tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post9144476083499510029..comments2024-03-29T02:41:52.718-07:00Comments on Seattle Schools Community Forum: Elections Results; 1B Passes, 1351 Barely LosingMelissa Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-5741070918911534152014-11-06T16:28:53.368-08:002014-11-06T16:28:53.368-08:00Melissa and I kept calling attention to the fact t...Melissa and I kept calling attention to the fact that 1B was of major importance to the city, but the campaipgn was funded at $150. Endorsements were obtained and procharter/TfA folks filled the campaign chest.<br /><br />The city/campaign kept a lot of information out of the public eye regarding P20 etc.Transparency Pleasenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-22044683051459062222014-11-06T16:11:57.546-08:002014-11-06T16:11:57.546-08:00I will add onto Eyes wideopen now, the city has cr...I will add onto Eyes wideopen now, the city has created a plan to further divide community.<br /><br />What!(?) You don't want to support poor prek children to give them a chance in life.<br /><br />I also believe that the Preschool for "All" and "Universal" preschool message was originally put-out to brand the city's prek. Late in the election, the name of the campaign was called Quality Prek.<br /><br />Lastly, Ed Murray was the guy in the legislature during the biggest cuts to education in history. He also failed to broker deals while having enormous power in Olympia. Yet, he is the FIRST to talk about schools failing.Transparency Pleasenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-15513113335125046452014-11-06T14:19:16.577-08:002014-11-06T14:19:16.577-08:00When a democratic governor gives away 9 billion in...When a democratic governor gives away 9 billion in tax cuts to a multi-national corporation blackmailing us citizens, it's pretty clear that "democrats" as we once knew them, are dead and gone. <br /><br />The only saving grace we have anymore is that each party's greed, stupidity and moral bankruptcy will eventually drive them off the cliff, and we'll see revolts like last Tuesday. Methinks 'twas a vote against, not in favor. <br /><br />WSDWGAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-47851813118537300942014-11-06T14:13:16.290-08:002014-11-06T14:13:16.290-08:00Well put @eyeswide opennow. The same money that r...Well put @eyeswide opennow. The same money that runs Repubs runs the Dems these days. We vote over the marginal differences between the parties, but it's Pepsi vs. Coke, not Pepsi vs. Water or even Sprite. One must dig deep to find any real differences, and even then, they are small and insignificant. <br /><br />I love this, btw: "Tim Burgess sent an e-mail and stated that the city does not need space within SPS. Let' s hold his feet to the fire."<br /><br />Could it be that Burgess is so confident that Charters will invade under Mayoral Control that he's talking about space that will no longer be under SPS's umbrella, perhaps? That's what I'd be looking at. Let the pillaging begin. <br /><br />WSDWGAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-35072774627310509542014-11-06T14:03:02.970-08:002014-11-06T14:03:02.970-08:00eyeswide opennow has nailed it. Seattle pols and ...eyeswide opennow has nailed it. Seattle pols and school district are the billionaires' sandbox and we mere mortals are the cat turds.mirmac1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10183460709639638172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-21240925516730878382014-11-06T13:33:22.107-08:002014-11-06T13:33:22.107-08:00Mellisa, I don't think that 1B passed because ...Mellisa, I don't think that 1B passed because Seattle folks are generous. It passed because:<br /><br />--the democratic party leadership actively rallied the party faithfuls behind it BECAUSE 1B gives the Mayor "skin in the game." They ARE pushing for the City to have more control over SPS, and this is their awesomely strategic toehold. The same people who have been starving our education system for decades while giving corporations and the uber wealthy huge tax breaks have taken over the narrative and are in control of our democratic party leadership (and LEV and the Alliance for Education). And all that money buys really skilled people and THE NARRATIVE (which shouldn't be confused with the truth). <br />--They lied to voters. Burgess kept repeating that "if you vote this in, and you make under $71k a year, your child will have access to free QUALITY preschool." They kept calling it "universal" and "preschool for all" even though it wasn't. They lied and it is a great sound bite.<br />--They rigged the ballot language from the very beginning.<br />--They have very skilled political consultants who worked the endorsements early on, and most importantly the Stranger endorsed it and told everyone that you will be helping that poor little black kid and you should be ashamed of yourself if you don't want to give up your latte a day. What, you you call yourself a liberal? It's for the kids! Never mind that the truth is that it will further damage our public schools by taking more resources away, and only serves a fraction of the kids who need it, and huge $$$ goes to administration, not the kids. Never mind that the City didn't actually involve SPS in the planning for this. Reality doesn't matter when you've got awesome lies and guilt trips to leverage. <br />--People don't realize that the democratic party leadership in Seattle are actually anti-democratic teacher and union bashers who are in the back pocket of uber wealthy conservatives who are actively fighting against funding education and think of our kids as little robots to be programmed. And it is hard to believe it until you see it in action. But we the people are tiny in comparison to the amount of money that has purchase our government over the past 10 years. <br />--People don't have the space for critical thinking anymore, and while 1B is bad legislation for so many reasons, the lies and guilt trip worked to get people who think they are liberal to vote for it. <br /><br />Our system is corrupted. Even our democratic party leadership are pushing a republican agenda and it's all a f-ing superb marketing machine. <br /><br />eyeswide opennowAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-10368377742345620412014-11-06T08:47:26.076-08:002014-11-06T08:47:26.076-08:00Question, well, downtown parents could send their ...Question, well, downtown parents could send their children there; it practically the closest school to downtown. But I suspect a 95% poverty rate may scare them off.<br /><br />I think the unevenness of who signs up for the City's pre-k program will show up in outcomes for classrooms around the city.Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-2977605022842818902014-11-06T08:39:22.255-08:002014-11-06T08:39:22.255-08:00@election over
