Seattle Schools Community Forum

The minutes from the last Operations Committee meeting shed some light (if somewhat dimly.) From the December 17, 2015 minutes: FACMAC:   Resurrecting FACMAC was discussed. Dr. Herndon explained that the FACMAC was a superintendent advisory committee working on the operational side which is different than the BEX Oversight Committee, is a professional advisory board appointed by the Board of Directors. The committee expressed concerns that the former FACMAC had been primarily run by two people and did not represent the school district equally. Dr. Herndon will be discussing the committee with the superintendent in the next few months when current workloads have lessened. 1) Which "committee" expressed these concerns - BEX Oversight or FACMAC?  2) Who were the two people?  (I have my own thoughts but I don't really know.) 3) Finally, it would be GREAT to see FACMAC back but that "discussing in next few months after workload lessens" doesn't exactl...

First up, the Board retreat on the 6th.  Apparently, I had been expected because Director Peaslee said something to the effect of, "wait for Melissa" and Director Peters and Michael Tolley (who ostensibly must read the blog and knew I was not coming) said, "She's not coming."  I'm sure there was a sigh of relief that no one from the "angry community " was there. I also learned via public disclosure documents that at least one director feels the need to pass on many of my e-mails to the Board to senior staff .  To note, there are about 13 people who get the e-mails you send via "schoolboard@seattleschools.org."   These include the Board, Legal, the Superintendent, Communications, a couple of cabinet people and a person in the Board office.  So now, if I'm writing to the entire Board, I'll just send it to the main e-mail address because it seems my e-mails get forwarded on anyway.  I don't really like it this way because I...

The agenda is now available for the Operations Committee meeting this week.  There are several items that could give insight about the direction of capacity management and capital renovations. One is the semi-annual BEX Oversight Committee report .  This is generally short and quite dry but who knows?  The Committee members may have some compelling insights (especially if they got asked their opinions on the acquisition of the Federal Reserve building). Two, is a report from Flip Herndon about that very issue of acquisition of the Federal Reserve building. Will the district put in a bid?  They discussed this with the Board in Executive Session.  Opening bid minimum on Dec. 5th was $5M with a $100K deposit required.   There are, so far, no bids on the building.  The government requires an all-cash payment for final sale. Three, there is the " Capital Semi-Annual report update " also from Flip Herndon. There will also be a Bell Times Task...

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.

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...

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, Oct. 7th Community Meeting with Director McLaren from 6-7:45 p.m. at the Delridge Library. Wednesday, Oct. 9th Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30-10 am.  Agenda .  A basic agenda with one note: Board Procedure 1620.  This is around the relationship between the Superintendent and Board.  It's notable because it has been tweaked several times in the last couple of years and I have to wonder what is the issue this time. Work Session on Transportation Standards from 4-5 p.m.   Agenda . Work Session on Budget Guiding Principles from 5- 6:30 pm.  Agenda (not linking because there is zero information). Thursday, Oct. 10th  Audit&Finance Committee mtg .  No agenda yet available. Friday, Oct. 11th BEX Oversight Committee Meeting from 8:30 am-10:30 am.  No agenda available but could be interesting because of the capacity management problems. No school for professional development. Saturday, Oct. 12th Community Mee...

Here's what's happening in the District this week: Tuesday, September 10 Audit and Finance Committee meets from 4:00 to 6:00pm  Agenda here. Meeting with Pinehurst K-8 community from 6:30 to 8:00pm Wednesday, September 11 Executive Committee meets from 8:30 to 10:00am  Agenda here. School Board Work Session on Superintendent and Board Evaluation from 4:00 to 7:00pm  Agenda here. Thursday, September 12 Audit and Finance Committee meets from 4:00 to 6:00pm  Agenda here. Horace Mann - African-American Community Task Force meets from 5:00 to 7:00pm BEX Oversight Committee meets from 8:30 to 10:30am Friday, September 13 Lots of football games all around the district Due date for applications to the Equity and Race Advisory Committee Due data for applications to the School Family Partnership Advisory Committee

Monday, April 8th Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee meeting from 4-5:30 p.m.  Agenda .  The agenda includes two items with "BAR" and a topic.  (Anyone know what that acronym means?)  A Math Adoption Progress report will be presented as well as discussion of Board Policy #2190 around Advanced Learning.  Community Meeting for the Strategic Plan at Ballard High School from 6:30-8:30 p.m. (Interpreters available in Spanish and Somali) Tuesday, April 9th Community Meeting for the Strategic Plan at Aki Kurose Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Amharic and Tigrigna Special Education Advocacy & Advisory Council meeting from 6:30-9:00 p.m. Regular Meeting Agenda includes: 6:30 - 7:30 - Open Forum & District Updates Regarding Special Education 7:30 - 9:00 SEAAC Working Group Session Wednesday, April 10th Executive Committee Meeting from 8:30-10:00 am.  ...

