Seattle Schools This Week

Tuesday, August 28th
African American Family Gathering welcomes Superintendent Juneau, South Shore K-8 from 
6-8 pm.


African American Family Gathering and members of the African American community welcome Superintendent Juneau to Seattle Public Schools, with a focus on learning about our families and our common values in education. 

Dinner will be served and childcare available. 

I think this is a very nice idea because it will allow the Superintendent to hear from this community.  I'd hope that the Superintendent would also be available to meet with different Asian communities, Latino and Native American communities as well as Special Education, ELL and Advanced Learning communities.

Wednesday, August 29th
Board meeting, starting at 4:15 pm.  (To note, there was some discussion at the last Executive Committee meeting about moving the start time to 4:30 pm.  I'm all for that.).  Agenda

There is just one Action item - the contract for Birth to 3 years services via Northwest Center. One problem - at least for me - it's an Intro/Action item.  There is no explanation about why this didn't get done sooner.  I understand the contract needs to be approved but staff cannot continue to sneak (and I chose that word deliberately) items onto the Board agenda without explanation.  The Board should ask for an explanation AND let the staff know Intro/Action is for a real emergency.

There are eleven Intro items, mostly around capital items.  One item of interest for student journalists:

Approval of Board Policy No. 3220, Student Expression in School-Sponsored Media.
Board Policy No. 3220, Student Expression in School-Sponsored Media, is a new policy and is in response to a new state law, SSB 5064, that was passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Inslee on March 21, 2018. The new policy aligns with Washington State School Directors’ Association’s (WSSDA) policy. 

Prior to the passage of SSB 5064, there were no state statutes requiring public schools to adopt policies related to student expression in school-sponsored media. The new state law provides that student editors of school-sponsored media are responsible for determining the news, opinion, feature, and advertising content of the media; states that a student media adviser may teach professional standards of English and journalism to the student journalists and may not be terminated, transferred, removed, or otherwise disciplined for complying with the student expression provisions; and establishes an appeal process for students who allege a violation of the student expression provisions. The law also protects school officials and governing boards from civil or criminal liability resulting from school-sponsored media prepared, published, or broadcast by student journalists.
Wednesday, August 29th
Bargaining talks with SEA

Friday, August 31st
Waitlists dissolved.

Also of interest, calendar items:

September 4th -  Roxhill Elementary School at Hughes ribbon-cutting ceremony from 11am-noon
September 4th - Loyal Heights School ribbon-cutting ceremony from 2:00-3:00 pm.

BEX Community meetings
Staff members will present information, ask for input and feedback, and answer questions.
All meetings: 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. 

Wed., Sept. 12: Ingraham High School Auditorium, 1819 N 135th St.
Thurs., Sept. 13: West Seattle High School Lunchroom 3000 California Ave. SW
Thurs., Sept. 20: Mercer Middle School Lunchroom 1600 S Columbian Way
Mon., Sept. 24: Roosevelt High School Lunchroom 1410 NE 66th St.
Tues., Sept. 25: Meany Middle School lunchroom 301 21st Ave. East

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