Friday Open Thread

The candidates for School Board continues to grow and I'll have a thread on the newest folks.   Interesting, though, that Patu still has no challenger.

I'll note that Trump is considering former senator, Joseph Lieberman, as the head of the FBI.  A former elected official as head of the FBI?  Who sits on a board for one of DeVos' organizations?  Of course, that makes sense.

Portland Schools passed a record $790M bond for school buildings:

Portland voters Tuesday approved the largest school bond in state history, which would raise taxes to address high levels of lead in drinking water at nearly every school and pay for modernizing schools.
Speaking of school buildings, a good story from the Skagit Valley Herald about a new kind of building, the first in the state.
With its exposed wood walls, the smell of wood is unsurprising in Jefferson Elementary School’s new building.
The building, which was built using cross-laminated timber, is the first of its kind in the state. Its ribbon-cutting Monday drew officials including Gov. Jay Inslee and state Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon.
The Mount Vernon School District was one of five in the state to receive a grant to construct new classrooms using the prefabricated, solidly engineered wood paneling.
It’s so strong that two-by-fours are not needed to support even multistory buildings, he said.
For Jefferson Elementary School, the new building will help meet the increasing demand for classroom space without relying on portable buildings, Mount Vernon School District Superintendent Carl Bruner said.
SPS is using this at Maple Elementary.

Good first-person story in the Times from a young woman who attended Franklin and what she got from moving from private to public school.   Speaking of the Times, here's their excellent round-up of summer happenings.

Director Pinkham has a community meeting tomorrow at Lake City Library from 10-11:30 am.

What's on your mind?

Comments

Greenwoody said…
One of the people running for District V, Omar Vasquez, appears to be this guy: http://www.dwt.com/people/OmarVasquez/

Note that he is on the board of a charter school, and on the local TFA board.

Red alert, folks.
Greenwoody said…
The above comment at 2:00PM wasn't mine and I hope it gets deleted.

The real Greenwoody
Greenwoody, thank you for that alert. See my roundup of new candidates. Just to correct, Mr. Vasquez is on the board for ALL of Summit Washington's schools.
Greenwoody said…
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Greenwoody said…
That's also not me!
Greenwoody said…
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Greenwoody said…
Wait that was me.
Greenwoody said…
No its not!
Greenwoody said…
yes it is
Greenwoody said…
I give up
Anonymous said…
We just built two new school on 90th in the north end.

Thank you tax payers. Someday when I own a home I hope to repay everyone with my property taxes, but until then all I can say is thank you for your generosity.

I'm not greedy nor do I take other peoples hard earned money for granted.

Thank you

Greenwoody, I know you are a long-time reader and I am sorry that this pathetic and immature person has decided to use your name and harass you.

Greenwoody said…
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Greenwoody said…
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Greenwoody said…
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Greenwoody said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Real Greenwoody, please don't comment for awhile and I'll delete everything this sad little person writes. Apparently, they have no life of their own so let's have some sympathy for someone like that.
Eric B said…
Nyland was at Hamilton for a parent Q&A recently. Hamilton PTSA put out a list of the questions and responses (here: http://himsptsa.ourschoolpages.com/Doc/HIMS-Weekly-News/20170404_Hamilton%20PTSA%20QA_FINAL.pdf). The one that really surprised me was this one form teh general comments section:

Please do not move to 3x5 at high school

Response: High School principals have explored this model in depth and have determined that we are not able to support such a model logistically.


Does this mean 3x5 is dead? Has there been any other official word?
Anonymous said…
Thank you, Eric, and thank you to anyone who wrote the district with feedback. Let's hope the 3x5 idea is put to rest for good.

Questions around busing indicate other issues with the time flip. Hamilton, on Tier 2 has ongoing issues with late buses.

Several issues have contributed to the busing issues this year.
• Greater congestion as a result of the move to 2nd Tier.
• An increase in the number of students opting to take the buses.


I suspect more students are taking the bus as many parents can't just drop them off on their way to work anymore (too late). Hamilton is not the only Tier 2 school with more late buses this year. Middle and high school routes are generally longer than elementary, which means they are more impacted by the increased traffic at the later time.

Another tidbit, for those wondering about the allocation of the extra 20 minutes:
We plan to add advisories at the high school level for 2017-18 as part of the longer day.

And any questions about Lincoln were generally answered with:
The Lincoln questions are all part of the High School Boundary Task Force. That work is just beginning and will be culminating in the Fall of 2017.

-a reader
NNE Mom said…
The tier 3 buses have been late a lot, too. Like, every time a tier 2 bus was late and then some. Some extremely late. And some late every day.

Another issue with buses and the 3 tiers:
Tier 1 schools are having a really hard time using school buses for field trips. From when Tier 1 starts school (7:55 a.m.), you have to wait until the buses finish their tier 3 morning routes before you can get one to use for a field trip. Meaning you have to wait about 3 hours into the school day before you could take a school bus to a field trip. But the school day is only 6 hours long, so you've already wasted 1/2 the day waiting for a school bus to be available. In practical terms, this means that you can only take a field trip if you can ride a public bus or walk or find enough parents to drive (ha ha ha!)

One thing Hamilton suffers from is that many students riding buses there are going the same direction as city rush hour traffic, both ways. The bus commute to Cascadia has been brutal, largely because it's like commuting to down town from the distant north up here. Given the traffic situation in the city it would make sense to have kids commuting opposite to the flow of downtown commuter traffic.
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
Do male teachers not have rent to pay? Are male teachers less likely to be married?

Excuses Excuses
Anonymous said…
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