Seattle Schools Community Forum

To note; even though SPS is not open tomorrow, Monday the 2nd, you can sign up for the speakers list for public testimony for Wednesday's Board meeting.  Starting at 8 am, either call 252-0040 with your info or send an e-mail to boardagenda@seattleschools.org.

I had heard that Emerson Elementary was losing a large number of teachers (somewhere between 10-12) and I asked the district about this. Here is their reply:

Monday, Oct. 12th Board Curriculum&Instruction meeting from 4:30-630 pm at JSCEE.   Agenda Highlights: - there's a Race to the Top grant for the Seattle Teacher Residency.  The Board should reject this.  Why?  Because the relationship with one partner for the STR, the Alliance for Education, is tenuous and the district may be left holding the bag for this project.  I think that the district had the right idea but, like most district initiatives, did not have the long-term planning or backing to fulfill the mission. - Did you know our district has NO "Instructional Philosophy?"  Apparently not, as a new Board Policy A.01.00, has been written.  Sigh. Yes, that's the most important thing to get done. - High School Credit for World Languages (this is for both students who have taken a language as a second language and those whose first language isn't English and can receive credit for what they know in that second language). - Special Ed program...

Summary: it appears that most of the Board, both as a group and individually, have real issues with the Alliance.  It is not to the point where they don't want to work with them but the issues are both irritants and concerns.  It would appear that the many on the Board believe that the Alliance oversteps its grounds (in relation to its work with the district) and the Alliance's insistence on being a "critical friend" may just be too much for the Board.  More support, less criticism and attempts to steer direction for the Board.  In a frank discussion at the Work Session on Tuesday, much was heard and learned about what the next MOU with the Alliance might look like. I am left to wonder - if the Board and the Alliance have a hard time figuring out where to meet and how to talk - will there be an MOU?  Because with the Alliance's increasing strong stands on what needs to get done in the district and the Board wanting to set the goals (and the Alliance can fol...

The Garfield High School Associated Student Body does not condone harassment, abuse, intimidation, humiliation, violence, or bullying of any kind. We support and encourage inter-class unity by continuing to provide and promote safe and school-appropriate events. Any student who needs help or assistance should contact an ASB officer, counselor, teacher, or administrator.  Garfield ASB From Principal Howard on October 4th:   To our Garfield families,  Thank you for your continued support of Garfield High School. As I reflect on the events from the past week, I have given some thought to the following ideas. We are in the process of researching ways that Garfield will be addressing the reported hazing incident which occurred within our neighborhood last week.  Garfield's next steps will be to educate our faculty and students around self advocacy and decision making as it relates to the day to day stressors that adolescents are faced with in today's ...

From the Board meeting last night: Native American Program The Superintendent announced the following: - there is a tribal history curriculum via a bill that was in the Legislature.  This school year that curriculum will be provided to 4th graders in the SW region (and other unnamed schools). Later it will be in 4th,8th and 11th grades across the district. - Gail Morris is the new director of the Native American program.  She is a member of the Muckleshoot family and has worked on the Washington State Indian Education Association. - the Native American parent advisory committee has been set-up and will be aiding the Superintendent In my remarks I gave the Superintendent full credit for finding getting things done for the program that seemed to stymy other superintendents.  (But I dinged the Super and the Board for not giving one iota of attention to Hispanic Heritage Month.  One notation in the school calendar but not one mention of it at any Board meeting, ...

Not completely (more on that at the end) but better.  (Notes in red are mine.) From SCPTSA; Why the sudden change in policy of the new 10% fee for fundraising on school grounds by the district? It not really a new policy, but more accurately a policy the district should have been following but was not. In a workshop sponsored by WASBO (Washington Association of School Business Officials) the district learned they were not in compliance with State laws around Associated Student Body (ASB) activities and funds (WAC 392-138-010, RCW 28A.325.020 and RCW 28A.325.030). The rules indicated the following activities turn a parent group fundraiser into an ASB activity: *    A majority of the work is performed by the students. *    The parent group uses the school name. *    The use of district facilities is not followed per district policy. *    School district personnel are involved during staff time (during ...

I did speak with Teresa Wippel, SPS Communications.  Our conversation helped clear up some issues but my reading of the RCWs cited now muddies it.  I will follow up with Teresa and the SCPTSA President to try to get more clarification but here is what I was told.  (Also, I hope the SCPTA president sends out a detailed explanation of what school PTAs can and cannot do with these types of funds and how to handle them.) The district had been working with the SCPTSA last year on this issue as the Washington Association of School Business Officers (WASBO) told the district they were not collecting the funds from on-site, school-hours fundraising properly.  They cited two RCWs - 28A.325.010 and 28A.325.030 .  What the district is saying those RCWs say is that students should partially benefit from any proceeds of these events, not the PTA.  The money - 10% or $1500 - should go into the school's ASB fund.  I was surprised as I hadn't really given muc...

