Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Two items to note in advance of the meeting. One, if you follow history, November 19, 1863 was the day that President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. It followed the Battle of Gettysburg, a three-day fight that saw over 50,000 combined casualties. That is more than any battle in American history.  President Lincoln said that "the world will little or long remember what we say here" but he was wrong.  He said: " Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."   He ended by saying: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."  I hope we can find a way to endure as the "United" States of America. Two, the district is NOT happy with the verdict from the Meany ...

That job would be trying to understand why the district protects principals and teachers who are problematic. But also, how to create contracts with those two groups so that they do have protections but making sure everyone knows the acceptable parameters of behavior.  I bring this up because it is all so baffling from the outside to understand what happens at JSCEE when there is a complaint against a teacher or principal. For example, my understanding is that especially at the elementary level, each school's principal gets to decide whether to excuse a travel absence for a student. I can get not wanting to put a teacher in the position to have to do extra work (in organizing missed assignments for a student) because that student went to Disneyland. But where exactly is the line for excusing absences and how do parents know what that is? I know that some parents at different schools have compared notes and some resent that their principal is more hard-nosed than another school...

Update: Via The Seattle Times : Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 nationally ranked boys basketball recruit, has enrolled at Rainier Beach for his high school senior season and was on campus Thursday, according to multiple reports.   The 6-7, 230-pound small forward joins a decorated program that went 28-3 last season en route to winning its 10th state title. We've heard this story many times from RBHS as well as from Nathan Hale HS and from Garfield HS and it doesn't always turn out well. But always, best of luck to RBHS. Re Stokes: Stokes is eligible to play for Rainier Beach per the WIAA rulebook’s section 18.12.2.1, which requires “a student whose transfer to a new school or school district is based on a bona fide change of residence to a new school or school district due to an actual physical relocation of and with the entire family unit to a different residence and coupled with termination of all occupancy of their previous residence.” Stokes withdrew from Notre Dame in Sherman Oa...

Grrrrr. Really, it's generally just me and Chris Jackins who ask hard questions about the spending of the capital levies known as BEX and BTA (Building Excellence and Buildings, Technology, and Athletics/Academics). But folks, I believe it is the ultimate slush fund for the district and it's wrong. You might ask how can it be a slush fund when voters are told what the dollars will be used for? Because there are dollars from many past BEX and BTA levies. The district does NOT spend all of it. Some comes from "underspend" but my belief is that they hold on to dollars to get interest from it and keep that capital pot o' dollars going. (I have a hard time believing there is much "underspend" given how often Capital asks for overrun dollars from the Board. The district rarely gives a final overview of costs for each project.) I understand having some capital funds as a rainy day solution but there are schools with real and ongoing maintenance issues and they ...

Activist SPS parent Albert J. Wong wrote this piece on his Medium page ,  The Stranger Should Cover SPS Consistently or Consider NOT Endorsing in Seattle School Board Races Basically, Until The Stranger   demonstrates a deeper understanding of the school district and consistently tracks the impact of its endorsements there, you should recuse yourselves from endorsing school board candidates entirely . I concur with what he says. I tried to reach out to The Stranger's editor in late summer to talk about Board endorsements. I never heard back (and I had something of an intro from someone connected to The Stranger). And the stats he gives about The Stranger and Board elections is stunning.  (If you have not heard of Wong before, he is data wonk (akin to former director Eden Mack) and a good one.  He also has a website - SPS By the Numbers - with a lot of data on SPS.  When I reached voting age, my older classmates told me to start every election with the “Election...

 I missed this and TODAY, the 11th, is the last day to apply. Seattle Public Schools is starting a School Day Task Force to take a close look at how the school day is organized for all grade levels. This group will review topics like lunch schedules, start and end times, and ways to better support students’ learning, safety, extracurricular activities, and peer connections during the school day.  We are looking for students, families, teachers, school leaders, and community members from elementary, middle, and high schools to join us in this work. The task force will meet 1-2 times a month from December through May, mostly online. We want to hear your experiences and ideas to help shape recommendations for the future.   Apply by Tuesday, Nov. 11:   School Day Task Force Application   Thank you for helping us build a better school day experience for every student!  The district has an announcement   on the nomination for Ben Shuldiner to be the ne...