Seattle Schools Community Forum

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...

Basically, it's Spring Break week so no meetings. Saturday, April 19th Director Blanford finally has a community meeting.  It's from 10-11am at the Douglass-Truth library. I attended both Director Carr and Director Martin-Morris' community meetings yesterday.

The Work Sessions scheduled for today now have their agendas available. One is the Risk Management ; Insurance Coverage Review.    On the face of it, this department seems to be doing a good job.  I only say "seems" because insurance is not my area so it's hard to discern any issues.  Two items of note: Page 6 about Liability Coverage Seattle Public Schools’ experience – One claim in excess of $10 million (athletic injury) – One claim in excess of $5 million (sexual abuse) – Excluding the above, annual liability claims paid by WSRMP since 2006 have ranged from $21,431 to $112,358, average $34,280.    Page 11 - Current Property Coverage   • Is it “enough”? – Maximum probable loss • Dunlap + South Shore + South Lake + Rainier Beach (under $200 million replacement cost )    I don't know what this means - I'm assuming it's some kind of example but I'm not sure ...

Well, that was interesting.  I'm sorry there were so few people there (but my experience is that many people never go to SCPTSA meetings anyway, choosing to go to their school PTA meeting). As usual, they had food (so no one goes hungry) and welcoming faces.  I note that the Board is a multi-racial one.  (SCPTSA President Katherine Schomer later mentioned that they have been unable to find a rep from either the NW or NE.  So much for that theory that the NE runs SCPTSA.) Much of the entire senior staff was in attendance including Superintendent Banda. President Schomer started the meeting by acknowledging their contact list has problems and they have been struggling with it since fall.  Apparently the state PTA has had issues of sending SCPTSA updated information on what PTAs are members and who their contacts are. As well, the SCPTSA is working on a new website . They did talk about the state PTA convention coming up from April 25-27th over in Belle...

I don't believe this project is going well.  It's interesting because it got roundly defended by Director Carr at last week's Board meeting.  But all the engagement she noted was before it was decided that Pinehurst would be part of the mix.  I almost wonder if the Board feels like the district gave in on that one and so they won't argue about the auditorium.   I also believe that, like the World School at TT Minor, Pinehurst won't be at W-P very long.  (I'm not speaking out of turn or endangering either program - I'm saying what is perfectly obvious given the growth in this district.)  To say that an auditorium would be underused and not worth the space, given you are talking about two schools next to each other, in an area without a community center space and the multiple uses that schools with auditoriums find, I'm not buying the district's arguments against W-P having one. Think about signing this petition because (1) it really is a good...

Monday, April 7th Seattle Council PTSA General Meeting on Monday April 7th from 7-9pm. This will be a good one as the Superintendent will be there, along with top staff to answer questions.  Curriculum and Instruction Meeting from 4:30-6:30 p.m., Agenda Wednesday, April 9th  A really long day for some Board members that includes these meetings: Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30 am-10 am, Agenda Oversight Work Session: Teach&Learning Part 1 from 4-5:30 pm.   This will cover ELL/International programs and Special Education.  There is no mistaking that this is NOT enough time to go over a program and its issues AND allow Board members to ask questions.  It's a very frustrating experience to see this process continuing on.   Presentation: ELL/International programs .  To note: under Threat/Risks: Clear shared vision and mission that is concrete for all SPS staff  - well that's not good. I reviewed the presentation and i...

In advance of the Board meeting, I wanted to point out a couple of things, some of which Charlie and I have pointed out in the past. One, just to let you know, the speaker list is NOT full so you can call up and still get on.  Two, staff has a bad habit of waiting until the very last minute - particularly on Intro items on capital issues - to fill in the blanks.   They like to leave "placeholder" notations.  That might be okay on Friday but not on the day of the meeting.  This is a public entity and the public has a right to know what the budget is and who is doing the work within 48 hours of a Board meeting.  This "last minute" fill-in stuff is a disservice to the Board for their oversight work and to the public.   Three, continuing on putting items with blanks on the agenda, I note that while JSIS's request for approval for their funding of IAs seems to be complete, the one from McDonald does not.  The wording of the document: PLEASE NOTE:...

