Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tuesday, December 1nd Oath of Office for the four new members of the Seattle School Board.  JSCEE auditorium from 5-6 pm. If I had to guess committee choices for new Board members, I'd guess that Leslie Harris would like either be on the Executive or Audit&Finance committee and Scott Pinkham, Rick Burke and Jill Geary would like Curriculum&Instruction.  Wednesday, December 2rd School Board Meeting , starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda (And into the fire quickly for those four new members. It's always fun to see them figure out the microphones as well as see where each member gets seated.) Highlights - Native American program annual review - Board self-evaluation narrative.   I liked this line: Directors also noted the need to strengthen how the Board ensures accountability for progress on the Strategic Plan.  This is interesting. At the November 10 work session, Directors discussed the progress the Board has made from previous behaviors...

Onward. On January 12th the Board will have their annual Legislative luncheon. It was interesting because (1) they are all very worried about the state budget and (2) Michael asked about evaluating the district's lobbyist (we have one of those). It was agreed that it was a good idea but I think it surprised some staff. This would be done at a Board Executive Session. Michael said he had met with Rep. Carlyle about curriculum adoptions at the community college level and how it affects SPS. He said there was a group of teachers interested in piloting it and Dr. G-J said the district would have to pay the teachers. Michael countered that they had to do professional development anyway and the other Board members agreed. So on the agenda for this meeting was Community Engagement . The time came for this topic and the Superintendent said there was nothing new and she can't do more. It was somewhat awkward because she seemed defensive but said nothing. I was a little surpr...

I attended the School Reports meeting on Monday night at Roosevelt. There were about 45 people in attendance. All the principals of the NE schools were there as well as Phil Brockman, the Executive Director for the NE region, Susan Enfield, CAO, Jessica de Barros, Ramona Hattendorf and Lauren McGuire of the SCPTSA and Olga Addae, president of the SEA. They had the individual school reports for all the NE schools. (I learned that Jessica de Barros has a different title/job now but I don't know what it is.) It was structured so that staff gave a presentation and then there were small table groups (4-6) where these questions were to be discussed: 2 areas at your school to focus on and 2 to celebrate what do you want your principal to do to improve your school areas the district needs to focus on to improve your school areas you feel the district needs to have better communications what can family members do to help your school I wasn't sure how well this would work if there w...