Seattle Schools Community Forum

As summer is slowly winding down (but not temperature-wise - yay!), the number of District meetings is slowly ramping up. Monday, August 13th Curriculum&Instruction Meeting from 4-6 p.m.  This is quite the folksy agenda as practically everyone is IDed by their first name.  I'm thinking this isn't a final agenda as there are number of scratch-outs.   There are a number of policies to be discussed including  Ensuring Educational Equity, Advanced Learning, Definition of a High School Credit, Copyright Compliance, and Equitable Access Status Review. They were to discuss the Creative Approach Schools Board oversight process but sadly, that is scratched out.  I'll have to ask why as I think this is a big deal to those who were hoping the process would move forward quickly.  It isn't even in the "parking lot" list.  Wednesday, August 15th Board Meeting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda (it's a huge one).

This is a bit early but I happened to be at the district website and decided to check the agenda for this Wednesday's Board meeting. I'm a bit perplexed. One item is the district asking OSPI for a waiver for Cleveland High to be exempt from the 150-hour state requirement.  It is now an ALE (alternative learning experience) school versus a traditional school.  Under OSPI an ALE school does not meet the 150-hour requirement and so only gets 90% of funding that traditional schools receive.  The district wants Cleveland to get that extra 10% (about 300k) for this year.  What's perplexing is that they explain how they created Cleveland two years ago with a block schedule.  They knew the block schedule would mean less class time and yet they went ahead.  Now, they are unhappy they don't get full funding. OSPI recognizes that block schedules cannot meet the 150 hour/credit requirement, and therefore is willing to grant waivers for schools doing a block sch...