I went to the Board meeting two weeks ago and a couple of Work Sessions/Committee meetings.   This thread is the Board meeting and Operations Ctm. meeting. Here are the highlights: Board Meeting This was the one where the high school basketball teams were honored.  Very fun to be there (although the Garfield boys wanted to look as serious as possible).  Paul Apostle of HR said they were making "exceptional" progress to hire early in hard-to -fill posts like Sped and ELL.  There was a bit of mention for Genesee Hill which is now running about $2M behind.  As Chris Jackins pointed out, just looking at the site, you can see potential problems.  I'm not sure why this wasn't apparent sooner.  The later start for secondary schools had about 3800 signatures by then. One lone NW Center father spoke about the issue of where their program will end up.  He did say they didn't want to stay but that the district should "own" what they did in...

Monday, March 31st The final Strategic Plan Community Meeting from 6:30-8:30 pm in West Seattle at Roxhill Elementary. Tuesday, April 1st Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. , JSCEE, Room 2700 Wednesday, April 2nd School Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda .

It fell off my radar that there was a meeting at Wilson-Pacific last  night (I believe it was a SEPA meeting).  Did anyone attend and if so, could you describe the discussion?  Reports here. Thanks. In a related story, here's what was said at last week's Operations Committee meeting where there was some discussion about Wilson-Pacific.

Monday, March 17th The wearing o' the Green.  Happy St. Patrick's Day. To note: signups for public testimony for the School Board meeting start at 8 am this morning. Tuesday, March 18th Audit&Finance Meeting from 4:30-6:30 p.m.  Agenda Wednesday, March 19th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda . I see a LOT of audit update items here that I am unclear about -might be worth attending. Items of interest:   - the winning bid for the work for Lincoln comes in at $828k.  What's interesting is that the district decided it needed wainscoting in all the new toilet rooms.  What's more interesting is the variance in cost to do it with the company bidding highest for the overall cost bidding the wainscoting at the lowest cost ($972k for overall, $3500 for wainscoting) and the winning bid at $812k putting in the wainscoting at the highest additional price, $16k.  The average cost for the wainscoting was about $9500.  How...

I reported previously on the discussion of the issue of NW Center and Cascade as discussed at the Board meeting on Wednesday, March 5th.  That, along with later start time advocates, was the bulk of public testimony.  I note that it seems that a call seems to have gone out that at every Board meeting, there needs to be two non-profit groups working with Seattle schools that come and tell the Board how much they need student data and how careful they are with it.  They also come with an "example."  There were two people at the Board meeting that night. I think I mentioned previously how one of these providers came to a meeting and practically outed a middle school student (with a lot of personal description about the student).   Coincidentally, the district is having a Work Session on how they take care of student data just this coming Wednesday but I'll write separately on that.  I'll just say this the district does NOT have everything in place...

Had a great time at the Network for Public Education conference in Austin this weekend.  Very inspirational and got to talk with two education heroes - Diane Ravitch and Karen Lewis, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union.  More on this later especially about Common Core. To note, the district and bus drivers have reached a tentative agreement so there should be no bus drivers strike. Also to remember, this is the last week of Open Enrollment.   It ends at 4 pm on Friday, March 7th.

RBHS Coding Team In support of teacher Jon Greenberg This thread will cover the last School Board meeting last Wednesday, Feb. 5th.  All directors were in attendance but Director Carr.  The Rainier Beach High School T.E.A.L. team (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) gave a presentation on coding work they have been doing.  There was a large crowd primarily around transportation, former Center School teacher, Jon Greenberg and the NW Center Kids program. 

From SPS Communications: Superintendent Banda made several principal appointments Feb. 7 , including: • George Breland, Cleveland High School ; • Maria Breuder, McGilvra Elementary School ; • Dedy Fauntleroy, John Stanford International School ; • Robert Gary, Madison Middle School ; • Jo Lute-Ervin, Kimball Elementary School ; • Mary McDaniels, Madrona K-8 ; and • Dan Sanger, Bryant Elementary School . I see a couple of principals who seem to rotate every couple of years.  I'll note in reading through the bios that some note that parents and teachers at some schools were part of the selection committee but not at others.  The district seems to be depending on "surveys" but don't say what the survey was specifically about in the first place.  Again, why is that? From Superintendent Banda: I am pleased to announce that Carmen Rahm has been appointed Executive Director of Technology. For the past 10 years, Mr. Rahm has been Assistant Vice President for I...

