Seattle Schools Community Forum

Updates: The USDA is making changes to school meals.    - For the first time, added sugars will be limited in school meals nationwide, with small changes happening by Fall 2025 and full implementation by Fall 2027. -  Schools can continue to offer flavored and unflavored milk, which provide essential nutrients that children need, such as calcium, vitamin D and potassium. There will be a new limit on added sugars in flavored milk served at breakfast and lunch by Fall 2025.   -  Schools will need to slightly reduce sodium content in their meals by Fall 2027. - While not a new requirement, starting in Fall 2024 it will be easier for schools to serve protein-rich breakfast foods such as yogurt, tofu, eggs, nuts, and seeds, which can help reduce sugary food options, while also supporting vegetarian diets and other food preferences. - Also starting in Fall 2024, schools have the option to require unprocessed agricultural products to be locally grown, ra...

A story from PBS about improving middle schools made me smile: In classrooms off the hallway, clusters of kids from grades six to eight worked on wood carvings, scrapbooks, paintings and podcasts, while their teachers stood by to answer questions or offer suggestions. For two hours, the students roamed freely among rooms named for their purpose — the maker space, the study, the hub — pausing for a 15-minute “brain break” at the midway point of the session. Welcome to Community Lab School, a tiny public charter that is trying to transform the way middle schoolers are taught in the Albemarle School District — and eventually the nation. Experts say students should also be given “voice and choice” — allowed to pick projects and partners, when appropriate. Here, learning is project-based, multi-grade and interdisciplinary. There are no stand-alone subjects, other than math; even in that subject, students are grouped not by grade, but by their areas of strength and weakness. In t...

Reading thru the Seattle Schools Board meeting agenda, I see an irony given today's heated debate over the Israel/Gaza war.  SPS has scheduled a high school graduation on a Muslim holiday and people are unhappy and want it changed. (Spoiler alert; that would be hard to do now.) I recall several years back when Jewish parents were upset because kindergarten started on a Jewish holiday and they were unhappy and wanted it changed.  Given the diversity, in SPS, my understanding is SPS tries to be aware of religious holidays but cannot always accommodate all of them. Something of a rock and a hard place situation.

One is an opt-out letter to refuse for your child to do state testing . Parents may have many reasons to opt their student out and it is allowed by law in Washington State to do so. The other item is a webinar from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; Join us on Monday, May 6 at 8 PM ET; 7 PM CT; 6PM MT. Find out how you can ensure your children's personal data including their test scores are NOT sold by the College Board or ACT. Here's a registration link.

 The Seattle School Board will have their regularly schedule Board meeting tonight, starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda Public Testimony It appears the majority of comments will be coming from Muslim students who are unhappy that Cleveland High School's graduation is scheduled on a Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha. I'm a little surprised that staff didn't check this. The only available date to switch would be with Ballard HS which is the only graduation scheduled before June 17th.  There are several speakers on ELL and equity. One is City of SeaTac Councilmember, James W. Lovell. There are 12 people on the waitlist, the majority wanting to speak about the graduation date.    Consent Agenda - acceptance of about $1.5M from the Department of Education to help pilot a new program for Special Education students, Charting My Path for Future Success. The piloting would take place at Rainier Beach HS, Ingraham HS, Cleveland HS, and Chief Sealth International HS. The study is to "d...

 From a reader comment: Desperate parent here trying to connect with others in the same boat.   Is no one going to talk about the school choice waitlist for next year?   Why is this school admin a joke? I'm thinking this reader meant the district administration but waitlists are a continuing issue for many parents.  It appears that it never seems clear to parents how they work, do schools have any autonomy over them (I suspect they do) and why it has to be so byzantine?    A comment on Facebook: The language on the website is changed to now suggest that if you want to go to your pathway school that you have to choose it during school choice (whereas with my older it was an automatic assignment from pathway elementary to pathway middle). I tried to get clarification but got no response, so I just went ahead and did school choice to get my current pathway elementary to pathway middle, so I don't know if my kid wouldn't have been assigned had I not done...

