This and That, October 31, 2024
A very happy and safe Halloween to all!
Anybody "attend" the virtual levies meeting last night? I'd like to hear about the questions asked.
Sacajawea Elementary saw a protest Wednesday and heartbroken parents and students spoke out. Fox13 reports that State Senator Javier Valdez and State Rep Gerry Pollet were in attendance. There was this claim made in the reporting:
They (Seattle Schools) say they're working to build up their enrollment numbers, which would get them more money from the state.
Wait, what? Since when and what exactly are they doing?
Sanislo Elementary in West Seattle is also on the closure list and they also had a protest at their school. Their board director, Gina Topp, showed up to listen. From the West Seattle Blog:
The school has 145 students, according to district data, and is proposed to be merged into Highland Park Elementary, with 276, for a combined population of 421.
It was a diverse crowd – including an immigrant parent who said that after coming to this country “looking for something better,” she discovered a school that was “like a family – received us with open arms.” She also appreciated that Sanislo is a “multicultural school.” The school is 78 percent BIPOC, 74 percent low income. Its staff is diverse too; one of the bilingual teachers who attended the meeting has been at Sanislo for 35 years.
Topp said she was mostly there to listen. Both she and a union rep stressed that there’s not much information yet about how this will all play out – except that the board’s final vote is due in January, after a round of hearings at the four elementaries around the city, including Sanislo, that are proposed for closure. She said she didn’t know yet how she would vote on it. But she stressed that the district’s $94 million budget gap has to be closed somehow – and that the overarching issue is the need for more state funding to fully cover the cost of education.
So even the Board doesn't know the plan yet. And when will they? Because if they are presented an actual plan with details in January, they should not vote yes simply because it's just unfair to those communities. Will the Board have a real discussion? What is sickening is that the district HAS to have a hearing for each school and are district staff really going to show up with no real details around their plan?
Also to note, I appreciate the district trying to move communities intact. However, I think the parents from the closing school should be given at least two choices of where to go and not just the consolidation school.
Seattle Public Schools responded Monday night to GeekWire’s request for more information about the message it sent last week informing families and staff that a grade-viewing app for iOS was not authorized by the district.
The app was developed by a former Seattle Public Schools student, Evan Mazor, and operated successfully by him for more than three years, prior to the district sending its message last week advising users to delete the app.
But the situation changed after the app was acquired last month by a company called GradePro. The company migrated “The Source: SPS” users to its own app, which offers subscriptions including a $7.99 yearly plan.
The district told parents they were aware of the app and that once the app had been monetized and using the SPS name/logo, they took action to make families aware of all of this.
The district does not control which apps are developed and offered by outside entities. Apps accessing our systems or data must be authorized by the district and comply with our vendor agreements. PowerSchool, our official vendor, explicitly prohibits this type of third party app in their use agreement.
SPS strongly advises utilizing only district-approved applications. PowerSchool offers a free and secure mobile app called PowerSchool Mobile. This app provides essential features for students and parents, including real-time tracking of grades, attendance, and more. PowerSchool Mobile is the only approved app for families to view student data hosted on the district’s portal.
GradePro put out a vague response. I'm not impressed and I'm thinking it might be good if parents use the SPS' app.
Marysville School District holds final meeting on potential school closures.
The district said they are not considering any specific schools to close at this time.
Kinda cagey there.
Dr. Dave Burgess, interim superintendent of the Marysville School District, says the district will gather feedback before any decisions are made.
"There are a number of our community members that thought way outside the box and presented ideas honestly we never contemplated before," said Burgess.
He gave an example of an original idea that had come in during the district's feedback sessions.
"The idea of consolidating grades at the high school level, so that we may have 8th and 9th on campus of a current high school and 10, 11, 12 at another single high school," said Burgess.
I'm not sure how that saves money.
Interested in the panel discussion early this week on Seattle Schools? Here's a link. I read some reporting it and have yet to listen to the entire thing. It was sponsored by the Seattle Channel and hosted by Sandeep Kaushik. The panel had former Board director, Michael DeBell, Stephan Blanford, former Board director and Vivian Song, former Board director..
Also, I hope you take time to send a quick note to the Seattle City Council to save Seattle Channel. Apparently Mayor Harrell wants to get rid of it (except for transmission of meetings). They have so much good original programming and it would just be a sad day if they didn't get funding.
CouncilComms@seattle.gov
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