Seattle Schools Community Forum

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.

Monday, Jan. 13th Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm. Agenda Discussion of Policy 3130, student assignment, Policy 2415, high school graduation requirement, CTE review, Equitable Access Annual report, math adoption progress report I will be unable to attend this meeting but it does look interesting. Charter Commission Charter Applicant Forum Starting at 5 pm for Washington STEM academy, 6 pm for CAL Elementary and 7 pm for Sports in Schools Team Charter.  All are to be held at South Seattle Community College, Building C, Room C122.  Public comments accepted with sign-in at the meeting and a lottery to pick speakers if there are more than there is time to hear from. Wednesday, Jan. 15th 2-hour early dismissal for professional development Work Session: Board Code of Conduct from 4-5:30 pm This was discussed at the Board retreat and I see that they have captured ideas from various sources.  I hope they can get this done quick...

The Board retreat was last Saturday.  I was one of two observers along with reader Cecilia. As I previously mentioned, I felt a lot of good energy and reason for hope from this new team.  There were a couple of people around the table that felt the need to point out how many new people there were but there is nothing to be done except regroup and move on.  Rapid turnover is not good for any organization but I personally feel this is a good team (as does the Superintendent). I also mentioned a couple of things that the Superintendent said that stuck out.  One, that staff needs to not be overloaded because they have a lot on their plates already.  He said, " our system lends itself to that..."  He said "If we want to hold onto people, we need to set aside peripheral things and work on specifics."   I agree BUT the Board has to be able to ask for data and discussion so they can do their work.   More on this later on in the discussion...

No time to do a complete write-up to several major items of note: It appears that some changing are coming to EOCs for algebra and geometry .  It looks like there will be some sort of comprehensive exam coming in the next four years.  Michael Tolley reported this as coming from OSPI and that he had had a meeting with high school principals.  Most seem on-board but a few felt there was too much testing and would only want to give it to students who hadn't passed a class. A lot of talk around the agenda for working with the State Legislature this session .  Director Peaslee asked for a clear document around the costs of services to students, where WA State ranks nationally for per student funding, and class size.  She said there seems to be a disconnect between the realities in the district and what the Seattle delegation understands.  She said a few of them seem to think the new money makes up for all the cuts and it does not.  Cliff Traisman, the ...