Tuesday Open Thread
I have to getting going but I did want to put up two key items.
One, did you get that letter from Superintendent Nyland? What a hot mess. Basically, please stay tuned and someday you'll find our the school schedule, bell times, transportation. The least the district could do is provide a chart so you know at a glance what key dates there are.
I also found this sentence - around early-release dates - off-putting:
In further review of our data we found that Wednesdays are better for teacher collaboration time and maximizes educator participation.
I find this issue of why Wednesday is better for having teachers in place versus Friday (which is when many parents want an early release day) something of concern. The teachers contract wasn't written to emphasize penalties for non-participation in professional development?
Plus, a odd sentence at the end that I don't recall him placing in other letters:
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, it is a great honor.
Second, although Director Patu filed her notice about running again, the first official filing is from Zachary DeWolf for the open seat that Director Blanford is vacating (he has said this publicly several times).
Mr. DeWolf is quite the interesting candidate. He is Native-American, gay, and a communications specialist. He was in the Peace Corps and, to my interest, a member of the 43rd Dems (and sits on their board). As they are having an event this week, I'll be delighted to go introduce myself.
I have to smile, though. For being a communications guy, it's a little odd that his website doesn't mention which region he's running from or anything about that region. It's district 5, Director Blanford's region (which I believe will be the most highly contested race).
What's on your mind?
Letter from Superintendent Nyland:
One, did you get that letter from Superintendent Nyland? What a hot mess. Basically, please stay tuned and someday you'll find our the school schedule, bell times, transportation. The least the district could do is provide a chart so you know at a glance what key dates there are.
I also found this sentence - around early-release dates - off-putting:
In further review of our data we found that Wednesdays are better for teacher collaboration time and maximizes educator participation.
I find this issue of why Wednesday is better for having teachers in place versus Friday (which is when many parents want an early release day) something of concern. The teachers contract wasn't written to emphasize penalties for non-participation in professional development?
Plus, a odd sentence at the end that I don't recall him placing in other letters:
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, it is a great honor.
Second, although Director Patu filed her notice about running again, the first official filing is from Zachary DeWolf for the open seat that Director Blanford is vacating (he has said this publicly several times).
Mr. DeWolf is quite the interesting candidate. He is Native-American, gay, and a communications specialist. He was in the Peace Corps and, to my interest, a member of the 43rd Dems (and sits on their board). As they are having an event this week, I'll be delighted to go introduce myself.
I have to smile, though. For being a communications guy, it's a little odd that his website doesn't mention which region he's running from or anything about that region. It's district 5, Director Blanford's region (which I believe will be the most highly contested race).
What's on your mind?
Letter from Superintendent Nyland:
Dear Families:This letter is to update you on the tentative school schedule for the 2017-18 school year. There are a number of moving parts, so thank you in advance for your patience as we determine how to best serve our 54,000 students.We heard from many of you regarding the calendar for next year and a request for key dates. While the School Board will vote on the school calendar on June 7, we have published key dates including the first day of school, last day of school, and school breaks on the SPS website.Longer School Day and School Schedules:For many years, the length of the student school day in Seattle has been shorter than our neighboring districts. Starting next year, the school day will be 20 minutes longer, which will support more time for student learning and teacher collaboration. This change will result in the equivalent of two additional days of instruction for students.Three-Tier School ScheduleWith the addition of 20 minutes, school start and end times will change. Family feedback on preferred start and end times for 2017-18 was mixed. In general, families with students attending early start schools wanted 20 minutes added to the end of the day. Families with students enrolled in schools with later start times (i.e. Tier 2 and 3) wanted the additional time added to the start of the day. Because our transportation department needs a minimum of 50 minutes between start times to serve nearly 100 schools, accommodate for traffic congestion and the limited number of buses available, the 20 minutes has to be added consistently across all schools. The School Board adopted a schedule that attempts to balance multiple needs, starting 10 minutes earlier and ending 10 minutes later.If the district continues with three-tiers, this is the 2017-18 Arrival and Departure Schedule approved by the School Board in January.Two-Tier School ScheduleWe have heard that many families in Tier 3, schools with the latest current start time (9:35 a.m.) want the district to move to a two-tier schedule. Although our $50 million funding shortfall did not permit the district to make the requested change, the Mayor and City of Seattle heard our families’ request. The city is currently considering whether they may be able to help with the required $2.3 million in funding.We are extremely grateful to the City of Seattle for their