 Update 2: Footage from the West Seattle blog on the West Seattle HS walkout which they number at 50.  The comments are equal between "good for the kids speaking out" and "the kids are being led astray by terrorists."  From KOMO-tv, they note that multiple times, kids tried to block the cameras.  The Seattle Times put the crowd at about 150. They had this which I think is a valid comment from a Garfield High student: Leo McKenna, a 16-year-old Garfield sophomore, said he was there for a simple reason: "I decided to show up because I think that civilians dying is bad." "I support neither Hamas nor the Israeli government,” he said. “I don't want civilians to die. That's it. I am pro-civilian." Amen to that. Anyone have news from their student's high school? Update: A statement from Seattle Schools spokeperson, Bev Redmond: We have received several reports of Seattle Public Schools students planning to take part in a statewide...

 I am going to sit in on the brief Board "special meeting" today on the process of curriculum adoption in Washington State. I did ask about any attached documentation but I received no answer and there is still nothing there. But I did want to note something that came up rather quickly - one day's notice - of an "Open House" on the renovation of Memorial Stadium. I first saw this in a tweet and was surprised I had not seen it at the district's calendar. But the Board office sends out THEIR calendar and an update was sent out on the 16th for this open house and a possible quorum of directors attending. The link the Board office provided is just a general website about the renovation with no scheduled events. As well, this event was not on Seattle Center's calendar. However, it does say under Community Engagement: Initial outreach began in 2022 with student and cultural groups, Seattle Center staff and resident organizations, tribal representatives, Vet...

I see the Board has a curious "special meeting" for tomorrow. It's a half-hour meeting about: Board Development 4:30 p.m.* • Overview of Curriculum Adoption Process in Washington State Adjourn 5:00 p.m. There is no documentation attached.  I'm thinking, due to the brevity of this meeting, this is just some kind of legally required overview for the benefit of all the newbies on the Board. Curriculum adoption is a lot more complex than a half-hour meeting. It's a little sad that the Board is giving this topic so little when, if they did it right, it would be a good time for parents, students and the public to understand this process. And remember the real discourse over the last science adoption? It was pretty rough and tumble but it was meaty and everything was laid out on the table. Under the Student Outcome Focused Governance, you will never see that again.    Holy Smokes! Real facilities issues at Franklin High School. From KOMO News: Broken down bathrooms, ...

Interesting story from The Seattle Times on Seattle Schools' declining enrollment. The article does include a questionnaire from the Times so do let them know your thoughts. The Seattle school system lost nearly 4,000 students in about five school years, and the district’s most optimistic projections do not forecast a significant rebound in the next decade. Now, SPS is hoping that a $100,000 state grant to conduct a survey and do other market research will help it understand why families are opting out — or not enrolling their children in its schools in the first place — and find ways to attract and keep families and students. Oh so now, the district is actually trying to figure it out in a real way?  And, they finally admit it's not just housing costs or lower birthrate: Fred Podesta, the district’s chief operations officer, said SPS will likely use the grant, secured in this year’s legislative session , to understand why it was getting fewer kindergarten- and elementa...

Linda Jacobson writes for   The 74 , an education news site, and is interested in talking to families about   Check Yourself   — a mental health survey that several King County school districts give to middle school students.  Some people, including parents, have complained for years that there are privacy risks. Others say they're not too concerned.  Linda is just looking for more input, especially from parents whose children recently took the survey. Or from a parent who opted out.    You can reach her at   linda@the74million.org

A parent has let me know about this transgression that should trouble all SPS parents. Here's what happened. In January of 2020, a Garfield parent received a call from then Vice Principal Gregory Barnes. She was told her child had been accosted by Barnes and asked to come to his office. Also in the office was the former Resource Officer, Rosel Ellis, a Seattle Police officer. Ted Howard II was the principal in school year 2019-2020. I can't discuss the issue at hand for that day. However, the parents of the student were not happy about the events of that day and, later in the year,  began asking for more information about that situation. In the course of doing that, the public disclosure officer of the SPS legal department received requests from the parents in August 2021 that included Vice Principal Barnes' emails. In fulfilling that request, the public disclosure officer had found that in February 2021, Vice Principal Barnes at downloaded 1903 student transcripts. Onto hi...

