Tuesday Open Thread

My wrap-up - such that it is - of the first SAP/High School Boundaries community meeting at Eckstein is to follow.  In a phrase - not good - and Halloween candy and balloons aren't going to cut it.

The Washington State Supreme Court heard oral arguments for and against the Legislature's work on fully funding public education via the McCleary decision.  You can hear the whole thing at 7pm tonight on TVW or here's a link.  


In a great turn of events, the Seattle Times came out with a strongly worded editorial that McCleary has not been fulfilled and they look to the Court for relief.
The Supreme Court should not rubber stamp the Legislature’s work and join the premature celebration. The work is not finished, and the children of Washington depend on the Legislature and the Supreme Court getting McCleary right.

Across the state, school districts report they still won’t have enough state dollars to pay the full cost of special education, an important component of basic education. Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal says,

Some school administrators are worried the new approach to teacher pay will hurt their ability to recruit the best — or any — teachers for their classrooms. 

And without a capital budget to pay for more classroom space, how can the Legislature say it has fully paid the cost of reforms like smaller class sizes?
Great piece from the South Seattle Emerald about Orca K-8 and a "mutual mentorship" group.  I firmly believe in the power of relationships that kids have with adults other than their parents but as the article says:
Like many public programs in Seattle, Bridging Wisdom struggles with a funding battle. Silver explained the difficulty in illustrating the gains of the program by saying, “We can see it, this is a loving, festival, magical relationship that’s blossoming, but how do you measure compassion? How do you measure empathy?”
Where's the data point? It's hard to measure but relationships help kids thrive and grow. 

What's on your mind?

Comments

Unknown said…
Sketchy SPS and trying to force Louisa Boren STEM K-8 to move.....meeting they were supposed to reschedule in August or September set for tonight with nothing posted on the SPS website or calendar, district announcement or to the media....shame, shame, shame!!
http://westseattleblog.com/2017/10/will-louisa-boren-k-8-stem-be-forced-to-move-followup-meeting-tuesday-night/
kellie said…
There was another high school boundary task force meeting today. One of the topics was once again, Cleveland's status as an option school.

So despite the fact that there are no boundary maps that show Cleveland as an attendance area school at the SAP meetings, families in the south end of town are going to need to keep a careful eye on this possibility, as this is still a hot topic.

Here is a link to a map that was used to discuss Cleveland.

https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=28559551
Anonymous said…
Summit Atlas in Arbor Heights has 96 6th graders and 74 9th graders. They claim just over 13% Sped. 3/4 of their site is torn up by construction. Kids have a patch of parking lot for break. I feel for these students.

Neighbor
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Anonymous said…
Enrollment reports are out. I don't understand why Hale lost a teacher this year when the headcount for September and October are higher than in June. Anyone else notice this for your school?

HP
Anonymous said…
Times on McCleary Tuesday hearing:

Is McCleary Plan Enough?

-- Dan Dempsey

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