consideration. City support would allow us to eliminate Tier 3, which has been a significant hardship on some students and families, and better aligns school start and end times with the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association recommendations. You can view the two-tier start and end times approved by the School Board on page 2 of the 2017-18 Arrival and Departure Schedule (linked above).Next StepsIn the next couple weeks we will be taking a number of school schedule actions to the School Board. If the city funds a two-tier school schedule, the School Board will need to accept the grant and the district may make some slight adjustments to the two-tier start and end times to help maximize high school instructional time.We know that families and care providers need school schedule information as soon as possible in order to plan for the coming school year. We are committed to notifying families and providers about the final schedule by June 16.Consistent Weekly Early Release:Currently, we have a variety of early release days during the school year to support staff professional development. Next year, students will be released early on a consistent weekly schedule. This schedule change supports teacher collaboration and instructional planning. The quality of classroom instruction is the single most effective strategy to eliminate opportunity gaps and accelerate learning for all students. Teacher collaboration is one of the most important strategies we implement to ensure this happens.The school year calendar is negotiated between our labor partner, Seattle Education Association (SEA) and the district. We have come to agreement on the 2017-18 calendar (page 5) which includes the weekly early release day.Early release days are recommended for Wednesdays and students will be released 75 minutes early. A 75 minute schedule will eliminate the current five, two-hour early release days providing more consistency and predictability for families and community partners. The final calendar, which includes the early release days, will be introduced to the School Board on May 17 and as previously mentioned, voted on at the June 7 School Board Meeting.Regarding our decision-making process:In October we surveyed staff, families, and community partners about schedule change preferences, not knowing in advance what stakeholders might prefer. Overwhelmingly staff and families agreed that early release was preferred to a late start. In regards to the early release day, families preferred Fridays and educators (i.e. teachers, school staff, and principals) preferred Wednesdays. In further review of our data we found that Wednesdays are better for teacher collaboration time and maximizes educator participation.If you have comments or questions about any of the potential schedule changes, you can always email publicaffairs@seattleschools.org or share your perspective regarding the two-tier versus three-tier school schedule by emailing arrivaltimes@seattleschools. org. Finally, I recognize these schedule changes are challenging for families managing multiple priorities and working to arrange childcare. Thank you again for your patience as we work to improve our systems in support of students and their academic success. Your partnership in these efforts is crucial.Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, it is a great honor.
Sincerely,
Larry
Dr. Larry Nyland, Superintendent
Comments
Concerned parent
Mag mom
p.s. 75 minutes is nuts
Helen
GHU
Pleased
https://www.usnews.com/high-schools/blogs/high-school-notes/articles/2017-02-13/later-high-school-start-times-yield-mixed-results-say-parents-educators
"Practices are later for athletes, musicians and actors, he [Ballard High principal] says, which pushes back these students’ entire evening and often doesn’t result in any additional sleep for these students."
The later start at an Iowa City school "has not reduced the number of tardy students by any appreciable amount as officials may have hoped it would."
Still waiting for SPS data...
-HS parent
So the math equation is:
(10•5) + (10*4) - 75 = (50 + 40) - 75 = 90 - 75 = 25
So, we're adding 25 minutes to the week, but we have to add 90 and take away 75? And we have to make 4 of the days longer and one of the days shorter?
I totally get that teachers need time for "collaboration and instructional planning." But why do I need to leave work 75 minutes early on Wednesdays to make that happen? I don't think the teacher's union thought through the implications of this. On a Friday this early release might have been considered a gift. On a Wednesday, this is a declaration of war against hard working families. You clearly don't value us or our needs at all.
It's unreasonable to do this Wednesday early release thing to the families of 54,000 students just to get a few more of the city's 3,000 teachers to show up to their collaboration hour. Unreasonable.
""The stark difference in student achievement between charters and non-charters is extraordinarily large in the final year of high school. The national comparisons in the 12th grade show about ~20 point differences favoring non-charter neighborhood public schools in reading, math and science over charters."
https://cloakinginequity.com/2017/05/16/national-and-urban-naep-results-neighborhood-public-schools-23-charters-4/
Also, assuming teacher development happens on Wednesday, teachers will available one less afternoon per week to provide homework help, lead clubs or run the extra curricular drama and music, service and language clubs that so many kids participate in. Again, I asked at a meeting, and was told that sports practices and clubs could likely not happen right after school either on those days, so high school students would leave the building for 75 minutes and then have to return later if an activity/practice/rehearsal was planned for a Wednesday. What a waste of time for those kids. Is this true?
