Seattle Schools Community Forum

There will be three threads to this topic. Overview of Reaction to the Ruling The Ruling Itself Current Overview Part One: Overview of Reaction to the Ruling Simply put, many people - from the unscrupulous folks who wrote this law to those overseeing charter schools to those running charter schools - made a deliberate choice to gamble with children's academic lives.  And they lost.

Second Strike Update: As of an hour ago, SEA says no movement on negotiations.  I'm going to go to the press conference that is to be held at 3 pm. ( Strike update: nothing from SEA as of 10:15 am today, Sunday the 13th; SPS has a press conference today at 3 pm.  Maybe they are hoping there will be something to say then.) 1) In some of the biggest news for public education in Washington State - namely, that the Governor is assembling a "work group" to get McCleary done AND doesn't want the overturned charter law part of the discussion (AND he still doesn't support charter schools) - and yet the Seattle Times has said nothing.  Zero. Zip.  (At least I can't find it.) The Stranger reported it.  The Puget Sound Business Journal reported it.  And that was two days ago.  But the Times has time to write about the Justices who sit on the Supreme Court.  Hmm...

Yes, I will have a separate thread on the data breach that apparently happened at a law firm that was handling a Special Education case for the district.   Community meetings tomorrow: Director Blanford, 10am-11:30 am at Douglass Truth Branch Library Director Martin-Morris, 10 am-noon at NE Library branch News about SPS:

I've been tracking I-1351 for most of the day.  At 2 pm, they were neck and neck with Yes- 50.07% and No-49.93%.  But as the vote totals go up - Yes had about 7500 more votes at 4 pm, then up 9,000 votes by 5:30 pm and at the last vote count, Yes had over 11,000 votes and has its biggest percentage lead at ....64%.  King County still has 121,000 votes left to count, Snohomish has 58,000, Spokane has 13,000 and Pierce has 9,000. King is solidly yes but Snohomish and Spokane are barely yes. But the trend is to the Yes side.  For me, this is very reminiscent of watching the vote counts for 1240, the charter school initiative.*  Except that, day after day, the trend never changed.  This one is changing.  As I mentioned elsewhere, the Times had not one but two whiny editorials today (and truly, there is no other way to describe them).

Update:   Story from The Capitol Record and link to oral arguments. End of update. Fascinating and yes, if you aren't a lawyer, somewhat hard to follow.  You are trying to quickly follow the line of argument and then, as well, the line of questioning.  (These are very rough notes as I was listening AND typing.)

Let's start with what raised my antenna - the memo staff gave to the Board about Seattle Schools becoming a charter school authorizer.   Staffer Clover Codd, who wrote the memo, told the Board: We have formed a cross- departmental working group to better understand the implications for the district. The working group includes representatives from Budget, Enrollment, Facilities, Legal, DoTS, Policy and Strategic Planning. So I wrote to the Board this morning after I was cc'ed on an e-mail from Ms. Codd to President Peaslee. Ms Codd wrote: Just to clarify, the District does NOT intend to submit a LOI by the October 1st deadline. We do have this school year to learn more about the pros/cons of becoming an authorizer. Staff wants to be sure we provide you with all the information you need to make informed decisions. Seven people in SPS formed a group to work on this? Why, don't they have enough to do with the schools we have? If you read Ms. Codd's e-mail, it se...

The AP is reporting that the State Supreme Court will announced on Friday that it would consider if the charter law of Washington State violates our state's constitution. I would say that's a rather large piece of news as I have been repeatedly told that it was "highly unlikely" this would happen.  Oral arguments are scheduled for Oct. 28th.  I just might have to go and listen. A King County judge had earlier ruled that parts of the law were unconstitutional and both sides asked to skip the appeals and go straight to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issue centers around our Constitution's wording about "common schools" and whether charters meet that specific definition (and therefore are entitled to be funded in that manner). NCLB letters are reaching mailboxes soon.  (SPS is holding back to see if their individual district waiver comes thru based on the district's belief that the CBA covers using test scores for teacher evaluation.)  Her...

