Seattle Schools Community Forum

Signing off for a short period of time for personal time in Seattle (yes, I see it might snow Saturday night, fun). Sadly, I won't be able to attend the Board's three-hour special meeting tomorrow on their Goals for the district. (Apparently there is also to be an executive session as well.) It appears it will be roughly 2 hours for the Goals and Guardrails and 1 hour for the executive session. Checking in with the agenda I am quite surprised to see they expect people to testify on this. What!? I saw no notice that this was part of this meeting. I suspect they will get little input.  For the Goals and Guardrails there are four amendments, three from Director Liza Rankin and two from Director Sarah Clark. On the Board Policy 0020, Goals for the District, the agenda states, " This item will be updated prior to action: Goals to be added pending additional Board discussion." For each Board-adopted Goal and Guardrail, the Superintendent will establish one to three interim...

A group of Option School parents have formed a new group, the Seattle Student Options Coalition. The group also encourages teachers and interested community members. Basically, they want to keep Option Schools and alternative programs open and alive. For over fifty years, Seattle Public Schools has nurtured innovative educational programs designed to provide schools and programs that responded to the diverse needs and interests of Seattle’s families. These schools have been known as alternative, option, magnet, STEM, HCC, dual language immersion, K-8, and Creative Approach schools, and they have served many different roles within changing enrollment and choice assignment plans. These intentional school communities, built in close partnership between educators and families, have provided vital examples for innovative instructional practices that continue to make a difference in classrooms across Seattle. We call on Seattle Public Schools to renew its commitment to these option schools, ...

 Advocacy letter from the Garfield High School PTSA to parents on pressuring the Legislature to fully fund public education. It covers a lot of important ground so I have nothing to add besides how legislators DO count the number of times they get input on any given bill.  DEAR GARFIELD COMMUNITY MEMBER, We want to thank State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D-43rd District) for taking the time during the busy legislative season to come to the  PTSA Meeting  in the GHS library last week, and brief the school community about the state budget situation and the implication for funding education. Basically, it doesn’t look great, and hence it’s more important than ever to ask legislators to prioritize school funding. We came to understand, in a nutshell, that specific education bills pending in the Legislature will help address gaps in current funding plans and formulas, in ways that go beyond the targeted activities and populations. These offset costs will l...

Update: From an editorial in this morning's Times on school funding: But here’s the rub: The McCleary school funding plan of 2017 capped the amount schools are allowed to request of their home communities in levies. Lawmakers instituted this rule in the name of fairness, to ensure that fundraising in wealthier areas, like Seattle, did not soar beyond that of less affluent regions. As a result, however, districts are hamstrung. Seattle, for example, is asking voters to pass two levies at rates well beyond what the state allows, banking on the Legislature to change school funding laws. I had not heard that SPS was asking for more in their levies than they legally can. That's some nerve. So now they not only have to pass their levies, they also have to cross their fingers that the Legislature comes through. end of update   As I usually endorse, I say vote YES on the Operations levy and NO on the BEX levy.  The Operations levy is absolutely crucial to the running of Seattle...

Update 2: I asked SPD for the police report and associated info. Here’s what I learned. 1) The intruder, Youngmin Choi, is about 32 years old.  2) He has been arrested a couple of times previously for burglary and trespass at a business.  3) The first SPD unit was sent out at 1:26 pm and arrived at RHS at 1:32 pm. The principal’s second email says the incident started around 1:20 pm so I would guess they called SPD right away.  4) One news report said that the man was somewhat known to office staff as he had come in a few times before. SPD says there are no other reports about him from RHS. Meaning, if he came into the building previously, staff got him out but did not report it to SPD.  RHS did call district security for this incident; this is noted in the police report. I have no idea if they reported the other times this man came to the building to SPS Security. I find this troubling.  5) The police report says 911 said this (partial) " UNK MALE IN 1ST FLOOR...

Update 3: The Board - without explanation - started the meeting 45 minutes late. They had been in an executive session prior to the meeting so I surmise they ran late there.  New president Gina Topp noted that former director Jan Kumasaka died. She was native to the Puget Sound region until 1942 when she was four and her family was removed and sent to an internment camp in California.  The family did return to Seattle where Kumasaka graduated from Franklin High School. She was the first Asian American woman on the Seattle School Board and served from 1997-2005. She was an advocate for bilingual education.  I recall her as tough but fair.  Superintendent Brent Jones comments included that he and some Board members had attended a Washington State School Directors Association conference last week as well as the upcoming Black Lives Matter at School Week. The student directors read a proclamation on behalf of the latter.  I was unable to find this proclamation at th...