One issue is the financial situation for Seattle Schools. According to the last Budget Work Session held during the last Board meeting: SPS faces a projected deficit of $104M - $111 million for 2024-2025.  I am unsure what raised that amount that had been $104M to $111M but it's not good news.  Now SPS is suggesting an "interfund loan " where the district would "borrow" about $25-35M from the Capital side to shift to Operations. And "to be repaid by June 30, 2026." (This is a legal option via state law.)  The district hasn't even made a move to repay the rainy day fund they used up and we are to believe they will repay this money? I'm absolutely against this so that means SPS is likely to do it. (Not meaning I have sway but I tend to not agree with many SPS moves.)  I also see "Capital fund interest" which I would be okay with if only because Capital monies seem to have a whiff of being a slush fund.  Looking at the district timel...

 Here's the list of days when national parks are free ! The next one coming up is Saturday, April 20th.    Just viewed the oath of office for the two new Board directors , Sarah Clark and Joe Mizrahi. They both made statements. Clark spoke about fighting rush hour traffic on less than 24 hours notice to be there. (To note, the date of the oath had been up for nearly a week.) She spoke vaguely of overcoming being separated from her parents at birth and childhood PTSD.  She said she was looking forward to listening and learning from communities and advocating for more state funding. She said she wanted to do "a deep dive" into Board policies. As well, she didn't want to continue the status quo. Mizrahi said he was speaking from the heart in saying that the process had allowed him to talk to so many people about education. He said there are big issues but that SPS has a lot to offer.  He said he was joining a board that is taking on opportunity gaps and "not shyi...

Per usual, this Special meeting did not start on-time. The number of times any given Board meeting has not started on time - within 5 minutes of stated time - grows and grows. I find it disrespectful. So I missed that they are discussing the candidates in Executive Session and THEN voting at the Board meeting. I'm not sure that was made clear. So we don't get to hear any of their reasoning for their choice.  President Liza Rankin ends Special Meeting at 4:27 pm.  Board Meeting - also not starting on-time. I think when directors are not present there should be an explanation (travel, ill, etc) because otherwise it looks like they can't be bothered to attend the business meeting of their group. And, given they are down to 1-2 Board meetings per month, why not? President Liza Rankin starts the Board meeting at 4:39 pm.  So that Special Meeting "when longer than scheduled." Hmmm. Couldn't find agreement on new members? Superintendent Comments Work Session on Budg...

It has become apparent that in filling the two empty Seattle School Board seats, the Board directors are not interested in public input. In fact. they haven't said if they are listening to anyone except maybe some students and, oddly, the Superintendent.  Brent Jones should have zero input on what is a public matter.  So I'm providing this link (yes, I know that they vote tomorrow). I urge you to give them your thoughts because this it becomes part of the public record. And there should be a record of how many people wrote to the Board to give their insights and input. You can either email - spsdirectors@seattleschools.org or  use their "Feedback for Board Directors" fill-in comment section at the Board webpage.

The first item is that Rainier View Elementary's beleagued principal, Anitra Jones, was transferred out of the school to JSCEE.  The district says it's a " temporary assignment ." Just to note, she deserves to give her story about events at the school. However, given the volume and groups complaining about her, it might seem plausible that she was a less-than-effective principal. From the Seattle Times: (bold mine) “I’m a little relieved, and I am a little surprised,” said Hala Mana’o, the school’s PTSA president, who said the group was still hearing “heartbreaking” experiences from families connected to the school. “But I am hoping that it’s a step toward a place where we all want to go. Let’s move forward …. Let’s be curious about investigating the experiences of people.” “I hope that at the center of all of these things is the voices and experiences of our families and our teachers, as well as the actions of this administrator,” he said. “ That’s at the co...