UW Public Lecture Series

As usual for a great university, the University of Washington has a great upcoming lecture series with topics we have seen here.  All of them are free unless otherwise notated. Some that might be of interest:

 Wednesday, October 5th
Race and Social Equity: A Nervous Area of Government by Dr. Susan T. Gooden, Parrington Hall at noon

Thursday, October 6th
Define American: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant by Jose Antonio Vargas in Kane 130 at 7:30 pm, admission $5

Wednesday, Oct 12th
Engineering Solutions for a Seismically Resilient Seattle by Professor Jeffrey Berman in Kane 130 at 7:30 pm.

Race and Violence in American Politics by Professor Megan Ming Francis, Kane 120 at 7:30 pm

Wednesday, Nov. 9th
The Past is Another Country; They Do Things Differently There by M.T. Anderson, on writing historical fiction for teens. Kane 220 at 7 pm, admission $10

Tuesday, Nov. 15th
Playing with Art and Science: Origami, Glass and Mathematics; Martin Demaine and Erick Demaine, both from MIT, Kane 120 at 7:30 pm

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

Who Is A. J. Crabill (and why should you care)?

Why You Should Care Mr. Crabill has found quite the acolyte in Director Chandra Hampson. In the course of discussions over SOFG, she says his name over and over, "A.J .says we...." Now that's not too surprising given the direction the district is heading and that it is Mr. Crabill's work with the Council of Great City Schools is how we got here. But it appears that Mr. Crabill is working very closely with Hampson and we know she wields some amount of power over the majority of the Board. Mr. Crabill is going to continue to work with the Board as SOFG is instituted in SPS. In fact, his role may become more public as it did at one SPS Board meeting in the spring where he was on the phone during the meeting and suggested the Board stop the meeting to "self-reflect." I also noticed that in a district in South Carolina, when things weren't going to plan, he blamed the Board for not following SOFG to the letter. Look for that to happen here if Board members w
Read more

Why the Majority of the Board Needs to be Filled with New Faces

This may only be a partial list of reasons; please, add anything else in the comments. The deadline to file to run for the Board is May 19th. Entire Board Majority NOT vetting the Superintendent in any way, shape or form. Even the Seattle Times thought that was wrong.  It was just absolute hubris and it was wrong. For the second time in just over a year , board members voted to negotiate a superintendent contract during a special meeting with no opportunity for public comment. This time, they showed an even deeper disregard for their responsibilities as public servants: Aborting a national search for a new superintendent and denying Interim Superintendent Brent Jones a chance to show students, parents and taxpayers that, indeed, he is the best person for the job. Government bodies can’t fast-forward through transparent processes just because they think they know the right answer. One other odd thing about the hiring of Brent Jones - most permanent SPS superintendent contracts ar
Read more