I don't know if the city is pl...@election over<br /><br />I don't know if the city is playing any role in it, but Native American families can soon get pre-school through the program at Daybreak Start center, which will be opening in January through an ECEAP grant from the state.Ragweedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12491896585801927302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-83987959592650008252014-11-05T22:43:58.026-08:002014-11-05T22:43:58.026-08:00Bailey Gatzert is slated to get a prek which will ...Bailey Gatzert is slated to get a prek which will be turned over to the city.<br /><br />I don't know the area, but Bailey Gatzert is very low income. How many middle and upper middle families live in that area to create a mixed socioeconomic classroom?Questionnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-16382792711106942592014-11-05T22:35:10.519-08:002014-11-05T22:35:10.519-08:00Lastly, I don't understand why we need THREE d...Lastly, I don't understand why we need THREE different levels of bureaucracy being involved in prek. We have the feds, state and now city government. Any wonder why the entire country is turning Republican?Biggest Picturenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-68610175168208238082014-11-05T22:33:27.252-08:002014-11-05T22:33:27.252-08:00"Instead it appears at a high level most pare..."Instead it appears at a high level most parents think pre-school is a good idea and that just like k-12 that it should be part of public education. <br /><br />Who cares about the battles between the district and the city for control"<br /><br />The city's plan is a Cadillac preschool/ child care to be funded at $10k per child. It has been estimated costs will rise to $15K per child. This is a nonsustainable dream and we aren't fully paying for K-12.<br /><br />Shall we also talk about the fact that the city is a completely different governing body than a school board? Shall we talk about the fact that Burgess supports mayoral control of education and Murray had previously drafted legislation for appointed school boards. I, for one, very much care about those that control our education system.<br /><br />In regard to the city mismanaging the prek program, you may want to consider that the city will be combining staff from the Health and Human Service Department, which, I might add, recently had a horrible audit.Biggest Picturenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-50132509439806463982014-11-05T22:22:01.951-08:002014-11-05T22:22:01.951-08:00There was discussions about opening-up the Magnoli...There was discussions about opening-up the Magnolia property. This is a small school. Any chance the district/city wants to use that site for prek? Of course, how many low income kids live on top of Magnolia hill?Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-54431737508303808972014-11-05T22:19:56.890-08:002014-11-05T22:19:56.890-08:00Tim Burgess sent an e-mail and stated that the cit...Tim Burgess sent an e-mail and stated that the city does not need space within SPS. Let' s hold his feet to the fire.<br /><br />We're hearing stories that children must rush through lunch to accommodate capacity issues. Georgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-25410663112131311642014-11-05T16:40:18.513-08:002014-11-05T16:40:18.513-08:00Election Over, there's one more issue about 1B...Election Over, there's one more issue about 1B.<br /><br />Who gets in? WILL low-income kids get a bump to get in? And what about the notation in the City's "Action Plan" that kids in the neighborhood where the preschool class is located get first dibs (if your neighborhood doesn't have one, too bad.) <br /><br />Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-47836449367522732562014-11-05T14:59:55.941-08:002014-11-05T14:59:55.941-08:00partial repost...
Preschool passed, and of the tw...partial repost...<br /><br />Preschool passed, and of the two 1b passed<br /><br />I love my Stranger, but the reason preschool passed is because they endorsed it. They didn't really understand how messed up the implementation of this is (no focusing of resources on at-risk youth - instead, spreading the wealth to stable families whose kids do fine AND to a lots of educats at City Hall).<br /><br />Oh well. Lots of truly good intentions on the part of our wonderfully generous civic-minded fellow citizens who are predominantly childless. Their generosity is what I'll focus on, not what a mess this will be.<br /><br /><br />BUT, here is my questions: if our District doesn't <i><b>have</b></i> homerooms, what <i><b>compells</b></i> our District to dutifully 'hand over' our precious resource, homerooms, to the City? Anything? Or, just our District's leaders own stupidity? I get making room for preschool in schools with communities that are largely comprised of students and families at risk (e.g. in K5s and K8 with HIGH F&RL populations, schools like Emerson or Northgate)is a good idea, but, beyond that, does Loyal Heights need to set aside a room for preschool? Does Schmitz Park? <br /><br />The really, really sad part is that the community that needs the most support is one that likely won't be getting it.<br /><br />Per the strategic plan metrics, there is one demographic 'group' that comes to Kindergarten woefully behind: Native American children. The alarming stats: 95% of Caucasian children come 'kindergarten ready', 20% of Native American children come 'kindergarten ready'. Heartbreaking. I wonder if the City of Seattle has a plan to mitigate this tragedy? Certainly our own District doesn't. Now that the City is focusing on preschool, could they please at least focus on the children who need it the most?<br /> <br />-election overAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-13709863871557680302014-11-05T14:46:52.082-08:002014-11-05T14:46:52.082-08:00Thanks Melissa for the info on the Board!