Parent of 3 in MS/HS
???
This has to be one of the most poorly planned initiatives yet, SPS.
worser&worser
Wreaking havoc for 5 minutes a day....it's probably a net loss when we take Parent of 3's comments into consideration.
Agree with the concerns re: how the time will be used. Elementary teachers probably have a lot of leeway and may appreciate the extra time and flexibility (or not), but what the heck is the plan for middle and high schools? How do you make good use of an extra 20 minutes when you have six periods per day? Make each period 3 minutes longer and add two to lunch? I've heard that teachers/admins don't want that, as they like class start/end times to align with 5-minute intervals on the clock (e.g., 9:05, 10:15). Plus, realistically, what more could they really do with an extra 3 minutes per class? It's nonsense. Maybe it would make sense if they were transitioning to a 7-period day in order to better meet the the 24-credit graduation requirement needs (e.g., steal 5 min from each of the current periods, plus add the new 20), but they aren't doing that. Maybe they'll just make passing periods longer, or add in a short "study hall" period for students to do whatever. Hard to believe it's going to be put to good use, that's for sure. They'd be better off just paying teachers for an extra 20 minutes per day to do whatever planning/prep/collab they need to do and not make the students be there.
messy
Marmauset
Reader
Parent too
HP
seriously
I would suggest a couple of things:
- urge the Board to pressure Murray's office and the Council on the urgency of finding out if this is happening
- urge the Board and the Superintendent to remember this the next time the City pushes urgency as THEIR need for more pre-K in SPS
Parents and Board members are not part of the negotiating during teachers contracts. But I think that the Board - in advance of a teachers contract - should poll parents on issues like bell times and early release days - on THEIR opinions. Then the Board should take that data to staff and say, "The majority of parents say this. We want consideration of parents' desires on this issue."
Of course parents don't need to be polled on every contract issue; that would not be necessary or appropriate.
But for issues that directly affect the lives of students and their families, input should be sought AND included.
The switch to an early release could allow for similar block scheduling, but this late in the year?
-so different
West
OPTION 1 (2 tier)
both go 8:00 to 2:40
or
OPTION 2 (3 tier)
one goes 7:45 to 2:35
one goes 9:25 to 4:05
messy
too inexperienced?
Krab
I value that knowledge quite highly in my own assessment of candidate. There is already a learning curve even for those who come in as activists and, for some, it takes a year or more to get a lay of the land.
I would say for the time that this district sits in, that's too long. But that's up to voters.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/16/fight-surveillance-culture-activists-release-kid-focused-privacy-toolkit
Privacy activists released a toolkit on Tuesday to help parents protect their children's information online.
The Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy: A Practical Guide for Protecting Your Child's Sensitive School Data from Snoops, Hackers, and Marketers, released by the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy (PCSP) and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), teaches families about federal laws safeguarding their information, how to ask about schools' data policies, and how to advocate for stronger protections in an age when records are increasingly stored digitally.
-McClureWatcher
HP
Parents need to know the schedule as soon as possible- so do day care providers, etc. I hope people will write the Mayor, City Council and the School Board and urge funding- preferably from the speed camera money, but anywhere they can find it.
Three tiers creates unreasonably early and late schedules for Tier 1 and 3- we are talking tens of thousands of kids here- we need to change to two tiers. Tier 2 is sitting pretty now, but I think everyone is going to have to settle for a compromise schedule.
I think we are stuck with the extra 20/75 minute early release for next year- it's in the contract. Is there evidence to show this creates significant improvement in achievement, closing the gap, etc? I haven't seen any, but I hope so- as it will cause disruption to so many people. Among other things, I wonder about the impact on Running Start students, particularly those who take some classes at high school and some at college. This might make Running Start untenable for some- and we really need the program as a release valve for over-crowded high schools. I haven't heard the specifics for the early release day either- is it just shortened classes, or will there be longer periods 1-3 one week and 4-6 the next? Probably the former, but it would be important to know.
Block schedules are, currently, a decision made by schools. Ours, whenever it is put to a vote of staff, declines to adopt block scheduling.
