School Board Notes for September 20, 2017
I watched about half the Board meeting last night and it was worth it because of the interesting comments made, particularly by the Superintendent.
I will highlight topics but there was some information on enrollment numbers as well as high schools that you might want to look for and read.
Highlights
- For the third year in a row, Hawthorne Elementary has been recognized with a 2017 Partnership School Award from the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University.
Hawthorne was recognized for making excellent progress in strengthening and sustaining a comprehensive program of school, family, and community partnerships.
Superintendent Nyland had principal Sandra Scott come to the meeting to apprise the Board on the progress this school near Columbia City has made.
Principal Scott explained that she had come alone as her teachers and staff were doing coffee chats with families (this probably explains why her school has made such stellar progress - families come first). She explained how, several years back, her school barely had 200 students but is now up over 400 students. The PTA had about 8 parents and now has about 80.
Frankly, none of what she said was particularly innovative. What is really is about is tenacity and making connections. She said that once some parents were in the fold, they brought others along. Those parents then told non-Hawthorne parents about how welcoming the school was and those new parents came in. They had potlucks. They found computer classes for parents at local libraries and provided childcare.
I think that Principal Scott looks like one of many "gem" principals this district has. Congrats to that school community.
- The district also recognized its long-term partnership with El Centro de la Raza, which has been 30+ years. An irony to me is that about 15 years ago, the district was, once again, not being supportive of a program - Proyecto Saber - which is a program for Hispanic students to keep them in school. Ballard and Chief Sealth were desperate to keep their programs and the district kept saying there was not money for the program. I'm glad the program prevailed.
A diverse district has to stand by its partnerships with groups affiliated with the populations it serves.
- The Supreme Court is to hear oral arguments on the final fulfillment of the McCleary case on October 24th. I hope to be in the audience to listen.
- Directors Patu, Peters and Burke met with City Council members Juarez and Bagshaw about the Seattle Center agreement that the district and City signed. The big news seems to be a change in plans. The stadium would be rebuilt (maybe with City help) and the City would help find an adjacent location for a new high school. Hmm.
- The City's Families & Education levy is up for renewal in November 2018. The Superintendent, as he does sometimes in his comments, diverted to mention the Pre-K levy and then laughed. I wish he could make his comments shorter and more succinct. He did stated that it would be important to sit down with the next mayor to talk about "how we partner."
Again, to note, if the new mayor decides to include charter schools in levy funding as they are "public" schools, I suspect that levy might have some problems.
- He talked about the Student Assignment Plan and its discussion at the last Board retreat a couple of weeks ago. He said there needs to be "a lot" of community engagement, clarifying language on "school choice," SPED, capacity and designated pathways for high school HCC. Oh, and boundaries.
- He stated that SPS had grown by 8,000 students over the last 10 years. (Editor's note:This is a lot of growth especially for a mid-urban district.) He said, "Now it has slowed" and "looks steady." He said the current enrollment is "about what it was last year" and is "considerably" below projections. He said the Board had allocated $4M for mitigation; $2M for fall enrollment and $2M for "race and equity mitigation." I'll have to ask how those spending choices will be determined.
He said there are about a dozen teaching positions affected and stated that no one would be let go but those staff would have to change schools.
- He said the district had dedicated funding to earthquake safety and that the repairs have been done "on all schools." I don't think that can be so because all of BEX IV and BTA IV dollars have not been spent on their projects, some that include earthquake shoring up.
Board Comments
- Director Geary's son, Henry, gave remarks on the dais as the Roosevelt representative. He stated that students have concerns around parking at RHS because the one parking lot has portables in it and is restricted to staff. He said that the surrounding neighborhood is zoned and that students can't park there more than two hours without getting a ticket. He also said that there are 100 (!) girls on the swim team and there is not enough room/time for practice. He also noted that the later start time means less time after school for activities.
I miss that the high schools seem to have lost their Student Senate, perhaps to complicated schedules. But if ever there were a time for high school students to speak in one voice, it's now.
