Wednesday Open Thread
Great news on the passage of SPS levies. However, technically, levies are just a pot of money that the district can do whatever they want with it. Of course, it behooves them to do what they promised to do. Oversight is key and I hope the Board and parents and the public make sure that happens.
Interesting story on teens who DO want to get vaccinations despite what choices their parents have made in the opposite direction.
Washington's Paramount Duty has changed their Lobby Day at the Legislature to Wednesday, Feb. 27th. Sign up here.
Speaking of the Legislature, here's the Washington State School Directors Association (school board members), has a weekly legislative update for news on public education related issues.
One interesting bill is one that would give kindergarten students that are F/RL $100 in a savings account for college. From the Islander:
Upcoming posts include a series on the state of charter schools, both in Washington State and nationally and an update on the use of the Check Yourself survey tool for screening middle school teens. Some things have changed but the district still doesn't see the need to inform parents (even as other districts are).
What's on your mind?
Interesting story on teens who DO want to get vaccinations despite what choices their parents have made in the opposite direction.
Washington's Paramount Duty has changed their Lobby Day at the Legislature to Wednesday, Feb. 27th. Sign up here.
Speaking of the Legislature, here's the Washington State School Directors Association (school board members), has a weekly legislative update for news on public education related issues.
One interesting bill is one that would give kindergarten students that are F/RL $100 in a savings account for college. From the Islander:
Senate Bill 5704, and its companion House Bill 1592, would give every low-income kindergartner in Washington $100 as seed money that could one day blossom to an amount that could help pay for college tuition.Continuing concerns about teens and their use of e-cigarettes in an article from The Daily World.
Bill sponsor Sen. Marko Liias (D-Lynnwood) says the idea builds upon the concept of a "baby bond," money given to every newborn baby that they couldn't touch until they turned 18. The goal is to help low-income and marginalized communities build assets in the future, and he says there's few better ways than setting up a college savings account.
Realistically, Liias knows that $100 alone will not grow to pay for a college education by the time a kindergartner turns 18. Rather, it is seed funding to help a family begin saving, a "concrete link" to the reality of going to college.
The new report builds on evidence that youth e-cigarette use raises the risk of graduating to combustible cigarettes, he said.A worthy article for Black History Month - Decolonizing Your Syllabus - from Liberated Genius.
“E-cigarettes could be playing a role in the patterns of use we’re seeing among kids in terms of cigarette smoking,” he said, adding, “It is possible that we are reinforcing and perpetuating dependency.”
While the Trump administration says that e-cigarettes could be an effective tool for helping adults quit smoking traditional cigarettes, Monday’s report suggested that the opposite is true for younger people, said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
Upcoming posts include a series on the state of charter schools, both in Washington State and nationally and an update on the use of the Check Yourself survey tool for screening middle school teens. Some things have changed but the district still doesn't see the need to inform parents (even as other districts are).
What's on your mind?
Comments
Silver Lining?
If for no other reason, to keep the nurses in school.
I hope SPS understands that some votes like mine do not translate to a blanket endorsement/approval.
-Fly
https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/lead-persists-in-the-water-at-many-seattle-schools-does-chicago-have-a-solution/
waning iq
Congratulations to those that pushed the levy. Your privilege is showing.
Voted Yes
Lots of parents on this blog have spent years talking about how "poor kids" have had environmental brain damage, like lead poisoning, (with lots of "research" to back it up) and used it as an excuse for the lack of diversity in HCC.
Do a blog search. It's stunning, really.
I guess that once you're "in" the HC label provides a teflon effect for lead poisoning.
Sounds like an area of expertise the new HC director might need on the resume, according to these parents who posted about it here. Maybe Sue Peters has some insight and can share it on the HCC blog. The underrepresented families most certainly have the inside track to knowing about the HCC blog, which is likely why Sue posted there.
Dull Moment
As schools get renovated, many of the old pipes and fixtures get replaced. Short of fixture and pipe replacements, flushing the fixtures and instructing staff and students to not drink from sinks is really the best approach. If you look at the district data, you will see the difference in the "1st flush" vs "flush 30 sec" results. For fixtures with measurable lead in the "1st flush" samples, many are <1 ppb after the "flush 30 sec" samples.
https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/health/article/Lead-tainted-water-in-Seattle-schools-stuns-1148516.php
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/water.htm
irresponsible reporting
"Privilege"? Really? Please explain that to the students of Rainier Beach High School (FRL 72 percent) who have waited decades for a new school building and will now finally have the opportunity to get one. Or the students of Northgate Elementary (FRL 73 percent) who will also finally have funds for a better, safer building.
Or maybe she posted it there because it's one way to quickly reach HCC families? Not that it reaches all, but at least it reaches some. If you have a better idea for how she could have easily reached the HCC families who are missed, or families of HC students who are missed, by all means share it. There are many who'd like to know.
FWIW, lead poisoning is a real thing. From the CDC: "There is no known identified safe BLL. Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health. Millions of children are being exposed to lead in their homes, increasing their risks for: damage to the brain and nervous system; slowed growth and development; learning and behavior problems (e.g., reduced IQ, ADHD, juvenile delinquency, and criminal behavior); and hearing and speech problems." Also from the CDC: "Children at higher risk for lead exposure are poor; are members of racial-ethnic minority groups; are recent immigrants; live in older, poorly maintained rental properties; or have parents who are exposed to lead at work."
