Seattle Schools, Week of Nov. 28-Dec 3, 2016

Monday, November 28th
Student Assignment Plan Community Meeting
Franklin High School from 6:30-7:30 pm


Tuesday, November 29th
Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Family and Community Planning Meeting
Loyal Heights Elementary at Marshall  from 6:00-7:00 pm

Meeting Interpreters provided: contact macampbell@seattleschools.org

Wednesday, November 30th
Student Assignment Plan Community Meeting
Nathan Hale High School from 6:30-7:30 pm

Thursday, December 1st
Early registration for Kindergarten, webpage

Board Executive Committee meeting from 8:30-10:30 am, JSCEE. No agenda yet available.

Student Assignment Plan Community Meeting
Ingraham High School from 6:30-7:30 pm

Saturday, December 3rd
No Board community meetings; the Board is having a retreat from 10 am-3 pm at JSCEE.  No agenda yet available.

Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Family and Community Planning Meeting
Northgate Elementary from 11 am to 12:30 pm

Meeting Interpreters provided: contact macampbell@seattleschools.org

Comments

joanna said…
I am sorry to have missed the community meetings--but of course, no one could have attended all of them. I am wondering if anyone will report or record these meetings.
11/28/16, 9:53 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you, Melissa!

Keep Sane
11/28/16, 10:43 PM
Anonymous said…
What is the agenda for Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Family and Community Planning Meeting? Will SPS be able to answer assignment questions? The maps are not very granular and its very difficult to interpret placement if your home is close to a boundary.

Parent
11/29/16, 10:21 AM
Anonymous said…
Why is the district having the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Family and Community Planning Meeting tonight?

Tonight is the Whitman concert at 7:00PM. Was this planned to lower the attendance by parents that are angry about being forced into switching schools?

Pissed
11/29/16, 1:42 PM
Parent said…
December 1, 6:00 pm
Meany Middle School meeting held at Washington Middle School
https://www.seattleschools.org/directory/middle_schools/edmond_s__meany/
11/30/16, 6:13 AM
Anonymous said…
Do current Whitman area 7th grade families know yet whether they'll be attending REMS? I thought grandfathering for rising 8th graders was still TBD.

Can't they at least let people know WHO WILL GO THERE before they start expecting people to get engaged in creating the school? Or will they only worry about meeting the needs of a segment of the population, those who already know?

F. Dupp
11/30/16, 9:17 AM
Anonymous said…
Whitman's staff has created a display in the front office which has better attendance area maps and a copy of the school choice form. Current 6th and 7th graders who want to remain at Whitman (especially all the students enrolled in music) need to have their parents fill out a school choice form between Feb 13th open enrollment start date and Feb 24th end of open enrollment. DO NOT MISS THE FILING DATE. You should plan on submitting the form on the the first day to be safe. Transportation for Whitman school choice students is still to be determined by the school board.

There will be a public meeting in January at JSCEE, Current Whitman parents are encouraged to attend and voice their need for transportation to continue. That's the latest information I have.

I'm not sure what information was communicated last night at the Robert Eagle Staff Middle School Family and Community Planning Meeting, because most parents from Whitman were attending the Whitman music concert last night and couldn't attend the meeting across town.

Whitman Parent
11/30/16, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said…
The Student Assignment Plan meeting was a waste of time. There were many thoughtful parent questions and not one of them got a straight answer.

Licton Springs is only getting 6 rooms at Eagle Staff, because that is their historical enrollment and if that makes the school not viable, then it is a board decision to close the school, per Flip.

Nova is becoming a service school, so that students can have access all year, not just via open enrollment. However, Ashley didn't understand that becoming a service school might fix a problem she created by not letting students transfer mid year, but it will create other problems. So bye-bye Nova.

Staff won't be making any changes to feeder patterns or assignment pathways because the space at Whitman is needed for future growth. So it is just fine if Eagle Staff and Hamilton are over-crowded today because 5 years from now, that space is going to be needed.

One parent asked for some facts about enrollment data and the answer was that those facts were given to the one board member who is working on an amendment to grandfather students (presumably Sue Peters) and that if that board member did make an amendment, then the data would be part of that amendment but ... no facts for anyone else. Rumor and conjecture are what parents need to rely on.



- kt
11/30/16, 8:49 PM
Anonymous said…
The plan seems to be to provide Whitman with mitigation funding in order to make up for their drop in enrollment due to the re-routing of feeder schools to Eagle Staff, but at the same time filling Eagle Staff to the point where there is room for about 150 Licton Springs students. At only 150 (or less) students, Licton Springs would perpetually be dependent upon mitigation funding.

Flip mentioned there were other small K-8 schools that were receiving mitigation funding, namely Madrona (currently recommended for "truncation" to a K-5), and Orca (didn't they try to truncate Orca, too?). Those schools have 300-400 students.