This is last week of any public meeting for SPS until August. There are two events this week, both on Tuesday.   First there is a required public hearing from 4-4:30 p.m. to hear testimony from the public about raising the amount the district will pay for the Associated Student Body fund.   This was previously discussed at Board meetings.  I still have not heard the explanation as to why this occurred and where.  I may go review the Board meeting tapes to see if I missed something.  The Action Report gives all kinds of policies and legal reasons why they can raise the amount but not why.  It says this: Expenditures are now at a higher percentage of the total annual expenditures than in any previous year, and may exceed the original estimate (adopted budget).   (bold mine) They exceeded the budget by more than $200k.  How did that happen and when it started and it was apparent they were going over, did anyone do anything? After...

Monday, June 18th Continuing high school graduations .  Go get 'em, kids. Tuesday, June 19th  Continuing high school graduations .  But don't forget the sunscreen. Wednesday, June 20th Last Board meeting of this school year.  Agenda .  There appear to be a number of interesting items including the contract between LEV and the district for South Shore (and it looks more like a newish contract than a renewal because of the passage of time since the old MOU was created), vote on the Advertising and Commercial activities policy,and renewal of NWEA contract. Intro items include policy 2200, Program Placement (now called "Equitable Access to Services & Programs).  I haven't read this yet but Charlie tweeted that it did not appear to make understanding program placement any better.  Also, there is intro of the 2012-2013 Operations and Capital budgets which I really haven't looked at yet.  There's also always an odd item like the increase ...

A fascinating, chock-a-block Board meeting to come this Wednesday night and I can only say, "Superintendent Banda, help us!"  That said, this meeting will have it all so he will get a very good look at what's to come. You should make plans to come given the uncertainty of what the Transportation Plan is at this time.  Both the Board and Banda should be able to see parents mean business.    To note: if you want to speak, sign-up starts at 8 am Monday morning, 252-0040 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org.   You have two minutes so time that talk. On the upside, Leo Pfeifer, the young Salmon Bay director, will show his award-winning short film, Who Owns Free Speech, from 5:45-5:55 pm.  (Note to all; if you don't want to watch it, please do not stay in the room and talk.  I've seen this many times with young performers and frankly, some of us DO like to watch the student presentations.)

If you wish to speak on the Board agenda on Wednesday, the 6th, be sure to call 252-0040 and leave your name, phone number, e-mail address and topic you wish to speak on. The agenda has several interesting items of note.  one is a renewal of an agreement with Microsoft for software.   There is one puzzling item which I'm sure someone here can explain to me.  "Allows District staff access to the most current version of MS Office for home use."   Does that mean so they can take it home?  Work from home?   a huge item - approval of the budgets.   General Fund for $577,741,503; ASB for $4.4M; Debt Service fund for $85M and Capital Projects fund for $101M.  Adding all those up you get roughly $770M.  That's a lot of dough. Final vote on the attendance policy. The change I see is this: This motion has been discussed at the 5/23/2011 and 6/27/2011 meetings of the Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee. On 5/236/27/2011, after ...

This Accountability Audit Report by the State Auditor was better than the one in February if you are only looking at money.  But yes, money was once again lost and while the amounts are smaller than in February, it still damning and painful.

Quick news story out of Edmonds via the Seattle Times. A student running for student government got suspended because he went off-script from the speech he had previously turned into the administration. (They don't trust the kids enough to tell them what NOT to say in a speech; they have to preview it?) What could he have said? "No bra Fridays for the girls!" "Whazz up, #%*@*#%*!" I was dying to know. He told the students not to vote because the ASB had no real power and " members are just puppets of the teachers." That's it? He knew that he would get disqualified for not following his speech but not that they would suspend him. (It's not clear if the students listening knew he had gone off-script.) His parents were told his suspension was based on " disrupting the educational process ". Seriously? He wanted to say that he thought student government was bogus AND knew he would be disqualified for saying it but it meant somethi...

Here's my new recommendation; forget the Board meetings . Watch them on tv if you must. Everything is already decided and nothing you say really makes a difference. The exception to that is if your message is directed to the wider audience and the Superintendent and School Board are just spectators. Go to the Work Sessions and the Committee meetings. That's where best information and action can be found. The Audit and Finance Committee meeting was no exception. Sherry Carr is the Chair of this committee but the meeting started while she was involved in a discussion elsewhere with Noel Treat. Peter Maier and Michael DeBell, the other members, were present and started the meeting. They started with a Financial update from Kathie Technow who is the Accounting Manager. She was going to answer some questions that Sherry had from a previous meeting. Peter said there was a lot of info on enrollment data that would need more breakouts to use for budgeting. A lot of murmurin...