There's almost something humorous about charter stories today.  They come faster and faster; stars who start charters that fail, financial scandals, and promises made and then broken. What's the funny part?  Well, the supporters of 1240 said "we have a lot to learn from charters."   I would agree and in more ways than one.   We should be the state to be uber-careful about who comes through that charter door.  No backdoors for anyone.  No one who has been indicted in another state.   y Here's the examples of what NOT to do: - In Albuquerque, New Mexico, the FBI, not just the state auditor, have moved in on a charter group. From AP :

After the flurry of activity around charter approval/denial last week by the Charter Commission, let's take a step back. First, a great piece of work by Professor Wayne Au, at UW's education program in Bothell, and Joseph J. Ferrare, a researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UWisconsin/Madison.  Valerie Strauss covered it at her blog at the Washington Post, The Answer Sheet.  The PDC chart about who funded Yes on 1240 pretty much says it all. From The Answer Sheet: Washington state voters who had  rejected  the opening of  public charter schools   in 1996, 2000 and 2004,  passed the ballot initiative in November 2012 by about 1 percentage point after some billionaires and their foundations donated a total of more than $10 million to support it. Gates donated more than $3 million. The researchers found that of the  $10.9 million raised for the Yes On 1240 campaign, $10.65 million  of it, or almost 98 p...

First, the Seattle Times continues to try to use smoke and mirrors on their readers on this issue. Their latest editorial's headline says "A charter schools victory at the state Supreme Court."  The reality?  It was a decision by a King County court (although, yes, it is very likely to head to the Supreme Court).  This, like Lynne Varner's statement in her opinion piece that it is the Gates' puppet charter group that will review charter applications, is a gross error that should be correct and yet, the Times is allowing both to stand. Very bad journalistic form and it points to their agenda in both reporting and editorializing. I also want to put in Charlie's very cogent statement on the ruling which is exactly how I read it as well (and, as he points out, has not been refuted by the state attorney general's office): Just to be completely clear, the judge specifically ruled that charter schools - when and if they are created - will not be com...

Let's review the Times coverage of the Washington charter school law this week. On the charter law court ruling, they manage to confuse readers with two different headlines but settled on one that makes it sound like it was upheld but " questions remain."    Then, they only quote the pro-charter side  (going to their go-to source, Lisa Macfarlane).   They do quote the plaintiffs' lawyer but that's not the same as going to sources who oppose charters (like some of the actual plaintiffs). Next comes Lynne Varner and other mistake-ridden education opinion along with her usual shot at the teachers' union. First, she hilariously says that Judge Rietschel's opinion is "antiquated" because it comes from our "constitutional framers."  (I'm guessing that she would never agree with Supreme Court justice Scalia who is a strict constitutionalist.)  The problem is that we have the Constitution that exists and until that is changed, she...

Someone, quick, get me a lawyer! Naturally, I go out of town and this ruling comes down and I am scrambling to get info and understand it. Here is the basic understanding of Judge Rietschel's ruling per Diane Ravitch: “ In a ruling issued today (pdf), King County Superior Court Judge Jean Rietschel has tossed out the heart of Washington State’s charter schools law on the grounds that it violates the constitutional provision that state education revenues be “exclusively applied to the support of the common schools.” “But, Judge Rietschel concludes: “ A charter school cannot be defined as a common school because it is not under the control of the voters of the school district. The statute places control under a private non-profit organization, a local charter board and/or the Charter Commission.” “In other words, charter schools may not be funded with state dollars dedicated to funding our state’s common schools.” That last part is the key.  She said that under the co...

I guess hope springs eternal for some charter school operators.  Or they don't think anyone will check their backgrounds (and to those I say, welcome to Washington State).  Over at KUOW , they DID check. But a KUOW analysis found that the six established out-of-state charter organizations that hope to open schools here are failing to consistently meet state standards where they operate.   Pioneer Youth Corps' military charter school in Springfield, Ore., is currently ranked in the bottom 5 percent academically among Oregon schools. The organization is pitching a similar school in Washington. CAL Elementary, which has filed to open a branch of its Ohio reading- and math-focused charter school in Seattle, has an "F" rating from that state's department of education. And in Texas, the state has notified the Por Vida charter chain that it is falling so short of state standards at one of its three schools that its acc...

Following up on my analysis/thoughts on the Peters/Dale Estey race in District IV, I had promised a thread on this issue of so-called School Board "dysfunction ." As I have pointed out, in the Board evaluation, not a SINGLE member of the Board called the Board dysfunctional.  One Board member said if they didn't trust each other more, they would become "the poster child for a dysfunctional Board."  That's far from saying that they are.  (One senior staff member did call them dysfunctional.) Now if you read the whole evaluation, you can see there are issues.  No denying that.  BUT, what the Times and Dale Estey and all these people leave out are all the pages of comments - by both the Board and senior management - about the good things said about the Board as people and as Board members. Also, as previous reported, the Board voted in unison or 6-1 about 98% of the time.  That's not a dysfunctional Board.   This lack of balance in the election ...

