Seattle Schools Community Forum

Good news for people who travel with kids  (via the Washington Post) : After months of debate over the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, and at an apparent impasse over privatizing air traffic control, Congress has settled on a compromise — with some unexpected benefits for the average air traveler.  Among other things, it would also require airlines to seat families with children together without charging them more, accelerate the security screening process and issue prompt refunds for baggage fees when luggage is lost for more than 12 hours.

The Viaduct is closed and I see no tweets from SPS Communications about transportation issues so I hope all is well for schools in that area.

On April 6th at Broadview-Thomson K-8 during school breakfast, a 7-year old girl was threatened by a parent (not her own) who said she would cut the girl's tongue out and showed her a boxcutter.   It is unclear why the parent did this but the little girl was frightened and went to a staff member. The staff member alerted the office and the school staff searched the school to try to find the person in case it was an ongoing issue.  They did not find the person.  The school says that they notified the child's mother right away.  The mother is claiming she was not told until the afternoon. At some point, the staff did figure out who threatened the child. When she was questioned, the woman, the mother of a classmate of the victim, claimed she was "just kidding" and had the boxcutter in her coat because she had just come from work where she uses one. The parent of the child had a previously scheduled meeting with the principal the next day and, of course, the...

Unhappy with Pearson ?  Apparently you are not alone.  Speaking of Big Brother, here's the SBAC's "Guidance for Social Media Monitoring during the Field Test."  The State Senate is to drop its budget this week.  Let's see how that fulfillment of McCleary is going and where they find the funding.  I spoke to Speaker Chopp last week and that's pretty much all he would say.  I note that when I mentioned that while I think preschool is great, that the Constitution says K-12 is the state's paramount duty and that I was worried about the push that both preschool and higher education are receiving this session.  He said something to the effort that there would be more dollars for preschool but not in McCleary. Whether it's in McCleary or not is not really the point.  Because, frankly, education dollars are education dollars. I note that there's a new group, Why Not Us Washington that is pushing the Legislature to invest more in preschool.  ...

School Board Retreat tomorrow - agenda .  It's open to the public and at the JSCEE from 10 am to 2 pm. What the heck?  How many times will they discuss governance issues and communication issues?  They have been over this territory so many times and yet every retreat agenda, there it is.   And, that part is for two hours. I do note the addition of the issue of communications "how does the Board interact with the media and how is a spokesperson assigned."   It appears there is a policy but they seem to feel the need to discuss it.  Update: Here's the agenda for the Special Board meeting next Wednesday.  As of now, I know of two topics; approval of negotiation of a contract with Dr. Nyland to be permanent superintendent and approval of a contract for new computers.  This process for the purchase of new computers is way behind schedule and there are no vendors or prices yet available. The new computers will cost between $1.2-1.4M but ...

Superintendent Banda has sent a letter to Pinehurst families about their school that leaves things pretty up in the air but on a downward trend.  He tells the families that they had been considering moving Pinehurst to Broadview-Thomson K-8 but that it will NOT happen.  Pinehurst will stay where it is for one more year and they will have "discussions over the summer about the school's future beyond the 2013-2014 school year." District, just pull the band aid off.  It might be kinder.

First up, some good news from SPS Communications: The McClure Middle School boys team won first place in the Team Relay Heat of Erg Ed’s Indoor Rowing Championship. In second place were the Pathfinder K-8 girls, and in third place were the Madrona K-8/Broadview-Thomson K-8 team. Launched in 2010, Erg Ed is a classroom-based indoor rowing education program operating as part of Seattle Public School's physical education curriculum.  In partnership with Seattle Public Schools, Erg Ed is currently provided at 14 middle and K-8 schools across the city.  With more than 800 pledges, Roosevelt High School let it be known loud and clear that they are against texting and driving . And to celebrate this massive turnout for the "Save it Seattle" campaign, Roosevelt welcomed Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to their campus March 22. The Verizon Wireless "Save It Seattle” contest challenged students at four Seattle high schools to take a pledge against textin...