- Director Geary said that that she would be trying to have her community meetings at Solid Ground, the housing development where SPS parent, Charleena Lyles, killed by police earlier this year.
- Director Burke, in what I would consider a kindness, said about the enrollment shortfall that staff shouldn't beat themselves up but look for what data might have been missed and get better from each experience.
- Director Blanford, in an odd turn of phrase, thank Henry Geary for his mother's time and said "we'll give her back to you soon." Does he know something we don't?
Part Two will be speakers' voices which were fairly evenly split over two issues - HCC and the use of the land at Fort Lawton.
I will highlight topics but there was some information on enrollment numbers as well as high schools that you might want to look for and read.
Highlights
- For the third year in a row, Hawthorne Elementary has been recognized with a 2017 Partnership School Award from the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS) at Johns Hopkins University.
Hawthorne was recognized for making excellent progress in strengthening and sustaining a comprehensive program of school, family, and community partnerships.
Superintendent Nyland had principal Sandra Scott come to the meeting to apprise the Board on the progress this school near Columbia City has made.
Principal Scott explained that she had come alone as her teachers and staff were doing coffee chats with families (this probably explains why her school has made such stellar progress - families come first). She explained how, several years back, her school barely had 200 students but is now up over 400 students. The PTA had about 8 parents and now has about 80.
Frankly, none of what she said was particularly innovative. What is really is about is tenacity and making connections. She said that once some parents were in the fold, they brought others along. Those parents then told non-Hawthorne parents about how welcoming the school was and those new parents came in. They had potlucks. They found computer classes for parents at local libraries and provided childcare.
I think that Principal Scott looks like one of many "gem" principals this district has. Congrats to that school community.
- The district also recognized its long-term partnership with El Centro de la Raza, which has been 30+ years. An irony to me is that about 15 years ago, the district was, once again, not being supportive of a program - Proyecto Saber - which is a program for Hispanic students to keep them in school. Ballard and Chief Sealth were desperate to keep their programs and the district kept saying there was not money for the program. I'm glad the program prevailed.
A diverse district has to stand by its partnerships with groups affiliated with the populations it serves.
- The Supreme Court is to hear oral arguments on the final fulfillment of the McCleary case on October 24th. I hope to be in the audience to listen.
- Directors Patu, Peters and Burke met with City Council members Juarez and Bagshaw about the Seattle Center agreement that the district and City signed. The big news seems to be a change in plans. The stadium would be rebuilt (maybe with City help) and the City would help find an adjacent location for a new high school. Hmm.
- The City's Families & Education levy is up for renewal in November 2018. The Superintendent, as he does sometimes in his comments, diverted to mention the Pre-K levy and then laughed. I wish he could make his comments shorter and more succinct. He did stated that it would be important to sit down with the next mayor to talk about "how we partner."
Again, to note, if the new mayor decides to include charter schools in levy funding as they are "public" schools, I suspect that levy might have some problems.
- He talked about the Student Assignment Plan and its discussion at the last Board retreat a couple of weeks ago. He said there needs to be "a lot" of community engagement, clarifying language on "school choice," SPED, capacity and designated pathways for high school HCC. Oh, and boundaries.
- He stated that SPS had grown by 8,000 students over the last 10 years. (Editor's note:This is a lot of growth especially for a mid-urban district.) He said, "Now it has slowed" and "looks steady." He said the current enrollment is "about what it was last year" and is "considerably" below projections. He said the Board had allocated $4M for mitigation; $2M for fall enrollment and $2M for "race and equity mitigation." I'll have to ask how those spending choices will be determined.
He said there are about a dozen teaching positions affected and stated that no one would be let go but those staff would have to change schools.
- He said the district had dedicated funding to earthquake safety and that the repairs have been done "on all schools." I don't think that can be so because all of BEX IV and BTA IV dollars have not been spent on their projects, some that include earthquake shoring up.
