Seattle Schools Community Forum

Hard to know if this is just sloppiness on the part of staff or if they think Board policies really don't mean all they say (just what staff says they say) or if they just think the Board is very dumb. As I say to my readers, I will say to staff, "Words have meaning." My letter to the Board: Dear Directors: Today's A&F meeting sees the district staff wanting this:

From SPS: Seattle Public Schools seeks members for School Family Partnerships Task force Seattle Public Schools is starting the process of revising the current School Family Partnerships District Plan. An important part of the review is to engage with our families, staff and community members and gather as much feedback as possible to help revise our school family partnerships efforts over the next three to five years. A key element to gathering feedback is the formation of a School Family Partnerships Stakeholder Task force . The task force, made up of approximately 40-50 people, will be a diverse group that includes families/guardians, teachers, principals, District staff, community members, city officials and university representatives. Task force members will offer feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the District’s School Family Partnerships Plan, give feedback on the vision, mission, and core beliefs of the District on School Family Partnerships, and make...

Both the Operations and Audit&Finance Committees have meetings tomorrow, Thursday the 13th.  In addition, there is also a Work Session.  Audit&Finance and Operations both start at 4:30 p.m. and the Work Session on Technology starts at 6:30 pm. I call this out because Operations and A&F did not have their agendas out until yesterday.  Again, I have to smile and wonder.  These are very lengthy agendas.  There is truly no possible way to cover everything in them except as a brief update.  The Board is supposed to use these committee meetings to go over - in detail - issues.  I realize a lot needs to get done but I wonder why these agendas are so lengthy for such a short period of time. Operations agenda .  Items to cover: - wireless network deployment - various upgrades/renovations/repairs at several schools - one item that caught my eye is Olympic Hills where there is a "resolution" about the new construction but also a "resolu...

The agenda was finally available when I checked this morning.  Given its brevity, I wonder why it took so long. An interesting thing about these Board committee meetings is how the agendas are written.  I find that C&I and Ex Ctm. have much more information generally than Ops and especially A&F. One intriguing topic for today: Resolution 2013/14-2 to Authorize the Direction of Selected Lease and Rental Earnings to the General Fund  Now I would guess in the past that those earnings went to capital needs (and rightly so) but are district needs the money.  It's for things like raises for upper staff, like paying $150k to be part of a "Human Capital: project, like having not one but two teaching training groups within SPS (TFA and Seattle Teacher Residency), etc. And, of course, we are allowing buildings to be sub-let and then taken over by groups so it is very difficult to figure out what is happening with any lease/rental earnings. Our district has...

I was mistaken when I previously said there were no district meetings until August. Wednesday Audit and Finance Committee meeting of the Whole from 4-5 pm.  The only agenda item is to debate any last issues on the budget for 2013-2014 and presumably move it forward to the Board meeting. Public Hearing on the 2013-2014 Budget Your opportunity to weigh in on any topic in the budget.  If you have a real concern, it really is important to get it on the record.  You may sign in to speak starting a half-hour before the hearing. You will have three minutes to speak. Special Meeting of the Board from 5:15-6:00 pm Just one action item - voting on the new budget .  They will be taking public testimony so there are speaking opportunities for any topic.   The City Council will be debating and voting this week on whether to create a separate fund for the money from the school speed zone tickets.   So if these are about safety around schools and the City w...

 Executive Committee agenda for Wednesday.  Hey, all of you waiting for next year's school calendar - they will be discussing that.  (I note that other districts have theirs published already.) Audit& Finance agenda for Thursday.  I see there is a "resolution" about moving leases and rental revenue to the General Fund.  Well, okay but ONLY if it goes to building maintenance.  Those are really capital dollars and should go to capital needs.  But I'll bet they won't.  Work Session presentation on Boundaries. 

From the Audit & Finance Committee meeting today comes news of the first Open Enrollment Data. As stated in the headline, SPS enrollment looks to go over 50,000 for the first time in decades, to just over 51,000. That is based on an increase of 1300 students for next year.  Interestingly, it is NOT at kindergarten where projections show a lower number, just under 300 students.  The real increase is at 6th grade at about 160 students.  Oddly (and I mean I don't get statistically how this happened), they got all the high school numbers right on target.  The highest projected change for high school is at the sophomore level with more than 100 students. Tracy Libros, head of Enrollment, said she thought the enormous growth line of birth-to-K may be stabilizing.  Director Carr noted the change in 6th grade.  Dr. Libros said that Jane Addams is doubling the number of 6th grades classes and adding one 7th grade class.  They attracted many Spectr...

