Seattle Schools Community Forum

As some of you may recall, last year the district's PE department decided that they would be weighing SPS students (measuring their BMI) starting in 3rd grade. A parent at one of Sherry Carr's community meetings had expressed worry over the possible ill effects to students. Sherry concurred because she thought it might be an issue for her own child. What came to pass was that the form was to opt-in. Meaning, unless you signed the form, you did not give permission to weigh your child. That's what opting-in means. So I heard from a parent recently who said that the form is a little confusing. It says at the top it is an " Opt-in Permission Form " but it says sign this if you DON'T want your child to participate and then it ALSO says the parent gives permission and then a place for a signature for that as well. I can see where the confusion could be because if it is opt-in, you sign. If not, then you haven't given permission. There shouldn'...

I attended Sherry Carr's Community meeting this morning where the topic was largely the Transition Plan and its implementation. Apparently there is a new draft of the plan and, as has been reported elsewhere, it seems some changes are afoot. (There were other parents at this meeting and so if you were there, help me out.) Topics at her meeting: She did a quick update on the issue of taking BMI measurements in PE classes . She said that she had pushed back on this because of the sensitive issues about it and that Dr. Enfield agreed to think about making it opt-in (rather than opt-out). Apparently this will be discussed at the next Board Curriculum and Instruction meeting. The overwhelming point by most parents was that they had been promised that all would be clear once the Transition Plan came out and that is not true. Sherry concurred and said that she thought the Board would see more data at the last Board meeting and that didn't happen. (Just as an FYI, after each Bo...