Seattle Schools Updates
From Sped PTSA:
Please be assured that the October Seattle Special Education PTSA meeting IS STILL BEING HELD on October 20th 7pm - 9pm at West Seattle High School (in the library).
Confirmed speakers are:
Israel Vela
Executive Director of Schools
Southwest Region
Seattle Public Schools
And Mike Starosky, Chief of Schools.
Please be assured that the October Seattle Special Education PTSA meeting IS STILL BEING HELD on October 20th 7pm - 9pm at West Seattle High School (in the library).
Confirmed speakers are:
Israel Vela
Executive Director of Schools
Southwest Region
Seattle Public Schools
And Mike Starosky, Chief of Schools.
*Please Note - There is some confusion as our meeting was to originally
be held directly after the Seattle School Districts SpEd Regional
meeting. The SPS SpEd Department cancelled their meeting.
They have rescheduled their Regional Meeting to Nov. 10th.
The Seattle SpEd PTSA has decided to keep our meeting as it was originally scheduled on Oct. 20th.
Please help spread the word, and pass this information on! Thank you.
We hope to see you there!
They have rescheduled their Regional Meeting to Nov. 10th.
The Seattle SpEd PTSA has decided to keep our meeting as it was originally scheduled on Oct. 20th.
Please help spread the word, and pass this information on! Thank you.
We hope to see you there!
Rainier Beach High School
RBHS is holding a transportation summit on Thursday, October 22nd around the number of kids at the school who have to walk there thru unsafe territory. It's at RBHS at 6 p.m. Guests include Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Bruce Harrell. Transit Riders Union petition in support.
Currently, only students who live more than two miles (as the crow flies) from their school are eligible for a free ORCA pass subsidized by the school district. Not only is four or more miles a long way to walk to and from school, often there is no safe route to walk, due to dangerous traffic or neighborhoods.So the rule is 2 miles+ to get an ORCA card. But here you have a school that is building its enrollment AND has a more variable landscape for the kids to walk - you'd think some of the administration spending would go to help these students. I mean if you truly wanted to keep kids in high school, you make sure you have a safe way for them to get there.
From SPS Communications, news that two SPS art teachers have been honored. Eckstein's Jennifer Heller has been named Middle School Art Educator of the Year by the Washington Art Education Association. As well, Montlake’s Jennifer Lundgren is WAEA’s Elementary Art Educator of the Year. Heller and Lundgren are among five award recipients statewide who will be honored at the WAEA Fall Conference in Leavenworth on Oct. 24.
Both teachers share the conviction that art class should serve as a refuge and an outlet – especially for stressed or struggling students.
“The kids who maybe don’t really shine in their classroom come in here and they can just – we like to say – let their freak flag fly a little,” says Lundgren. “They find their voice in here. It’s really great and powerful to see.”
I love that "let your freak flag fly" - I think that IS what art is about.
Russell Wilson visited Dunlap Elementary and helped out in the garden. (Be sure to turn down the volume if you watch this video - the screams are very loud.)
Comments
wondering
Kari Hanson was presented as the director student services, or school services, for special education. I believe she is part of that department's "leadership team". I don't know that she has any particular qualification for helping schools understand their responsibilities and good practice. But, she gets paid a lot. She keeps herself busy doing something.
So what's with this Chief of Schools?
Skeptic
http://data.spokesman.com/salaries/schools/2015/92-seattle-public-schools/employees/
Eliminating a number of these leadership positions could more than eliminate the staffing problems that surfaced this month from the anomalous projections arising from <1% of the students.
-SPSparent
-SPSparent
Eg. Spencer Pan, got his fat-cat job after being certificated for less than 4 years. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY to be a fat-cat in SPED in SPS.
Reader
PS. Partial administration list for SPS SPECIAL ED admins in JSEE. For 7500 students we need...
FAT CATS. Salaries well more than $100,000, some with scant experience. (Cut here first!) Salaries and Job Descriptions from Kitsap Sun.
