Seattle Schools Community Forum

It's at today's Work Sessions .  The Resolution has been put forward by the entire Board.  They will apparently be taking action on it at the Work Session.

From the Tilth Alliance : Are you a teacher, parent, community member who works in school gardens ?

The National School Walkout , planned by Women’s March organizers, will be on March 14 at 10 am in each time zone. It calls for students, faculty, parents, and others to walk out of school for 17 minutes — one minute for each person who was killed in the Florida school shooting. For more, check out the official website and Facebook page .

The Senate Ways and Means Committee is reviving the Enhanced Background Checks for Assault Weapons (SB5444) as part of a package of school safety measures in SB6620. The bill was first read on Friday 2/23.

Monday, Feb. 26th Mayor Durkan and the Department of Education and Early Learning will have an event at Garfield High School from 5:30-6:30 pm.

I'll be upfront with what I believe. This "what shall we do" idea of everything but restricting guns is America's way of saying, "I give up."  Well, I don't give up. This is NOT the new normal; it's not normal at all and I refuse to accept that.  NO other first-world country has this issue.  Nobody.   I am sorry it has taken mass shooting after mass shooting, especially of children, to strike a match but now it's a fire and it's unstoppable.  Onward. The President is advocating that teachers be armed (and get a bonus in pay if they do).  His ignorance and hubris is laughable.  I have not seen a teachers group or law enforcement group yet endorse his idea and, in fact, they are against it. 

The #Me, Too movement has done a great service in bringing issues - ugly, unpleasant issues - that many women and girls have faced since forever.  I think there is some gray to the topic - Harvey Weinstein is disgusting and likely a rapist but what about former Senator Franken and comic Aziz Ansari?  Their "crimes" are, to me, more in the "boy, he's a jerk that has the mentality of a 15-year old boy." It's interesting because I was trying to explain that last one to my younger son (now a young adult) and I said in the case of Ansari, that the young woman should have gotten up and ended the date.  But my son thoughtfully pointed out that may have been what a woman in my generation would have done but in his generation, women don't want to put up with that behavior.  Point taken.  (But the woman only confronted him later in a text and then wrote a whole public essay on it.) But the extreme side of this kind of aggression is in the mass shootings that ...

Nice idea: parents painting motivational art on school lockers/bathroom stall doors.   Tomorrow is Visual Arts Career Day at SAM. Visual Arts Career Day is a free event that provides youth ages 14-21 with direct access to visual arts industry professionals through networking, experiential learning, engaging sessions, and hands-on art making in partnership with One Reel, and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. Participants are exposed to a wide range of career opportunities in the visual arts including a chance to connect with artists, designers, educators, curators, photographers, art advocates, professionals in retail, fundraising, management, arts administration, and more. Registration Required Also in the same vein: Three director community meetings with directors tomorrow, Saturday the 24th Patu - 9:30-11 am at Raconteur, 5041 Wilson Ave S Pinkham - 1-2:30 pm at Northgate Public Library, 10548 5th Ave NE Mack - 1-3 pm at Magnolia Pub...

Update: well, the majority of our legislature voted for this bill to cover their asses.  Bravo for them.

The most shocking story of the day is the firing of one of the founders of KIPP, one of the largest charter school groups in the country, for sexual misconduct with a student in the '90s.  From the NY Times:

What is up with this? Last week a Garfield student had been telling other students about how to have a school shooting.  The students told a teacher who did nothing. It was not until those students saw a photo of a revolver the arrested teen had put up at Snapchat that those students AGAIN raised an alarm to "school staff." This raises all kinds of questions like:

Or are they? I will be writing a larger story about the annual Garfield field trip for their Marine Biology class.  (The school has been taking this trip for about 40 years and many students have said it was a catalyst to their interest in going into the field.)  For right now, though, I thought it valid to state how this issue might be an issue for other schools AND the continuing need for the district to be clear on field trip policy. I am waiting for feedback to my questions from district communications but here's the confusion that I have concern about for these parents (and other parents).

Mayor Durkan is to give her State of the City speech this morning at Rainier Beach High School.  Wish it was when school was in session. Word is that the state has brought in more revenue - $1.3B - than expected.  Of course, the question then is, how to spend it?

Here's the w eekly legislative update on public education measures in the Washington State Legislature via WSSDA (Washington State School Directors Association). Report from KUOW on the City's Pre-K program ; so-so academically.

  Dr. Nyland speaks out about the Florida high school massacre (partial):

Second update: a link to the 14 students and three staffers who were killed.  Open the link and look at their faces; next time, it could be your child .  There is NO safe place left in this country. From an excellent article in the New Yorker: The gun lobby, and the Republican Party it controls, have accepted as a matter of necessity the ongoing deaths of hundreds of children as the price that they are prepared to pay for the fetishization of weapons. The claim of this lobby’s complicity in murder is not exaggerated or hysterical but, by now, quite simple and precise: when you refuse to act to stop a social catastrophe from happening, you are responsible for the consequences of the social catastrophe. Do something today.   Tell your family and friends on Facebook. Stand up and be counted.

