Friday Open Thread
Happy Birthday to the National Parks Service on their 100th. Free admission to all national parks thru Sunday, August 28th.
A lot of news about schools around Puget Sound.
Puyallup School District had a fire at their bus barn and lost 24 buses, most of them new and most a total loss. There is worry they would be able to open but other districts have rallied to help them. No word yet if SPS is participating.
As well, over in Wenatchee, their district is likely to convert an old Federal building for school use. (Sounds familiar.) It sounds like their efforts may be more successful than Seattle Schools'.
Meanwhile in Bothell, a high school shop teacher who claimed earlier this year that he had been attacked in his classroom by someone has now confessed he made it all up. School had to be cancelled the day after the "attack" and they brought in extra security for the rest of the week. The teacher is now on paid administrative leave. Very odd.
GoFundMe has a PTA exclusive:
Luckily his community rallied around the family, got the car fixed and the boy, Hunter, has never been late again. I'm not sure I get how shaming a child is the right way to get him to school on time.
ORCA Youth card application will be available soon.
A lot of news about schools around Puget Sound.
Puyallup School District had a fire at their bus barn and lost 24 buses, most of them new and most a total loss. There is worry they would be able to open but other districts have rallied to help them. No word yet if SPS is participating.
As well, over in Wenatchee, their district is likely to convert an old Federal building for school use. (Sounds familiar.) It sounds like their efforts may be more successful than Seattle Schools'.
Meanwhile in Bothell, a high school shop teacher who claimed earlier this year that he had been attacked in his classroom by someone has now confessed he made it all up. School had to be cancelled the day after the "attack" and they brought in extra security for the rest of the week. The teacher is now on paid administrative leave. Very odd.
GoFundMe has a PTA exclusive:
For Back-to-School week, giving communities across the country the chance to rally around their children and make every classroom a great place to learn and grow.Ever see something both terrible and beautiful? There's a child in Oregon whose family car had been having problems so he was late to school one day. If students are late, this school gives them detention. The problem - and go see the photo - is that the detention is during lunch. Behind a cardboard screen. (All that's not there is a dunce cap. Oh wait, there in the corner of the photo is a plastic cup with a "D" on it for detention.) The photo of the boy, peering around the corner to see what everyone else is doing, is heartbreaking.
Start an education campaign by Sept. 16 and GoFundMe will chip in $50 and put you in the running for a $10,000 classroom prize.
It takes a village, so we encourage you to start campaigns for teachers and classrooms that you love—and ask friends, neighbors and other parents to do the same.
Luckily his community rallied around the family, got the car fixed and the boy, Hunter, has never been late again. I'm not sure I get how shaming a child is the right way to get him to school on time.
ORCA Youth card application will be available soon.
To be eligible, high school students must live in a household that is within the income thresholds listed in the table (same income requirement as ORCA LIFT). The program will distribute 3,000 ORCA cards for the 2016 - 2017 school year. Cards will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.What's on your mind?
To receive an ORCA card under this program, a student will need to fill out the application and get a parent/legal guardian's signature. SDOT staff will host events at each high school in early fall to accept applications and distribute ORCA cards.
Comments
Agnostic Educator
I cannot understand their belief that charters are good = the law is legal. Those are two different things (and the former isn't even true across the board.)
This is the real crisis of charter schools. The Highline School district is a poor district. They cannot afford the costs of charter schools.
Charter school opponent
This is also an issue that could come to haunt Spokane. They have this secret handshake with the Charter Commission that the Commission won't open any charters in their district (since Spokane is an authorizer.) Problem is, that's not in the law (it wasn't in the last one nor did it get discussed during the legislative process.) If someone wants to go thru the Charter Commission to open a charter in Spokane, it would probably be legal and this idea that Spokane controls its destiny with charters wouldn't be entirely true.
State funding does follow students, of course, which is a concern for districts. However, for a district the size of Highline's, with an annual budget in excess of $250 million, one charter school should not make much of a dent.
-SDD
Here in PA, where charters have existed since 1998, many poor districts such as York, Chester, and Philadelphia are close to bankruptcy, and charter schools are a major cause of the financial problems.
https://beingmskettler.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/it-doesnt-always-have-to-be-beautiful/
The school district could have used this $800,000 it did not collect.
Charter School opponent
That's in obvious, stark contrast to the WA law that authorizes no more than 40 across the entire state.
And though it's not particularly relevant to the discussion here, Philadelphia's issues long predate the advent of charter schools.
-SDD
The point is SDD, a point that I make to the Charter Commission all the time, is that we do NOT want all the issues that other states have to come to our state. Districts losing money is one we cannot prevent but the fraud, the mismanagement of public dollars, the fly-by-night charters - that we can prevent.
Why aren't you arguing that Highline can't afford Catholic schools?
Melissa, what about Annie Wright School and Charles Wright Academy? Why aren't you railing against them? Should there be a cap on the number of private schools opening in a single district? Why not cap homeschooling numbers?
None of these students --- those attending private and Catholic schools and those receiving home-based instruction --- allow the local school district to claim state apportionment. Where's the outcry?
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark and it ain't charter schools --- it's the hypocrisy of wealthy, white parents demanding that schools that primarily serve low-income children of color be closed.
Bill
-- Ivan Weiss
What point are you trying to make?
Bill
-- Ivan Weiss
Glad I could help you clear up your confusion.