Jessee, Wyeth, Exec Director Special Education
Hanson, Kari, Director of Special Education
Clancy, Michaela, Director of SpecialEducation
Kraemer, Stephen, Teacher-Special Education XE
Olney, Robin, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Carter, Elizabeth R, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Studley, Sherry, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Thorson, Beth M, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Parks, Karla A, Applications Developer – Senior
Campbell, Patricia A, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Pan, Spencer, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Swanson, Teresa, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Seielstad, Allison G, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Landwehr, Michelle, Spec Ed Svcs Supervisor
Program Specialists. (Cut here next!)
Boyd, Glen, Special Education Program Specialist
Herzog, Wayne D, Special Education Program Specialist
Parnell, Elaine, Special Education Program Specialist
Gainer, Heidi, SPED Early Childhood Specialist
King, Stephanie, Special Education Program Specialist
Morgan-Uzzle, Monique R, Special Education Program Specialist
Gurley, Devin K, Special Education Program Specialist
Cook, Catherine M, Special Education Program Specialist
Ichikawa, Maki, Special Education Program Specialist
Pelland, Jennifer A, SPED Early Childhood Specialist
Helgeson, Marcella E, Special Education Program Specialist
LaRosa, Alessandra P, Special Education Program Specialist
Miyata, Sharon, Specialist Special Education
Bammert, Michelle T, Special Education Program Specialist
Chirichigno, Laurie L, Special Education Program Specialist
Sweerus, Andrea L, Special Education Program Specialist
Szablya, Kristine L, SPED Private Schools Prog Specialist
Rincon, Stephanie K, SPED Private Schools Prog Specialist
More Administrators and Consultants!
Barber, Vicki L, Consultant
Durst, Wendy, Consultant
Deegan, Teresa, SPED Administrative Data Specialist
Eustaquio, Elizabeth O, SPED Records Room Technician
Garberg, Lexi E, Admin Data Specialist, Private Schl
Anderson, Jennifer R, Analyst Special Education
Luster, Francine A, Sr Cost Technician
Addleman, Shauna L, Special Education Project Coordinator
Alexander, Anita, Office Helper - Hourly
Lambert, Cathleen L, Hourly - Management (Non-FTE)
McLeod, Peggy, Hourly - Management (Non-FTE)
Klopfer, Pamela, Senior Administrative Asst-260
Compliance – But these aren’t lawyers. They’re just teachers playing lawyer, not on TV, at JSEE.
Littlefield, Roni, Senior Special Ed Compliance Spec 222/8
Allen Leslie, Lori V, SPED Data Compliance Reporting Analyst
Moncrief, Tracy J, Special Ed Compliance Specialist
Fields, Rochelle, Senior Special Ed Compliance Specialist
Fisher, Sharon, Senior Special Ed Compliance Specialist
Teachers working in Central Office. Put our Educators in Schools!
Siegenthaler, Margo, SFP Training Outreach Specialist
Lukens, Laurie J, Instructional Support Resource Teacher
Davis, Maureen, Instructional Support Resource Teacher
Adams, Wendy A, Academic Intervention Specialist
Holmes, Susan, Teacher-Special Education-XB
Shuman, Deborah, Teacher-Special Education-XB
Rosvik, Geir, Teacher-Special Education-XP
Herald, Leif, Teacher-Special Education-XG
Gentry, Derek R, Teacher-Special Education-XB
Raparelli, Stephen M, Teacher-Special Education-XV
Umphress, Elizabeth A, Teacher-Special Education-XV
Anderson, Mallory, Teacher-Special Education-XB
Bader, Toni, Teacher-Special Education-XP
Ray, Steven, Teacher-Special Education-XE
Butler, Susette, Teacher-Special Education-XV
Brockman, Jillian J, Hourly - Summer School Teacher
Jackson, Bobbie, Teacher CTE - High School
Givan-Williams, Lilna, Teacher CTE - High School
maze runner
If you're wondering why there's no IAs in your school, or why there's so few special educators, or why there's no special ed sub ever in your building, or for your kid's class - try calling one of the bureaucrats on that list. Don't worry, they won't answer, they're too busy recruiting for their own organization.
