Seattle Schools Community Forum

Clearly a big, big week - the start of school year 2016-2017. Tuesday, September 6th Ribbon-cutting for two more schools, Arbor Heights (11am-noon) and Genesee Hill (1pm-2pm). Also, Washington Paramount Duty can still put your e-mail thoughts in their document to present to the McCleary Task Force for their meeting that day. See this thread for details. Wednesday, September 7th First Day of School - do double-check what time your child's school starts and best of luck to all students, parents and schools! Kindergarteners do not start until September 12th. School Board Meeting , starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda. It's a fairly short agenda so I would expect a quick meeting. Highlights: In the Consent agenda - mostly pro forma type items voted on en masse - one curious thing: BTA IV: Resolution 2016/17-4: Racial Imbalance Analysis for Magnolia Elementary School Renovation and Addition Project – (Ops, August 16, for approval) Approval of this item would approve ...

I don't know what is up but there is a lot of adding and shifting of meetings in these final weeks of school.

I'm sorry to report that a Denny middle school student was robbed at knifepoint this morning.  From the SPD Blotter: The student was reportedly walking in the 2100 block of SW Thistle St around 7:30 AM when two teenage boys approached him. One suspect brandished a knife, demanded money from the victim, and forced him to empty out his backpack. Both suspects then fled with the student’s cell phone. The student ran to school and contacted staff, who called 911. Here's something the City can do if it wants to help with public education.  This is just one of numerous incidents for students at Denny and Chief Sealth.  You have to wonder how parents are feeling. As well, from the West Seattle blog, the principal of K-8 STEM sent home this letter to parents of both K-8 STEM and Arbor Heights:

I had been wondering where the agenda for tomorrow's Audit and Finance Committee Meeting was.  Well, now I can see why it was delayed. 1) It's HUGE. 2) It's a mess.  Literally.  Things added links not there - very confusing. The minutes from the last meeting note note a troubling trend - the end of funding for number of programs.  To whit:

Update: I had forgotten that tomorrow is the date that WA State Supreme Court answers the Legislature on the McCleary decision.  That should be illuminating. end of update. Seemingly, the quiet before the storm that is the reopening of school next week. The only item on the district calendar is one I erred about in the Friday Open Thread.   Director Patu's Saturday Community meeting is this Saturday, the 30th from 10 am to noon at Cafe Vita. There is also, on Saturday, September 6th, the first Community meeting with President Peaslee in a very long time.  (She has previously apologized, saying her duties as president left her no time to have community meetings.) It is at the NE Library and it is one hour long from 3:30-4:30 pm.  I would imagine you might want to get there early to get a seat. I've received a report that Arbor Heights and STEM K-5 have been able to equitably share space in the Boren building.  It's great when school leaders can work tog...

Went to the BEX Oversight Committee meeting this morning. In terms of notable people at the meeting, Director Sharon Peaslee was there, Lead Counsel Ron English was not. Issues mentioned/discussed - Seems to be some kind of portable placement issue for Blaine and Laurelhurst .  No specifics given. - Only $1M for technology left in BEX IV .  Head of Technology, Carmen Rahm, gave a presentation where he noted that 75% of SPS schools don't have wireless.  But he repeated, again and again, that for the here and now, you still need "wired" buildings for all kinds of reasons.  Meaning, to have a totally "wireless" building for technology is not the desired outcome. There was this interesting back-and-forth with Director Peaslee and Mr. Rahm over smartboards.  She was under the impression that they were $10K apiece.  He said no, you could get 5-6 of them for $10K.  I looked this up and it really depends on what you want to spend.  But the total ...

From the West Seattle Blog : Three years ago, demolition of the old Denny International Middle School was well under way within a month of the end of the school year. This year, though a month has passed since the last class at Arbor Heights Elementary School , the backhoes aren’t even onsite yet. That’s because the permits haven’t been finalized, since another appeal is awaiting a hearing.  This is separate from the appeal that was argued and rejected in May , challenging the decision that a full environmental review wasn’t needed. This time, the appeal is for the land-use permit itself, and the fact that the demolition permit was approved in the same action. In all, the appeal statement by four area residents and district watchdog Chris Jackins – see it here – lists eight points. This is separate from the appeal that was argued and rejected in May , challenging the decision that a full environmental review wasn’t needed. This time, the appeal is for the land-u...