Update :  the district put this info up at the website.   Not sure it helps entirely (especially the "we used experts") but good for them anyway. End of Update. Sure looks like it. I was first aware of this with their tepid endorsement of the levies over "leadership."  It was an interesting reason because if that had been the issue, then they should have been troubled over many other levies. Then, last Friday, on the news roundup on KUOW, I noted that they had a quick discussion of the levies (and naturally, got a lot wrong but those pundits aren't always very up-to-date on school district facts).  Eli Sanders from The Stranger came out and very stronger stated that The Stranger had endorsed them.  Joni Balter of the Times?  Not so much.  Odd, given that the Times had indeed endorsed them. And now we have the long-awaited report from Brian Rosenthal of the Times who, even though he has been on the political beat for months, wrote this piece ...

It's a fairly quiet week around SPS this week.  Tuesday, January 22nd Call into the Board office (or e-mail) if you want to sign up for the Speakers list for the Board meeting on Wednesday.  Frankly, you will not be changing anyone's mind if you choose to speak BUT if you want to make a point, out loud and in public, now's the time to go on record. 252-0040 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org Wednesday, January 23rd   Rally to support teachers against MAP at 4:00 p.m.  This one is organized by the SEA and I sure hope there is a lot of teacher, parent and student presence.  School Board meeting at 4:15 pm .  Agenda

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...

Wednesday, May 9th Executive Committee meeting, 8am-10am.  Agenda .  Highlights: Review of upcoming Board meetings Legislative session update Memorial Stadium (interesting because it is at this committee meeting and not Operations) community engagement (no idea what this might mean) redistricting Director district boundaries (I mentioned this previously; minor tweaks based on the legislative redistricting) transition issues (for our new superintendent) Director McLaren Community meeting - 12:30-2:30 p.m. at Southwest Library, 9010 35th Avenue SW Work Session: BEX IV from 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10th Audit&Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda. Highlights: Lake City Lease termination Affirmative Action plan Policy 6882 - Leases and Sales of properties (I have never read this one so I don't know if it is new or a replacement.) Budget development update Friday, May 11th  BEX Oversight Committee meeting, from 8:30-10:30 am, Room...

Monday, March 19th Another community meeting the City is putting on about Arts Education .  This one is at South Shore K-8 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21st Board Work Session on HR from 4-5:30 p.m.  No agenda posted yet. School Board Meeting from 6-9 p.m.  Agenda .  As Charlie pointed out elsewhere, a big agenda with many property issues but a couple of major votes.  One is about continuing the contract with TFA and the other is over the governance policy, 1620BP.  Because of TFA, I'm sure this meeting will be full, both in the attendance and on the speakers list.  I feel fairly certain that the contract will be retained by a 4-3 vote.  I think there are some Board members that believe if more TFA aren't hired and/or a donor found for the TFA fees, that the contract will just peter out in a couple of years. Maybe but there are two items to consider.  One, the powers that want TFA in SPS will open their wallets and pay...

I let too much time go by and I now have to admit I'm just posting info from two BEX meetings from February.

There will be a lot of catching up to do this week from the loss of time from the snow days.  Also, much has happened in the media since the postponement of the School Board meeting last Wednesday the 18th to this Wednesday the 25th.  I expect that many more media may be at this meeting. I am also delighted that the speaker list carried over from last Wednesday's meeting.  I expect that some listed speakers may get pressure to give up their places to people pushing the Board policy 1620B but I think many speakers who signed up for other reasons (like Whittier) may stand their ground.  Good for them.  (I, too, remain on the speakers list.)

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...

Did you know pizza is a vegetable ?  According to our Congress it is. The House of Representatives dealt a blow to childhood obesity warriors on Thursday by passing a bill that abandons proposals that threatened to end the reign of pizza and French fries on federally funded school lunch menus. The scuttled changes, which would have stripped pizza's status as a vegetable and limited how often French fries could be served, stemmed from a 2010 child nutrition law calling on schools to improve the nutritional quality of lunches served to almost 32 million U.S. school children. Who got this pushed through?  Why our friends in the AFFI (American Frozen Food Institute) with members like ConAgra, Heinz, General Mills and Kraft.  The USDA wanted at least one-half cup of tomato paste on a pizza to qualify as a vegetable serving instead of the current two tablespoons.  Even Italians wouldn't call pizza a vegetable.  Boo to Congress. Heard back from on...

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...

"From the district: The Seattle School Board is seeking four community volunteers to serve on the Building Excellence Oversight Committee, for terms of up to four years.  The unpaid 9-member Committee provides advice to the School Board on the District's major capital construction program.  The Committee meets monthly and provides advice on planning, construction and related activities, to assure wise capital investments by the District.  Members should have familiarity with large capital program activities such as planning, budgeting, cost estimating and controls, and organization and management of public agency capital programs as well as knowledge of leading edge sustainable building practices and conservation techniques.  The District seeks individuals with experience as school district capital planners and managers, architects, construction managers, attorneys, contractors and subcontractors, parents and others as appropriate. A copy of the Com...