Reader
And, for the cherry on top - we've had an explosion in out-of-district placements for students with disabilities. No surprise in that. When classrooms are cut, and all money is spent in the central office and on consultants - the students still have to go somewhere. And that would be to the most expensive places of all.
Reader
Baffled
1 director = 5 IAs
1 supervisor = 3.5 IAs
1 specialist = 2.5 IAs
Heck, we need to sack 15 IAs, just to pay for the directors! Chop, chop. Shouldn't be baffled.
Reader
Your list, although interesting has some inaccuracies and does not by itself present a clear picture of anything. There is a teacher, for example in the over 100,000 list who would undoubtedly like to make that much, but well, you see.... In the "teachers working in the central office" category, some of them may be funded out of central, but actually work daily with students and may never set foot ""downtown." I personally would find the actual job descriptions more enlightening then this list and its conclusions. It's not so simple.
been there
And to make matters even worse, staff cuts in schools mean that staff with the lowest seniority will be displaced first, eg. They're going to displace the absolute cheapest employees first. Let's displace a maximum number of the lowest paid employees to save the bacon of the highest paid. Does that sound like a good use of tax resources to you?
But, since the district has decided to take a hacksaw to special ed classroom staff, overwhelmingly cutting the lowest paid staff, mostly IAs with the least seniority making $25K year, we should consider the full range of employees working in special education, to make sure that we hack off the parts least likely to provide "a return on investment". By all means, the central staff should decide how to cut itself, along with the classrooms, and should justify every single cut or hire. I'm simply pointing to an untapped source of cuts, which appears to be a good place to look if we wish to minimize disruptions for our most vulnerable students. I'm in no way recommending specific cuts - only a source of excess that so far has been completely untouchable. Is there a problem with that reasoning?
Reader
I like transparency and we need more of it.
That said, Reader's list shows the NEED for real transparency. Not just lists of staff which can be mis-interpreted - you do need some central staff, but for the district to actually have an org chart that they share with the public. Where people and responsibilities are identified and parents know who they need to contact AND can actually get a response back.
North Seattle
Elephant
Student Assignment Plan document
streamlined
- Specifics around Programs and Services will be maintained by respective offices (Advanced Learning, ELL, Transportation, etc.)
- Waitlists dissolved prior to start of school
So now Advanced Learning will be responsible for making (and publishing) assignment rules for highly capable students. I think I can predict how Garfield's overcrowding problem will be solved next year. Also - Cascadia's enrollment won't be too large for its building if AL decides to serve first and second graders in their general education classrooms.
www.seattlespecialeducationptsa.org
www.seattlespedptsa.org
Just sayin
Just sayin
BTW, here is information provided with respect to SpEd FTE cuts. I notice some "inaccuracies" here as well (like missing enrollment #s
Draft Oct SpEd FTE adjustments
Just sayin, Been There - do you support the staffing reductions of the 30 special ed teachers and IAs out in all the buildings that mirmac has published? North Seattle are those staff "cutworthy"? If they are your kids' special ed teacher, you'd probably say no way. And Just sayin, once again the brunt of this budgetary cutback is in special ed.... More than any other students, students with disabilities are asked to simply eat it.. to fund the central office spending bonanza. You might value some of the necessary work that the people in the list do, but there's no debating it's breathtaking length!
Reader
Special Education Program Specialist
Here is one for Director of School-Based Special Ed. Services
Here is one for Special Education Supervisor
reader47
Reader
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Education:
Master's degree in Special Education or a closely-related field
Experience:
Three (3) years of classroom teaching experience and two(2) years of administrative or supervisory experience, preferably in an urban school system with a culturally and racially diverse student population; experience with grant writing and F.R.P. processes desirable.
...
Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
Knowledge of:
Theories, techniques and methodologies for use in special education. and school psychology; multicultural assessment and education in an urban setting; state and federal legislation, rules, regulations, and court decisions governing special education and school organization service delivery; computerized management systems; organizational analysis; accounting systems in education; rules and requirements for categorical program compliance; collaborative problem-solving methods; budget development; practices and principles of supervision; current trends in educational reform and restructuring; collaboration and team building techniques.