Friday, July 11 BEX Oversight Committee meeting , 8:30 am-10:30 am. Unfortunately, whoever runs this group does not put up the agenda nor past minutes in a timely manner so I can't tell you what will be discussed.  I've asked if that could happen and told it would but it doesn't.  The last minutes are from the meeting in April and have some curious notations.

From the West Seattle blog, a detailed accounting of the appeal hearing held on Thursday asking for an environmental review.  The appeal was brought by long-time district watcher, Chris Jackins.  In a brief closing statement, Jackins contended that “everything about this project seems to be rushed,” and he said that the supplemental studies presented by the district had not been done before the SEPA checklist was issued, so the information hadn’t been presented to the public, which should have had the chance to review it in the environmental process: “This is not the way to do an environmental review.” For his closing statement, Hill said that doing “significant work” after an appeal was filed is not unusual, since “the respondent has the right to develop evidence,” and he said all that evidence “reinforced the (Determination of Non-Significance) decision” not to require a full environmental review. He added, “There really has been no successful effort on part...

Just a heads up on Director Blanford's community meeting tomorrow at the Douglass-Truth Library from 10 am to noon.  I was told that at the Work Session on Capital Projects (which I am sorry to have missed because it sounds like there were not enough hard questions and more than enough funny lines) that Director Blanford was looking for info to back the district's position on Wilson-Pacific.  He said he felt it would come up at his meeting tomorrow and wanted to have an answer.  One thing to keep in mind is that the ed specs for Wilson-Pacific are the floor, not the ceiling.  There is NO reason it could not have an auditorium.  Money?  Well, the district, to appease Sealth back when they were being co-joined with Denny found about $1M+ to keep them happy.  I'm thinking the district has the money but does not want to spend it there.  (Apparently they do want to spend it on GC/CM contracts for capital projects.  This is a general contracto...

Arbor Heights Elementary School 's photo . A VERY big thank you to Softchoice for their very generous donation. Today at our monthly assembly Harry Turpin, from Softchoice's Seattle office, presented a check for $3,829.49 to purchase replacement computers (stolen Fall 2012). Softchoice employees held a variety of fundraisers to help raise the dollars donated to our school. We will always remain appreciative of your kindness and extension of generosity! Ditto on the THANK YOU to those in our communities who care.

We have been asked to relay this message: Dear Arbor Heights Community, I wanted to thank you for giving the STEM community the opportunity to speak at the Oct 17th School Board Meeting. The fact that you so gracefully ceded your spot to another parent so we could speak to the board speaks volumes about the amazing people you are. We were so disappointed to only have spots on the wait list, so this was truly a gift you gave our community. We are so hopeful that your communities zealous advocacy on behalf of your children and families will pay off. With hope, respect, and big props, Robin Graham Co-President K-5 STEM

Here's a brilliant story from the West Seattle Blog about Director McLaren's community meeting in West Seattle.

 Update: a great story from the Times about the Ballard valedictorian this year.   Mikael Perla got diagnosed with leukemia in the middle of his freshman year.   He spent two grueling years fighting it off (with steroids causing him to have diabetes).   He could have taken time off to fight but he continued his studies.  Don't mistake Perla's persistence for arrogance. He credits his top grades to hard work and teachers who tutored him. He doesn't mention that he practically taught himself the language and math of chemistry from textbooks in bed, that he turned in every homework assignment, that he came in after school to do labs when he would be less likely to catch germs from classmates, reluctantly accepting his mom as his lab partner. Mikael Perla will attend the University of Washington in the fall after completing a summer program in engineering. He's considering a career in medicine. Good luck, Mikael - you have lots ...

