Seattle Schools Community Forum

...both mandated and non-mandated, along comes charter schools. Yes, some mysterious Board member (I'm taking bets but remember I will win) asked staff about the district becoming a charter authorizer. Now when some Board members ask staff for analysis, staff waffles, balks or just ignores their requests.  Or, Charles Wright, Deputy Superintendent, will call them out in public for making "too many requests." That's if they don't like the topic asked about and/or the volume of work it might take to get answers. But ask about charter schools and well, staff has lots of time. The timeline on all this is a bit confusing but somewhere during the summer (while Banda was still here?) some Board member asked for info on the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a charter authorizer. So staff, at least from this memo of August 7, 2014 , sprung into action.  Because: As you are aware, staff has been asked to understand and communicate the implications o...

Off the next Charter Commission meeting on Thursday - looks like they still don't have an Executive Director.  Maybe they'll have more info on the charter lawsuit (as it pertains to their work). FYI, there are a couple of open seats coming up on the State Board of Education.  Mary Jean Ryan's (Position 6 - our area) will be expiring in January 2014 as does Judy Jennings( private school rep), Phyllis Bunker Frank (Eastern Washington), Isabel Munoz-Colon (Position 3) and Peter Maier (our area).  If you are interested, details here .

From reader DK: Looks like the 2013-14 school calendar will not be what the district originally assumed- our kids will actually be with their teachers for 3 more days than planned, as Seattle’s request for the 3 full Waiver days for professional development has been denied for a 2nd time by the State Board of Education last week. From the posted July 10-11th meeting highlights: BASIC EDUCATION ACT WAIVERS “ The Board considered requests from 13 school districts for Option One waivers from the basic education requirement of a minimum 180-day school year. Six of the requests are resubmittals of requests presented but not approved at the May meeting, with additional information provided by each district as requested in May…The Board directed staff to provide written notice to Columbia (Walla Walla), Fife, and Seattle districts that their requests were not approved.” Among the reasons given for the final denial for Seattle- lack of community support or engagement (required by state law)....

Both the Board of Education and the Charter Commission are soliciting feedback for draft rules for charter schools. From the BOE: At its July 10-11 meeting, the State Board of Education approved for public hearing draft rules pertaining to annual reports by charter school authorizers under RCW 28A.710.100(4) - proposed WAC 180-19-210 . We are seeking public comment on these draft rules. We encourage you to review the proposed rules and provide feedback by contacting us at sbe@k12.wa.us . Your input will be valuable to the board as they consider these rules for adoption. The Board intends to hold a public hearing on the proposed rules at its September meeting in Yakima, Washington. Formal notification of the date, time and location of the public hearing will follow through the process prescribed in RCW 34.05.

The Seattle Times is reporting that Kay Smith-Blum is one of six finalists for an interim seat on the Washington Board of Education.  She is being interviewed tomorrow for the seat.  She says she is not sure what she will do if offered the position.   The position is only for nine months and then she would have to run in November to stay in the position.  The election would be by members of school boards from the Western Washington region.  If she did accept, she would have to resign her position on the Seattle School Board.  That would then prompt the Board to have to take applications and then appoint a candidate from Smith-Blum's district. That person would be an interim Board member until the election in November.  Smith-Blum states that that she would like to stay connected to education but with her co-ownership of the clothing store, Butch Blum with her husband, that the BOE position might be easier for her schedule.  This could r...

It's been awhile since we talked about charters.   I have been stockpiling the stories because, yes, there's a lot happening. FYI, the Washington Board of Education is having a public hearing on charter rules .  They seek input from citizens.  It is on Tuesday, Feb. 26th at 1:00 pm in Olympia at OSPI. Those wishing to provide comment on the draft rules may attend the hearing in Olympia, via K-20 video feed in Spokane at the office of ESD 101, or by writing us directly (sbe@k12.wa.us). The draft rules establish an annual application and approval process and timelines for local school boards seeking approval to be charter school authorizers. For example, the current draft rules will require school districts to submit an authorizer application to the State Board by June 15 and for the State Board of Education to make decisions on those applications by August 15. The draft rules also set requirements for districts applying to authorize charter schools, as well as ...

The State Board of Education had a two-day meeting last week in Tumwater to address various issues under their purview.   One of them is figuring out their role/duties and the boundaries of both under the newly-passed I-1240 to create charter schools in Washington State. (I was also honored and pleased to meet Jeff Charbonneau, the Washington State Teacher of the Year from Zillah High School.  I want to write a separate thread on him and the great work they are doing there but boy, what a great guy and a great teacher.) What came first before the discussion was a presentation by Alex Medler who works for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers .  Keep in mind, this is an organization just for authorizers and not charter schools themselves.  It's a very specialized group. As you may recall from 1240, the Board of Education will be the authorizers for any school board that wants to itself become an authorizer of charter schools within its di...