News Around Seattle Schools

Update: families from Stevens Elementary are planning to show up at the Board meeting in force to ask the district to release the waitlist on their school. They are underenrolled so they can accommodate new students (some of whom already have sibs there) and not lose a teacher because of...underenrollment.

end of updat

USA Today is reporting that Nathan Hale basketball coach, Nathan Roy, was shot in the leg while standing on the porch of his grandmother's house in L.A.  From KING-5:

He was shot while at an outdoor gathering in the Los Angeles area. Roy was reportedly an innocent bystander in what may be a gang related shooting.

There are still spots on the speakers list for the Board meeting tonight if you are so inclined and have an issue you'd like to raise to the Board. Most of the speakers appear to want to comment on waitlists. Also to note, the Board is scheduled to have an Executive Session right after the meeting. Initially it was about Complaints against a Public Employee, and to Evaluate the Performance of a Public Employee.  The session has since been expanded to include Potential Litigation.  

On Thursday morning, there will be an Executive Committee meeting.  Here's the agenda.  I see a number of interesting items.

1) Discussion with a labor partner: Local 609.  This is the union that represents custodians, kitchen staff, maintenance workers and others.  This is notable because it's not that often that you see open discussion with union reps. But I see from the minutes for last month's meeting that Director Harris made the suggestion to invite labor partners to the meetings to create better relationships.

2) Also on the agenda is the school calendar for next year.  You can see a draft of the complete calendar on page 10 of the agenda.  This is to be introduced at the May 17th Board meeting with approval at the June 7th meeting.

3) Executive Committee meetings are where you can preview agendas for the next two School Board meetings.  Of interest for the May 17th meeting is the acceptance of grants from two PTAs for playground improvements at Madrona and Highland Park.  A big thanks to those two schools' PTAs and other groups that helped with those projects.

There is also a notation about "modernizing" Lincoln for its reopening.  There is no documentation attached but it will be something to monitor to see exactly what updates will be happening there.

There is also an Introduction item for Ethnic Studies. It is unclear whether this means something aspirational or an actual move to create a curriculum and put it in schools.

This meeting also has the Introduction of the grants from the City to fund crossing guards and the two-tier bus system.  

Also at the Executive Committee meeting is the preliminary agenda for the next Board retreat on June 3rd.  (See page 19 of the agenda.)  There are several ideas on racial equity training that include:

Options include:

- Identity Safety Training (similar to April presentation to principals)
Kyle Kinoshita on stereotype threat, Since Time Immemorial curriculum review, Dr. Stephanie Fryberg from UW 

- Increasing equity in HCC, with potential guest speaker Austina De Bonte from NW Gifted Child Association 

- Review of programs that move the needle on equity 


Also in the agenda packet for the Executive Committee meeting is a memo about staff wanting to change the scheduling for committee meetings (see page 20).  The issue?

The current rhythm of the Board meeting calendar does not lead to the most efficient flow of action items through the Board, because the meeting order for a month varies depending on length of the month, the day of the week the month starts on, and holiday breaks. In some cases, staff have to wait 5-6 weeks for items to make it from committee to Board action; at other times, it can be as short as 3 weeks. This inconsistency causes trouble for staff in planning, varying levels of review time for the Board, and slows down the flow of Board business. Staff have been exploring alternative options for the meeting structure and rhythm of Board meetings for the 2017-18 school year.