Like the mess that was Growth Boundaries...it seems as though if any of this can be fixed so that it makes any sense at all, it will be up to the School Board directors to do it via amendment.

-North-end Mom


11/30/16, 9:44 PM
kellie said…
I was also at the Student Assignment Plan meeting last night.

I concur with North-end Mom. There was a very clear theme that Staff was simply presenting the information that was contained in the currently proposed Student Assignment Plan. Staff was very clear that they would be not recommending any changes over and above what was in the presentation and that any additional changes would be made via board amendment.

There were many concerns in the room that the current plan
* does not address high school surge capacity needs.
* leaves middle school deeply unbalanced with some over-enrolled and some under-enrolled.
* Licton Springs is in a no win situation. They need significant mitigation funding to continue as is, but they have no space to grow.

Ashley Davies confirmed that planning for Lincoln will start in January and they will start with building a timeline. This may be very problematic for families that are looking at choice options because the choice window is very small and in February and all choice option end at the end of May. In other words, no choice applications are accepted after May 31st so parents will need to make high school commitments long before families know who will be in the future Lincoln.
12/1/16, 7:18 AM
kellie said…
Another notable item is that Flip Herdon stated that any student that applies to Whitman during open enrollment will be able to stay at Whitman because there is ample space. Transportation for these students will be decided separately by the board.
12/1/16, 8:32 AM
Anonymous said…
Did anyone else catch the comment: "there will eventually be changes made to advanced learning" made by Flip at the Hale SAP meeting when a few people asked for clarification on who has access to Ingraham and # of seats reserved for HC students?

What? When?!
12/1/16, 4:54 PM
Anonymous said…
If Nova becomes a service school will they close Middle College HS (Northgate)?

-reality check
12/1/16, 5:18 PM
Anonymous said…
There will be zero seats reserved for out of attendance area students at Ingraham. Fill out your school choice form and take your chances like the rest of us or move into the attendance area. I think the district has been very clear on this.


Haven't you been paying attention?

yeez
12/1/16, 5:42 PM
Anonymous said…
@yeez...just passing along what I heard. Some out of attendance area parents seemed to think they may have a shot. Reminder: Ingraham is an optional HCC pathway school, so it's reasonable to ask how many seats are planned.

What? When?!
12/1/16, 6:18 PM
Anonymous said…
@ yeez, what are you talking about? I've been paying attention, and there's never been anything about HC seats at Ingraham being reserved only for neighborhood kids. Maybe you're talking GE, not HCC. There's no way they can make it the alternate HCC pathway option but only for neighborhood kids, while all other HCC kids have only the Garfield pathway. That would be nuts. Assuming they aren't eliminating IHS as an HCC pathway altogether-- which not only hasn't been discussed publicly, but legally they also need to keep a 9th grade HC entry option and currently IHS is it--your info doesn't seem correct.

DisAPPointed
12/1/16, 7:26 PM
Anonymous said…
Is it possible that "yeez" was referring to Ingraham's IB program (as opposed to "IBX")? IB at Ingraham has become very competitive, and very difficult to get into if you live outside of the Ingraham attendance area. I hope that some of the 150 new seats at Ingraham that will be coming online in 2019 will be set aside for an expansion of the IB program, as this would provide enrollment relief for Hale and other North Seattle high schools.

-North-end Mom
12/2/16, 10:06 AM
Anonymous said…
Do you mean 150 seats per year, North-End mom? I thought the addition was for 500 seats. I think that, along with however many seats at Lincoln, will help north end schools, and if that was the only problem, that would solve it. But Garfield is slated to be the most overcrowded school in the city, and that's a lot of relief that needs to be spread around.

Very curious to see how Garfield enrollment shakes out this year. I know zero people willing to send their HC 8th grader next year there after everything from last summer and with a likely pull when they are in 11th grade, but I know mostly plugged in people, and it is the default pathway. Ingraham is full and won't accept as many hc kids this year. Ballard and Roosevelt will probably face even more severe overcrowding than expected, and it was already projected to be pretty terrible.

-sleeper
12/2/16, 11:31 AM
Anonymous said…
Oops - sorry. Meant to type 500 seats. Hoping there will be seats for the IB program as well as IBX.

-North-end Mom
12/2/16, 11:34 AM
Anonymous said…
I think ibx is being phased out, is pretty tiny as it stands, but certainly will shrink. Though it does help with crowding since senior year is pretty amorphous, so a lot of students end up off campus.

-sleeper
12/2/16, 11:46 AM
Anonymous said…
The regarded values and various other concerns would favorably help students with all those prospects which are indeed considered to be so essential. best sops for ms
2/4/17, 5:31 AM
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