Thanks for your "concern," but the idea that the new AL Director needs to have expertise in lead poisoning is absurd. Leave that to the public health experts, pediatricians, public housing folks, etc. Nobody is saying that "poor kids" are all brain damaged, just as nobody is saying that's the sole reason for SPS's disparities in HC and AL qualification. But to deny the very real, negative--and disparate--impacts of lead on poor and minority children makes light of a very real public health issue. As far as I recollect, anyone who has cited environmental conditions had focused on a wide variety of social and environmental exposures (positive and negative) that can, and do, impact child intellectual development. Surely you aren't implying that intellectual ability is all genetic, are you?
Nature Nurture
Get real.
I'm talking about the people who live in old glass houses, with lots of lead pipes, send their kids to play with like people in like homes, and have their kids attend schools that have been screaming with lead pipe poisoning for years.
However, lead has mostly only been an issue here when talking about "poor people" in Seattle, in the context of demographic disparity in the HCC program, and how they are too brain damaged to qualify for HCC, unlike "your kids."
That is the problem. It's the meeeee culture. I don't need a tutorial on the issue, but I hope you've been concerned about it beyond defending the HCC demographics.
I, for one, have been vocal about the lead situation in SPS for years. I never let my students drink from the fountains.
Dull Moment
Voted NO, that's one way to look at it. Some of us look at the kids at John Rogers and Northgate and especially Rainier Beach High School who have shitty buildings. I don't begrudge that money. As I said in my remarks on the passage of the levies, everyone should take a close look at those Operations dollars to make sure they are being used properly and NOT for anyone's pet project.
I don't know that lead poisoning has ever been a reason that there are fewer kids of color in HCC.
"Your idiocy is showing." Your language reflects poorly on you.
Whether education funding comes from the state and/or local levies, people have one pocketbook. The fact that McCleary and levy funding are placed in different buckets matters little to those that absorbed increased property tax rates of $1K-$1500 per year.
"For many, the temptation is high: Property taxes across Seattle have increased more than 56 percent since 2013, with the median household now paying $5,708 a year.
For low-income residents and elderly residents living on fixed incomes in the Central District, the added costs were often too big a barrier to overcome. Many sold their homes and decamped to less pricey cities in south King County, such as Tukwila and Kent. They took a piece of the community with them."
https://crosscut.com/2019/01/where-are-black-people-central-district-residents-get-creative-fight-displacement
Those with privilege have the capacity to absorb these costs- others do not.
I agree with Melissa. Dollars should be used properly.
Lead has nothing to do with it. That is one of the most absurd claims I've ever encountered. The problem is with the district, and it has to do with the choices human beings who work in the advanced learning department all the way up to the superintendent are making, and until those human beings start making different choices, HCC won't change either.
Miss Leading
Voted Yes
Buckets of money are meaningless to people with one pocketbook.
We bought in 1993 when we were in our late 30s and would even come close to qualifying for our home now at its current market value. Luckily we're still working, but will only be for another 5+ years. I shudder to think of what we will need to give up once we are on a fixed income 10+ years down the line if we want to stay in our home.
At least some nice developer will be happy to buy us out and put two million dollar+ mega houses on our lot!
SolvayGirl
The point I was attempting to make is that until SPS is able to replace the plumbing in each and every old school building (it is definitely not just an issue in south end schools), the best way to limit exposure is to routinely flush the fixtures being used for drinking, and designate others for hand washing, etc. If you live in an old house with old plumbing, you should be doing the same.
irresponsible reporting
In my circle of fellow home owners every single person voted NO on the levies. You then have to wonder why these levies keep passing and also ask should transient renters be allowed to vote on issues that take money from property owners without those property owners voting to approve it extending long after those transients have left the city.
There should be a minimum required voter turn out combined with a super majority approval in order to keep extorting money from property owners.
BTW there is no data showing that taxes are passed on to renters. A renter with a lease would not see any increase until possibly at the next lease renewal time. It's market forces that control rental prices more than property taxes and if you live in a low income property you will NEVER have to absorb those increases.
--Going crazy
--Going crazy
Here it is:
"The basic idea is to do a revenue-neutral swap of state property tax for local levies, staying within the constitutional 1% limit for regular property taxes. This would make the statutory $3.60 per 1,000 set aside for public education a meaningful, rather than hollow, commitment, and bring $1 billion of existing local excess levies into a more regular and dependable tax structure – the statewide property tax."
http://rosshunter.com/2011/11/k-12-funding-proposal-local-levy-swap/
Beset at all sides by moderately funded schools, transit hubs and walk scores. They shall find no respite in their increased assessment values, nor shall they freely store their vehicles on public streets, forever more.
That smell
Humvees forever.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-area-home-prices-drop-to-lowest-point-in-two-years-down-116000-since-last-spring/
State funding, with lower housing costs, will drop. Beware.
Going forward, who makes the decision about keeping 2 full week vacations? I have heard most families are willing to give up mid winter break or replace it with a 3-4 day weekend and would prefer an earlier end of school date. Is this a school board decision or teacher's union? This is the second time in 3 years that snow days have had an impact. I don't understand why the policy couldn't be having the days on the schedule and getting out early if they weren't needed. Also, having the last day of school a Monday is rough with the make up snow days to begin with. Will enough staff even be prepared to stay an extra 5 days and what happens if the buildings can't be appropriately staffed?
HS and ES
Btw, when I went to my volunteer tutoring job today, I was disappointed that while the parking lot was pretty clear, quite a bit of snow had been piled up in the two disabled spots.
If someone had had less mobility than me, they could have had a very hard time.
I am fully aware that this is a contract issue, but it seems to me, that SPS and SEA could meet over mid-winter break and could resolve this pretty quickly.
not easy