Seattle Schools, Week of April 23-28, 2018
Monday, April 23rd
Lincoln High School Community Meeting,
Hamilton International Middle School from 6:30-8:30 pm
Seattle World School, 6:30-8:15 pm
At the community meetings, district staff members will present information, collect input and feedback, and answer questions. Interpreters will be available by request. If you, or someone you know, would benefit from an interpreter at a community meeting, please email us at capitallevy2019@seattleschools.org.
BEX V Capital Levy: capitallevy2019@seattleschools.org
Operations Levy: budget@seattleschools.org
More information, including a Levies 2019 Planning Timeline, is available on our school levies webpage.
Tuesday, April 24rd
2019 School Levies Community Meeting
Jane Addams Middle School, 6:30-8:15 pm
Wednesday, April 25th
Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm, agenda.
Thursday, April 26th
2019 School Levies Community Meeting
Salmon Bay K-8, 6:30-8:15 pm
Saturday April 28th
Family Partnerships Task Force, JSCEE, room 2750 from 9:00am to noon.
Director Community Meetings
Director Patu at Raconteur, 9:30-11:00 am
Director Pinkham at Northgate Library, 12:30-2:00 pm
Director Harris at Delridge Library, 3:00-5:00 pm
Lincoln High School Community Meeting,
Hamilton International Middle School from 6:30-8:30 pm
- Revisiting the vision
- Updates on the building
- Introduction of teachers
- Reviewing Course Pathways
- Forming Parent group
Seattle World School, 6:30-8:15 pm
At the community meetings, district staff members will present information, collect input and feedback, and answer questions. Interpreters will be available by request. If you, or someone you know, would benefit from an interpreter at a community meeting, please email us at capitallevy2019@seattleschools.org.
BEX V Capital Levy: capitallevy2019@seattleschools.org
Operations Levy: budget@seattleschools.org
More information, including a Levies 2019 Planning Timeline, is available on our school levies webpage.
Tuesday, April 24rd
2019 School Levies Community Meeting
Jane Addams Middle School, 6:30-8:15 pm
Wednesday, April 25th
Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm, agenda.
Thursday, April 26th
2019 School Levies Community Meeting
Salmon Bay K-8, 6:30-8:15 pm
Saturday April 28th
Family Partnerships Task Force, JSCEE, room 2750 from 9:00am to noon.
Director Community Meetings
Director Patu at Raconteur, 9:30-11:00 am
Director Pinkham at Northgate Library, 12:30-2:00 pm
Director Harris at Delridge Library, 3:00-5:00 pm
Comments
What sort of outreach are they doing re: the meeting? Are they sending announcements to all parents of HS (and rising HS) kids who live in the assignment area, as well as parents of north-end HCC and HCC-eligible students at other middle schools? If they are "forming a parent group" (as per agenda), it's important that they get both GE and HCC parents involved.
As for "revisiting the vision," I suppose better late than never!
And "introduction of teachers"? I assume this refers maybe to a few early teachers, e.g., dept heads? It will be interesting to see how they shake out in terms of the original planned vision vs. the new reality.
Also, re: "Reviewing Course Pathways," that should be especially interesting. How will they ensure that the needs of students working several years ahead will be met? What are they getting in the way of mitigation funds? What advanced classes will be offered, and are they taking into account all the different course pathways that incoming 10th graders will already have been on at their current high schools? With only 9th and 10th graders this first year, will they offer Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus/Trig, and AP Calculus AB?
What will they offer in the way of advanced science classes, given the crazy science realignment that has, to a somewhat variable extent, been recently rolled out? There are likely to be incoming HCC 10th graders who are done with both Biology and Chemistry, as well as some who are done with Biology and Physics instead. Probably other combinations, too. Will they offer both Physics and Chemistry as full-year sequences for those students, in addition to that weird new intro physics/chem hybrid class for 9th graders (the "A" combo for non-HCC, the "B" combo for those coming from HCC)? Will they really have enough physics and chem teachers to do that?
What about language classes? With many students coming from immersion schools, will they offer level 4 of Japanese and Spanish for 9th graders who test in? Will they offer level 5 or AP versions for 10th graders who are currently taking level 4 in 9th grade at their current HS?
Parents should push for a clear listing of all the core classes that will be available ASAP--so there's time to fight for appropriate classes if needed.
Act Fast
Act Fast -- There have been at least 3 other meetings related to Lincoln HS planning during the past year. At each of the meetings they've asked parents for their email address if they haven't received meeting notifications from Director Burke and/or Principal Medsker. Perhaps you can email one of them to get on the email list if you haven't received any emails from either of them. We have also seen information about the meetings in our elementary and middle school newsletters. So, it seems like there is information going out to the feeder elementary and middle schools at least through PTSA newsletters.