Just added to the School Board meeting agenda today is an Introduction item to allow for "Authorization for a Reduction in Force" by Human Resources.   From the item (red mine): The District is projecting some budget and program changes for the 2013-2014 school year that will not allow it to maintain its current level of programs and services. In order to maintain expenditures within a level of anticipated revenues, i t is necessary for the District to make changes to programs and services and possibly complete a reduction in force of certificated staff. Therefore, it is necessary to give timely notice to people in certificated and classified positions that those positions are being eliminated. For certificated staff, these notices need to be delivered on or before May 15, 2013.  There is no indication of what programs or services they are talking about or the number of cuts. It states that this Action Report will be reviewed by the Audit and Finance Committee on...

Tuesday, March 19th Audit&Finance Committee Mtg (Quarterly Audit) from 4-6 p.m. at JSEE.  Agenda.   Items include: internal audits of transportation, maintenance and Ingraham High School (note: these may be regularly scheduled audits or something else.  I'll check.) Performance audit status risk management ERM (which I believe is Enterprise Risk Management, managing risks and capitalizing on opportunities) Wednesday, March 20th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda.   Note: the student performance is the Salmon Bay Marimba Group.   I love a good marimba band so I may have to go just for that. Items include: approval of a grant from OSPI to boost science teaching for elementary and middle school teachers. Per OSPI, Seattle Public Schools will partner with Renton School District, University of Washington College of Engineering, and the Institute for Systems Biology. The project will focus on professional developmen...

One, the recommendation from the Advanced Learning Task Force Committee about APP elementary north will be posted sometime today by Bob Vaughan (head of AL).   It seems there have been personal issues and traveling and time commitments that led to the delay of this information. Update:  It appears I did not get full information about this appointment; I am waiting for confirmation from the district. Two, it appears that the district has a new Budget Manager, Joe Paperman.  Interestingly, Mr. Paperman was a volunteer on the Audit & Finance Committee (and well-liked by Sherry Carr).  How this turn of events came to be, I don't know but I was told by parents who attended the A&F meeting yesterday that this was announced.

As if to only reinforce the idea that the real action of the district is at committee meetings, there was the Audit&Finance committee meeting yesterday. On the upside, I think this district has made tremendous strides in bringing in some bright and capable people as district staff.  Duggan Harmon, head of Finance, Richard Staudt, Risk Management, and Andrew Medina, Internal Auditor, and Ronic Lirio, also in Finance, all come across as quite knowledgeable about their area of expertise within the district.  I think they are all capable of laying out the facts clearly to the Board.  I do not hear the hedging that I used to with, say, Don Kennedy, the former COO/CFO. There was an update of First AME and their compliance with the contract wording for the sale of MLK, Jr. building to them.  There were members of the First AME board on-hand to listen.  District staff went through a chart that showed areas of compliance for use for youth-centered activities for...

Tuesday, April 10th Director McLaren Community meeting at Delridge Library from 1:15-3:15 p.m. Audit&Finance Committee Meeting (audit) from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda includes MLK FAME covenant compliance update where we find out if FAME is honoring its agreement with SPS,  a 2010-2011 Financial, Federal and Accountability audit update (not sure what this is),  ALE policy update a "special attention" item from Director Carr called "A&F operating rhythm." BEX IV meeting at Mercer Middle School from 6:30-8:00 p.m.   Eckstein's meeting seem to focus more on capacity issues especially Lowell at Lincoln.  Denny's meeting seemed to focus on issues around Arbor Heights/Roxhill.  I was a little surprised as I didn't see as many parents from Alki, Lafayette or Schmitz Park as I thought might come out.  It will be interesting to see the focus from the communities in the Mercer area. Wednesday, April 11th Executive Committee meeting from 8-11 ...

Tuesday Audit&Finance Committee Mtg. (Audit), 4-6 p.m. Agenda Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole , 6-7 p.m. Discussion of superintendent search. Wednesday Executive Committee Mtg. 8-10 am. Agenda Director McLaren Community Meeting, 11:15 am-1:15 pm Oversight Work Session: Transportation , 4-5:30 pm Work Session:Budget , 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday Audit&Finance Committee Mtg ., 4-6 p.m. Agenda . Friday BEX Oversight Committee Mtg ., 8:30-10:30 am Saturday Director Carr community meeting , 8:30-10 am, Bethany Community Church - CE Brick Room, 8023 Green Lake Dr. Also, from Peonypower, The NW flower and garden show opens this week and Puget sound high schools will be competing in the funky junk competition.Interlake HS, Nathan Hale HS, Tumwater HS, and Ballard High School will all be represented.