-Fedmom...Thanks Melissa for the info on the Board!<br /><br />-Fedmomof2Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-6268037419210365102014-11-05T13:10:09.610-08:002014-11-05T13:10:09.610-08:00http://www.ed.gov/early-learning
http://www.del.w...http://www.ed.gov/early-learning<br /><br />http://www.del.wa.gov/publications/laws/docs/RTT-ELC_briefing_paper.pdf<br /><br />PSPAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-82772766260644143202014-11-05T11:51:50.851-08:002014-11-05T11:51:50.851-08:00The terms of the Gates bribeImeangrant, SPS will c...The terms of the Gates bribeImeangrant, SPS will carry the cost of the BG classroom on its tab. That would be all O&M levy. The enrolled "students" do not qualify for state BEA. SPS would probably scab Headstart and ECEAP funds from students who qualify for the non-qualifying students.<br /><br />They would just follow the same model of misdirecting Fed/state grants to serve purposes other than allowable under grant conditions.mirmac1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10183460709639638172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-41315827987031689662014-11-05T11:17:59.118-08:002014-11-05T11:17:59.118-08:00Lynn, there was some very vague language when the ...Lynn, there was some very vague language when the B-G idea for a preschool was floated. There was he will "oversee" the program, not run it.<br /><br />I perceive that principals will have little say in ANY of it. <br /><br />Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-9275918163238196532014-11-05T11:16:29.354-08:002014-11-05T11:16:29.354-08:00His salary is "partially" paid for with ...His salary is "partially" paid for with state funding.<br /><br />But, actually, I wonder whether the O&M levy funds can be expended on preK....?mirmac1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10183460709639638172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-3748977457887816332014-11-05T11:00:56.530-08:002014-11-05T11:00:56.530-08:00Can the district legally spend K-12 funding on pre...Can the district legally spend K-12 funding on preschool? For example, if a city preschool classroom is opened in Bailey Gatzert, can the BG principal be responsible for that program? His salary is paid with K-12 dollars.Lynnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-29324750358920052702014-11-05T10:03:45.080-08:002014-11-05T10:03:45.080-08:00I have only recently received public records from ...I have only recently received public records from the City re: preschool. Took months and a lot of stonewalling.<br /><br />Perhaps we will find out more about the City's plans...mirmac1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10183460709639638172noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-15170825165536311452014-11-05T09:55:40.321-08:002014-11-05T09:55:40.321-08:00Missed U of W professional development opportunity...Missed U of W professional development opportunity :<br /><br />http://depts.washington.edu/pthru3/dev/index.php?q=node/34.html<br /><br />certificate available :<br /><br />http://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/p-3-executive-leadership.html<br /><br />Online bachelors :<br /><br />http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/03/27/uw-announces-new-low-cost-online-only-degree-completion-program-in-early-childhood-studies/<br /><br />PSPAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-19431009143101940272014-11-05T09:49:43.274-08:002014-11-05T09:49:43.274-08:00I think most of the the arguments on this blog aga...I think most of the the arguments on this blog against 1B, while important, were to subtle and nuanced for voters to care about.<br /> <br />Instead it appears at a high level most parents think pre-school is a good idea and that just like k-12 that it should be part of public education. <br /><br />Who cares about the battles between the district and the city for control; that kind of stuff happens everywhere. And the argument about no space is like arguing if we vote for trains there won't be any tracks; we trust its going to be taken care of. Finally, its hard to understand how the data reporting for pre-school is going to be no more onerous than it is for other grades.<br /><br />For us pre-school was a choice which we thought would be good for our kids, although they could have stayed home with a parent. But we would have had no more concern sending them to a public pre-school than we have had in sending them to public schools in general.<br /><br />I agree the details may not be perfect, but I would argue that the general idea does make sense. And I would predict that unless the program is grossly mismanaged, that it will be re-approved.<br /><br />Signed: the bigger picture<br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-27001919073529258172014-11-05T09:35:49.527-08:002014-11-05T09:35:49.527-08:00Looks like the Republicans will control the state ...Looks like the Republicans will control the state senate. I don't expect much to happen with McCleary. Maybe they'll throw a small bone in order to say they've done something, and they'll redefine an ample education to be what they're already doing.<br />Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16260807460417787614noreply@blogger.com