Seattle Schools Community Forum

It was suggested to me to have a "Throwback Thursday"where we revisit what the district was going to do at a previous place in time.  (Luckily this reader also provided the topic.  Also, because district staff have a bad habit of not dating documents, I'll guess this was about 2009.) Here is the Future BEX IV list, circa BTA III. 

The last of the " Technology Vision Town Halls " will be tonight , starting at 6 pm at West Seattle High School.  Has anyone attended one?  Any thoughts?  Was student data privacy mentioned? Also to note, Friday, March 6th is the LAST day of Open Enrollment .  So hop to it if you haven't enrolled your student yet.  There is also an Operations Ctm meeting on Tuesday , the 3rd.  Agenda here .  It is likely to be a truncated meeting as Director Patu, the chair, is not available due to the death of her husband.  The agenda appears to be just capital matters. Then, Wednesday , there's Board meeting.  Agenda available here. One Action item (total) and that's the 2015 Board Code of Conduct.  Here's the redlined one and there are changes both good and puzzling.

Tuesday, September 30th Meet Superintendent Nyland from 6 pm - 7:00 pm at New Holly Community Center, 7054 32nd Ave S Wednesday, October 1st Meet Superintendent Nyland from 8:30 am-9:30 am at John Muir Elementary, 3301 S. Horton St. School Board meeting , starting at 4:15 pm (note: there is to be an Executive Session on Potential Litigation from 8-8:30 pm Agenda On the Consent Agenda are various Board policies that have been revised.  Of note is that the Board will not be posting their agenda three "working" days before the meeting but three days.  Under the old policy, you could see the agenda on Friday (with Friday, Monday and Tuesday being the three "working" days) but under this new policy, you may not see the agenda until Sunday.  Action Items (partial) Race to the Top money for Pre-K-3.   Parents, we need to have a very serious talk soon about the district's PreK-3 Action Plan.  I did not know this existed until today (and it's in i...

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: A&F Tuesday meeting agenda .     The minutes from the previous meeting reveal that the next district audit will include Ballard High and Special Education.  (The previous audit included Garfield and guess what?  They were found to have several volunteers not screened or had no application at all. ) Also, the Internal Auditor, Andrew Medina, said this: Mr. Medina spoke about an additional finding for personal service contracts (PSC). He noted that there have been instances where work started before the PSC is approved, as well as sole-source contracts that lack adequate supporting justification. Mr. Medina also noted a lack of administrative procedures, an employee handbook, and clear channels of communication. The audit also cited that the District lacks procedures covering the delegation of purchase approvals to administrative staff.  Ms. Technow listed some of the forms, co...

Went to the BEX Oversight Committee meeting this morning. In terms of notable people at the meeting, Director Sharon Peaslee was there, Lead Counsel Ron English was not. Issues mentioned/discussed - Seems to be some kind of portable placement issue for Blaine and Laurelhurst .  No specifics given. - Only $1M for technology left in BEX IV .  Head of Technology, Carmen Rahm, gave a presentation where he noted that 75% of SPS schools don't have wireless.  But he repeated, again and again, that for the here and now, you still need "wired" buildings for all kinds of reasons.  Meaning, to have a totally "wireless" building for technology is not the desired outcome. There was this interesting back-and-forth with Director Peaslee and Mr. Rahm over smartboards.  She was under the impression that they were $10K apiece.  He said no, you could get 5-6 of them for $10K.  I looked this up and it really depends on what you want to spend.  But the total ...

Monday, March 17th The wearing o' the Green.  Happy St. Patrick's Day. To note: signups for public testimony for the School Board meeting start at 8 am this morning. Tuesday, March 18th Audit&Finance Meeting from 4:30-6:30 p.m.  Agenda Wednesday, March 19th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda . I see a LOT of audit update items here that I am unclear about -might be worth attending. Items of interest:   - the winning bid for the work for Lincoln comes in at $828k.  What's interesting is that the district decided it needed wainscoting in all the new toilet rooms.  What's more interesting is the variance in cost to do it with the company bidding highest for the overall cost bidding the wainscoting at the lowest cost ($972k for overall, $3500 for wainscoting) and the winning bid at $812k putting in the wainscoting at the highest additional price, $16k.  The average cost for the wainscoting was about $9500.  How...

