Seattle Schools This Week

Elementary and K-8 schools are closed for parent-teacher conferences.  No school on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.

Monday, the 20th
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community Meeting at JSCEE from 5:30-
You are invited to join the Seattle Public Schools Special Education staff, families and D/HH community to:

•    Hear updates from staff about the Program Review from the Washington State Center for Childhood Deafness and Hearing Loss (CDHL)
•    Meet other families & community members with shared interest in D/HH


Supervised Children’s Activities, light snack, and ASL Interpreters will be provided.
If you have other language or interpreting needs, please contact us

Questions or Interpreting/Language Needs? Contact us:
Michael Dickneite at 206- 252-0332, msdickneite@seattleschools.org or
Margo Siegenthaler at 206-252-0794, masiegenthaler@seattleschools.org  
 There are two other events upcoming that should be of interest. 

One is Tuesday, November 28th when the newest Board members take the oath of office at JSCEE from 6-7 pm.  It was noted at the Board meeting that State Superintendent Rykdal will be in attendance.

Two is the Board retreat on Saturday, December 2nd at JSCEE from 10 am to 3 pm.  It will be the first opportunity to see the new Board members interacting with staff.

Lastly, one reader had stated that in the obituary announcement for the late, great Tracy Libros, that her name had been misspelled.  I attributed that to Communications.  It was not that department's error but some other department.    

Comments

Anonymous said…
Which department did get her name wrong? Hopefully not Enrollment, Enrollment Planning or anyone from Flips' office. It would be even worse if Tracys' peers or manager misspelled her name.

-StepJ
11/19/17, 8:16 PM
Transparency Please said…

So, we have the OUTGOING mayor and Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools signing some type of an agreement with the city of Seattle regarding Memorial Stadium.

The president of the school board is missing and there are two incoming school board members - that have not been sworn in- attending the signing. I will venture to say that there is at least one incoming school board member that knows little to nothing about school capacity issues.

https://twitter.com/nealtmorton/status/932716342393708544

Clearly, there is something big happening and there has been NO transparency. There has been NO public input. Why would anyone sign an agreement with an outgoing mayor?!!!!





11/20/17, 2:22 PM
Transparency Please said…
What are these people signing documents at Memorial Stadium? These type of issues should be discussed at board meetings.

Unbelievable.
11/20/17, 2:24 PM
Transparency Please said…
Absolutely astonishing:


"Burgess cites no price tag for these projects or who will pay it, says this is the beginning of that process. "We have not yet identified the specific dollar amount."

The Supreme court just told Washington state that the state is not responsible for capital projects. Who is talking about capacity and Lincoln high school? No talk of capacity and no talk of price.
11/20/17, 2:28 PM
Anonymous said…
Speaking of transparency, it would be nice to first figure out what each school is given by the Feds, then the state, then the district, then how the principal allocates discretionary funding, and really look at what each school "gets" at the beginning of the year in terms of teachers per students, nurses, counselors, music, art, specialists...before we start going after the idea of spreading PTA donations as thin as butter across 100 schools.

Real Numbers
11/20/17, 8:41 PM
Anonymous said…
@ Real Numbers- Yes I agree. Listening to an NPR piece on distributing PTSA donations, one would think there are only very wealthy and very poor communities in Seattle. In these conversations they equate Greenwood or Ballard with Madison Park & QA. If you are white (or asian) you are assumed rich, as it is a Race & Equity conversation & nobody discusses white working class or diversity in income. There is a MUCH bigger gap between income in wealthy areas such as Madison Park & middle class Greenwood- than Greenwood & many areas of s Seattle. The working and middle class (those of us not in tech etc) are having a hard time everywhere, that includes Seattle. Rent keeps rising. This seems to be invisible in these conversations. There are people who cannot afford private school, but are also not quite F&R lunch. Their schools may not have the F&R lunch population to receive receive much in federal Title I and other funding sources, but they also may not raise enough through their PTSA. In some schools PTSA really covers the basics. What about these schools? Do they donate to a pool as well leaving them unable to fund basics? They are trapped, not poor enough for Title I etc.

