Seattle Schools Community Forum

From a friend's Facebook page: Parents, educators: Please read and share:

Good art project for kids - take something ordinary and fit it into a miniature world. What a sad way to end Black History month with not one but two disturbing stories.

From The Arc of Washington State: DVR plans to cancel much needed program

Tonight former Washington State Teacher of the Year, Nate Bowling, will be speaking about the issue of agents of ICE coming to schools looking for undocumented students.

Update: here are the minutes from that Work Session; in some ways more fleshed out than mine but I don't see all the things I have reported.  (They also attribute something to Director Pinkham that I do not believe he said and I will ask him about it at tomorrow night's Board meeting.) This section will cover only the Advanced Learning Work Session on Feb. 8th because this thread turned out to be quite lengthy. I'll cover the UW Equity Summit on Gifted Education, Feb. 9-10 in a final part to this series. Advanced Learning Work Session All the Board members were there except for Director Blanford.  (As an aside, I see that Blanford seems to be missing more meetings or coming in very late.  Not sure why but a trend.)

From the district's website :

Watching the charter school movement in the U.S. has certainly been both intriguing and discouraging. I don't think anyone could have been against charters as they were originated - one or two classrooms in an existing school that were little hotbeds of innovation.  Successes would be sent out to other classrooms and schools and failures duly noted with lessons learned. But that is not how it has played out.  What is the honest truth about charter schools looks like this:

A couple of items of importance have come up on the district's website as well as the agenda for Wednesday night's Board meeting. Parents and community members have a week to apply to be on the High School Boundary Task Force.  

The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week to hear the case of a student who receives Special Education services to sue for services his parents say he did not receive.  Background her e. Basically, What is the level of educational benefit that school districts must confer on children with disabilities to provide them with the free appropriate public education guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

In this thread I want to cover:my thoughts on what I believe AL is to become (and why). Part Three will cover: - the Advanced Learning Work Session on Feb. 8th - the UW Equity Summit on Gifted Education, Feb. 9-10 Here's my groundwork on this topic (and you probably have heard me say this before):

Friday, February 24th is the last day for Open Enrollment . SPS sent out this tweet today which came as a surprise to me but perhaps I just missed reading this (bold mine): Open Enrollment ends Fri., Feb. 24, 2017. Forms submitted after Feb. 24 do not receive tiebreaker priorities.  Upcoming key dates Mon., Apr. 17, 2017: Updated Next Year Assignment Information Available Online Wed., May 31, 2017: School Choice for 2017-18 Ends Thurs., Aug. 31, 2017: Waitlists Dissolve

One bill is in Congress and one is in the Legislature.

Seattle Public Library is having an genealogy event this Saturday for African-American families at the downtown central library from 1-3 pm.  The event is free and will be a podcast later on.

Seattle Schools reports on a recent professional development day for substitute teacher around culturally responsive teaching. From NPR, Will Algorithms Erode Our Decision-Making Skills? Something to consider for you and especially, your children. Sure, such computer code aims to make our lives easier, but experts cited in a new report by Pew Research Center and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center are worried that algorithms may also make us lose our ability to make decisions. After all, if the software can do it for us, why should we bother? 

Dear Readers, I had mentioned previously that I am very frustrated with this district but that's actually a different issue than what I am bringing up here. I find it difficult to moderate lately and therein lies the frustration. Charlie and I have basic guidelines on comments but we try to use our best judgment on what stays and what goes.  It's not easy because:

From Great Big Story: Founding father, co-author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States. All great achievements.  But, we should also recognize Thomas Jefferson for bringing macaroni and cheese into our lives. The creamy combo made its way to the U.S. courtesy of Jefferson, who, while visiting France, became enamored of fashionable pasta dishes there.  Yum! Thanks TJ.

From Sol's Civic Minute : Today is the 75th anniversary of the executive order that President Franklin Roosevelt signed three months after Pearl Harbor creating a system of internment camps to which Japanese Americans were sent.