Bill
"it's the hypocrisy of wealthy, white parents demanding that schools that primarily serve low-income children of color be closed."
You'd need to explain to me how you know that, Bill.
I'm not asking that they be closed; I want a constitutional law and this one isn't either.
Total Revenues
2013 - 208,136,603 (actual)
2014 - 227,481,064 (budgeted)
2015 - 251,385,031 (budgeted)
K-12 FTEs
2013 - 18,619.05 (actual)
2014 - 18,796.35 (budgeted)
2015 - 19,095.00 (budgeted)
Per-pupil revenue
2013 - $11,178 (actual)
2014 - $12,102 (budgeted)
2015 - $13,164 (budgeted)
It's simply not the case that $800,000 would be transformative in that budget environment. That isn't to say that schools don't need more money or that a different pattern of facts (more charters / smaller district) would yield the same point.
-SDD
-SDD
The point being made by you (and charter school opponent) was about the loss of enrolled students and the loss therefore of the BEA+ those student generated in they were still enrolled in public schools.
As I'm sure you know, thousands of SPS students enroll in private middle schools after they were enrolled in SPS elementary schools. The SPS middle schools lose their BEA+ when this happens. It's the same argument. So, again, why aren't you railing agaist Billings Middle School?
Bill
P.S. I'll get back to you about stats on the demographics of charter school opponents and the demographics of charter school families and students. I'm pretty sure you are aware of these data. I'll post some links in a bit.
So, again, why don't you note the loss of apportionment and the impact on district budgets when students leave for private and parochial schools?
Bill
P.S. And families of color pointing out hypocrisy is not hysteria. Check yourself.
A new charter school opening causes budget issues because it's so sudden. The district wakes up tomorrow and suddenly it's got a big hole in a budget that's already not large enough to cover everything needed. Some of that hole is filled by reducing the teaching force to accommodate the smaller enrollment, but most of it isn't.
Over time, a new equilibrium is reached, but in the mean time it could mean deferring investments in things like curriculum or maintenance. It's not an insoluble challenge for most districts, but it is a real one.
-SDD
There are plans to open additional charter schools in Seattle and Tacoma in the next couple of years. I'm really hoping the budget writers and boards in these districts are planning enrollment projections (and thus budgets) accordingly, so that the districts don't wake up tomorrow and suddenly have to adjust their budgets.
Bill
Context matters a lot here. In a growing district with preexisting capacity issues, a charter opening shouldn't cause much budget disruption. It might even take some pressure off existing facilities.
It's a different story in a stable/shrinking and smaller district. There's already not enough money to go around, so what do you do? Not buy a needed curriculum? Defer bus purchases and mess up your depreciation schedule?
At the end of the day, this isn't the right discussion. What really matters most is if the charter offers a model and the people that will help boost the achievement of the kids who attend it. Everything else is secondary.
-SDD
For the record, I'm not one bit "confused," and you haven't "cleared up" anything for me.
-- Ivan Weiss
Also, that idea that it doesn't hurt districts when students leave? Long ago debunked.
We have discussed at this blog - for years - the effect of the long-time enrollment of students in private schools. When the district was hurting for students, I advocated some marketing. But it's simply not the same issue as students who are current students in a district leaving for another "public" school.
Roosevelt Dad
Two classroom portables at Roosevelt. Two classrooms in the main building have been outfitted for science instruction.
Four classroom portables at Hamilton.
***
Photo album (24 images) of the new Hazel Wolf campus:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/joebehr/albums/72157672922696235
More Options
I would like to commend a few Directors who spoke to the Racial Imbalance item and offered courageous comments about neighborhood school assignments and boundaries.
Thank you to Superintendent Nyland for making a positive and accurate comment/observation about Desegregation.
Also, thank you to Directors Harris and Pinkham regarding the Duwamish conversation and as always the important testimony by Chris Jackins.
Now, why won't the Board resume the Seattle Public Schools Data Profile Document that was discontinued in 2012 and was so necessary to community. Requesting data through public records is not a satisfactory method to obtain data.
-oh well
Susan Enfield served s Seattle's Interim Superintendent. With the support of the Seattle Foundation, she tried to bring us TfA and there was not a teacher shortage. She seems to have tight connections with the Gates Foundation.
Highline was among the first districts to decrease suspensions and some call the process "chaotic".
Highline has lost a lot of teachers and one teacher has spoken-out:
"Former Highline High School teacher Jasmine Kettler has forcefully condemned the “out of school suspension policy” that has been cited by Highline Public Schools Superintendent Susan Enfield as one solution to improving the school district’s low graduation rate"
“I understand keeping kids in school,” Kettler wrote. “I really, really do, but the manner in which we are approaching strategic goals is alarming, at best, when dealing with behavior. Schools (and school districts) make up a mock society. Violence is rampant and behavior management is non-existent within our school community.”
http://normandyparkblog.com/2016/08/18/former-highline-teacher-says-school-suspension-policy-wrong-needs-changing/#respond
KIRO 7 did a story on the issue:
http://www.kiro7.com/video/video-no-more-school-suspension_20160818020631/425228553
Adopting policy is one thing, but implementation is another.
Oh, and if, as you claim, charters primarily serve children of color, one has to ask why? If charters are so good, why aren't they evenly distributed? Oh, that's right, only charters run by whites have that special je ne sais quoi, that magic pixie dust to help people of color...
; )