Difficult Conversations
11/21/17, 1:58 PM
Eric B said…
If you look at the district budget documents, you'll the effects of federal, state, and local government dollars. The budget books list Title I and LAP money separately from other funds. You won't see PTA dollars there, and I'm not sure where/if you can find those.

To me, the most egregious PTA funding issues are at the language immersion schools where PTAs fund a lot of IA time because the District won't. If it's a valuable program, the District needs to fund it and not punt to parents. If it's not worth the money to the District, then tough decisions need to be made.
11/22/17, 8:14 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Difficult, I agree with you. There are some that want to do as you say in the name of equity. Well, everything isn't that clear-cut.

Eric, I think you can see the grants for staffing but no, I don't think other PTA or booster funds are listed (and they should be).

Also, to your last point on language immersion, I have someone arguing with me at Facebook that the IAs at Concord and Beacon Hill are only being used to fulfill ELL needs (because they are funded thru Title One). That may be true on paper but I do not think their programs would survive without the IAs in the classrooms supporting the program. I have a query into the district about this.
11/22/17, 9:28 AM
Anonymous said…
@Difficult conversations- This is related to that conversation but in a broader sense. Although not focusing on the disappearing middle and working class and growing inequity."There are 20 million poor white people who also need to be considered in conversations of racial inequity". http://kuow.org/post/princeton-prof-racial-equity-has-consider-poor-white-people-too
RG
11/22/17, 1:24 PM
Anonymous said…
I'm still not sure I understand why the LI IAs are essential. My child attended an immersion program elsewhere and we didn't have them there. It was full-day immersion though, so maybe the students picked up the language more quickly and that made extra help less necessary? I don't know...but that's one aspect of Seattle's program that has always mystified me.

Go figure
11/22/17, 8:37 PM
Anonymous said…
Mirmac has been raising this issue for years. It is not news.

"Also, to your last point on language immersion, I have someone arguing with me at Facebook that the IAs at Concord and Beacon Hill are only being used to fulfill ELL needs (because they are funded thru Title One). That may be true on paper but I do not think their programs would survive without the IAs in the classrooms supporting the program. I have a query into the district about this."

It is truly stunning what people will rationalize away when their self-interest is at stake: PTA funding inequities, HCC demographics, segregated schools (AKA "neighborhood schools").

"Liberal Seattle" tolerates and abets what would not even be acceptable in the deep south.

BadmouthingEquity



11/23/17, 7:23 PM
Anonymous said…
Btw,

Does"Facebook" mean Soup for Teachers?

BadmouthingEquity
11/23/17, 8:09 PM
Anonymous said…
@BadmouthingEquity, I don't find it "stunning" at all that many people support the idea of neighborhood schools. It sounds so neighborly and convenient. Why is it stunning that many parents don't want their children spending 10+ hours per week on a school bus?

By the way, before the switch to neighborhood schools things weren't more equitable. Some schools are more diverse and lower FRL under the NSAP.

It's complicated
11/23/17, 8:49 PM
Anonymous said…
Why is using a low bar be a good enough standard?

"sounding neighborly and convenient" is talk from Orwell and is very dismissive of real issues that effect actual students who are in highly impacted schools.

http://m.kuow.org/post/seattles-diverse-neighborhoods-are-surprisingly-segregated

It's not complicated to make improvements: magnet schools and choice that's not just on paper are good starts.

http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2016/12/12/seattle-public-schools-still-segregated/59263

Rationalize it away, Liberal Seattle.

BadmouthingEquity







11/23/17, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said…
@Badmouth, didn't the old system, right before the NSAP, allow for choice? Yet in many neighborhoods it was the more well-off families who sent their children to other schools, leaving the nearby schools lower income and with few whites. Also, aren't option schools essentially magnet schools? I don't see how the modifications you suggest would help bring about the changes you want. To accomplish your vision, we'd need forced busing to assigned schools, with assignments based partly on demographic targets for each school. We'd also need more money to pay for that.

IC
11/24/17, 8:52 AM
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