At the last meeting Principal Medsker had a list of potential class offerings and was asking for input on other classes/electives that they could offer. She also said that she would have the appropriate selection of classes for both HCC and DLI kids since Lincoln HS will be the HCC pathway and the Dual Language Pathway. There were also several parents that have volunteered to be part of various parent groups during past meetings, but I'm not sure about the current status of any of those groups.
Hoping to find out more about teachers and course offerings tonight.
-Another Parent
I second what Another Parent said PLUS - parent group.... come to the meeting and sign up for something you are passionate about. In a start up school, there is no luxury to wait for someone else to do it or give ideas from the sidelines. Jump in! It's fun and a way to have an impact.
Also, I know from a direct discussion with Ruth Medsker that she is strongly committed to having a wide range of voices represented in parent leadership and on committees, etc. - Gen Ed, Special Ed, HCC, Dual Language, etc. as well as from a broad base of the feeder schools - McClure, Tops, Hamilton, etc.
Hope you can come to the meeting - I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how many of your concerns have been addressed already. Jump in to help on those that haven't.
QA Parent
Here’s what’s being considered for Dual Language Immersion/Heritage Students, and for World Language Students*:
9th Grade DLI or Heritage Students
--Spanish 4 and Japanese 4 with an option to
take the AP exam in the spring
9th Grade World Language Students
--Spanish 3 and Japanese 3
10th Grade DLI or Heritage Students
--AP Spanish 5 and AP Japanese 5 OR
--300 Level Dual Credit College Courses in
Spanish & Japanese (through the UW)
10th Grade World Language Students
--Spanish 4 and Japanese 4 OR
--AP Spanish 5 and AP Japanese 5
11th Grade DLI or Heritage Students
--300 Level Dual Credit College Courses in
Spanish & Japanese (through the UW) OR
--AP Spanish Literature for Spanish
11th Grade World Language Students
--AP Spanish 5 and AP Japanese 5 OR
--300 Level Dual Credit College Courses in
Spanish & Japanese (through the UW) OR
--AP Spanish Literature for Spanish
12th Grade DLI or Heritage Students
--Career Applications of Language
(Translation & Interpreting, Software
Localization, Computational Linguistics, and
Language Teaching taught in the language)
for Students with Advanced level proficiency
12th Grade World Language Students
--300 Level Dual Credit College Courses in
Spanish & Japanese (through the UW) OR
--AP Spanish Literature for Spanish
*Note: Lincoln would presumably also offer beginning Spanish 1 and 2 and Japanese 1 and 2 for students who had not yet studied the languages in middle school.
Michele is also working with the UW Language Immersion Committee, with representatives from the language departments at the UW, to identify college level courses starting in school year 2019-2020 or 2020-2021. These would be high interest courses in topics such as film, environment, anime, popular culture, and language for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and business.
--JSIS parent
Since Lincoln will be an HCC location, allow me to point that all the feeder elementary and middle schools don't have PTSAs capable of putting together and distributing a newsletter. Some of the schools don't have a PTA/PTO at all (Licton Springs? Cedar Park?). There is a massive equity problem with the district relying on PTSA newsletters to get the word out about a future high school.
Outreach should be disseminated by the district to all who will potentially be impacted. Communicating about a new high school should be a district communication issue, not something for parent volunteers.
wondering
I think Spanish and Japanese are excellent choices for foreign language.
PTSA outreach is only one supplemental avenue of communication. All current SPS families who have an address that places their middle school child in the planned Lincoln attendance area (Gen Ed or approved HCC feeder schools) receive direct communication from SPS about events at Lincoln if they have an email address on file.
I'm not sure if that extends to elementary schools at this point.
QA Parent
Et tu
Et tu
That's good to hear, but then shouldn't they post the minutes from those meetings on the BEX websites for parents who aren't able to attend and/or didn't hear about the meetings? The most recent posted meeting is back in June 2017.
@ QA Parent, SPS Mom has it right. SPS should be communicating more widely than to middle school families in the Lincoln zone and students at HCC schools. HCC-eligible-but-not-enrolled students ALSO are eligible for Lincoln. Just because they are not at an HCC middle school does not mean they don't want and/or need an HCC-pathway high school. Not only do these parents deserve to be informed, but you'd think SPS would want to do everything they can to engage as many families in the Lincoln planning process in hopes of drawing them in and reducing overcrowding at other high schools.
I am genuinely happy to hear that planning is underway, but unfortunately, as is often the case, SPS communication on the matter has been poor. If there are parent groups and committees already formed and recruiting, why not post that information somewhere for parents to see? Is there a Lincoln planning group with contact info and a website? Or is the BEX page supposed to serve that purpose?
Act Fast
Messy
Last night I let Ruth know about the gap in SPS comms to HCC kids still enrolled at their neighborhood school. She's going to follow-up as those were supposed to get the comms. Sounds like a downtown issue (no surprise there).
other ideas are good - there are parent groups on FB. I suggest you reach out to Ruth and offer to help set up some of the parent connections. Anything other than basic comms will be dependent on parent volunteers.
QA Parent
Left out