Tuesday, Jan. 10th Audit&Finance Committee Meeting ( Audit ) from 4-6 p.m. Looks like there will be an update on the Cleveland laptop program among other items. Wednesday, Jan. 11th Executive Committee Meeting from 8-10 a.m. Executive Committee of the Whole from 5-7 p.m. to discuss the Superintendent's evaluation (this is preceded by a closed session of the committee on this topic).  Thursday, Jan. 12th Audit&Finance Committee Meeting ( Finance ) from 4-6 p.m.  Topics here include the annual summary of state and federal grans, preliminary enrollment projections by Tracy Libros, student fees summary and " ideas/proposals to close the gap for 2012-13 ."   There was an interesting article in the Times about Pay for Play fees recently.   It generated a lot of comments with about half saying sports are an important part of high school and half saying PE is fine but sports are not as important.  Friday, Jan. 13th BEX Oversight Commit...

Please add items in the comments.

Monday, October 24th Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee Mtg, 4-6 p.m.   The agenda includes:  review of Alternative Learning schools, some sort of resolution for Cleveland to have a 150-hour requirement, graduation requirements, and Board policies "C" (curriculum and instruction) and "D" (students which includes placement, records, rights, discipline, etc.). Wednesday, October 26th Director Sundquist Community meeting from 11 am - 12:30 p.m.  Delridge Library, 5423 Delridge Way SW Oversight Work Session: Finance from 5:30-7:00 p.m.   This is some sort of update on organization for financial oversight.   It's one big overview but to what end I'm not sure.  (They also need better proofreading for these PowerPoints.) Work Session: Budget Goals from 7:15-8:15 p.m. Saturday, October 29th Director Patu Community Meeting from 10 am to noon at Tully's, 4400 Rainier Ave South Other meetings of interest this week: Wednesd...

Monday, October 10th CPPS' "Parent Friendly" School Board Candidate forum at Washington Middle School, 2101 South Jackson St. from 7-8:30 p.m. The district  is having an Early Enrollment evening with the help of the Asian Counseling /Referral Service from 5:30 pm- 7:00 pm.    Here's a blurb from ACRS's website about them: Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization offering a broad array of human services and behavioral health programs to Asian Pacific Americans in King County. ACRS is the largest multiservice organization serving all the different Asian Pacific American communities - immigrants, refugees and American born - in the Pacific Northwest. Tuesday, October 11th Audit and Finance Committee Meeting (Audit) from 4-6 p.m.  The agenda reflects the following: audit response performance audit (capital) follow-up Special Investigation (Pottergate) 09-10 Audits (I have no idea what this is...

 Tuesday, Sept. 6th West Seattle Elementary starts school Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for Denny Int'l Middle School from 1- 2 p.m. Audit & Finance Committee Mtg. (Audit) f rom 4-6 p.m.  This meeting's agenda reflects topics on the audit response to both the performance audit of capital and the RSBDP (better known as Pottergate).  Perhaps this means the King County Prosecutor has something to report from their investigation.  There's a report from the new Internal Auditor, Anthony Medina.  Not wasting any time, there will be discussion of the Series 5000 policies of the Board policies which look like they cover HR.  Also, a discussion of audits other than those done by the SAO or Internal Auditor - interesting. Wednesday, Sept. 7th First Day of school for SPS  (fyi, the Superintendent will be visiting the new Lowell at Lincoln school from about 9-10 am .  She will also be having lunch at RBHS at noon.) School Board meeting from 6-9 p.m. ...

Tuesday the 23rd Audit&Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. (for Audit issues) Agenda reflects these items:  capital performance audit follow-up, update on Pottergate, update and action plan on yet another audit, intro of Internal Auditor, schedule of departmental reviews, more School Board policies updates (HR) Wednesday, August 24th Board Work Session on Technology in Schools from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, August 25  Audit&Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. (for Finance issues) Agenda reflects these items: financials update, community schools report, daily attendance issues, budget update Saturday, August 27 Community Meeting with Director Kay Smith-Blum from 10-11:30 am at the Douglass-Truth library, 2300 Yesler Way at 23rd Anyone attend the Parent Summit or Martin-Morris community meeting on Saturday? 

Audit&Finance Committee (Audit) - from June 7, 2011