Earlier in the month the Board had a Work Session on BEX IV.  Here are some highlights and commentary. The beginning of the meeting saw staff go over the input from the BEX IV community meetings .  It was surprisingly thin.  All that was said was that there were 510 oral and written comments and that Option #2 received the most yes votes (although I later saw the numbers and it was close between #2 and #3).   Director Martin-Morris had to ask about how this informs the Board what the community is thinking on this issue.  Pegi McEvoy said that info in was in a Friday update that had been published two weeks prior.  Here's a link to the webpage on the community meetings for BEX IV. Head of Capital Building projects, Lucy Morello, said they would be carrying over some major maintenance from BTA III.  This puzzles me.  I thought we had a separation of BEX and BTA precisely so that each has its own discrete area.  This goes to the issu...

From our friends over at the West Seattle blog , a story and video of soon-to-be Superintendent Banda talking geography to a student.  He shows the student on a map where his own son is - in Taiwan teaching English to students there - and they had a good chat. Good start to building those relationships he was talking about at the School Board meeting.

I was unable to attend last night. If you did, could you let us know what was said or your impressions.  Here's the West Seattle Blog wrap-up of the meeting (complete with video).   Apparently the biggest issue discussed was the merging of Arbor Heights and Roxhill and how late in the timeline their renovation would come. Again, Arbor Heights is in the top three of worst condition buildings in our district.  They want it fixed sooner rather than later.  From the West Seattle Blog: (District officials acknowledged that capacity issues are taking precedence over school-condition issues in planning of this levy.) You could hear this as an issue at the Eckstein BEX IV meeting - "we have capacity issues." It's a rock and hard place for BEX IV.  If could have another bond, this wouldn't be as big an issue but the district can't risk losing with a 60% bar that a bond requires. From the WS blog; Capital projects/planning director Lucy Morello s...

Over in West Seattle, they are not letting any grass grow under their feet.  They have four community meetings on the preliminary BEX IV plans for their area.  They, along with everyone else, do need to understand that BEX IV has to be considered in a "big picture" type of way but yes, of course, do look at your region. Director McClaren has a newsy website with lots of info including the audio of the BEX IV work session (thank you Rod Clark!).   (Also there is audio available of the K-5 STEM design meetings at Marty's website.)   I will try to get these audio links up as much as possible. Schedule of meetings: Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. in the Arbor Heights cafeteria for Arbor Heights and Roxhill Thursday, April 5 at Denny from 6:30-8:00 pm. regular BEX IV meeting Friday, April 6 at the High Point Community Center from 7:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. (note: in conjunction with High Pt. Family Night which starts at 7 p.m.) Tuesday, April 10 at the Delrid...

A reader asked about the Arbor Heights Elementary charter forum last week.  It went well.  There were about 35 people there, mostly from Arbor Heights but some from other surrounding schools.  The principal, Christy Collins, was there along with several of their teachers.  (What was really nice is that some of the PTA leaders from Olympic View, who had also put on their own charter forum a couple of weeks back, came to this forum and stayed for a tour of the building.) It was well-organized (with little Halloween candy packages for all). As per Olympic View, I was the fact-checker with Beth Sigall, pro side (from the Lake Washington School district) and Kristen King, con side.  Both of them had very good PowerPoints and I think the audience appreciated that. (Note: I did an update as I misspelled Beth's name and got her district wrong in the first version.  My apologies.) What was somewhat different from the Olympic View charter forum was Beth's empha...

I was honored to be asked to be the "expert" and fact-checker at a discussion about charters last night at Olympic View Elementary. It was what should be the example of what PTA units bring to their members (and what both the Seattle Council and State PTSA should be advocating). I went for the fellowship part of the evening (a potluck dinner)and the business portion of the meeting. The discussion took place after these events. First, a shout-out to the Olympic View PTSA Board. Boy, they know how to get things done. They had a great turn-out (which warmed my former PTSA co-president heart) that included their principal and many teachers. (In fact, their PTSA membership includes every teacher in the building - must be some kind of record.) Second, I LOVE a meeting that starts and ends on time. That's being respectful of everyone's time. Third, they have a force of nature in their volunteer coordinator who whipped through all their activities and the help...