Seattle Schools Community Forum

Most of my readers know by now that I am very interested in capital issues and funding.  I care for two reasons. One, every single student deserves a clean, well-maintained, safe building to call "my school."  It would be great if the technology is up-to-date and there is natural light and flow to the building to create an inviting atmosphere. Two, the taxpayers of Seattle vote in ever-increasing huge sums of money for these buildings.  And, yet the district does not maintain the system properly.  As well, the district has a very convoluted idea that they can move money around from BEXs and BTAs and claim all the work promised will be done.  I have disputed that claim for a long time and I still believe it. There has never been a transparent accounting of all the dollars in the BEXs and BTAs and what work actually happened.  Never. Yesterday, I received the notice of the upcoming BEX Oversight Committee meeting on Friday morning.  The notice in...

Charlie and I have always enjoyed a good laugh over the district's "Facilities Master Plan" because we both could never understand how a list of buildings with descriptions and policies around them is a "plan."  It will be interesting to see if the newest one is any better. I attended both Work Sessions yesterday on facilities and it pretty much turned out how I thought.  Staff's presentation for the first work session was overly long - a lot of flowery talk about the mission and values of facilities which is fine but you don't need five minutes about it - and sure enough, they had to rush at the end of the first Session.  Directors seemed to have more questions to ask but they had to plow on. I'll have a write-up of my notes soon.  There were several handouts including this one that I thought parents might want to see.  It's the newest Facilities Master Plan Replacement or Major Modernization Priority list.  It has many categories of facil...

Tuesday, April 26th International School and Dual Language Immersion Programs Meeting Chief Sealth International Schools from 6:00-7:30 pm Seattle Public Schools invites families, community members and staff to share thoughts and ideas on our International School and Dual Language Immersion programs. The district is examining these programs in order to make recommendations about potential changes in the 2017-18 school year. Boundary Change Community Meeting Roosevelt High School from 6:30-7:30 pm Mayor's community conversation on education , hosted by SEA.  Van Asselt Community Center from 5:30-7:30 pm. Mayor's community conversation on education , hosted by SEA.  Northgate Community Center from 5:30-7:30 pm.

The simple answer is ... yes and no.  (I didn't say it would be clear, just simple.)

As you may recall, I said there were peripheral issues that I found in the public disclosure e-mails.  Let's go thru them.

Seattle Senators add school construction funding for Seattle Public Schools to capital budget FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 1 5 , 2015 The Senate capital budget would provide money for critical school construction projects in Seattle School District under an amendment proposed by the Seattle Senate delegation and adopted by the full Senate. The amendment was signed by Senators David Frockt, Jamie Pedersen, Sharon Nelson, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Pramila Jayapal, Bob Hasegawa and Maralyn Chase. The amendment to SB 6080 would provide an additional $33 million over four years for school construction, renovations and improvements for local Seattle schools.

To note for tonight's Board meeting agenda ; the Jane Addams Middle School BEX IV construction item has been moved to the May 7th Board meeting by the Superintendent.  No explanation given.  The Superintendent has also asked to remove the Reduction in Force (RIF) item from the agenda.   I confirmed that this is because there will be no RIFs sent out.  As well, the bill to fix facade restoration at Franklin is - gulp - nearly $1M (coming from BEX III and good thing the money is there).  (When part of the facade fell, it was great luck no one was standing underneath it.)  Along with the backflow item at Jane Addams that had to be replaced recently (and I'm not sure how much that cost), we see that our buildings have a near-constant need for maintenance and emergencies fixes.  This is why the maintenance budget needs to be upped or we will likely pay more in the long term.  There are only five people signed up to speak so if you wanted to speak...

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 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...

Monday, September 30th Growth Boundaries meeting at Meany from 6:30-8:00 pm Tuesday, Oct 1st Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council Meeting from 6:30-9:30 pm at JSCEE, room 2700 Growth Boundaries meeting at Ballard High School Commons from 6:30-8:00 pm Wednesday, Oct. 2nd School Board Meeting from 4:15 pm to 8:00 pm.  Agenda . It's quite a light agenda and this should be a fairly short meeting.  One item of note is acceptance of work performed for Montlake and Thornton Creek.  It's of interest because of the number of times the district performs upgrades to old buildings like Montlake and, if  you totaled all the money put into these buildings over the years, it would have been simpler and better to just rebuild.  Another item is the acceptance of all the portables purchased, moved and set-up for various school sites.  The costs is nearly $1M.  This part of the project will provide 25 classrooms for 10 schools.  (The o...

A reader with background in planning and with much knowledge/background on the district and facilities offers these thoughts on what may be coming for high schools and growth.   ( Gray areas are my thoughts as we go along and the rest is the reader's.) To understand: coming up fast is the possibility of very overcrowded high schools.  Not 5, 10 years out but probably three years.  But a three-year plan may be all that is possible at this point especially since the needs/growth is very different for each region of the district. And guess what?  Nearly out of inventory.  Where will everyone go?  Will the district go to shifts (and they have done this in the past)?  Portables?  The reader's basic thoughts: get this out to the Seattle legislators.  We need help. get high school on the table now.  High schools are high stakes for students and parents. fix the worst of the BEX mistakes.  There were many but all of the stuf...

 Update: Changed headline so as not to upset the more tender-minded readers.  The original title, though, was verbatim and was spoken by a Taskforce member to Superintendent Banda. Charlie and I attended along with Joanna Cullen, a long-time Central resident and public education advocate. I honestly hesitate to put this up but I am because pressure needs to come to bear to end this situation (at least at the Mann building - there are other real and valid issues that the Taskforce is completely right about). (To note: there were at least 25 people in the room, most of whom I did not know and could not read their names from afar.  I apologize for those I can't name.) Bottom line from the meeting: To be clear - the district has said that the remaining groups in the Mann Building need to be out by Wednesday, September 18th. (This date is the one the district has to meet in order to get State dollars to help with the project. They will lose those dollars if they d...