Alas.
fed up
hale no?
It seemed that was the only theme song for the last election.
Following SPS is like running up a steep sand dune. Can't wait to see what this year's theme song will be.
I think I will pass on voting for anyone.
Tired
I bet there are plenty of incentives out their to cut these cost. There only 14 kids on my students bus. I will quit my job and drive them all for $510 per day. Hell I will give door to door service! I will even supply the bus and pay for my fuel.
Look I just saved SPS $18,000.
Bus Driver
What does that mean? That they've approved 2 Tier start times, but even those may change? Is it possible the MS/HS day may go even later than 3:50?
not clear
Confused
Stop busing
And to Stop Busing- kids are only bused if they live beyond a certain distance from the school, or have to cross particularly dangerous streets, or if metro doesn't service their area or if they are special ed or HCC. Busing has dropped dramatically since the days of school choice, when buses went everywhere, and school start times were all over the map, causing huge inefficiencies.
And I think buses cost more in the range of $60K, not $110K. And all that money doesn't go to the driver- cost of buses, insurance, admin, benefits, taxes etc doubtless eat up large chunks.
I grew up in a state that provided publicly funded yellow bus service for both public and private school students. I also lived in a large city where no school transportation was provided. I would hate for us to move to the latter.
taxpayer
I would like my five-year-old K student to take the bus in the morning, but it comes at 7:08. That means I'd have to be out the door at 7:00, and get her up at 6:20 or so (And next year they want to move that up another ten minutes). I drive her to school so I can let her sleep until 7:00. She normally sleeps eleven to eleven and a half hours a night, so bedtime has to be at 7pm. If she took the bus bedtime would be at 6:30 or sooner, and we wouldn't be able to have family dinner. And it's always a huge rush to get her out the door because she has no appetite at 7am, and I can't send her to school without eating, so breakfast takes forever. The early start time is seriously anti-family.
Friday pm PD's may work for parents but they will not get the effect most everybody wants.
ex-Highline teach
- Queen Anne Mom, also a gardener
Mag mom
Mag mom
unclear
Peters Fan
Good news about Mack.
mag mom
-H
My only negative on Eden is she thinks every problem has a finical solution as in i.e more funding. This claim has been systematically proven false in almost every case.
Can Eden turn her focus on the Seattle school district and work with what we have or will she be an obstructionist by protesting by refusing to work within the districts means.
I don't see anyone beating her including Peters.
MJ
Anyone new stepping up for Blanford's spot?
Strategic Moment
Thank you so much for posting the student data link. Here's a clickable link to the actual toolkit. Please people, click here and get an idea of what is happening to our kids these days, and it's getting incrementally more invasive month after month, year after year.
Many parents have become numbed to the notion of privacy through their own use of facebook and other heavily data mined social media, but that's your own choice, where these apps and services are being literally forced on kids, most of whom are too young to understand the repercussions of any of it. The teachers and staff don't understand either, and are struggling to find "free" tools to help, but many of the services aren't really free, your kids are paying the price.
Z, well said and I want to write a separate thread on this issue.
I'm trying to think of a nice way to say this, but I'm failing to find the words. Frankly, that's just a stupid statement. Child abuse has been going on for years. Expansion continues. Does that mean we give up and throw up our hands in despair? Human trafficking has been going on for years. Expansion continues. Do we say "The genie is out of the bottle. Never mind."?!
Every day, every week, every month, that we continue to allow these abuses to continue, in the name of "personalized instruction" or "longitudinal studies" or whatever the flavor of the week in student data abuse is called, we allow it to continue growing. And the longer we ignore it, the deeper its tendrils reach into all of our childrens' lives.
By shutting down new initiatives, by educating our educators, and district staff, we can prevent it from getting worse, and ensure that subsequent years of new children don't become data-mined widgets to be advertised at, discriminated against, and all the other lovely things that are enabled by mining our children.
Parents, if you care in the slightest about this, you need to speak to your teachers and principals about it. You need to complain when kids are asked to create accounts with outside companies (too many examples to list). You need to complain when the district itself sends student data to other companies and organizations (Road Map Project, ConnectEdu, and many others). You need to tell your children that it's NOT okay to hop online and create accounts without your permission, no matter what their teacher says. There are a lot of reasonable things parents can do!