Thanks to Soup for Teachers for this heads up.  From Variety : Netflix has granted public screening access to Ava DuVernay ’s Oscar-nominated documentary “ 13th ” for classrooms, community groups, book clubs, and other educational settings. The streaming service said Tuesday that there has been a groundswell of interest from elementary school, universities, another other educational institutions asking for permission to screen the film. “13th” — which takes its title from the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishing slavery — explores the link between slavery and the modern-day prison system. “13th” is competing for the best feature documentary Academy Award against “Fire at Sea,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Life, Animated,” and “I Am Not Your Negro.”

Wanted to throw this up for anyone who attended Director Burke's meeting Friday evening to discuss the reopening of Lincoln High School.   Please weigh in if you attended.

As you may recall, Secretary of Ed Betsy DeVos, went to a traditional D.C. middle school.  There were a few protestors that apparently so intimidated her that she and her handlers left and then went in a different door. She visited one classroom and then made a comment about the teachers there being "in a receive mode."   She went on: “They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,” DeVos said . “You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.” As you can imagine, that "waiting to be told" remark didn't go over well with teachers who are doing tremendous things.

Update : the Times has an article on this ruling.  Here's part of my comment in response to something from the Washington State Charter Schools Association: " Charter public schools have been given a stamp of approval from Washington voters, the state Legislature, and now the state’s judicial system,” he said in a prepared statement. " This is a factually untrue statement (prepared or not). Why? Because the courts only rule on constitutional issues and, in fact, both the WA Supreme Court AND the King County Superior Court rulings both said that neither case was about whether charters work or are good or bad. They ruled that the law was constitutional. That's it and Mr. Franta knows it. To say that there is some "stamp of approval" by the courts undermines our judicial system. Maybe Mr. Franta is taking his cue from the Trump administration. End of update Judge John Chun of King County Superior Court today ruled in favor of the defendants in uphold...

For the second year in a row, Bill and Melinda Gates' letter to Warren Buffett on his donation to their foundation doesn't mention what any of their policy and advocacy work in public education.   From fellow public education activist, Leonie Haimson: ..whether related to funding and promoting the Common Core, test-based teacher evaluation, charter schools,  online learning, or data-mining students' personal information.  Perhaps that's because these policies have failed to improve student outcomes and instead have provoked real anger and resistance among parents and teachers nationwide. Not one single word.

Apparently this is the number one question that kids ask astronauts.  Science finds a way. Fifth grade basketball teammates ban together; show your kids and ask what they would do.

Didn't see this on the SPS calendar before so sorry for the late notice. 6-7:30 pm Cedar Park Elementary 13224 37th Ave. NE Visit our (maybe your) school set to open in the fall for next school year.  We'll show you around and give you an idea of the what it would be like for your son or daughter to come here. Cedar Park is what's called an " option school ." This means anyone in the Seattle School district is eligible to attend. Submit a "school choice" form (available on Feb. 6) during the open enrollment period that runs Feb. 13 - 24.

Today is a “Day Without Immigrants” with protests around the country.

Want to talk about the costs of NOT fully-funding schools?  Here you go. Boy, I hope they invite some legislators.

From our blog stats (and I missed the tick of the dial but still good news): Pageviews all time history       10,006,800

From the office of Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib (partial): Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib today announced that his office will be leading a coalition that includes Washington businesses, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and education nonprofit the College Success Foundation to raise $800,000 to help the state cover the cost of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exam fees, which range from $53 to $116 per test, for low-income students in Washington state.  The timeline to raise the funding is extremely short, given the March 7 deadline for students to sign up for AP exams.

Update from USA Today : Two congressional lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to restore a missing U.S. government website that helps families navigate a complex federal law on students with disabilities. They also want U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ assurance that the site won’t be stripped down during her tenure. Education advocates late last month noticed that the site, idea.ed.gov , had been shut down. It has since reappeared, but in the past few days it has linked to a generic page offering information about the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). But the hearing unleashed concerns from special education groups — in a Jan. 26 letter to lawmakers, Denise Marshall, executive director of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc., an advocacy group, said DeVos “manifested an appalling lack of knowledge of educational concepts, the difference between the federal and state statutes that govern education, and basic facts...

