Seattle Schools Community Forum

But first, some good news; there are comfort dogs at Mercer Island High School Finley, a 4-year-old Golden Retriever, and his sidekick, 2-year-old Guinness (also known as Little G.), are a cuddly, calming presence to both students and staff. The dynamic duo are the personal pets of special education teacher Andrea Confalone, who got the idea of bringing in therapy dogs back in 2017. Finley even has his own Instagram page. "Kids are welcome any time, so they can come in and visit with the dogs, and we do some work out in the halls and in the common area at other times," she said. "But for the most part, my classroom is like an open door for kids to come in when they need some additional support and staff as well." Confalone said counselors have brought in kids who are in crisis just to sit with the dogs. Confalone said between periods, the dogs will sit at the door and greet people as they're walking by. "They get a staff photo, and they are in the d...

The district has not reached a contract with Local 302 that serves Seattle Public Schools. If it happens, it would be a tough bunch of first days. This from Westside Seattle: A strike is looking increasingly likely by IUOE 302 workers since they say Seattle Public Schools is not offering an acceptable contract, set to expire Aug. 31. The approximately 400 union members are culinary, custodial, security and gardening workers. That means no school lunches, no trash service, no guards on duty among other impacts. These factors could delay the start of school for an indefinite period. The district serves more than 27,000 meals daily. The union says: "The District finally shared an economic proposal with the Union at our most recent bargaining session on Wednesday, August 23, just 9 days from our contract expiration. It was disrespectful and offensive to our members! After all the thoughtful work done to inform the District of the severe economic impact and strain on our m...

Speaking of well-resourced schools, I saw this article at Edutopia ,  7 Steps for Turning Around Under-Resourced Schools. It was from 2016. Let's look at what the article says to do and how it might apply to Seattle Schools. What I found interesting in the article is their focus on schools, not the districts. So my remarks are going to be mostly district-based but I'd like to hear from parents about what they think of these suggestions in terms of their child's school. 1. Define Success in Phases SPS has created timelines for some work like Student Outcome Focused Governance and the Black Boys Initiative. I think there are two problems, though. One, because of the narrow scope of who benefits, I'm not sure parents are paying attention. Two, the district has only quietly put out updates and that's probably because for the Black Boys initiative, the news is not good. I honestly can't speak to the entirety of what that initiative has accomplished but that's b...

Several weeks back, the Seattle School Board had a meeting which encompassed two items - a policy update and the Board's retreat. The entire thing was to be televised on the district's YouTube channel. The policy issue was for the Board to vote on the revisions to the formerly named Student Rights and Responsibilities (now Basic Rules of Seattle Public Schools ).  The Board had put a vote on this policy on hold several weeks before this meeting. They needed to get a vote in. The Board and Legal cut it down from 60 pages to 48, calling it "scrubbed" of wording that they didn't think had to be put in. However, the recording - audio and video - of the policy discussion/vote didn't work. Somehow, SPS AV staff managed to get the audio and video started up just in time for the entire retreat. So the entire policy discussion and vote was missed but the entire retreat was recorded.  Board office staff said said that they would have a link to the discussion about the...

From the opinion: Hampson first argues that the applicable standard of review is de novo because the Board’s decision was quasi -judicial. We disagree. When the District adopted the MFR Report and required Hampson to review the policy, neither the District nor the Board applied facts to law.  The HIB (harassment, intimidation, bullying) Policy is analogous. There is no applicable law, therefore, no law applied to fact. The application of an internal policy is not a normal function of the courts. There is no binding law for the courts to apply, rather, interpretation of an internal policy. This is a like an administrative adjudication, not a quasi-judicial function. As courts have said many times, the courts of this state are ill equipped to act as super personnel agencies.    Hampson argues that the Board’s actions were arbitrary and capricious because it lacked any...

To preface, here is what I think the district's thinking/planning is for well-resourced schools/closing schools. First, you explain to parents how having this many schools, some of which are terribly underenrolled, is not only costly but is also diluting the pot of money to support all schools.  You do this in a backwards progression, meaning, first dally around with "what are well-resourced schools?" You, as a district, offer no definition yourself but rather, ask parents and community for input. (This does seem to fly in the face of the touted "student voice.") In the district's thoughts, they are VERY careful to use the word "may" everywhere. "A well-resourced school "may" have a full-time librarian" for example. At these community meetings, you ask about what parents experience at their own schools and what might enhance the school experience for their children. You make it very personal to the parents' and their famili...

 And yes, this article comes via the so-called "Education Lab" funded by the Gates Foundation. Ostensibly the article is about how the targeted universalism program in SPS - known as the African American Male Achievement initiative - is doing. What does the Times do? Mostly focus on one SPS student who graduated from Cleveland High School and is interning at a construction company.   If you go to the SPS link above, you'll see there are three phases. The article doesn't say where SPS is in this effort which might have been a basic question to ask since this initiative started in 2019. If I had to guess, I'd say they are Phase 3 - Strategy Development. What does the article say? The district is also trying a new way of measuring progress, something SPS has never done before.  However, measuring test scores remains a core indicator of success for the initiative.  Since 2019, students have not met the district’s targets. (There is no data from 2020 and 2021 beca...

FYI  Theater owners announced Monday that the second annual National Cinema Day will be held Sunday, Aug. 27. For one day, all movies — in all formats and at all showtimes — will be $4 at participating theaters. More than 3,000 theaters are participating, which accounts for most of the cinemas in the U.S., including the leading chains AMC and Regal.  I haven't seen Oppenheimer yet but I can recommend Barbie to everyone. (My only cavet with Barbie is that they made the unfortunate choice of a song when the movie ends that uses the word "bitch" quite a lot. If you don't want your child to hear that, leave right when the movie ends.)

 Hey, look who was at tonight’s Seattle Schools community meeting at Nathan Hale High School. More info to come - it was a good meeting. 

From The Center Square (a new-to-me news source):  Seattle Department of Education expands $4.5M student mental health pilot program The King County Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning,or DEEL, has announced it is expanding its Student Mental Health pilot program services at up to three additional schools beginning this fall. FYI, it's a city department, not a county one. The City is working with King County (Public Health—Seattle & King County (PHSKC). DEEL's press release here. The $4.5 million pilot program, which was launched in May, was conceived of as a partnership between schools, students and community organizations. The first five pilot schools are Aki Kurose Middle School, Rainier Beach High School, Denny Middle School, Chief Sealth High School and Ingraham High School. Each of these pilot schools received $125,000 to implement student focused mental health services in the 2022-23 school year. That funding expires this August. Four select s...

 At the Hacks & Wonks news site , after the August primary, there was a Week in Review discussion with Robert Cruickshank, Chair of Sierra Club Seattle (and long-time public ed advocate)  and Crystal Fincher, a political consultant and host. (The discussion is very near the end of the hour.) They said a bit about the Board races but most of their discussion was about The Stranger. They gave The Stranger kudos for "pinning people down" as a "trusted brand" but they wondered if their endorsements were a double-edged sword. Meaning,The Stranger is a major player in endorsements and maybe it was unhealthy to have that much influence early on when it might "cut off debate."  Readers, what do you think?  School has resumed around the country and apparently, things have changed. From the AP:  Across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. Kids are staying home for myriad reasons — finances, housing ...