Tuesday Open Thread
There's a petition going around from "North Ballard Parents"about the boundaries for Ballard High and Ingraham. And so the lines among parents are starting to be drawn. (red mine)
"Forced" "because of students from QA and Magnolia?" You lost me for your cause right there. Are they questioning the existence of these students or just their right to go somewhere for high school? At least most of Ballard HAS a high school; QA and Magnolia do not.
I'm all for parent power but this is where it gets ugly. And understand - please - that every kid is NOT going to be able to go to thru K-12 with all the same friends. What do you think will happen when they go to college and have never made a new friend? Parents, don't think like this or act like this. At the very least, please watch your wording.
I note that an item that had been Intro'ed to the Board and was scheduled for Action at tomorrow night's Board meeting is not there. That would be the approval of the purchase of Naviance software as a tool to help high school students with career/college counseling needs.
I will have a separate, lengthy explanation about the pros and cons of this software but I'll point out a couple of things right up front.
-This allegedly will cost over $600K over three years but embedded in the BAR is the fact that they want a FTE at JSCEE to oversee this work as well as someone designated at each school to oversee the work there (probably some teacher or counselor who will have to take on this work).
- Additionally, for options, there is not one that says "hire more counselors." Not even a consideration of that.
Just noting that Seattle Weekly has put out their endorsements for Seattle School Board - Mack, DeWolf and Patu.
Anyone attending the community meetings on boundaries this week? If so, give us some feedback on what you heard.
Has much changed since the testing opt-out movement has grown? Answer: nope.
A new film coming out features the first deaf actress in a major role in years and she's a kid.
Tomorrow sees a regional community meeting for Sped parents at Garfield High School from 6-7:30 pm.
Tonight is the regular Board meeting and I see the Board has a resolution on CTE (Career and Technical Education) partnerships. Great move and I note the leadership of Director Burke on this issue. Oh, and look - a raise for the Superintendent of over $6,000.
What's on your mind?
Currently students north of 85th street are assigned to Ingraham High School. Seattle Public schools is proposing to redraw the high school boundaries and allow students north of 85th to attend Ballard High School again (thanks to the opening of a new high school in Wallingford for Magnolia & QA students) but families in Magnolia are trying to fight this change.Well, first of all Lincoln is not being reopened just for students from Magnolia and QA. That's just not true given the numbers at Roosevelt.
Crown Hill & North Beach support the community around BHS, but our children are forced to a school further north because of students from Queen Anne & Magnolia.
"Forced" "because of students from QA and Magnolia?" You lost me for your cause right there. Are they questioning the existence of these students or just their right to go somewhere for high school? At least most of Ballard HAS a high school; QA and Magnolia do not.
I'm all for parent power but this is where it gets ugly. And understand - please - that every kid is NOT going to be able to go to thru K-12 with all the same friends. What do you think will happen when they go to college and have never made a new friend? Parents, don't think like this or act like this. At the very least, please watch your wording.
I note that an item that had been Intro'ed to the Board and was scheduled for Action at tomorrow night's Board meeting is not there. That would be the approval of the purchase of Naviance software as a tool to help high school students with career/college counseling needs.
I will have a separate, lengthy explanation about the pros and cons of this software but I'll point out a couple of things right up front.
-This allegedly will cost over $600K over three years but embedded in the BAR is the fact that they want a FTE at JSCEE to oversee this work as well as someone designated at each school to oversee the work there (probably some teacher or counselor who will have to take on this work).
- Additionally, for options, there is not one that says "hire more counselors." Not even a consideration of that.
Just noting that Seattle Weekly has put out their endorsements for Seattle School Board - Mack, DeWolf and Patu.
Anyone attending the community meetings on boundaries this week? If so, give us some feedback on what you heard.
Has much changed since the testing opt-out movement has grown? Answer: nope.
A new film coming out features the first deaf actress in a major role in years and she's a kid.
Tomorrow sees a regional community meeting for Sped parents at Garfield High School from 6-7:30 pm.
