Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: from the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, an article about the costs of busing charter school students costs 44% more than regular district students. In part, the extra cost comes from having to bus charter school students longer distances, sometimes with fewer students on the route, the journalists found. Around the state, school buses traveled an extra 15,600 miles every day in 2012 to accommodate charter school students, which adds up to about an additional $85,000 every day. That extra cost is largely footed by the urban districts in which most charters operate, said the report.  “Transportation is probably the second or third largest issue for all public schools,” said Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition For Quality Education, a school choice and charter advocate. “It’s a problem not only for charters but it’s a problem for districts. In our view, whatever it is today, it’s going to be worse next year because of the cost of fuel, because of the sta...

Second Update:  I erred in some of my reporting here.  As I told someone, sometimes I get a narrative in my head based upon what I know and forget that others might be starting from a  different place.  My apologies. Corrections: -  Policy 4260.  To understand, there are Board POLICES and Superintendent PROCEDURES, that mostly go hand in hand.  However, ONLY policies are voted on while the Superintendent just puts forth his procedure to enact said policy.  Naturally, it behooves the Superintendent to make sure they line up or have a plausible reasoning for why staff believes a policy should be enacted.  The Board was only voting on Policy 4260 which was to amend rental of school facilities.  This was vetted by quite a few people, including the SCPTA, and it's fine.  It passed. The issue, however, is that district legal staff inserted a paragraph into the Superintendent's procedure 4260 that would make after-school groups liab...

Here are the new Transportation Service "Standards" for 2014-2015.  I can't even read it because it has been hacked up so much.  (I note that elsewhere parents have attempted to figure out what it means.) In my opinion, it is messy and a hack job that the Board should reject simply on principle.  (The principle being that parents were pretty much left out of the process, it has been done and redone and JUST submitted, in full, late this afternoon.  Sorry but submitting something less than 48 hours before a Board meeting, something that probably affects - what, 75% of SPS kids - is unacceptable. ) And naturally, the Board will approve it. Did I mention that there was a Statement of Legislative Intent that the City Council adopted late last year?  It would take the Department of Education and Early Learning out of the Department of Neighborhoods and elevate it to its own department (this put forth by Burgess, no surprise there).  It was proposed and...

Tuesday, Feb 4th Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council Meeting starting at 6:30 p.m., JSCEE, room 2700 Wednesday, Feb. 5th Parade for the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks 11 am (I put this in because if you are going to the district headquarters that morning, you might be aware of this because of the traffic.  The parade is to end at Century Link Field which is only about a mile north of JSCEE.) School Board Meeting , starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda .  There are some major issues in this agenda and many of them have to do with what really irritates me - when staff leaves out information the Board should have (both informational and in order to take a vote).  I'm going to go over the Agenda at the bottom of the page for those who are interested (allowing anyone else to see the rest of this thread more easily.) Saturday, Feb. 8th Community Meeting with Director Carr at 8:30 am to 10:00 am at Bethany Community Church (enter off playground) SPS News ...

Monday, January 20th No School in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Wednesday, January 22nd School Board Meeting , starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda.   Note: there is to be an Executive Session after the Board meeting for 30 minutes. 

 Update : this is a draft of Arrival/Departure times which, if those change, the bell times would change.  I am seeking clarification from staff but it would be mighty helpful if things were clear from the start. End of update. Readers had been asking about possible changes to bell times previously discussed by Transportation.  I could not find a link at the SPS website so I scanned it in.  I had to handwrite in "old" and "new" (for start times) as it had not been noted that way on the original. As previously mentioned, most of these are 5-10 minutes with a few, like Laurelhurst being about 20 minutes. 

I doubt it. I'm reading the presentation for tomorrow's Work Session on Transportation and School Start Times.   Staff is explaining why they could not implement any change to high school start times in 2014-2015.  There are valid reasons, of course, but then there are several references to "all stakeholders who will be affected need to be consulted and kept informed."   You read that and think, "Is the district finally getting the message on that kind of transparency and consultation?"  I would not hold my breath.  I think it's just a fairly convenient reason to NOT make the effort this year.  (And by effort, I don't mean change the start times for 2014-2015 - I mean actually start the process that they say is needed.) I think the Next Steps/Questions is something of a throwdown to the Board but frankly, one the Board should consider.   Did they really get the right information to decide on district priorities?  It's unclear ...

Apparently, I did not hear/understand Bob Westgard of SPS Logistics correctly yesterday in my reporting on coming changes in transportation.  First, the total number of students that may be impacted is 1,000 with under 300 being students at Option schools.  Second, the standardization of times are for ARRIVAL, not bell times.  Here's the handouts: Transportation Service Standards 2014-2015Here's the section on Option Elementary/K-8 Schools   4. Option Elementary / K-8 Schools – Option School Elementary and K-8 students whose transportation service address is within the boundaries of their service area or linked service area and outside of the designated walk boundaries are eligible for transportation. District arranged transportation is provided for those students attending an elementary or K-8 Option School in their service area or linked service area. ORCA cards may be provided for 6th through 8th grade students who live within the boundaries of Seattle Pu...