Seattle Schools Community Forum

Several troubling things have happened over the last several months that relate to data privacy and the Technology Department. The first is, of course, the huge data breach by Sped/Legal (no one will take responsibility here so I don't know who to name) in releasing student data about every Sped student in the district (as well as some Gen Ed students at Roosevelt High School). I am dismayed by both the district and Board reactions.  I get why they want to believe this is just some isolated incident and wasn't a "true" data breach (meaning, some outside hacker got the data).  The problem is that it IS the district's job to protect that data, in both big and small ways. Then there is the issue of a data breach at Ballard High School in late December.  Principal Keven Wyncoop sent home a letter to parents that said it happened on Dec. 8th 2014 with student transcripts from the senior class being sent by a counselor via e-mail to a Ballard high parent AND the ...

Tian Qing Yen, a senior at Ballard High School, submitted an op-ed,  "My Clothing Does Not Define Me" to this blog: In the past few weeks, the Ballard administration has sent more girls home because of the way they dress than ever before. During class elections, the administration went around to all the students and explained that in order to avoid harassment students must pay attention to the way they dress. This commentary by the administration, along with the recent and seemingly arbitrary enforcement of an undefined dress code, angered many students at Ballard, boys and girls alike. In response, Ballard students decided to organize a protest to raise awareness about the inappropriate way in which our administration was discussing issues of dress code.   Word got out about plans for the protest, and our principal sent out an email to all parents in order to bring attention to the importance of maintaining a dress code during the approach of ...

I will be taking a short break for a few days as my family will be happily attending the graduation of my youngest son from his university.  We are very proud that he was accepted to the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW to work on his Master's. I am disappointed to report that teacher Jesse Hagopian narrowly lost to Jonathan Knapp for president of the SEA .  The vote difference was 45 votes out of 1,342 cast.  About 54% of the SEA members voted which was apparently nearly twice what they have had in past elections.  There is to be a runoff for the treasurer's spot between Jennifer Matter (Knapp slate) and Dan Troccoli (Hagopian slate).   According to OSPI, Rainier Beach High School will continue to receive a federal grant to help improve academic outcomes. Ballard High School students won two awards for short films at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY).  Song for Anna by Lucy Harstrick, Isaiah Hoban-Halvorsen, Josh Vredevoogd...

Several items of interest from two SPS high schools.  One item is an update about the dress code coming from Ballard's principal which seems to be a thoughtful letter.  The other is about several issues at Garfield High School. Ballard's Mr. Wynkoop let the students know that administrators had thought about this issue as the weather was getting warmer and let the students know - in advance - what the dress code policy at Ballard is. But, Recently we have become aware of an effort to organize a protest of some kind later this week that would include girls wearing overly revealing clothes. To attempt to head this off and/or make our position clear, I spoke with the Student Senate today, took input and answered questions related to this issue. I also wanted to make it clear to our entire community about our justifications, our expectations and the steps we will continue to take when issues arise. This is precisely the right course of action. Here's our policy, here...

Last night's Board meeting saw the honoring of four (!) SPS basketball championship teams.  (My apologies to Garfield's boys basketball team - I managed to flub my photos of them.) Ballard High School Beavers -Special Olympics Unified Basketball Team Cleveland High School Lady Eagles- 3A State Champs Rainier Beach Vikings - 3A State Champions The Superintendent in a demonstration of how much a middle school student would have to carry w/o a locker. Later Start protesters before the meeting Ballard High Video by Will Erstad, Aurore Bouriot and Side Johnson about needing more sleep.

A heartbreaking story about the Greenwood shooting by the Ballard student via the Times .  The student was not homeless (he came from a two-parent household) but had chosen not to live at home.  Both his mother and the victim's wife seem to have deep sympathy for the situation of the other.  From SXSW from Microsoft's CTO - "anonymity going to be more valuable than gold in near future."   Might want to keep that in mind for your children's privacy going forward.  No one may be anonymous in the future but that doesn't mean people won't want some privacy in their lives.  Interesting new website - Funding Washington Schools - "understand the consequences of underfunded K-12 students" - good info. You want more?  Here's the hugely useful Government Information page from Vanderbilt University with at least a hundred l inks . My Northwest story on NWC and Cascade - the e-mails seem to show the district very much did know it was going to ta...

Bryon White, a senior at Ballard High school, was arrested and charged with the murder of David Peterson, 54,  who was killed in the Greenwood area on Feb. 23rd.  White is to be charged as an adult for the killing.   White was apparently homeless.   Apparently right before Peterson's robbery and subsequent murder, three suspects had taken money from a nearby restaurant and had tried to rob another individual.  It is unclear if they were involved with the Peterson robbery/murder.  No other suspects have been found or arrested.  From the Stranger Slog: A conversation I caught between an 18-year-old black Ballard High School student and his mother... The Mother: "How the hell can a kid get a gun, when he doesn't even have a home?" The son: "A gun is easy to get. A home is very hard to get."