Will have a more full report later but there is one new item to the agenda (but sadly, no handout): Columbia Annex and Mann Portable Lease Agreements Resolution This should be interesting.   Also quite the discussion about students who bring/show weapons at school and how they should be treated.  There is an RCW around this (one year required suspension for a firearm) and they are trying to proceed from there.  There is both a School Board policy and Superintendent procedure around this issue. Update: As I said in the first post, a lot of talk around weapons brought to school by students.  I found this a baffling discussion but it has to do with the concern around suspended students and what happens to their education.  Director DeBell drily pointed out that if a student brings a firearm to school, he probably is going to be more concerned about the other students (and staff) and their safety. The issue also is that for students who get suspen...

I'm thinking it was a lot of smoke and mirrors on the part of BOTH the "tenants" and the district, these so-called negotiations.  Because that building is wide open, being used in multiple areas, has advertised activities and classes and well, just doesn't look like a building that is shut down in preparation for being renovated.   I checked and I took photos.  Not closed by any stretch of the imagination. I'm thinking it was a lot of smoke and mirrors on the part of BOTH the "tenants" and the district. I've asked and asked the district staff about this and read various Facebook pages and webpages and my conclusion is that there is much more going on here than anyone wants to admit.  When you see people make an "enemies" list that includes the district, the City, and the contractor who is to do the renovation, it makes you wonder. I have asked but have not seen any kind of temporary lease agreement (but now, it's onto public dis...

Monday, Oct. 14th As previously noted, 8 am today is the sign-up time for the Speakers list for the School Board meeting on Wednesday.  They are likely to take 25 speakers as I'm sure many parents will be calling in to get onto the list. Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting , 4-6 p.m.  Agenda .  This agenda has been drastically clipped since it was last viewed.   Gone is discussion of AP Computer Science and Policy 3130 (Student Assignment).  What is left is the Annual Approval of Schools, Math Adoption Progress Report, and Policy 2255, Alternative Learning Experience Schools OR Programs.  Hmm. Tuesday, Oct. 15 Candidate forum at Center House at Seattle Center, put on by City Club.  Doors open at 5 p.m. and the Mayoral and School Board candidates are to be there.   Wednesday, Oct. 16th School Board meeting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda   (partially noted below) revised policy 2015 - Selection/Adoption of Instru...

I was quite startled when a reader, TC,  put in this comment taken from the district's Enrollment Planning - Growth Boundaries page : The information from the September 17 draft is now obsolete. Recommendations to the Seattle School Board, dated October 16, will be available after they are posted with the Board agenda at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 11. Many of the recommendations are different from the earlier draft due to community input. Of course, it IS great the district is listening.  However, it makes it quite difficult to know what may be coming, what will be on the survey and when to given NEW input. Needless to say, if you have not already commented on this, by all means, chime in. If you have commented, I would wait until we see the new recommendations tomorrow and/or see what the survey says (which is to be on-line sometime early next week) to give further input to staff/Board. Since the recommendations will not be available until very late Frid...

I learned some new things at last night's Board meeting about the growth boundaries and decided to pull them out as a separate thread. 1) There is to be an added Work Session on growth boundaries in the next couple of weeks.  President Smith-Blum stated this but no date was given.  She also stated that a big concern for the Board is that "we don't compromise instructional quality" in these discussion. UPDATE: The Work Session will be AFTER the Intro of the plan to the Board, sometime between Oct 16th and Nov. 20th.  I wish it was before Intro, given we are two weeks out from that.   2) The Superintendent and various Board members specifically said thank you to all who have given comments on the boundaries.  It seems pretty clear that they ARE listening.  And, I believe the Board is listening enough to push back in some areas.  I'm not sure which ones but I believe the plan is definitely fluid. 3) One issue has risen to the top of my radar (t...