Upcoming Seattle Schools Committee Meetings

Update: Director Geary has a regular Tuesday morning coffee at Zoka behind U Village from 8-9:30 am.

end of update

There is a bevy of School Board committee meetings this week; quite unusual to have so many in one week.

Sadly, there are no community meetings with Board members next Saturday so your opportunity to talk to a Board member face-to-face is nil (unless you go to a committee meeting early and buttonhole one of them).



Monday
Audit and Finance, 4:30-6:30 pm Agenda (I have requested the documentation).

There are several items of interest.  
City of Seattle Families & Education Levy Funding for Seattle Public Schools for Middle School Out of School Program Transportation, Northgate Elementary Transportation and Middle School Athletics (Berge) 

I had no idea that the Families and Ed levy was paying for transportation at all or middle school athletics.  This is troubling because it appears to mean the district is farming out more and more costs - that should be General Education spending - to levy dollars.  So what happens when we have Jenny Durkan as mayor?  She says she would take some dollars from the F&E levy for her new community college for all program.  What if the next F&E levy allows charter schools to have dollars?  What then?  

Another interesting topic that we have discussed here (and the district/Board seemingly have a blind eye to especially around their so-called equity tool):

2. PTA vs. Equity Funding (Berge)

As well, there is this:

3. Program Summaries (Berge) 

 Berge is the head of Budget; will she be talking about program costs?

Tuesday
Curriculum and Instruction, 4:30-6:30 pm Agenda (I have requested the documentation).

BTA IV: Approve Phase 1 purchase of Classroom Technology to support Teaching and Learning
(Krull/Caldwell)

BTA IV: Purchase of new computers for certificated staff (Krull/Caldwell) 

The district wants to purchase the Naviance software system for high school college/career counseling work plus all this? I can hardly wait to see the final costs for all of it.

Formula for Success
  Superintendent SMART Goal 2, Eliminating Opportunity Gaps (Jones) 

This work is on-going but very quietly. I'll have a separate thread on this because while the African American Male Advisory Committee presented their recommendations to the Superintendent, I'm not sure the Superintendent can fund all the work (a couple of items are big ticket like having a person to oversee the work at JSCEE who only reports to the Superintendent).

Here's a link to a story about the Eliminating Opportunity Gaps Institute held at Sealth High recently. They pronounce it a "success" but on what basis? Attendance? A little hard to say what outcomes will be. 

Also on the agenda:

Advanced Learning Update (Jessee)
Math Adoption Update (Box) 

 

Wednesday
Executive Committee meeting of the Whole, 4:15-5:30 pm - no agenda yet available. I suspect this is to talk about the RFP for a new superintendent.  Could be an early look at what the Board believes is the right set of qualifications and qualities for a new sup.

Work Session, District Scorecard and Operations Data Dashboard; Board Evaluation, 5:30PM to 7:30PM, no agenda yet available.

Thursday
Regular Executive Committee meeting, 8:30-10:30 am, no agenda yet available.

Friday
BEX Oversight Committee meeting, 8:30-10-30 am, no agenda yet available.

Also to note, next Tuesday the 14th, Superintendent Nyland will give his State of the District speech at West Seattle High School starting at 5 pm.  The Board will be at that one so you could show up and try to speak to them then on issues of high importance like the assignment plan for next year or boundaries.