A bit of an exciting week as the district welcomes two new Board members. Also FYI, the district is looking for members for its School Wellness Task Force . Seattle Public Schools is seeking members for a Task Force to review, revise, monitor, communicate and evaluate policies and procedures governing school food, competitive foods, nutrition education, physical education and physical activity. The Task Force will operate for an 18-month period, December 2013 to June 2015. To be considered for the School Wellness Task Force students, parents, family and community members should complete and submit a nomination form by Friday, Dec. 13, 2013 . The invitation letter , nomination forms , and a complete description of the committee are available online .   Tuesday, Dec. 3rd Oath of Office from 5-6 pm in the JSCEE Auditorium.  It is open to the public.  Sue Peters, Stephan Blanford and returning Director Betty Patu will be taking the oath.  There are ope...

 Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Tim Burgess has a regular newsletter that he sends out. Here's what he has to say about the South Lake Union development and a "public school." 3. Support our public school system. Two weeks ago, Seattle voters once again demonstrated generous support for public education by renewing two vital levies at a time when more parents are enrolling their children in public school. City government can do more to support the school district by encouraging the development of an elementary school for the growing number of families in the greater downtown area. With this up-zone of South Lake Union, we must craft language that specifies what a developer would need to build for a school (such as space suitable for classrooms, cafeteria and a gymnasium) to earn additional building height. As with any piece of land use legislation, the details of how we seek to accomplish these policies will be very important. The Council will meet on Monday in Ci...

A fascinating, chock-a-block Board meeting to come this Wednesday night and I can only say, "Superintendent Banda, help us!"  That said, this meeting will have it all so he will get a very good look at what's to come. You should make plans to come given the uncertainty of what the Transportation Plan is at this time.  Both the Board and Banda should be able to see parents mean business.    To note: if you want to speak, sign-up starts at 8 am Monday morning, 252-0040 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org.   You have two minutes so time that talk. On the upside, Leo Pfeifer, the young Salmon Bay director, will show his award-winning short film, Who Owns Free Speech, from 5:45-5:55 pm.  (Note to all; if you don't want to watch it, please do not stay in the room and talk.  I've seen this many times with young performers and frankly, some of us DO like to watch the student presentations.)

There is a two-hour work session before this Wednesday's Board meeting with the topic of District scorecard and School Reports communication plan ." This is apparently a topic of some concern to the district because of the pending date of release set for November 9th. It is part of the Strategic Plan. From the district's website : The first annual school reports will be released by Seattle Public Schools (SPS) on November 9th 2010 , which will provide a snapshot of school performance on common academic measures. SPS wants parents, students, and the community to know how each individual school is doing – from test scores to absence rates to student proficiency – so we all can learn from and act on the information to make our schools better. In order to ensure excellence for all, the district needs to know how each school is currently performing and make improvement plans based upon that information. To be successful, we will need the community’s help. These school repor...

The Seattle Times ran a brief story today about the upcoming levies. Mel was quoted.

I recieved my flyer on the School Levy in the mail. It is eight pages of factual information provided about the levies by Seattle Public Schools. People should read and question these flyers carefully. When the question of whether or not people were told about the Denny/Sealth co-location, the flyer was cited as the information that was distributed. I reviewed the flyer with a critical eye, which isn't really very fair. I admit that. I wasn't looking for good with the same diligence that I was looking for error. With that disclaimer, here's what I noticed: The flyer begins with these words: " At Seattle Public Schools, we are committed to providing an excellent education for every student and to ensuring the every school is an excellent school. " I would find that statement a lot more credible if I had a definition of "an excellent education" and "an excellent school". In the absence of any such definitions, I find the statements disingenuous -...

The Public Hearing for the Operations and BTA III levies is tonight at 6 p.m. at the district headquarters . There are 40 spots and 5 people (including me) signed up to speak. (I'm thinking it'll be an early evening.) These levies have huge ramifications for our district so it's important to at least be thinking about them. You are likely to be hearing from your PTA (or PTSA) soon on these levies. Many PTAs do donate to the levy fund, Schools First. I am hoping to be able to make a presentation to some PTAs on the BTA III levy so if you are a PTA leader, you might be hearing from me. I am hoping that the Board does make some good faith efforts to show both parents and taxpayers that they ARE going to hold staff accountable for the state of our facilities and the capital money that is spent on them. If not, then it is likely that there is going to be active opposition to the BTA III levy. The district has many things going against them going into this levy so they ha...

