Tuesday Open Thread

Hey, guess who's coming to breakfast with the Washington Policy Center?  Former D. C. Chancellor of schools Michelle Rhee on Valentine's Day.

We hope you can join us on February 14th to hear her dynamic presentation on her experience with education reform in Washington, D.c. and ideas for education reform today.

A Thurston County judge ruled that yes, our state legislators do have to respond to public disclosure requests.  This story from KNKX doesn't have it included but yes, they will go to the Washington State Supreme Court.  
Question: did you get a robocall about the Advanced Learning item on the last Board meeting agenda?  I saw a report on Facebook that some people did but not the source nor the wording.

Councilperson Kshama Sawant says she will join striking First Student's bus drivers should they walk out for an afternoon.  This from her Stranger op-ed:

As I said in a public letter last year, Superintendent Nyland and the School Board members bear responsibility for this situation, with their decision to use First Student’s privatized school bus service. 

First Student has, shamefully but predictably, begun hiring part-time drivers in an attempt to break the Teamsters’ strike. My appeal to the part-time drivers is, do not cross the picket line!  

I congratulate members of the Seattle Education Association (SEA), who have democratically decided, with a powerful 93% ratification, to engage in an afternoon walkout in solidarity with the bus drivers. I am appealing to everyone in the community to follow the inspiring example of the educators, and join them on the picket lines with the school bus drivers if they are forced to strike.

 KING-5 tv reports that because the Legislature finally got a state capital budget done, SPS should expect to receive about $20M in capital matching funds from the state.   They also state, "with $500,000 dedicated for repairs at Eckstein Middle School."  I'll have to ask how Eckstein was specifically called out.

Roosevelt junior, Joe Mangan, put together what seems to be a better plan for the evolving area around RHS.  From Seattle Bike Blog:

So he took the initiative to put together his own proposal for what a truly safe and multimodal NE 65th Street could look like complete with concept 3D graphics he created using Sketchup. He sent his 12-page report (PDF) to SDOT, some neighborhood safe streets groups and Seattle Bike Blog.

After many years of neighborhood advocacy and leadership from Councilmember Rob Johnson, SDOT is currently developing designs for a NE 65th St remake that includes protected bike lanes. Mangan’s design is far better not just because it has more bells and whistles (and, to be fair, a likely higher pricetag), but because he is focusing on fixing problems he sees daily on the ground.

“The street is just unnaturally wide,” he said of the current street. “Every day there’s always someone who has to walk in front of the group or behind because there’s not enough space to walk side-by-side.

“With my design, I narrowed it to a center turn lane and two lanes at each intersection. This gives more space at corners for people walking with their friends.”

And how exactly did he get to good at Sketchup?

“I used it in second grade,” he said, because it was installed on school computers. And he’s been designing houses and streets for fun ever since.

What's on your mind?