 (I have very mixed feelings about these appointments.  Both men have good education skills.  Mr. Wright is the more worrisome of the two.  He has close ties with the Gates Foundation. He got onto the board of the Alliance for Education just nine months after he moved to Seattle a couple of years back.  That's something of a record for the Alliance to put him on their Board.  His resume shows that he has been something of a job hopper and frankly, I doubt he'll stick around longer than a year or two.  He looks like a real data guy and, for our concerns about student privacy data, he may be a key player to convince in order to protect those privacy rights. Mr. Herndon, like Superintendent Banda, comes from a small district where, according to the bio, they just passed their first (!) capital levy.  The enormity of the facilities and capital issues in SPS may look like a tidal wave to him.  On the other hand, he seems to support alternative...

Monday, August 12 Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee Mtg , 4-6 pm.  Agenda A lot of BARs for various partnerships with outside entities for services.  One, for Special Ed services via the Northwest School of Innovative Learning, caught my eye because I know they were being sued in 2011while a student in the Puyallup School District was in their school.  The student's family alleged physical mistreatment.  Might be good if the Directors know the outcome of that lawsuit. Also, some discussion scheduled for Policy 313, Student Assignment, Policy 2015, Selection/Adoption of Instructional Materials and Policy 2415, High School Graduation Requirements.   Wednesday, August 14th Executive Committee Meeting - 8:30-10 am.  Agenda Review of the upcoming Board meetings for August 21st and September 4th. Discussion around amending Policy 1400 and Policy 6114, and the next Board Retreat. Policy 1400 is "Meeting Conduct, Order of Business and Quorum....

From SPS(bold mine): With an increasing number and complexity of Seattle Public Schools’ capital projects underway to accommodate enrollment growth, safety upgrades and technology infrastructure, Superintendent Jose Banda announced today that he is making organizational changes to provide additional leadership in the District's Capital, Facilities, Operations and Technology departments. Voters approved a $694.9 million Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) capital levy, the largest and most comprehensive in Seattle Public School’s history, in February 2013. This, along with the current Building, Technology and Academics (BTA) capital levy, has significantly increased the scope of work in capital projects over the next six years. To ensure that the district is organized effectively to implement this work, the Superintendent asked for two independent reviews of the district’s organization related to capital projects and operations. The reviews were conducted by the national Council of the ...

From SPS Communications: Seattle Public Schools will host two community meetings to present information on projects funded by the Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) Capital Levy. The levy was passed by voters in February 2013. • Wilson-Pacific Elementary and Middle School projects These projects are to construct a new elementary school building and a new middle school building on the Wilson-Pacific site, both scheduled to open in the 2017-18 school year. The meeting will be presented by representatives of Seattle Public Schools capital projects team and Mahlum Architects. The meeting will include information about the projects’ early design progress. 7:30–8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Wilson-Pacific Seamat Center 1330 N. 90th St. • New Thornton Creek Building project This project is to construct a new elementary school building, scheduled to open in the 2016-17 school year. The meeting will be presented by representatives of Seattle Public Schools capital projects team an...

Tuesday, May 28th Charter Commission meeting from 10 am to 5 pm at TAF in White Center.  Agenda .   Updates on finances, the Ex Director search, bylaws, etc.  Public comment is at 11:24 am and you can sign up at the meeting.  Wednesday, May 29th Curriculum& Instruction Policy Committee of the Whole Meeting: Growth Boundaries from 4-6 p.m. The agenda is quite terse/vague so I'm not sure what they are really aiming for here. This should be interesting as all the directors should be there and what they have to say about C&I vis a vis boundaries. Work Session: General Contractor/Construction Manager from 6-6:45 pm. A head scratcher, this one.  A work session to discuss a construction hire?  The agenda says nothing and has no presentation attached. Thursday, May 30th Operations Committee Meeting from 4-6 p.m., no agenda yet available. Saturday, June 1 Board retreat from 10 am to 5 pm at City University, 521 Wall Street.  No agen...

Monday, May 13th Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting, 4-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14th Special Education Advocacy & Advisory Meeting from 6:30-9:30 p.m at JSCEE, Room 2700 Wednesday, May 15th Rally to save the Indian Heritage program (from press release): SPS is eliminating an entire program which has served as an anchor and support for Native learners and community. The district needs to reverse this decision and engage Native community. We have solutions and recommendations which will revitalize our Native focused programs and strengthen services, district seems intent on eliminating services and support programs which will serve to widen the acheivment gap and further marginalize our Native learners. Please plan to come out to the SPS Board meeting and support our community rally to SAVE INDIAN HERITAGE on May 15th starting at 3:30-5:00pm and public testimony 5pm . Call in for testimony is Monday 8am,  252-0040. Also bring your signs, drums, and please ...

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.  ...

I had understood that the district was reviewing the plan for Thornton Creek.  What I believed I had heard was that it did not appear to the community that the district had considered all options.  (I also believe there were real differences of opinion within the community about what would be the best plan.) The district DID do analysis and here it is.  There is a comparison of two projects - the one at Cedar Park and the one at Thornton Creek. The analysis for Cedar Park was versus using Lake City property (an old school building that has been coverted into offices).  They still believe Cedar Park is the better option (cheaper) but looking at the breakdown, CP would have to have 8(!) portables to be viable.  I am also confused at the high price to redo Lake City as it is a lovely building that just needs some renovation (although it needs a gym)  and yet is is double the cost of updating CP.  And Lake City would have double the classrooms....