Oh Look, "Community Engagement Meetings" on "Well-Resourced Schools"

From SPS (finally):

Dear SPS families and staff,

You are invited to join Seattle Public Schools (SPS) for an upcoming community meeting. During these meetings, senior leaders will share information about the proposed plan for creating a system of well-resourced schools that serve students in kindergarten through 5th grade.

A system of well-resourced elementary schools will create a new foundation of stability and consistency that our students and staff need to thrive. 

May and June Community Meetings Dates

To ensure SPS families have the greatest opportunity to take part, each meeting will present the same information in locations around our district.

The schedule for well-resourced schools staff meetings will soon be shared with SPS staff.

Saturday, May 25, 10:30 a.m. - noon, Garfield High School, 400 23rd Ave.
Tuesday, May 28, 6 - 7:30 p.m., Roosevelt High School, 1410 NE 66th St.
Saturday, June 1, 10:30 a.m. - noon, Chief Sealth International High School, 2600 SW Thistle St.
Tuesday, June 4, 6 - 7:30 p.m., Zoom meeting


Translation and interpretation services (American Sign Language (ASL), Amharic, Cantonese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese) will be provided at each meeting based on request. After the online meeting, a recording will be posted to the district website.

We hope you can join us! Take a moment to RSVP or send us your questions. Please complete the form to request accommodation for the meetings.

Our goal is that all schools would include the elements that many of our families, staff, and students said were important during the Well-Resourced Schools Engagement Sessions last fall and earlier this spring.

You can read more about this work, including the well-resourced schools elements on our well-resourced schools webpage. Thank you for joining us for these important conversations!

Sincerely,

Bev Redmond
Chief of Staff
Seattle Public Schools
 

  • Four meetings and not a one in the NW/SE. I have to wonder why those regions would be left out. 
  • These are JUST for parents? That seems odd but perhaps divide and conquer is their plan.  
  • Kind of odd that the dates are on the district calendar but there is no link to any info on the SPS homepage. As well, no tweet about it. 
  • "Send us your questions" I'll lay odds that is performative language and if you ask any pointed or negative question, they will not answer it. There is a FAQ on the "well-resourced schools page." If I were a parent, I would agitate for ALL questions to be answered. 
  • As someone else pointed out, that May 28th meeting comes right on the heels of Memorial Day. Not great.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Perhaps it is time for parents to organize their own meetings and invite the district to attend. Get 200 parents together so they can talk and learn and plan, with their own agenda. If big enough, the district couldn’t ignore it, and it would make for some juicy media. It’s past time to take control of the narrative.

Counter Programming
Demian said…
“Well resourced schools” is what they’re calling a plan to close 20+ schools!?
Siri, what’s an example of gaslighting?
Counter Programming, it would be great if the SCPTSA would step up and organize this. Hard to believe they will just stand by and just blindly support this plan. I like their current president so let's see.

And, director Topp did say if there was "a massive outcry" against this, they could hit the pause button.

Demain, it sickens me that they want to frame this with happy talk. I can tell you from the last time that there was real pain and grief and that the district doesn't want to truly acknowledge that is wrong.
Benjamin Lukoff said…
And, director Topp did say if there was "a massive outcry" against this, they could hit the pause button.

But, she's new. I'm guessing she doesn't speak for the board....?
Benjamin, even the president doesn't speak for the Board unless the majority agrees with whatever statement.

When Director Topp said this, she got dead silence which was no surprise to me. I hope other directors do NOT act like sheep and listen to their constituents.
dj said…
"Send us your questions" is not what I would describe as community engagement, and it seems that this is one-direction transmission of information that presumably could be transmitted in a document as opposed to delivered via a presentation.
From Stuart J

I think the even bigger question is what ‘s the cost of whatever is built. 4 bedrooms at 2 million? Irrelevant for adding families. 4 at $600K ? a lot more likely. But keeping 200K in income going while having kids is hard.

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