Seattle Schools Community Forum

Yesterday staff presented an update to the Board during a Work Session on the Strategic Plan.  I did not attended but just read thru the presentation .  It includes survey results of both parents and staff. Here's what I wrote the Board: Dear Directors, Looking at the Strategic Plan Presentation, I see this notation: At this stage, we are highlighting data but do not yet have root cause analyses or proposed solutions. I can help.

Updates: I spoke with several people connected with this issue on Friday.

Again, more from the Retreat and analysis later but here's what staff put out as priorities (and this in reference to trying to do the bell time analysis work plus all these items).  Seattle School District Priorities 2014-2015

There were some other key, important things said at both the School Board meeting last Wednesday and the Board retreat yesterday.  I'll just group information under headings but note by M (for meeting) or R (for retreat) where I heard it. Principals (M) To note, both of the Washington State Principals of the Year, for high school and K-8, came from Seattle Schools.  Keven Wynkoop, principal at Ballard , and Keisha Scarlett, principal at South Shore, were the winners.  Mr. Wynkoop is one of several of our high school principals who actually attended the high school he now leads.  Native American students (M) President Peaslee noted that she wished that the Indian Heritage program would be revitalized especially in high school.  This came in conjunction with the large contingent of Native American parents, students and community members who were part of public testimony.  They said they wanted a program for high school and hoped it could be at Ch...

Deja vu all over again (with apologies to Yogi Berra).  It's sometimes good to have been tracking this district for a long time.  Basically, it's about institutional memory and its usefulness.  Sometimes, it is frustrating, exhausting and frightening.  All at once.  I am speaking of the Board retreat going on today in reference to institutional memory.   I could have sworn that if I shut my eyes, then quickly opened them, I would see the ghosts of staff past sitting around that table.  Maria Goodloe-Johnson (that ghost comment is not in reference to her passing), Susan Enfield, Carla Santorno, even Joe Olchefske.  Because those are the people I thought might have been channeling through staff today. I often wish there was a new person in the audience, a casual observer who I could question and ask, "What did that sound like to you?" 

Thought I would put this up in case readers attend Director Community meetings and would like to let us know what was said. Also, from SPS, how feedback from the Strategic Plan Town Halls is to be used (see link for details): 1. Additional translations of District communications. Many families said they want to receive more translated versions of our communications. 2. Improvements to the District website. Families said the District website can be difficult to navigate. 3. Ensuring robust Strategic Plan metrics and accountability. We heard from family and community members alike that we must be more proactive with respect to disaggregating our data and explicitly naming and addressing the opportunity and achievement gaps. 4. Closing the opportunity gap for our African-American students. Seattle Public Schools has an unacceptable achievement gap. We heard that from our families, who also asked what we are doing to close that gap. 5. More Superintendent communicat...

There was a reader comment about wanting to opt an APP student out of MAP testing but the parent seemed to think that the child would lose eligibility if he/she did not take the MAP.  Here's what I learned from speaking with Stephen Martin, head of the Advanced Learning department. The MAP is the gatekeeper to finding out if your child is eligible for AL testing. However, once you are enrolled, your child does not lose eligibility in AL programs if he/she does not take MAP.  What is a problem is maintaining your eligibility if you qualify but then do not access a program.  (Let me say that, on the surface, I think this policy is good because I used to hear many parents say they were just testing their children "to see how they do" with zero intention of enrolling them in an AL program.  That's just a waste of time and money for the district and it should not be happening.) BUT, the issue is does your child have access to an AL program even if he/she qualif...

Action expresses priorities . - Ghandi I never worry about action but only inaction . - Churchhill Inaction breeds doubt and fear.  Action breeds confidence and courage.  If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it.  Go out and get busy.   - Dale Carnegie The time for action is now.  It's never too late to do something. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery What's with all these inspirational quotes?  To inspire you to realize that the time is now to stand up and do something about Seattle Public Schools.  You do this, of course, for your own child(ren) to make sure that their school is the best it can be and that you feel confident in the education they are receiving.   But, if public education is (as I believe it is) the backbone of our great country, you must do this for all public school children.  YOUR school is really only as good as ALL schools in the system.  

Tonight is the second of the Superintendent's regional meetings about the Strategic Plan at 6:30 p.m. at Hale High School. I suspect that this particular meeting - coming on the heels of pushback from staff on later start times AND the brewing rebellion by schools over cuts to their budgets - might prove to be larger and more contentious than the one earlier this week.  And Hale - having had a later start time for 10 years - is perfect backdrop for this discussion. That said, the district loves its Powerpoint presentations and I suspect they will make whoever shows up wait for any questioning beyond issues around the Strategic Plan.  But the district press release does say attendees can question district leadership so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Also to note, next week's School Board meeting should be a barnburner as several groups - Start School Later-Seattle, school staffs and NW Center parents - could show up to "express" their opinions ...

Monday, March 10th Curriculum&Instruction Policy Meeting, 4:30-6:30 pm, Agenda Of interest: - an ask for a waiver for one school day for Lawton - update on Creative Approach schools - Math Adoption Progress report This week has two of the five Community Meetings for the Strategic Plan for each region.  I would take this opportunity to ask ANY question you want because the Strategic Plan covers it all.   Community Meeting; Southeast - 5-Year Strategic Plan South Shore K-8 from 6:30-8:30 pm Wednesday, March 12th Executive Committee Meeting , 8:30-10:00 am, Agenda Oversight Work Session: Human Resources , 4:00-5:30 pm, no presentation yet available Work Session: Data Access & Sharing , 5:30-7:00 pm, Presentation This is basically a lot of what was said at the committee meeting that they presented it at last year.  It is not good and I'm a little surprised at what got left out. First, they did NOT fully explain FERPA.  Like the HUGE change i...

Open Enrollment starts the week after next week's Mid-Winter break and runs two weeks thru March 7th.  All forms must be returned either in person or online to Seattle Public Schools by 4 p.m., Friday, March 7, 2014.  Here's the info from SPS .   Also the Enrollment FAQs have many answers to questions.  (Oddly, the district's Facebook page has nothing about this.)  But, to keep in mind: the district isn't open next week so no, you can't call and ask questions the enrollment form is not available so you can't look at one and review it so that you are ready to go when you go in to enroll this is two weeks and that's a lot of kids to enroll.  I would encourage you to go early - in date and time of day).  I did write to Tracy Libros, head of Enrollment, two weeks ago to ask about why application forms could not be reviewed and why the enrollment window seems so short but I never received a reply. Looks like Superintendent Banda is to h...