Tonight is the regular Board meeting and I see the Board has a resolution on CTE (Career and Technical Education) partnerships. Great move and I note the leadership of Director Burke on this issue. Oh, and look - a raise for the Superintendent of over $6,000.
The COLA requested is below the regional inflation factor and the Board and Superintendent recognize that, given current budget challenges, a more significant raise is not appropriate at this time.But his contract was not renewed and the state is not fully funding education but sure, give him a raise. (I'm supposing this is to show future candidates that the Board keeps up with COLAs/raises for superintendent.)
What's on your mind?
Comments
huh?
-NW Mom
from PublicPrivate from Friday Open Thread:
"The tools work because they have complete data on the schools from which students graduate. No you can’t get THAT information from the government website. How do colleges evaluate Nathan Hale (as an example) graduates? What scores from Nathan Hale required for admission to your college choice? What GPA is necessary from Nathan Hale given your kid’s ACT score? Does your college even care about test scores and GPA?"
Ballard, like Roosevelt, is a first-tier school, not a "second-tier" school (to requote myself). SPS has a blatant hierarachy of school quality, tied almost exclusively to housing costs. With the SAP in SPS, you are held hostage by your address (which equals income). Lincoln, while it may become a first-tier high school, is still an unknown quantity.
When that reality comes to your door, especially for families that are "driven for success," Social Darwinism--Seattle-steroid-style--results in this sh** show. These parents know that the high school name matters. HCC parents have had no problem sending their kids to these schools, and actually have begun to show preference for them over Garfield and Ingraham. No accident.
About Time
What we should be focusing on is that the High School Task Force failed to include walkability, proximity and transportation as part of their key criteria for establishing High School Boundaries. Ashley Davies admitted this at the first boundary meeting. Keeping kids in their neighborhood where they can walk to and from school should be a top priority for the District. This argument could benefit the North Seattle Parents, as well, without pitting one neighborhood against another. Regardless, kids shouldn’t have to make an hour-long commute to school when one is an easy neighborhood walk away.
Frustrated
Ummm.... so there are lots of families like ours in Ballard who bought houses a long time ago and who would never be able to afford what a house costs NOW in this neighborhood. But the same is true for EVERYWHERE ELSE in this city, including the central district where many of my friends of color have lived for years.
Ballard historically was not affluent, it was middle and working class and (way too) white. The residents are also self conscious about that last one and one neighbor commented that they are glad they are seeing some East Asian people moving into the neighborhood. There are now also many more millenials who work at Amazon, but not so many have kids.There are also lots of residents on my block who have lived here for 30 years or more. The housing stock and income level in Ballard is not the same as Laurelhurst or N Capitol Hill or Queen Anne.
-old Ballardite
And I note that the Transition Plan that staff wanted to become the SAP did not mention these things as the current SAP does. Let's keep that in mind for development of a new SAP.
Old Ballardite, in today's reality if you are white and live in the north end, you're rich. No one wants to hear that there are actually poor white people or regular middle-class people working to keep their heads above water.
And again, just as we don't pit school against school against each other, let's not play the game doing that to neighborhoods.
We are all in this together, whether it's the city or the district.
NW
Adams, Loyal Heights, Whittier & North Beach would go to BHS.
I guess Viewlands students don't need to be with their middle school cohort ... they would be sent to IHS.
N by NW
Please advise district staff that the Hv2 plan violates the approved Student Assignment Plan.
From page 7:
"There are not feeder patterns from middle school to high school. Each attendance area high school has its own geographic attendance area”.
Plan Hv2 is based on feeder patterns and violates approved policy. Plan Hv2 further violates approved policy by not following the guiding principals for boundary development as feeder patterns are not one of the listed factors to consider.
From page 10:
Development of Attendance Area Boundaries
The process of developing attendance area boundaries requires balancing various factors. Factors to be taken into account in the development of attendance area boundaries include those shown below. Data on factors such as these contribute to the determination of where attendance area boundary lines are located. These factors are not weighted, since multiple factors must be balanced.