Board Comments
- Director Geary's son, Henry, gave remarks on the dais as the Roosevelt representative. He stated that students have concerns around parking at RHS because the one parking lot has portables in it and is restricted to staff. He said that the surrounding neighborhood is zoned and that students can't park there more than two hours without getting a ticket. He also said that there are 100 (!) girls on the swim team and there is not enough room/time for practice. He also noted that the later start time means less time after school for activities.
I miss that the high schools seem to have lost their Student Senate, perhaps to complicated schedules. But if ever there were a time for high school students to speak in one voice, it's now.
- Director Geary said that that she would be trying to have her community meetings at Solid Ground, the housing development where SPS parent, Charleena Lyles, killed by police earlier this year.
- Director Burke, in what I would consider a kindness, said about the enrollment shortfall that staff shouldn't beat themselves up but look for what data might have been missed and get better from each experience.
- Director Blanford, in an odd turn of phrase, thank Henry Geary for his mother's time and said "we'll give her back to you soon." Does he know something we don't?
Part Two will be speakers' voices which were fairly evenly split over two issues - HCC and the use of the land at Fort Lawton.
Comments
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/lakeside-opening-second-cheaper-school-in-shadow-of-space-needle/
Ah, the bashing begins. There's no need to tear something down to build yourself up.
According to the article, and online information, the students at the new school "will take courses in five areas: English, history and social sciences, math and computational thinking, science and Spanish. They’ll complete two electives through the Global Online Academy, a consortium of independent schools of which Lakeside is a founding member." The Online Academy is an incredibly rigorous program developed by Lakeside with a number of other international private schools. Our son got to take two of those courses a couple of years ago and they were excellent. It's just another method of learning and another way to offer classes that a small school might not be able to offer all the time.
While I question a high school education that doesn't offer the arts or athletics, my main question with the new Lakeside school is why they chose Spanish over Chinese.
stu
NE Mom of 3
Which really begs the question of why this approach is not required and systematized throughout SPS. The district provides a pretty good proxy for school engagement of families through the annual climate survey. Hawthorne is right about at the district average. My kids have attended schools where the engagement numbers are 20pts lower than the district average, and less than half of families say that the school effectively partners with or communicates to families. And this is the case year after year. It's a glaring example of a massive organizational culture problem.
My own personal view is that while SPS is incredibly proactive about funding issues and growing its budget, it is less determined to make sure that every school engages their family community effectively. How much more could we get done if we had better leadership in many of these buildings, working with and building up family support organizations?
Cap Hill
Cap hill, yes, interesting that Hawthorne gets this award for a third time and so why isn't the district rolling out their pattern everywhere.
A bus is a great idea. I don't have a kid on the team/my daughter who is a competitive swimmer is younger. I am not totally in the know of what they have all discussed, but if I had a child on the team, I would definitely be interested in exploring that option.
NE Mom of 3
Teacherswimmer
Online learning is not for everyone. There are many learning styles.
Of course they dont have the transportation issue Roosevelt does, but meets are after school, so it makes sense practices are too.
What are they going to do when Evans closes? That will be for a whole month, I hear.
100 seems an enormous size for a school team unless you have JV and Varsity who practice on different days.
School teams are about participation more than eliteness, so competitions/ games are designed for everyone to participate and learn.
At least that has been our experience with the non tryout sports.
NE Mom of 3
I dont think we have added any new public pools for 50 years and our population has grown a tad since then.
Swimmng is an important life skill, especially for those living in an area like this, surrounded by rivers and lakes and bays.
We can sure get pretty invested in professional sport arenas however.
But really, we should take advantage of where we are.
Id build more pools, its a wonderful lifelong sport, plus knowing how to swimh could save someones life someday.
McMinnomin 4Mayor
Of course, they went cheap and built it as an "outdoor pool" the wisdom of which I questioned at the time.
northwesterner
Its too bad they couldnt have expanded the schedule this year, the demand is certainly there.
tough sell
HP
-HS Parent
HS Parent, I sense some irony there in your comment.
HP
I wish all sports practiced in the a.m. like that with the new start times..
QA Parent