Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: Here's what the BOE had to say about yesterday's meeting and its outcomes. I think BOE head, Ben Rarick, has done a very good job in explaining the Board's thinking. The Board followed through on its equal impact philosophy, adopting a mid-Level 2 score requirement for the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) assessment (scale score: 2548), and f ollowed the same philosophy for the Math End-of-Course exams . The SBAC math score (2595) was set to be commensurate with the ELA requirement. These minimum scores are just a little more than half way up the Level 2 scale; about 60% of the way between Levels 2 and 3.

From reader DK: Looks like the 2013-14 school calendar will not be what the district originally assumed- our kids will actually be with their teachers for 3 more days than planned, as Seattle’s request for the 3 full Waiver days for professional development has been denied for a 2nd time by the State Board of Education last week. From the posted July 10-11th meeting highlights: BASIC EDUCATION ACT WAIVERS “ The Board considered requests from 13 school districts for Option One waivers from the basic education requirement of a minimum 180-day school year. Six of the requests are resubmittals of requests presented but not approved at the May meeting, with additional information provided by each district as requested in May…The Board directed staff to provide written notice to Columbia (Walla Walla), Fife, and Seattle districts that their requests were not approved.” Among the reasons given for the final denial for Seattle- lack of community support or engagement (required by state law)....

The candidates for an interim seat on the Washington State Board of Education has narrowed by one. President Smith-Blum who applied (and was interviewed) has withdrawn her application, saying that she did not want to leave SPS in the middle of the year.  Critical boundary discussions, construction contracts for over $500 million, restorative discipline policies, the Green Resolution – all of these things have been key issues in my tenure and I hope to see them all through to fruition.  She said the conversation with SBE members was great and she was glad for the opportunity. Now it's anyone but Peter Maier.  His past inactions on the Seattle School Board should make him unwanted on any other public commission or board.

Here are the documents that school districts will use regarding charter school applications.  One is a letter of instructions . Another is an application (I-V). Still another is a s tatement of assurances.   This one had one thing that I hadn't really seen before -  that districts not only have to solicit applications for new charter schools but for conversion ones as well.  To me, any district that says "hey we have this school that we've tried everything with.  Come take it over, send the students in all directions and take our building."   That would be one interesting solicitation. That was not my reading of the initiative (but, as the AG's rep says, she finds something new every time she reads the law so I'm not alone).  This document - Charter School Authorizer and Approval Process - is lengthy but chockful of good information. This Wednesday, May 8th, a couple of members of the Charter Commission will go to the State Board of Educa...

This particular thread will probably end up being quite long as there is both news to report from the actual meeting as well as the upshot of what we are going to end up getting for charter schools. The meeting was held in a conference room off the Governor's office.  There was a high wooden conference table with chairs that had low seats but high backs.  (I found this both funny and irritating because it had the effect of a bunch of kids sitting at an adults' table but you also could not see almost anyone's face as they spoke because the chairbacks block all views.) Not surprisingly, Steve Sundquist "volunteered" to chair the meeting (and, as I tweeted, I suspect he will end up chair of the commission).  To his credit, he's very good at chairing meetings.  I did not recognize anyone else not on the Commission except for long-time charter supporter, Jim Spady.  (He left the meeting quite frequently to confer with various people.)  I was seated next to ...