*Proximity of students to schools
*Safe walk zones
*Efficiency of school bus routing (elementary and middle school boundaries)
*Metro transportation routes (high school boundaries)
*Demographics, including anticipated changes in enrollment
*Opportunities for creating diversity within boundaries
*Physical barriers (water, etc.)
Thanks for your time and all of the hard work you do.
Case in point: last year, Greenwood-area parents south of 85th and west of Greenwood Ave. were concerned that being rolled into the Eagle Staff attendance area would be problematic when the District reset high school boundaries. Multiple people in the District, including enrollment, said not to worry because high school boundaries are always set independent of elementary and middle school boundaries.
Now, our neighborhood is routed to Eagle Staff, even though we live closer to Whitman. And we're facing having to attend Ingraham, our fourth closest high school, even though we live blocks from Ballard, our current designated high school. All to keep us with the "Eagle Staff Cohort". My kids don't care about that. They're angry about the potential hour-long each way commute on Metro if our assignment changes from Ballard to Ingraham.
This is a terrible revision of policy. It just doesn't work without adversely affecting a large groups of families.
--Greenwood Parent
OuttaSeattle
SPS is trying to divide and conquer. Let's not fall into this trap.
-United
To co-opt this language for a group (HCC) who has an almost exclusively highly educated parent group is beyond the pale.
You aren't doing yourselves any favors in the P.R. department, and appear like you are living in a self-absorbed bubble every time you use this language or present yourselves as victims of the system.
Don't forget: The state of WA has put districts (a.k.a. SPS) on notice for not identifying historically underserved students in HC. (Where's the outrage here?)
Your attempt to play the victim from a position of societal privilege (highly advanced education), while co-opting the language you honed in your liberal arts classes about truly oppressed populations--self-referentially, continues to be disgraceful.
About Time
Also agree with those who say distance, metro routes, walkability should all take priority over keeping MS cohorts together. It's like SPS really doesn't care about the impact of their decisions on families, or, obviously, on students. I don't mind having a difficult commute to HS, if it came about through a rational and fair process. But I do not see the rationality of the recommended option.
asdf
Private Now
CD
Divide and conquer:
"Traiano Boccalini cites "divide et impera" in La bilancia politica[2] as a common principle in politics. The use of this technique is meant to empower the sovereign to control subjects, populations, or factions of different interests, who collectively might be able to oppose his rule. Machiavelli identifies a similar application to military strategy, advising in Book VI of The Art of War[3] (Dell'arte della guerra),[4] that a Captain should endeavor with every art to divide the forces of the enemy, either by making him suspicious of his men in whom he trusted, or by giving him cause that he has to separate his forces, and, because of this, become weaker.
The maxim divide et impera has been attributed to Philip II of Macedon, and together with the maxim divide ut regnes was utilised by the Roman ruler Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon."
That phrase - used apparently for centuries - is very much about politics and war and yes, oppression. I think it beyond distasteful that anyone would use it to say that HCC parents are trying to keep anyone else down.
About Time, I'm just about done with you. If you cannot stop sneering and smearing, again, find another blog, start a blog but you making the same point, over and over, is not a discussion.
Private Now, I fear that many parents feel the way you do.
"I think it beyond distasteful that anyone would use it to say that HCC parents are trying to keep anyone else down."
Who said that?
"Co-opting" from Dictionary.com:
to appropriate as one's own; preempt:(as in) The dissidents have coopted the title of her novel for their slogan.
Co-opting the role of the oppressed does not mean becoming the oppressor, it means
acting the part of the oppressed.
And, to be in the position of privilege and to act as though one is oppressed by (for example) co-opting such language for oneself, is what I was calling out.
About Time
This was endemic during the closures. The profound distraction created by "Close this school, not that school" distracted everyone away from the underlying facts that Seattle and SPS was actually growing and there was NO REASON to close schools at all.
I can't believe that I am outlining this so late in this process but ... The first thing that was done during the last set of boundary redraws was so simple and collaborative and has just not happened this time.
How to work collaboratively with the community to draw boundaries.
