Tuesday Open Thread
Puget Sound Business Journal put out its annual "best of" list for area elementary schools based on diversity, class size and academics.
Among the SPS schools named:
#100 - Thornton Creek
#99 - View Ridge
#86 - Loyal Heights
#70 - Pathfinder K-8
#68 - Thurgood Marshall
#66 - Wedgwood
#65 - Genesee Hill
#60 - McDonald International
#57 - McGilvra
#46 - Green Lake
#30 - Montlake
#19 - John Stanford International
I was amazed at some class ratios like Thornton Creek at 14:1, View Ridge 17:1, Montlake 16:1 but in a random check of non-SPS schools on the list, most were under 20 students.
I'm hearing word there may be some movement on the district asking the City to be included on an EIS for the Fort Lawton property which may end up with the district getting some free land from the feds.
Here's a good idea; if you opt your child out of some/all testing, let the State Superintendent know your reasoning as well as your legislators.
chris.reykdal@k12.wa.us and here's the link to look up your legislator's e-mail address.
Here's a great article from Seattle's Child about the school funding issues in our state. Also to note, the Kansas Supreme Court yesterday rejected their legislature's attempt at school funding.
What's on your mind?
Among the SPS schools named:
#100 - Thornton Creek
#99 - View Ridge
#86 - Loyal Heights
#70 - Pathfinder K-8
#68 - Thurgood Marshall
#66 - Wedgwood
#65 - Genesee Hill
#60 - McDonald International
#57 - McGilvra
#46 - Green Lake
#30 - Montlake
#19 - John Stanford International
I was amazed at some class ratios like Thornton Creek at 14:1, View Ridge 17:1, Montlake 16:1 but in a random check of non-SPS schools on the list, most were under 20 students.
I'm hearing word there may be some movement on the district asking the City to be included on an EIS for the Fort Lawton property which may end up with the district getting some free land from the feds.
Here's a good idea; if you opt your child out of some/all testing, let the State Superintendent know your reasoning as well as your legislators.
chris.reykdal@k12.wa.us and here's the link to look up your legislator's e-mail address.
Here's a great article from Seattle's Child about the school funding issues in our state. Also to note, the Kansas Supreme Court yesterday rejected their legislature's attempt at school funding.
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Monday that the state’s new school finance system is unconstitutional, striking a definitive blow to the Legislature’s latest effort.I predict this will be the outcome with the Washington State Supreme Court and McCleary in the coming weeks.
The decision found the state failed to meet the Kansas Constitution’s requirements to adequately fund education, but it did not specify a dollar amount to reach constitutional muster.
With Monday’s decision, the latest stage of the Gannon v. Kansas school finance case, the justices sent the issue back to lawmakers as they head into an election-year legislative session in January.
“...While we stay the issuance of today’s mandate through June 30, 2018, after that date we will not allow ourselves to be placed in the position of being complicit actors in the continuing deprivation of a constitutionally adequate and equitable education owed to hundreds of thousands of Kansas school children,” the decision reads.
“I think the court’s drawn a line in the sand and they’ve issued the warning of, ‘Don’t test us on this one this time around,’ ” said Olathe Superintendent John Allison, a longtime Wichita superintendent who started in Olathe this school year.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Thorton Creek 14:1.
Well OSPI reports 34 teachers for 480 kids which matches
But that is not the same as the number of classrooms. I'm assuming they're folding all the art, music, gym, sped teachers, (maybe prek as well) in to that count. If you look through the staff for the school there appear to be ~18 rooms. Giving the real ratio around 26 although I'm sure the classes are bigger in the upper grades and smaller in the lower ones. [I'm really likely to have made a simple counting error here but that's the gist]
- IWishTheClassesWereThatSmall
TC has several special education classes with 8:1 ratios. That can change the average for the entire building but would not change the experience for a general education classroom. General education classrooms are funded at the same ratio as every other school of about 25:1.
High poverty schools do have a lower ratio but none of the schools listed are high poverty.
- data matters
-southend mom
Garfield was on lockdown/shelter in place for almost an hour today. You find out about it from your kids and you are wondering what the heck is going on.
Nothing on the Garfield HS website and nothing at the SPS website. 3 hours later an email from the Principal.
I get an email telling me she was late for 5th period, why can't I get a timely email explaining "In an abundance of caution we have....."
http://q13fox.com/2017/10/03/shots-fired-near-seattle-high-school-no-injuries-reported/
TC teacher
former VR
What?
-not encouraged
-attendee
I'll have my review of the meeting but yes, not much really said and frankly, kind of an annoying meeting.
diverse?
Fix AL
At least it was good to know that lead staff will be hired very soon, and they'll have budget to provide a year of prof development and gatherings for staff who'll be at Lincoln. And the athletic director will be hired a year ahead to work on all the challenges of full athletics programs without fields.
Yes, I could have done with out the table talks, but I appreciated that they are trying to communicate with the community, despite big decisions not yet made. It's a hard situation for most of us - few of us want our kids at a startup high school, yet we choose to live in this rapidly growing city.
Tough choices.
"Conditions and Restrictions
Transfers of federal surplus real property at Public Benefit Allowance discount are legally accomplished in the form of a sale in return for the contractual commitment of the applicant to deliver education programs and services upon the property rather than pay for acquisition through monetary consideration. All conveyances are made by deeds, which require that the property must be utilized solely and continuously for a period of 30 years from the date of the deed for the education programs set forth and approved in the application and for no other purposes. Other deed conditions also provide that titleholders may not sell, lease, mortgage, encumber or otherwise dispose of, or grant any rights or interest in that property to other parties without the advance written consent of the U.S. Department of Education.
The Public Benefit Allowance discount varies from 40 to 100 percent, depending on the proposed program, but classroom facilities usually qualify for a 100-percent discount. Titleholders must agree to comply with nondiscrimination acts and must submit periodic reports on utilization of the acquired property. Property will not be approved for transfer unless it is needed at the time of application. *The property must be placed into use within 12 months after conveyance or 36 months where major construction or renovation is contemplated.* If applicable time limits are not met, or the property is not utilized at any period of time, the titleholder may be required to pay, for each such month of nonuse, the percentage of the current value of the property that otherwise would have been earned through educational use. Payments will cease when the property is used for the approved educational purposes. Upon breach of any of these conditions, title to the property may revert to the United States.
Educational use restrictions on the property may be abrogated and released with the consent of the Department and the disposal agency upon payment of the unearned Public Benefit Allowance discount that was granted prospectively at the time of conveyance based upon the current fair market value of the property at the time of request for release."