I'll give the latest on McCleary (and it's not good) but I make a plea for something you CAN do today. Tomorrow afternoon, KCTS will be videotaping their program, Ask the Governor .  I suggest that parents tsunami KCTS with questions about McCleary. I have been very proud of the Governor's recent remarks in staring down Trump's immigration policies. I would like to see the Governor do the same to the Legislature on McCleary.  On Feb. 16, 2017 at 3:30 p.m. KCTS 9's Enrique Cerna will sit down with Governor Jay Inslee in a Facebook Live interview to talk about the pressing issues facing Washington State, such as Washington State's future under President Trump, as well as take submitted questions. Watch the interview here, or on the KCTS 9 Facebook page. Submit a question by posting on our Facebook , tweeting @KCTS9 with #AsktheGov or clicking on the link below. Here's one question you can ask but certainly, feel free to craft your own. ...

Apparently some schools/districts across the nation put up the official portrait of the current president.  Here's Trump's original one (now being fixed).  Speaks volumes about current administration including Betsy DeVos who has her own English language issues (see Twitter).

(You didn't think I'd be able to say everything in one post, did you?  Part Two will have me talking about what I hear and saw at various events and what direction I think the district will take.) As I gather up my thoughts from the Work Session on Advanced Learning,the two-day Equity and Gifted Education Summit at UW and more reading/research, I come away with three main thoughts.

Happy Valentine's Day. I have a happy memory of Valentine's Day in the first grade. We each cut out two big valentine hearts from pink and red construction paper, stapled them together along the straight edges to make heart-shaped pockets, and taped them to our desks as "mail boxes". Then the class walked up and down the rows of desks dropping off a valentine's card at every desk. When you got back to your desk you had a card from everyone else in the class. What are you musing about today?

- Dr. Nyland announced last week the new principal for Decatur HCC .  (Apparently, this is will happen before the end of the school year.) I am writing to let you know that Principal  Rina  Geoghagan has been selected to become the principal of Decatur Elementary School.  Ms. Geoghagan brings experience and extensive knowledge of the HCC program and the Cascadia community. She was instrumental in the original move of the APP/HCC program from Lowell Elementary to Lincoln High School, has served as the design principal for the new Cascadia site, and has demonstrated strong leadership during the conversations and decisions regarding Cascadia and Decatur.  We are excited that she will be able to bring this expertise and passion to serving the Decatur community. We are looking at finding an interim principal to support Cascadia during the final months of the current school year.  Executive Director of Schools, Jon Halfaker will be meeting with th...

A year ago  Teacher Retention Advocate Parents (TRAP)    hosted a coloring contest to draw attention to Washington State’s criminally under-funded public schools. Today, TRAP is back – because the Legislature STILL can’t find the money. Let’s help them out with a word search.

It appears my hiatus is coming to an end. It's kind of Godfather-like - I keep trying to do less but I keep getting pulled back in. But there are too many stories popping up.

Look! It's Friday again! Another open thread. Betsy DeVos was turned away from a visit to public school in Washington, D.C. but managed to visit the school today. She also asked Twitter where to find the pencils at the end of her first day on the job. That didn't go well. The debate continues to rage in Olympia over school funding. This is the exact same debate that the legislature should have had five years ago. Some people only work when they are under the whip. I don't think those are the people you want to hire for important roles like state legislator. What do you think?

Brian's Duncan's post about the Summary notes of last week's High School and Ed Funding Panel Discussion at Ballard High School are now up on BHS PTSA webpage. Latest updates on SPS budget cuts for levy cliff, broader ed funding, coming high school schedule/programming credit changes, Lincoln HS, CTE program from panelist from SPS, legislature, PTA, and Principals.

Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate as the next Secretary of Education. The 50-50 tie vote was decided by Vice President Mike Pence. What else is going horribly wrong?

It's been a busy week. We're looking ahead to a lot of education news at the federal level and the state level. What has your attention?