Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: here's the Executive Committee meeting agenda .  There are no links to any documents but t he agenda packet is 90 (!) pages.   Kids, that may be a record.  Highlights include the City's preschool program.

It was suggested to me to have a "Throwback Thursday"where we revisit what the district was going to do at a previous place in time.  (Luckily this reader also provided the topic.  Also, because district staff have a bad habit of not dating documents, I'll guess this was about 2009.) Here is the Future BEX IV list, circa BTA III. 

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 ...

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.

I sent the Board my remarks in advance which is something I don't normally do.  I did it because I felt very strongly about them and wanted to the Board to be pondering these issues in hopes that they will actually speak up about them at the Board meeting. In brief, they are: despite Dr. Enfield's promises, we still do not know who is paying for TFA .  I think she may believe that the donor(s) himself can just pay TFA and remain anonymous.  The contract with TFA reflects that SPS is to pay TFA.  There is nothing about money passing to TFA from a third-party.  This lack of transparency is deeply troubling.  It almost feels like any kind of change or program can be bought and installed at SPS if you have the money. The overhaul of Board policies (tonight it's the Series 4000 ones) seems to have some urgency to it that I am missing.  That many of the policies use the word "should" instead of "will" also makes you wonder about the teeth to the policie...

Lots of interesting information from this meeting of the BEX Oversight Committee on June 10th. Highlights: They still don't have the Committee Charge draft to open up applications for this Committee.  They really need new members as their numbers have been dwindling.  At some point this will be sent to the Operations Committee who will forward it onto the full Board for approval.  I'm thinking the earliest that information will be available will be sometime in August.  I am hoping that if you know someone who might like to serve, that you will forward the information to them.  We need more community members who know the district on the Committee.    The Committee, as constituted, as good input from construction professionals but they also need community to balance it out.  Asking this Committee to provide accountability when the only information they get is from staff is not plausible.  Barbara Kelley, an SPS parent, had a good idea about ...

The long-running saga of the neighbors versus the district over the cutting down of trees in a grove nearby Ingraham High School has finally ended. According to the Stranger Slog , some of the trees were felled today. The district had initially wanted to cut down 50+ trees but it's now down to 27 (and they plan on replacing some trees but not with the same variety). From the Slog: "There were some verbal protests, but that's about all," Redman, who was supervising the work, said. "Weather permitting, we are going to try to finish cutting all the trees today." "Ingraham is only a precursor to many more trees being lost," Zemke said in an email. "Unfortunately trees have no standing in Seattle and no voice. Neighbors and others who want to keep our city green with trees must be their voice." Save the Trees is currently working with a group of tree advocates called "Save Our Urban Forest Infrastructure" to create stron...

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...

SchoolsFirst is a political organization that acts as the committee to get school bonds and levies passed. They pretty much run the "Vote Yes" campaigns for the Operations Levy, for BEX and for BTA. That's all good and everything, but Schools First gives the District blind, unquestioning support. No one from Schools First has ever - or apparently will ever - demand any sort of accountability from the District. No one from Schools First has ever - or apparently will ever - demand that the District engage the community. Moreover, Schools First has put out a lot of misinformation and, in the case of the Chief Sealth/Denny co-location, disinformation. Schools First gives the District exactly the sort of support they want from the community: straight from the checkbook. I suspect this see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil culture is pervasive at Schools First. One Board member, Peter Maier, came to the District from the Board of Schools First. As a School Board member, Dir...

A couple of education news items in today's Times. First, a big whoops. Looks like the contractor remodeling Hale doesn't think it rains much in the summer. "About 18 classrooms at Seattle's Nathan Hale High were damaged Monday when rain came through tarps covering a part of the roof that's under renovation. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, but school is expected to open on schedule, said district spokesman David Tucker. Hale is in the middle of a major renovation project, set to run through 2011." Now, obviously, it would appear the contractor is liable but you'd be surprised the number of times the district has lost in arguments with contractors and sub-contractors about these kinds of things. I'll have to see if the district loses any money on this one. The second article was about an early-learning center in White Center that is getting an infusion of money from the Gates Foundation. From the article by Times' repo...

It could be high drama tonight at the Board meeting. The overwhelming majority of speakers intend to speak on the High School math adoption . The Times has come out with a steady state editorial asking the Board to be careful, to listen to the public and to make sure their reasoning is sound. I am hoping, no matter what the vote, that I do not hear any Board member saying this has be done because time is running out. We make far too many decisions in this district based on staff giving this reasoning. I know the need for new and better textbooks at the high school level but as my son starts on his final leg of high school, I am aware that other parents will just start their journey in SPS in the fall. Those students need to have good valid textbooks awaiting them when they get to high school. But, as usual, there are other interesting items on the agenda. One is an addition to Hamilton to accomodate the music students coming from Washington who will help build and strengthen Hamilton...