It appears that the Washington Charter Commission must have gotten a flurry of submissions because the final count is 28 letters of intent to apply to become a charter school. (I spoke to Spokane School district - the only school district authorizer in the state - and they received three letters of intent .  They say they have one unused building in their district currently so that may be up for grabs among the three applicants, if they follow thru on applying.) I would be surprised if half of the letters of intent applicants follow-thru, given the heavy lift that is the charter application.  So I'm guessing there will be about 16 applications for 8 charters.   Newest entries to the Charter Commission:

The deadline for letters of intent to file a charter school proposal in Washington State was 5 p.m. today.  Checking the Charter Commission website , I count 15 but Seattle Weekly is reporting 24 (I suspect SW called and asked and that the Charter Commission just doesn't have all of them up yet). Those 24 do NOT include whatever letters of intent that Spokane School District received as it is the only school district in the state to be a charter school authorizer. All full applications must be in on November 22nd. Seattle Weekly had a good story on Puget Sound hopefuls who are getting a boost via the Washington State Charter Schools Association (and, of course, the money coming from the Gates Foundation).  Three different women each received $100k for their charter school planning. A second charter group out of California, Summit Public Schools that runs high schools, has filed (joining Green Dot). The newest entries are signalled by a *. Academy of Continuing Ed...

Two Special Education stories of note. First, the Times reports that the State will accept SPS's Special Ed plan with a few extra conditions.  The concern seems to be that the staffing plan seems more worried about teachers's needs than meeting student needs.  The State also wants the district to spend more federal dollars on consultants to help to shape/improve services.  Also, the AP is reporting that Bainbridge School District has to pay the family of a student with Asperger's who was bullied $300,000 in damages .  The lawsuit started in 2010 when the student was then 14 and at Bainbridge High School.  The parents had gone so far as to get a restraining order against four male students as well as contacting the Bainbridge Island police.   The students were found guilty of criminal conduct relating to their actions towards the victim. Another STEM school with an aviation twist has opened in south Seattle.  The school, Raisbeck Aviation High Sch...

You may recall our discussion about whether charter schools are really public schools ?  This particular thread was around rights students/staff may have under the U.S. Constitution and the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that for staff, charters aren't public schools. Now, there is yet another case - this around the public funding of charters - out of California.  Here's the headline from Ed Week's " Living in Dialogue " - Charter School Defenders Insist They are "Private Entities." A California couple, Yevgeny "Eugene" Selivanov and Tatyana Berkovich, who were convicted in April of multiple counts of fraud related to their practice of using their charter school bank account for personal expenses and thousands of dollars worth of meals.   According to the LA School Report ,  The couple is appealing their conviction, however, asserting that this amounts to a misunderstanding over the nature of charter school finances. An amicus brief ...

This is interesting. You may have heard of this issue of a little girl enrolled in a charter school in Tulsa, Oklahoma was sent home because she came to school with dreadlocks and they have a policy against "faddish hair styled" that includes dreadlocks.  Her father pulled from the school.   Her new school has no problem with her hair and that school is a regular public one. (As an aside, the issue of hair is a particularly sensitive one for African-Americans.  In fact, comic Chris Rock made a documentary, Good Hair, about this issue because of his concerns for his own daughters.  When he went on Oprah, it was one of the most illuminating shows she ever had.) But what this article in Ed Week points out is not whether a charter school can have a dress code - any school can - but could this little girl's First Amendment right have been violated?  More to the point, are charters really public schools where students have First Amendment rights?  ...

The charter school law case has been assigned to King County and to Judge Jean Rietschel.    I was amused to read elsewhere that the lawyers for the plaintiffs were accused of going "court and judge shopping." For the record, most cases involving statewide issues are either heard in Olympia (state capital) or Seattle (largest court system).  No mystery there. As for judge shopping, it is my understanding that plaintiffs have one chance to change judges if they are not happy with their assignment.  That change right was not used in this case. The Times supported Judge Rietschel's election in 2008. I am seeking information on a court date.  I would think the plaintiffs might argue for a date sooner rather than later because of the impacts on all the various entities (districts, schools, charter school operators, Charter Commission, BOE, etc.) My early take on the case is that there are several legal issues likely to be raised, most of them based on the...