February Levies passed, then they will tell you the bad news.
They are all ready planning for high school shifts. They just are not planning transparently. The really disturbing parts are that (1) nothing can basically be done at this point to rescue high school and (2) they have no idea what they are doing, because 5 years ago when Garfield first overloaded post-NSAP implementation (duh, who could have predicted that? Oh yeah, all of us), they thought they could just tack on an extra periods, but then they realized that would accomplish nothing really, because during the majority of the day, ALL of the ENTIRE student body would be there, causing congested halls, plus they had to consider those pesky teachers and that CBA and all of the costs and SpEd. Smart staff knew running start would be their saving grace to partially offset the high school crisis, but then staff in operations who report to Ms. McEvoy messed with Garfield's bell time, making running start not possible in some cases. It really is this bad. And sadly, Dr. Nyland has no clue. But he doesn't have to worry. Or care. It is not his problem. He gets his $276K regardless. 3 years x $276K = $828,000. That doesn't include benefits. More like a million. When high school crashes, do you think we taxpayers can do a go-back and ask him to refund, say, $500K? Do you think our children will get one million dollars of value out of his tenure? Is he that impactful (in a good way)? Nah. By the time high school is imploding, he'll be skating away. Queen Anne and Magnolia are missing their high school, they need it back. Dr. Herndon should have been getting the ball rolling on that. Instead, he focused all of his muscle on preschool (to play politics nicely) and on the downtown building (again politics took priority, not actual planning of actual priorities). Bringing back the Magnolia building absent a plan is wasteful. They should have started talking 2 years about to the community about recasting the junior high campus at Catherine Blaine as a 1,000 seat high school and pivoting the QA/Mag K8 into the Magnolia building, thereby adding net seats in segments that were imperative. But none of this has been done. Does he not understand all those kids in Queen Anne Elementary, Coe, CB K8, etc, that they will need a place to go after 5th grade, and after 8th grade? What exactly is he thinking? Mark my words, he's going to be out of here too, so that he can duck the worst of it. So predictable. The 'plan' now is to put a high school at the Stadium. But that is flawed. And yet, he'll pursue it only because they own the parking lot. Not a good reason to put it there, but that reflects his strategic (in)abilities.
Facilities Planning?
I believe the enrollment count (number of students) may differ from FTE because not all students are counted as 1.0 FTE. Students part-time homeschooling in middle school? They may be considered 0.8 FTE or less. Students doing Running Start in high school? Also less than 1.0F FTE.
-parent
Mom of 4
I have heard that the teaching and learning department requested sample schedules for both split shifts and year round schooling. I expect it will be split shifts (6 to noon and noon to 6) as that would be easier to implement than a calendar change.
Or I suppose they could make younger students go longer to make up for the HS shortfall...
HF