I called this morning to get on the Speakers List for the Public Hearing on the BTA III levy for Thursday. I also asked about the list for tonight's hearing for the SAP Boundaries. There is room on the BTA III one and there may still be a few spots for tonight's. Call 252-0042 to get on the list (it's an automated call). I am quite surprised that the Public Hearing for tonight wasn't full as of Friday afternoon. People had seemed so unhappy with the format for the Boundaries meetings that I thought some would take the opportunity to address the Board for 3 full minutes. Also, you can write to hearing@seattleschools.org Your comments will be part of the official record of the public hearing you are addressing. These are hearings that the district is legally obligated to have and ANY input - via phone, e-mail, in person or snail mail - has to be put into the legal record (as opposed to any comments made at the feedback/informational meetings). In fact, this business...

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd from 4-6 p.m., Board Work Session on SAP boundaries. This is the last Work Session before the final vote on November 18th AND the first look at any changes to the boundaries . I would expect the most changes for high schools given that Tracy Libros said that they were not "well-balanced" from the initial release of the boundaries. I am hoping to see the Sand Point Elementary boundaries redrawn as well due to the oddities of how large its F/RL population would be relative to all the other NE elementaries as well as how it doesn't include the Windermere neighborhood. I know the Board has heard from several neighborhoods about issues of boundaries that split neighborhoods (or the perception of) but it is difficult to say how hard the Board will push for any changes here. It is VITAL for any and all of you who look at the new boundaries and are unhappy (and feel it is a good reason) to go to your PTAs/CPPS rep and get going now. The Board needs to her...

I mentioned a bit previously from the last Board Work Session on the BTA Levy . (It was that the figure for Sand Point was changed; it seems they forgot to include the portables space. The figure they gave was 225 for the building, with portables, it's 325.) From the Work Session: I need to get clarification on this but they referenced a "ghost law" (just in time for Halloween). It seems that there is some I-728 money that could accelerate levy collection. I am unclear on how I-728 money (which I believe is for operations) could be part of capital funds. They went through, building by building, the rationale for reopening each and each time Tracy said we are going to need the capacity. Board members seemed to have some unease with reopening McDonald which had the weakest case for the capacity issue and the biggest price tag. Michael said it might be an opportunity to consider opening McDonald as an option school to draw off attendance area kids from other schools tha...

So it was just me and Chris Jackins (a long-time activist) and Kelly Anthony from Stand for Children (they do seem to attend a lot of meetings - don't see much of CPPS folks) and about 15 staff at the first levy meeting. Peter Maier attended for an hour and then left for the Special Ed PTSA meeting. Staff gave their rather dry presentation about levy rates, what the money is being spent on, etc. Kathy Johnson did say something quite funny which was that the "Board can change the list right up to the final vote." Do you know what staff would say if that happened? Yeah, when that happens, pigs will fly. Then they invited questions and comments. Between Chris and I, we asked about 30 questions. Interestingly, they seemed to have answers for my questions (which leads me to believe a few staff are reading this blog - hey kids!) and didn't have as clear answers for Chris'. Kelly asked just a few questions and made a request that the presentation be friendlier. H...

New Update: Tuesday, September 22, at 7 pm at the John Stanford Center auditorium is the first meeting for the Special Education PTSA with guests Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, Dr. Enfield and Marni Campbell. (Update: forgot Dr. Goodloe-Johnson starts her Coffee Hours this week. One was yesterday but there is one tomorrow) Wednesday, September 23 8:05 – 9:05 a.m. Washington Middle School, 2101 S. Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98144 Meetings: Board Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee Meeting today from 4:30-6:00 p.m. Wednesday, Board Workshop on Curriculum Alignment, 4-8 p.m. Note: the Board Committee meetings are generally in the Board conference room, not the JS auditorium. Enter thru the Board door (as you face the auditorium) at the left. Also, the Board staff locks the door at 5 as that is when the office closes so if you want to attend, get there before then. Board Community Meetings: Wednesday, Director Sundquist from 9-10:30 am Friday, Director Bass from 6-9 p.m. Saturday, ...

SchoolsFirst is a political organization that acts as the committee to get school bonds and levies passed. They pretty much run the "Vote Yes" campaigns for the Operations Levy, for BEX and for BTA. That's all good and everything, but Schools First gives the District blind, unquestioning support. No one from Schools First has ever - or apparently will ever - demand any sort of accountability from the District. No one from Schools First has ever - or apparently will ever - demand that the District engage the community. Moreover, Schools First has put out a lot of misinformation and, in the case of the Chief Sealth/Denny co-location, disinformation. Schools First gives the District exactly the sort of support they want from the community: straight from the checkbook. I suspect this see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil culture is pervasive at Schools First. One Board member, Peter Maier, came to the District from the Board of Schools First. As a School Board member, Dir...