Seattle Schools Community Forum

Directors Patu and Peters are offering a motion tomorrow night at their Board meeting to suspend Smarter Balanced testing. I support this motion if only for discussion purposes. I absolutely concur that on a technical level, I do not believe most third-graders are ready for this kind of testing on a computer.  I think it has a degree of motor skill AND computer skills that many third-graders are unlikely to have.  And, if your household does not have a computer, even more so. It's tentative because they have to get four votes to support it going forward to committee and then coming back to the full Board for a vote. * PLEASE, write to the Board and ask that they vote for this motion if ONLY to have a real discussion.  Please put SBAC in your subject line.

At the Work Session on the City's preschool plan, we learned that Director Patu's husband, Von Paul Patu, passed away.  It was noted by President Carr that she would be gone for a few weeks. Mr. Patu was a frequent speaker at Board meetings in my early years as an activist.  He and Betty were tireless activists for the Pacific Islander community, especially students. Von Paul and Betty were recently recognized by the  University of Washington Alumni Association – Multicultural Alumni Partnership (UWAA – MAP) for their work. My deepest sympathies to Director Patu and her family.

I attended the Oath of Office ceremony this afternoon for our two new and one returning Board members.  It had all the usual trappings; family, supporters and a fair number of staff.  There were speeches (mercifully brief) but, from talking to others, there is one person who stood out to many of us. I think I'll write this thread as straight as I can and you can be the judge of what stands out.  (I saw some readers so they can let you know if I get it mostly right.) Vice-President Peaslee (now the top person in leadership given President Smith-Blum is gone) welcomed everyone.  She almost got ahead of herself by having Sue Peters come up but remembered that Superintendent Banda was to say a few words.  He mentioned that he himself had served on a Board and is often asked how it is to work with a 7-person Board.  He said that he sometimes wonders if it's a trick question.  He said it was very much like being in a large family. Then Sue Peters ca...

Did anyone attend either Director Smith-Blum's meeting or Director Patu's meeting yesterday? I heard from one attendee to Smith-Blum's that there were about 40 people (including KIRO tv, interesting). Tracy Libros from Enrollment and Nancy Coogan the Central Regional Executive Director were also there. Two-thirds of the discussion was around issues at Garfield. Kay and Tracy apparently said there could be some future redrawing of boundaries. Why aren't their comparable quality AP classes at all high schools? (Interesting question but I'm not sure what they mean? Better teachers? Better AP course topics?) Teacher from Schmitz Park came and noted how well they were doing using Singapore math and that he felt all elementaries should be free to choose their materials. Good for him. Science curriculum at Garfield was also a topic (and needs a separate thread). Lack of college counseling at Garfield (Kay said she had to work with her own kids.) Nancy Coogan spok...