Seattle Schools Community Forum

Part Two from Kellie LaRue and Meg Diaz.   There will be an update at the end by me provided by Garfield staff and PTSA. Garfield High School Garfield High School is still slated to lose a teacher. District administration says Garfield’s enrollment is under projections, and the building is overstaffed. As of Curriculum Night, the Garfield community was under the impression that they were comfortably over projections. There are a lot of conflicting and confusing numbers. Since this is a long post, I’m going to tell you my conclusions right away. I think district administration made a mistake. It’s likely they made more than one mistake. I came to this conclusion after examining the (sparse) enrollment data available on the SPS and OSPI websites. I thought that if the district’s other enrollment data was consistent and normal, the counting difference was probably a mistake on Garfield’s part. SPS enrollment data is riddled with anomalies, conflicts and incons...

A guest post from Kellie LaRue and Meg Diaz in two parts.  My early comment is that these are two parents who know how to analyze both data and lack of data.  They have done their homework.  But like Charlie and I have said, you are only as good as the data that you can get from the district.  But we try. Part One: Enrollment Data and Public Information What seems like a reasonable way to gauge who might have erred is to look at the rest of the available enrollment data, sparse though it may be. If the rest of the data is pretty consistent and lacking in anomalies, then it seems reasonable to conclude that the district got it right, and Garfield had an unusual counting flub.  But first, a second to rant about the incredible scarcity of enrollment data.  Enrollment data directly drives hundreds of millions of dollars of public funding. It is important that it be both accurate and public. Right now, it is neither. 

In November 2013, the Seattle School Board approved various changes to elementary and middle school attendance area boundaries (Growth Boundaries). These changes are being made over time. Planning is now underway for the boundary changes proposed for implemented for the 2015-16 school year. Students will be grandfathered at their current school. In September, letters, including translated versions, were mailed to the families living in the affected areas who currently have students enrolled in Seattle Public Schools. The letters invited families to come to community meetings in early October to learn more. Enrollment projections show that these changes affect up to 1,172 current students. A second round of community meetings are being held in upcoming weeks to answer questions and receive additional community feedback. The schedule is below.

A heads up from a reader (and I have to wonder if this is poor planning/estimation or maybe someone wants the district to look inept): Pro-sleep Mom said... I went to the boundary/transportation committee of the whole meeting on Thursday. A potential bombshell was in the last few minutes of the meeting. This is the October FTE adjustment- where staff is moved from under-enrolled to over-enrolled schools. Gatewood was on the early side of this; there are three rounds and this is the final round. (Tolley did comment that principals would know their counts and the implications, and so would not be blindsided; personally, I think the parents are another story and that this will be really disruptive for a lot kids.) Up to 19 schools could be impacted- 7 adds and 12 FTE pulls. Principals will get notice on Friday 10/17; they have a week to raise the money/ pull carried over funds or whatever by 10/24. ​This is per the CBA process- not sure what CBA is- but the time...

Shockingly, I neither attended nor watched the School Board meeting.  But I did hear about it from other sources so here is some of what went on (plus some input from a careful reading of agenda items on the docket).   Apparently it was a love fest for Banda and some tension on the Board.  Here's the information I received from the organizing group for later starts where the tension comes in. Later start times analysis passed, 6-1, with Director Blanford the sole no.  Apparently, though, both Carr and Martin-Morris claimed they felt staff was  "bullied" by others on the Board.  I'm suspecting they mean President Peaslee who can be quite strong-willed.  Is she a bully?  I have never seen evidence of it but I'm not sitting with her behind closed doors.  From the Later Start group e-mail message: We WON!  Bell time analysis was passed 6-1 with only Blanford voting against. Cautions were made about not overworking staff, particular...

Is this discussion over enrollment numbers and school funding still happening where you are? Because apparently, it's still an issue for Nathan Hale High.  Hale parents are being notified, via a Hale parent group, that the district is underestimating their enrollment (by less than 20 students) and it will reduce their funding.  They say they have had a waitlist for years and don't understand why this is happening.  Unfortunately, this issue is pitting school against school as the notification goes on to say that the district is not moving their waitlist because some of the students on the list would be from the Roosevelt High School area and Roosevelt would then lose students.  I don't follow this line of thinking because it presumes that Roosevelt is lobbying for Hale's list not to move.  Are schools really looking over their shoulders at other schools?  Could be. But if the district is not moving waitlists (and looking to see if a school has had a w...

KING-5 did a report on our growing district.   (And, if you hadn't heard, Seattle is apparently the fastest growing big city in the country.  It is the 21st biggest city in the country.)  KING reported that the district expects to have 60,000 students by 2020 .  That's just five-and-a-half years away.  In a very sad story from The Charlotte Observer, a charter school in Charlotte, NC, is closing immediately for financial reasons and now the 300+ students have to find somewhere else to finish the school year. What makes this story doubly sad is that state officials knew this charter was off-track financially almost from the start of the school year.   North Carolina charter supporters pushed to get their charter cap lifted and this was one of the first of 23 schools opened that year.  The state Office of Charter Schools sent staff to inspect the school in March. The team reported concerns with the instruction and the support for students ...

Enrollment page. Page that has EVERY form. I have to say this all looks very involved so read carefully and good luck.     2014–15 School Choice Forms Pre-K (South Shore Only) Kindergarten Elementary Middle School High School Enrollment Information Line:  06-252-0410 Transportation Office:  206-252-0900 SPS Service Center and Bilingual Assistance:  206-252-0760 From SPS: Here's how the Open Enrollment process works: 1. All current students, and all new students for 2014-15 who completed early enrollment by January 31, 2014, will get an assignment letter mid-February  (right before Open Enrollment begins on February 24, 2014). Assignment letters will confirm continuing assignments or provide notification of new assignments for 2014-15. These are initial assignments, and nothing further is required if the family wishes to keep the initial assignment. These...

Update: here's a new one.  So if this is just a little pilot student survey of teachers, why is it the most hugely read post 4-1?  That is way off the charts for normal post hits.  (Naturally some of the hits are the same people but when it gets off a certain amount, you know there is a lot more traffic.  And on a holiday weekend.)  Someone called this a "tempest in a teapot";  I don't think so. 1)  Still waiting to find out who is paying for the costs for the pilot student survey of teachers by students.   2)  Still waiting to find out if teachers are contractually obligated to give out the survey in their classes and/or do students have to take the survey?   Will students be told this is an optional piece of work and allowed to not take the survey if they choose? 3)  I'm also waiting to hear what does the SEA has to say about this issue - both from the teacher level and the union level.  Hmmm. 3)  What's up ...