Seattle Schools Community Forum

Kudos to Director Burke for attempting to take on the issue of the reopening of Lincoln High School in 2019.  The estimate of how many parents packed the library was about 300 people.  Staff included Flip Herndon, Michael Tolley as well as Hale principal Jill Hudson (who is on the 24-credit committee as well as being the planning principal for Lincoln.)  She was the only staff member to speak. Burke outlined the goals of the meeting:

That was interesting.  I'm going to flesh this out because I think a lot of these questions asked about Eckstein might ring true for your school building. I was a little confused at first as there were very few parents (even at 5:45 pm) and no handout.  It was in the Eckstein auditorium (about 1/3 ish full by the time it started.) The organizers were smart; Eckstein's curriculum night followed at 7 pm.  (although what a parking nightmare). The district was represented by Flip Herndon, Richard Best, Bruce Skowyra.  The meeting was videotaped (by I don't know by whom). Principal Sherry Kokx was there as was Executive Director, Kim Whitworth.  Elected officials included Rep. Gerry Pollet and Rep. David Frockt.  I saw no School Board members. Dr. Herndon said he would answer some questions already submitted and then take questions.   It's pretty easy - as the parents/staff circled back to the same questions - what the issue is. The district has a c...

Update: so the 2.5 hour Executive Committee meeting of the Whole on Wednesday from 4:30-7:00 pm now has an agenda. The first 2 hours will be devoted to discussing the Superintendent evaluation, Board Committee Structure and Calendar and Board evaluation. The last half-hour is a closed session on the "performance of a public employee." end of update Update: a great conference is happening this week at the University of Puget Sound.  It's the 2014 Race and Pedagogy Conference.  Speakers include Henry Louis Gates and Angela Davis. The theme for the 2014 Race & Pedagogy National Conference is “What NOW is the Work of Education and Justice?: Mapping a New Critical Conscience.” In asking “What Now?” the conference challenges us to align concepts of education and justice in ways that call for conscience, critique, and change. end of update. I'm going to add in some events about public education as well this week. This week is, once again, Banned Books...