Friday Open Thread

This story comes from the West Seattle blog about two girls from West Seattle High, Marlene Castillo-Rojas and Isabel Ortiz, who took first place for our state in the FCCLA State Culinary Competition in Wenatchee in early March.
A 1st-place medal at the state competition gives these students the opportunity to represent the state of Washington at the FCCLA National Culinary Competition at the end of June. We will be competing against all of the other 1st place FCCLA State Culinary teams at Nationals in Anaheim, CA. Your support will be able to provide these incredible students the opportunity of a lifetime. Donations will be going toward their airfare, registration/fees, hotel costs, and shipping our equipment to California. If you are at all able to donate, please click on the link: snap-raise.com/fundraisers/west-seattle-culinary-club-national-championship-drive-2019 
Superintendent Juneau will be giving her State of the District speech on Tuesday, April 16th at Seattle Central College, Broadway Performance Hall, from 5:30-7:00 pm.  I suspect it's not being held at an SPS location because SCC ties into the City's new Promise Scholarship program. But the real news?


Event hosted in partnership with the Alliance for Education.

Ah, so the Alliance, after being summarily cut off from the partnership with the district, has now come back to the fold.  This should be interesting.

Great article from Crosscut on cuts to staffing in SPS.  

More than 100,000 Canadian K-12 students walked out of class to protest cuts in public education.  From The Star:
Students across the province demanded their voices be heard Thursday by walking out of class to protest the Ford government’s proposed changes to public education, while at Queen’s Park the premier and education minister accused the teachers’ unions of masterminding the events.

It’s estimated that more than 100,000 students from about 700 elementary and secondary schools, in cities such as Toronto, London, Ottawa and Hamilton, participated in the student-led action dubbed #StudentsSayNo.
They’ve mobilized with memes, spreadsheets and hundreds of Instagram accounts created for individual schools. Students across Ontario are rising up against the provincial government’s proposed changes to the education system, which include mandatory e-learning, banned cellphones and increased class sizes likely followed by a loss of teaching jobs.
He’s not gonna be here once we’re leading this nation, so how can we allow him to destroy our opportunities? He wants “resilience?” We’ll show him resilience. 
Opportunities for teens with disabilities via Parks and Recreation (thank you to Director Harris for the heads up):
The OSPREY internship is designed for youth, ages 13-24, who have disabilities. Interns will be directly supervised by Specialized Programs staff and will gain a meaningful job experience working in a summer camp setting. This is a paid internship. Interns will receive a stipend of $1000 upon successful completion. Campers are eligible to apply and will be assigned “on-duty” hours.
Director Community meeting with Director Scott Pinkham on Saturday from 1:00-2:30 pm at Broadview Library.

What's on your mind?

Comments

Ed said…
Swamp really opening wide for Juneau now.

Stand by for several big name exits.

A see what takes those spots.
4/7/19, 4:07 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
4/9/19, 8:53 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Anonymous, you need to give yourself a name. Try again.
4/9/19, 9:22 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more