Friday Open Thread
May 17th is the cut-off day for candidates to register for public office in Washington State and that includes for Seattle School Board. This is what is known so far:
- In District III, Director Jill Geary will not be running again (she is rumored to be leaving Seattle). There is one person registered with the PDC for her position, Rebeca Muniz. I am hearing that current Seattle Council PTSA president, Chandra Hampson, may be running for that position as well.
- In District I, Director Scott Pinkham's district, parent and engineer Eric Blumhagen, has filed. No word on if Director Pinkham will be running again. Look for many more challengers if Pinkham decides not to run. Update: Pinkham confirmed today that he is not running again. That leaves this race wide open. It will interesting to see who files but Blumhagen's knowledge of the district is one to try to beat.
- In District V, Director Zachary DeWolf has filed to run for City Council in District 3 against current incumbent Kashama Sawant in a field of seven challengers. DeWolf has complained from the dais about the difficulty of having a full-time job and being a director so it's hard to see how he can add running for City Council to his day. August to November are very busy times in SPS and directors need to be available. If he clears the primary, I call for DeWolf to step down from his school board seat in order to have the school communities in his district properly represented. Otherwise, it looks like he wants to hold on to one elected office while chasing another higher elected office. Who does that serve? Well, it's not the the school communities in his district.
- In District VI, Director Leslie Harris has not said if she is running again. I hope so. I think anyone trying to take her on would have a huge challenge. Update: Harris confirmed today that she is running again.
- In District II, Director RickHarris Burke has not said if he is running again. I hope so and good luck to whoever takes him on; he's that good.
I also see that former Board member, Stephan Blanford, is out thumping the drum that yes, the Board did a great job picking Superintendent Denise Juneau, but now, really aren't support her. Huh?
Interesting story from KING-5 about Mulikeo SD's Mariner HS about their ban on cell phones in their school.
Interesting chart from SESEC from a recent survey they did with 600 survey results on how families prefer to get news.
I am disappointed to say that there are no director community meetings tomorrow, Saturday, May 11th.
What's on your mind?
- In District III, Director Jill Geary will not be running again (she is rumored to be leaving Seattle). There is one person registered with the PDC for her position, Rebeca Muniz. I am hearing that current Seattle Council PTSA president, Chandra Hampson, may be running for that position as well.
- In District I, Director Scott Pinkham's district, parent and engineer Eric Blumhagen, has filed. No word on if Director Pinkham will be running again. Look for many more challengers if Pinkham decides not to run. Update: Pinkham confirmed today that he is not running again. That leaves this race wide open. It will interesting to see who files but Blumhagen's knowledge of the district is one to try to beat.
- In District V, Director Zachary DeWolf has filed to run for City Council in District 3 against current incumbent Kashama Sawant in a field of seven challengers. DeWolf has complained from the dais about the difficulty of having a full-time job and being a director so it's hard to see how he can add running for City Council to his day. August to November are very busy times in SPS and directors need to be available. If he clears the primary, I call for DeWolf to step down from his school board seat in order to have the school communities in his district properly represented. Otherwise, it looks like he wants to hold on to one elected office while chasing another higher elected office. Who does that serve? Well, it's not the the school communities in his district.
- In District VI, Director Leslie Harris has not said if she is running again. I hope so. I think anyone trying to take her on would have a huge challenge. Update: Harris confirmed today that she is running again.
- In District II, Director Rick
I also see that former Board member, Stephan Blanford, is out thumping the drum that yes, the Board did a great job picking Superintendent Denise Juneau, but now, really aren't support her. Huh?
Interesting story from KING-5 about Mulikeo SD's Mariner HS about their ban on cell phones in their school.
While other schools in the district are allowed to set their own policies, the strict regulations at Mariner High School have been in place for about 10 years, and they apply to teachers, too.Louisa Boren STEM K-8 has a unique fundraiser.
"Teachers in other schools can't believe we've had such success," Storrs said. "Once it becomes part of the culture of the school, that's just how we roll."
Purchase a LB STEM K-8 is a Safe Place hoodie or t to show your GGLOW OWL Pride and support our LGBTQ+ students, staff and families. All proceeds will go to the PTA purchase more LGBTQ+ books for our library.
Interesting chart from SESEC from a recent survey they did with 600 survey results on how families prefer to get news.
I am disappointed to say that there are no director community meetings tomorrow, Saturday, May 11th.
What's on your mind?
Comments
Simple question here: What are the total costs, explicit and implicit, in using this program each year? It seems the district is renting a curriculum. It seems it does not get to own anything. No textbooks. No hands-on materials. Who pays for the 1 to 1 laptops? Who pays to maintain/service them? Who pays to update that technology, as it inevitable? The assumption that North End schools have ample funds to pay for technology is faulty. My North End middle school does not have enough laptops (or funds to buy more) to do mandated standardized testing, let alone a daily science curriculum.
The board--and our public--needs a full accounting of what they are being asked to approve and buy. If someone is donating something, we need transparency in who is doing that donating and with what strings attached?
No answers? Then no adoption. Period.
Concerned parent
Proof reader
Proof reader2
-Teaser
D3 Res
It “looks” like science curriculum, it’s marketed as if it is science curriculum*, but it’s not how science should be taught per the overwhelming consensus of best practices, per evidence-based learning, or even per common sense.
Caring teachers to support them, engage them, and spark their wonder. Science should be the favorite course of about 50% of kids. Amplify kills this.
Under amplify, my kid literally had to sit and watch water boil.
Equity? Ha! Kids from families with passion/time/money will create workarounds. Just like with Everyday Math (EDM), kids from fortunate families got their math around the kitchen table or at Kumon. One mom told me last year during the pilot, when she saw firsthand how awful the simulations were, she signed her kid up for science summer school. Both her and her husband work in tech. They are middle class. Not rich, privileged or white. But passionate and dedicated about seeing to their kids education. Have they written the board? No. They’re too exhausted. And they said it won’t change anything anyway.
The board can fool themselves as much as they want, and staff can lie as much as they want, and Juneau can spout platitudes as much as she wants, but when the rubber hits the road, kids who didn’t get an outside science boost either through MESA or summer school or kumon or kitchen table will flame out on the college entrance tests. They are the ones who are screwed. The SpEd kids, the F&RL kids, the ones who already suffer from institutionalized racism/ableism.
Amplify will drive the societal division between the educational have and have-nots WIDER.
The Amplify groupthink/shaming is so utterly ridiculous.
My kid has already been screwed by two years of amplify. Seems folks don’t want to hear from parents and students who’ve endured it. The pushback has been to call us out as white in middle class. Sorry? What does that have to do with supporting excellent science for all kids?
debauched
* what amplify really is? It’s a vacuum aimed at sucking up public money in perpetuity. After nine years, we have nothing, the lease expires, and the switching cost will be exorbitant, it is designed that way: bait the hook (free 20 school pilot), get us on the hook (cross policy and RCW boundaries to manipulate an adoption), then make it next impossible to exit.
( you know there are some online consortiums who produce excellent curricular materials for free right? It doesn’t have to be this way!)
Scallywag
If you have a specific issue then by all means get out there and let the city know, but running as a fixer will end in big zero it always does.
What a waste of energy and money.
Rise repeat
D3 res
https://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Enrollment%20Planning/Maps/DirectorDistricts/DirectorDistrict_portrait_2018%203.pdf
According to the school board web site District 3 is:
Bryant
Decatur
Eckstein
Laurelhurst
McGilvra
Middle College at U of W Campus
Montlake
Roosevelt
Sand Point
Thornton Creek
TOPS
View Ridge