 From SPS Communications: Seattle Public Schools will be asking staff, students, families for feedback on schools through an annual phone and email survey. Questions will include topics such as effective communication and school safety. The District will email or call all families the week of Jan. 13 and do a second round the week of Jan. 20. The calls and e-mails will be in the home-language spoken.  The family survey on our schools will be administered through School Messenger. The student and staff survey are paper based and will occur between Jan. 6 and 17.  We appreciate your participation in this year’s family survey. If you have any questions please email research@seattleschools.org . Fifth-graders at Thornton Creek have joined the discussion on the new Seattle game show, " What's Up with Bertha?"   (If you missed it, Bertha is the world's largest tunneling machine that is now stuck under the Viaduct. Why?  No one knows or, if they do,...

Eric Muh's science class at Ballard High has signed up at Donors Choose  for some financial help. We are a large urban comprehensive high school. Teachers have a variety of students from English language learners to special education students with a variety of individual needs to Advanced Placement students. We'd use the laminator for all these classes. You may recall that Donors Choose is a great organization that allows teachers to ask for help - big and small - for their classes. If there are other SPS teachers/schools asking for help, please let us know and we'll add them.

Roosevelt High School's Jazz Band placed third at this weekend's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC.  Congrats to all! Ballard High students in their video program won two major prizes at the Dominique Dunne Film Competition in Colorado Springs.  The competition only awards four prizes and the judges are a who's who in Hollywood  so this is huge honor for Ballard.  Good job!  Pinehurst K-8 is circulating a petition about their proposed relocation to Broadview-Thompson. From the petition: Pinehurst K-8 at Broadview-Thompson provides the district with a much-needed Option School in the northwest area.  As Pinehurst K-8 community members, we consider these requests to be reasonable for the success of the co-location: • That we retain our principal, administrative staff, and instructional staff to ensure stability for our entire community during the transition; for initial negotiations with Broadview-Thompson staff regarding scheduling...

The blog wanted to express our condolences to Ballard High School on the loss of yet another staff member.  Teacher John Nygaard recently passed away.   The school also lost security staff member, Gary Smith, and teacher Megan Vogel earlier this year.    That's a lot for one community in one year. 

I couldn't stay long (darn cold) but I did make some remarks and heard other interesting remarks. First up was Wayne Barnett of the City Ethics department who gave a concise and lively wrap-up of what has been happening with this joint ethics venture between the City and the district.  This is a mid-term report as they are in the middle of the 3-year process. He said that everyone at JSCEE had been given the ethics training as had all the principals. In terms of advice, as of now about 80% of the contacts had been via phone or e-mail.  He said they have slightly less active than at the City level but that is to be expected (given the relative sizes of each). Investigations.  He stated they received their 100th call this week.  He said about a quarter of all calls had launched investigations.  He said about 60% of those calls did not fall under their jurisdiction but that the City had been pleased to act as a liaison between the district and the callers t...

Tomorrow, Sunday, April 1 , Seattle Children's Hospital will be giving away bike helmets on a first-com, first-serve basis.  They have 400 helmets to give away and your child must be present to be fitted properly.  This is happening at the Ballard Commons Park from 10 am to 1 p.m.  Salmon Bay's Leo Pfeifer won first place in C-Span's documentary video contest.  He won $3,000 and his video will be aired on C-Span on April 25th.  This is the second year in a row Leo has placed in the top tier of this competition.  Students in grades 6-12 created videos with the theme, "The Constitution and You."  They had to select any provision of the Constitution to work on.  Over 1200 videos were submitted.  Congrats to Leo, his parents and his teachers at Salmon Bay. In the Global Reading Challenge competition, two Seattle teams have advanced to the next round: Alki Elementary and Adams Elementary.   Those two teams will compete against a Canad...

Are you slammed with things to do? Me, too.   But meanwhile, lots of things are happening.  So a quick round-up of thoughts that settle in my brain as I try to go to sleep (if only there was an on/off switch for our brain at bedtime). 1) Just attended a land use committee meeting. They voted 5-3 to allow 6-story buildings across from Roosevelt High School .  The final vote will come on January 17th.  I'll write further about this but there was some crowing about all the new kids to the neighborhood who will be able to walk to Roosevelt.  Do we need a new high school?  Yup. 2) On capacity management, I am really, really worried.  There is so many moving targets and so much that could go wrong with the wrong choices.  I hope FACMA, if in their guts they feel it, will put up a fight against any position the staff has that they worry about seeing go through. We CANNOT make any more facilities mistakes. Those capital dollars have got to be st...

Good news from both the district and the Times , West Seattle Elementary has a brand-new library with new books, paint, carpetings and 10 iPads via a partnership between Target and the Heart of America Foundation.   The projected cost was $200k.    Mayor McGinn attended the ribbon-cutting.   Motivational quotes are part of the new library:  She pointed to new motivational quotes on the library's walls such as "Un libro es un amigo que nunca te dara la espalda" (Spanish for "A book is a friend that will never leave you") and "It is important to remember that we all have magic inside us" (from J.K. Rowling). Ballard High School student Meron Kasahu , along with 826 Executive Director, Teri Hein , were awarded the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from first lady Michelle Obama at the White House on November 2nd.   The award is the highest recognition for community-based arts and humanities programs, such as 8...