Update: I will strive to differentiate between shootings at school properties and people shot while at school.  I see there is pushback on the number of "school shootings" since January 1.  Of course, how silly that we would argue this since there should be NO school shootings of any kind. end of update Yet ANOTHER school shooting, this time at a Florida high school .  There were at least 20 people shot but they have not yet said how many died.  On this point, we live in an insane country.  It IS not worth the fear, pain and death that having easy access to guns allows.

It appears that the district will be granting a leave of absence to Lowell principal, Colleen Stump, as soon as this Friday.  No word on her replacement. No sure if the district's Science Department is really hearing what parents and teachers are saying but here's what I'm hearing about the new changes for high school science.

Despite overflowing speaker lists at the last several Board meetings, this list for tomorrow night's meeting isn't even full. I see that former Mayor/City Council member Tim Burgess is already stumping for the City's pre-K levy.   He does leave out several things like how the City is much less a good partner to the district than the district is to the City.  I'll have a separate thread on this but I hope this Board tell the City some things need to be clarified and/or changed for this "partnership." And, everyone on the City Council as well as Mayor Durkan need to publicly state their views on charter schools.

PIE (Parent Information Exchange) Presents: Film Series 2018 Our Public Schools: Promises and Threats In The 21st Century The series will be at Salmon Bay School, 1810 NW 65th Street at 7 pm.     Films will be shown at 7:00 PM on:  Feb. 13   /  Feb. 28 Mar. 7  /  Mar. 13  Film #1 Backpack Full Of Cash TUESDAY, FEB. 13, 2018,  7:00 PM http://www.backpackfullofcash.com

 I'm sure you received notification but the bus drivers' strike has ended and bus service will resume tomorrow morning.

The Puget Sound Business Journal recently had an op-ed with this usual type of business headline, "Money Won't Fix Our Education System." I would link it but they have a paywall; a friend sent it to me. Its author, one Bob Wallace, a CEO of something, said the tired old standards:

I see that there is a BEX Oversight Committee meeting this morning.  I haven't been in quite awhile as there is more talk about projects than any visioning about facilities.  But BEX V is coming up and many communities would like to see their name on that list.  So I note that the agenda says that the meeting next month will have "BEX V Capital Levy Presentation."   A kinder, gentler Betsy DeVos ?  Not really but she's working with a right-wing message guru who is urging less of "choice" and more about "innovation."  I'll just note that one of the main dings against most charters schools across the country is that they are NOT more innovative.

I have attended the last two meetings with Board members discussing the search for a new superintendent to replace Larry Nyland.

Editor's note:   a sharp-eyed reader asked about a quote I attributed to Mr. Kinoshita that seemed to be from Director Rick Burke.  I have corrected that in red in the high science science discussion.  My apologies to Mr. Kinoshita and Director Burke. end of update Some of you have wondered this outloud at this blog about HC capacity at Ingraham and one parent did so to Director Mack: A parent pointed out to me that this page still says "space available" for Ingraham IBX, and since the cap is lifted it might be confusing to people. Now unfortunately, that link to the enrollment page that she was sent is now dead but here are the answers from Enrollment (to directors and bold mine): We have done the following in regards to communication around the additional HC seats available at Ingraham: Updated the school choice documents referenced below to indicate the increased seat capacity at Ingraham. Updated the Advanced Learning Page with this information abo...

The bus strike continues.  What are you seeing/hearing at your school?  From the district:

Several stories across my desk on this issue.

My reading of this is that it should not affect students but just know your child's teachers will not be available if you had planned to try to talk to them on Wednesday afternoon. From SEA Solidarity Walkout FAQ

 Update: SPS Communications responded and stated that SPD is asking that the district not release any more info on the individual in question so as not to possibly hurt the investigation.  They did confirm that the individual was only hired as an IA and not a sub. end of update From West Seattle Blog (thanks to reader Miramac1): Seattle Public Schools confirms this letter – shared with us by a Denny International Middle School parent – was sent to the school’s families tonight: Dear Denny Middle School families: This letter is being sent home to our families to share important information about a serious allegation and our commitment to student safety.

A busy week before Mid-Winter Break.

When I last left this topic, I was going to attend  the Charter Commission meeting.  I did on January 18th in Tacoma and I testified before the Commission about the issues with Green Dot charter schools regarding zoning departures that they sought for a middle school and a high school in the Rainier Valley, near RBHS. They did receive the middle school departure but under sketchy circumstances and the high school departure had been put on hold by the City pending a protest from the district.  Green Dot had let the Commission know that they might do one of several things but have, in the end, decided to scale back to keep that location.  Meaning, they have withdrawn their request for a zoning departure.

From the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood via the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy: Please lend your support by signing the petition!

Bus strike - still on. Did you know nearly 9,000 of the DACA people are teachers?  Story from the NY Times. 

From district Communications: