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Garfield Students: Pushing Forward on Issues
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From the Facebook page of Racial Justice in Seattle Schools (I am happy to print any response from the current officers or Garfield parents who may know more - sss.westbrook@gmail.com.)
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Anonymous said…
I'm so tired of the Garfield malcontents.
Boo Hoo
Jan said…
An articulate letter from what sounds like a collective group of caring, committed kids. I would love to know more of the back story, but in the meantime, am happy to give them the benefit of the doubt. Good for them! I can't vouch for what I don't know, but I DO know that virtually every group in history that has dared to speak truth to power has been labelled "malcontents."
And I have never been tired of any group of Seattle Public school students trying to advocate for a better world. I feel sorry for those who do. Maybe the kids are right, maybe not. But they are nearly always engaging, compelling people.
Anonymous said…
Melissa, can you share how you came by this story? Did someone send you a link to the page, a screenshot of a private page, or...? I DO know one of the youth in this group, but not the back story. I've reached out to her and sent her the link to this blog in the event she or one of the others involved would like to comment. I can't speak for all of them, but this one girl IS a caring, dedicated, studious kid who is active in both school and church in very positive ways.
As I said at the top, this is from a Facebook page.
Anonymous said…
I saw that, Melissa, but how did you come across the page? I was wondering how it came up just now, given that the date on the letter is from March. Do you just do FB searches for pages related to anything in Seattle schools, were you already following this page, etc.? In any case, hopefully someone from that group will come on here and fill us in.
Longtime Reader
GarfieldMom said…
Yeah, I am curious about the timing. I know three of these students. They are awesome. Their concerns have not been adequately addressed, and they have started a separate group.
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.)
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, grief, that is to come fro
Please let us know if you attend the rally before the meeting. Seeing photos from Twitter; looks like a good crowd at the rally. The West Seattle Blog is there reporting. I am going to attempt to live blog so you will see abbreviations, spelling/grammar errors, etc. I will clean it up but I think it is worth trying to do. I will be refreshing the page as I go. I am sad to see that apparently President Liza Rankin is not even going to allow 10 people over the regular 20 to testify. Just five. Also, right at the beginning, the Board has stuck in, after Board comments, a Progress Monitoring presentation. They could have put it at the end but they didn't. They think - in 45 minutes - they can do Superintendent comments, Board comments and this presentation. I doubt that public testimony will start on-time. Tone-deaf doesn't even cover it with Board leadership. To note, apparently the district scheduled the NE community meeting on closures on Rosh Hashanah which is October 2. I
Comments
Boo Hoo
And I have never been tired of any group of Seattle Public school students trying to advocate for a better world. I feel sorry for those who do. Maybe the kids are right, maybe not. But they are nearly always engaging, compelling people.
Longtime Reader
Longtime Reader