Seattle Schools, Week of October 29-November 4, 2018

Monday, October 29th
Work Session on the Strategic Plan from 4:30-6:00 pm at JSCEE.


There is still no documentation for this Work Session but this may be important as we may see the first outline of Superintendent Denise Juneau's thinking for Seattle Schools.

Tuesday, October 30th
Regular Board meeting (YES, it is on a Tuesday instead of the normal Wednesday), starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda.  The agenda is lengthy but many items are getting covered in the Consent Agenda and that moves quickly.  But there are seven Action items and no Intro items.

Highlights:
- Vote to approve the Operations levy (at $815M) and the Capital levy (at $1.4B).  That's over $2 billion dollars for the two levies.  I personally think this is folly to go that large.  The levies will be voted on in February 2019.

- Approval of the new Facilities Master Plan which is a great one.

- Approval of courses with new content as defined by the Superintendent procedure. This is an interesting one, made up mostly of foreign languages (in order to give students credit for knowing a language that is their home language).

- A new digital citizenship policy.  I would approve of a new one but the Information Technology Advisory Committee hasn't even gone over this one and there's no rush to get this done.

Thursday, Nov. 1
Operations Committee from 4:30-6:30 pm.  No agenda yet available.

Special Education Event at JSCEE from 6-8 pm. Welcome Event with Greg Abell.
All existing and interested Parent Partners and School-based Parent Liaisons are encouraged to attend.  Please send an email to ehnitzritter@seattleschools.org  if you plan to attend.

Magnolia Elementary Boundaries Community meeting at Catherine Blaine K-8 from 6:30-7:30 pm.

Saturday, Nov. 3rd
Director community meetings
With Director Mack at the Magnolia branch library from 11 am-1 pm.

With Director Burke at the Ballard branch library from 4-5:30 pm.  


Comments

McCleary 2 said…
The school board is about to vote on the upcoming levy. Both the board and the district are acting in a manner that is inconsistent with the law because of recent levy cap laws.

SPS's levy proposal would provide nearly $140 million more a year in revenues than the state’s new law allows. For 2020, the rate would be much higher, ignoring the state limit — $1.05 per $1,000 in assessed value.

This is a state issue and the board should tell the state to fully fund education.

I look forward to the board discussion. Noel Treat should be called to the podium to defend this illegal action.

The board and district are setting the stage for McCleary 2; the same system that created inequalities throughout the state.

Will the board be complicit in breaking the law?
Anonymous said…
@ McCleary 2, can you explain a little more about the state aspect of the levy. What are the limits? Also, does a larger levy mean we'll just have to give more of it away to districts in other parts of the state?

levy dizzy
McCleary 2 said…
The legislature will be responsible for the future of levy funding. They will determine whether or not to lift the cap. The dollar amount associated with levy funding should be consistent throughout the stat- to avoid inequities.

If some districts have the capacity to raise more funds than others, we will be set-up for McCleary 2.

It is quite possible for the state to lift the levy cap and additional monies would be sent throughout the state.
Anonymous said…
In the part of the agenda on new classes, they address the new Ethnic Studies class. This brings up a few questions for me.

Seattle currently requires 3 credits (3 yrs) of Social Studies:
- World History 1, 2, and 3 (1.5 cr total)
- U.S. History 11A, 11B (1 cr)
- American Government (0.5 cr)
- NOTE: Washington State History (0.5 cr) is also required by the state, but in SPS is usually taken in middle school instead (or fulfilled some other way)

Will adding the Ethnic Studies class essentially increase the Seattle SS requirement to 3.5 years?

Given that the state's new 24-credit requirement is already creating some challenges re: how to ensure students can get the classes they need, are we really in a position to add another new requirement on top of that?

Will this addition will have the effect of decreasing students' ability to take AP SS classes? Currently, it looks like a student can take US History in 9th; AP US History in 10th (full year, instead of just the semester req't); AP US History in 11th; then AP American Gov't in 12th (fill year, instead of just the semester req't). Under the proposed new requirement, however, it appears students would need to skip one of the full-year AP courses in order to take the semester-long Ethnic Studies class.

How will this impact SS teachers? Will some current SS teachers be expected to teach Ethnic Studies instead, or will new teachers be hired for these classes (with some SS teachers displaced)? The proposed curriculum appears to be pretty far from what many current SS teachers are familiar with (and perhaps even what they aren interested in or comfortable with).

Core24

Anonymous said…
The ethnic studies class is an elective, not a required course.

Fairmount Parent
Anonymous said…
@ Fairmount Parent, looking at the attached slideshow, they want to make it a requirement.

Core24

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