1) Make a geographic map that draws boundaries exactly half way between all high schools. This will make transparent the line where "closest school" is for ALL students.
2) You then add to this map the number of currently enrolled SPS students who live in that boundary.
3) This will tell you at a glance, which school have more students who live closer and which schools do not.
4) Then everyone knows which schools will be REQUIRED to have some students who live closer to this school, go elsewhere.
These maps were at every meeting the last time this happened and they used to be available on the district website. IIRC, Ballard had almost 2500 students, for whom Ballard was the closest high school. This made it very clear that there were going to be at least 1,000 families that would be directed to other schools.
I would suspect that once again, Ballard has MORE students who live closer to Ballard, than Ballard can handle.
I have to comment that your remark on this thread is priceless. Are you being intentionally ironic here? You never miss an opportunity to bring HCC into the conversation and try to divide and conquer.
I don't know the cost of administration, training, and the license for Naviance. Obviously that's important and could be a deal-breaker. But I sure would like to see it used in the Seattle schools. It's the kind of thing that wealthy families pay for, but it should be available to all our high school kids.
Naviance has been an enormous help to my daughter through the college application process. It helped her explore what kind of coursework would be interesting, and what kind of college size / geography / physical environment would be right for her. It created a list of schools that she should investigate. After she narrowed her choices, Naviance displayed application deadlines for each school -- early action, early decision, regular decision. She uses Naviance to manage transcript and test score submissions. Naviance has tools that teachers use to compose and submit letters of recommendations (including biographical information that the student supplies in order to help the teacher write a more personal letter). Naviance displays scatter plots for each university showing data for kids from her high school -- GPA on one axis and test scores on the other -- and then shows on a scatter plot which students were accepted at that university (not names -- just X's and O's). That helped my daughter identify which schools she should focus on, which schools were stretches and which were extreme longshots. Naviance ties in with the Common App, and it includes a scholarship management section where students can discover and apply for scholarships.
Every year staff must train the new kids to use it. (I believe they start with sophomores.) Staff needs to follow up to make sure the kids are actually using the tool. But at least at Holy Names, they've developed a culture where everybody knows the deal. You do your stuff in Naviance. It's an expectation: "This is how it's done."
Naviance requires resources from the school. Personnel = money. Everybody wants to spend money different ways.
I hope the money can be found, because Naviance has been a huge help for my kid.
SPS kids should also have access to this college planning software!!! I have heard so many parents state that our public schools need alot of help in college planning. It sounds so helpful. Enrollment has also surged and counselors are all so overloaded. This would be a really great tool and it is what is lacking in SPS.
L
I say so-called because "North Ballard" isn't an actual place and if it is, it's not where these parents live.
If BHS didn't have Ballard in its name, the "North Ballard Parents" would need another way to try and appropriate it rather than just calling their neighborhood by a fictitious name.
The commute from Magnolia to Lincoln is generally longer and worse than from "North Ballard" to Ingraham.
Here's a real example how my child's commute would change with the proposed Hv2:
Current Commute to Ingraham
Distance from house: 4.4 miles
Total commute time using bus route with one transfer: 55 mins - 1hr (includes a .7 mile walk)
New Commute to Ballard
Distance from house: 1.9 miles
Total commute time using bus route no transfer: 25-30 mins (includes a .7 mile walk)
Total commute time using bus route with one transfer: 30-35 mins (includes a .4 mile walk)
Mine is the example of students' having an improved commute by going to a closer school and I'm willing to admit that every proposal will have transportation "winners" and "losers", but again while important, this wasn't the only consideration listed as part of the task force recommendations.
Older Sibling's Current Commute to Ballard
Distance from house : 1.1 miles
Walk : under 15 minutes
Younger Sibling's Proposed Commute to Ingraham
Distance from house : 4.3 miles
Bus route with no transfer: 1.8 mile walk / bus ride / 1.4 mile walk
Bus route with one transfer: 1 mile walk / bus ride / bus ride / 1 mile walk
Not including times as they vary due to weather/traffic.
N by NW