Seattle Schools Community Forum

  From The Seattle Times: Health officials are warning people to avoid the 4200 block of 23rd Avenue West in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood, due to elevated levels of lead. The concerns come after Seattle Public Utilities in July collected samples from the road along that block, as well as a stormwater catch basin along 23rd Avenue West, according to a blog post by Public Health — Seattle & King County. After additional testing this month to confirm findings of elevated lead, a contractor is working to clean up the contamination, and perform more environmental testing. What to Do While cleanup work takes place, Public Health — Seattle & King County is recommending that pedestrians use other routes around the 4200 block of 23rd Avenue West, between West Elmore Street and West Commodore Way. The agency cautioned that people should also avoid the alley between 22nd Avenue West and 23rd Avenue West, if possible. “Lead-contaminated dust can be carried on shoes and on stroller a...

One big thing that did happen when Seattle Schools' teachers went on strike in 2015 was the organic creation of the group, Soup for Teachers. From Seattle Magazine: During the strike, groups of parents used social media to coordinate food, coffee and support for the teachers’ six days on the picket line. Some even joined the picket lines, citing common interests, such as a guarantee that students would get recess.   In terms of galvanizing parents, the strike did its job. Part of its success came from the slew of attention it drew; after all, Seattle teachers had not gone on strike since the 1980s. What’s more, picketing teachers hit on hot-button issues in education. The Huffington Post, National Public Radio, The New York Times and other media covered the strike, drawing the attention of more disengaged parents. But parents specifically mentioned the teachers’ push for recess as one of the reasons they were drawn to support the strike.   “[The teachers] weren’t out here just...

I have not one, not two, but three budget analyses about SPS' budget. Finance is not my forte so I am very grateful for this in the weeds, in-depth work. First to note is parent Albert Wong (and new advisor for the Board's Finance Committee) who has his own section on Reddit.  He has two threads of interest there. One is his " SPS Simulator: Who or What Would You Axe (in the SPS budget)? You TOO can DOGE the world. Cut the Superintendent first! Or just cut electricity. What you'll find is that you can cut nearly ALL of central staff and only just start closing the budget deficit. You can do a little "better" if you just ignore the fact that our Economic Stablization Account is 0. Or you can disable the budget fill and just continue our dive into bankruptcy at the current rate. Whatever you want! The key point: we clearly have bloat . But our deficit is HUGE. We need to pressure to remove the bloat, not just cause of money but cause it causes problems and is ...