Seattle Schools Community Forum

I attended the first community meeting to discuss the future BTA levy. I came away somewhat confused and not feeling good about public engagement. There were 3 staff members, 1 Board member (Peter Maier) and about 8 members of the public. One thing to correct from the get-go that I erroneously stated before is that this is a maintenance levy. This is NOT a maintenance levy. It is the smaller scale capital projects in the areas of buildings, technology and academics. Maintenance, as it was explained, are projects without a hammer (landscaping, painting, small repair). The BTA projects range from roofs and window replacement to carpeting. It is a workhorse levy as I termed it previously but it is not a maintenance levy. (My apologies for any confusion.) Here's the PowerPoint that was presented. As Charlie mentioned in my post announcing the meetings, it's not all that helpful and somewhat tedious. There were 5 pages of "district" information which I was told...

UPDATE 10/6/08 - Here is a link to the Powerpoint that will be given at each community meeting. Just a reminder that this week are the district-sponsored meetings on the BTA levy (Buildings, Technology and Academics) that is coming up for a vote in Feb. 2010. True to form, these meetings are all in one week. (It is a never-ending mystery to me why all these meetings have to be the same week. I realize staff doesn't like having to work into the evening but it's also the nature of the job they have.) I'm going to the Broadview-Thompson meeting. When: October 6,8,0 and 10th from 6:30 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. Where: Monday the 6th at Broadview-Thompson in the library Wednesday the 8th at Meany Middle in the library Thursday the 8th in Mercer Middle School Friday the 10th at West Seattle High in the library From the district website: "SPS is in the process of identifying capital needs and developing alternatives for the BTA III levy that will go before the voters in Feb. 20...