Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Four Seattle City Council members , Nick Licata,  John Okamoto, Mike O'Brien and Kashama Sawant, signed a letter to Superintendent Nyland to keep Middle College at High Point open.

Well, this is interesting (and could have ramifications for the School Board races). As you may have heard, Sally Clark had decided not to run again for City Council.  But now she has taken a job at UW - some kind of city relations thing - and she's leaving her Council position on April 12. The City Council will be appointing her successor (just as the School Board does if someone leaves early) by April 27th.  They say they want a "placeholder." From Publicola (they have a complete calendar of events for this process):

I received a tweet on Monday from SPS, saying that Dr. Nyland was visiting with the City Council as part of their regular Monday morning briefing.  Here's the link .  It was worth listening to as I heard Dr. Nyland say, with some candor, various interesting things. Summary

In one of the most shameful and disrespectfully written editorials I've ever read in the Times, they urge the Mayor and the City Council to make taking over the majority of the Seattle School Board positions a top legislative priority. It's a funny thing because I JUST today wrote the Board about a couple of other issues but warned them of this.  Now we all know there is no love between me and the Times so no one gave me a heads up.  You could have seen this coming from the signs put out by Burgess and Murray a mile away. Here's what I just told the Board in an e-mail: No, I'm not clairvoyant - I just can see where Mayor Murray and Councilman Burgess are heading. This from the Seattle Times: But the value of a city department of education is diluted as long as the Seattle school board (sic) remains mired in dysfunction.  With the elected board whipsawed by ideologies and personalities, Seattle is now looking at its fifth superintendent in a decade.  It i...

Who is responsible for holding the district accountable for its progress, its actions, its decisions? First and foremost, of course, is the Board (or so it would seem). But really, they can only hold one person accountable and that's the Superintendent. They can't fire anyone but her and I guess they could reprimand someone but she could accuse them of overstepping. What's interesting is that the Board's greatest place of oversight is BEFORE anything gets enacted. But what tends to happen is that the Board directs the Superintendent in a policy direction, she then coordinates that effort and it gets presented to the Board. They then do what is usually a rushed and/or cursory look at it and pass it. Then, when problems arise, the Board is pretty much out of luck because, after all, they okayed what the Superintendent and the staff created. (I suspect they could reverse something but I haven't seen that done.) Holding the Board accountable are the voters . It ...

Tim Burgess has followed up on his guest column in the Times with another ill-informed and ill-advised piece in Crosscut . Won't somebody either set him straight or stop him?

This week's Education Reform editorial in the Times pretends to have been written by Seattle City Council members Tim Burgess and Richard Conlin. These two men have nothing to do with Seattle Public Schools, have no first-hand knowledge about the District, and have never spoken with any teachers, but they are willing to lend their names to a guest column written by the PR person at one of the Education Reform organizations. They thereby forfeit all credibility as leaders.

There were some Director community meetings today; DeBell, Sundquist and Martin-Morris. Did anyone attend? I sent an e-mail to the Directors expressing my disappointment in the evaluation of the Superintendent. I am not willing to waste my time with them any longer (with the possible exception of Kay Smith-Blum who has shown a willingness to ask questions until she gets answers and isn't afraid to offer her own solutions). I'm not passing on research or information to them. I'm not going to testify at Board meetings. I'm not going to their community meetings (even though you can learn interesting things from other parents). But why bother? They may sometimes listen and even raise a question of staff that someone from the community gives them but really they don't seem to want input or care about making sure it is part of their or the Superintendent's decision-making process. On that note, here's some interesting information. There's a Seattleite ...

From the Seattle Chapter of Stand for Children: Empowering Educators: Success for All Students A community discussion on new approaches to evaluation and compensation and how it can work in our schools. Monday, May 24th 7p–8:30p Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98144 This event will also be available through live streaming video on our website. During the 2010 legislative session, the Governor, education advocates and the legislature committed to pilot improved evaluations of teachers and principals that will likely become a statewide model. A work group was established to consider how educators in Washington are paid starting in 2011. How will these changes affect kids? What do improved compensation and evaluation systems look like? What can Washington learn from other districts and states tackling these issues and how do we ensure that changes result in positive outcomes for educators and students? Our panel rep...

I attended the Open House at City Hall yesterday and heard Mayor McGinn speak. It was a pretty nice event; there were tours of the Mayor's office, we got to meet the deputy mayors, aides and, of course, the Mayor himself. I told the Mayor (who for some reason, remembers me from that long-ago interview last April) to please not forget about Seattle schools. He said it was in his speech (and indeed it was). I also got to go through the City Council offices and touched base with Tim Burgess and an aide to Sally Bagshaw (a new member of the Public Safety and Education Committee), Kathy Nyland, who said she periodically checks this blog. It is a great thing to know that our city leaders are making the effort to keep public education on their radar and not just from the district's point of view. (Also, if you have little kids, they had a great kids band something with Monkey in the name. If you ever see they are giving a concert, go. Very fun and very high-energy. They had ...

I attended the City Council Town Hall on Monday and folks, what an opportunity (for those 20 of us who showed up - I was very surprised). Seven out of the nine members were there plus Harium and Peter. The format was going to be to break into small groups to discuss one of three topics; Urban Forests, Excellence in Schools and Youth Violence. And guess what happened? We were such a small group that President Richard Conlin said, "Let's just talk as a group. We'll vote on which topics interest us and drop one if there is little or no interest." This NEVER happens at district meetings so I was amazed at how well they took note of how to make this meeting work best. As it turns out, it was a great meeting with lots of discussion (yes, we asked questions and - hold your breath - the Council answered them. Yes, it can be done). Interestingly, all the topics tied together in a fashion. There were people from the Ingraham neighborhood who said that the district co...

Busy day today. First we have an online chat with Seattle Public Schools superintendent, Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson. It will be hosted by the Seattle P-I at this address: http://www.seattlepi.com/chat/viewchat.asp?chatID=29 from 1130 to 12:30. You may submit questions in advance. Also, tonight, from 6:30 to 9:00 at Eckstein Middle School, there will be a City Council Town Hall Meeting to discuss the City's Role in Seattle Schools. These Town Halls are a public forum for community discussions. They will focus on prevention of youth violence, legislation to protect trees, and the City’s role in public education and Seattle Schools. The Town Halls will begin with brief presentations on the City’s work on these issues followed by discussion groups around each of the issues. The groups will then come back together to share their conclusions with the other groups and the Council. We are looking for your input on actions that the Council should work on.

From Councilman Conlin's newsletter: SEATTLE RESIDENTS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND A COUNCIL TOWN HALL MEETING: JUNE 15th & 25th These Town Halls are a public forum for community discussions. They will focus on prevention of youth violence, legislation to protect trees, and the City’s role in public education and Seattle Schools . The Town Halls will begin with brief presentations on the City’s work on these issues followed by discussion groups around each of the issues. The groups will then come back together to share their conclusions with the other groups and the Council. We are looking for your input on actions that the Council should work on. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend one of these sessions! Monday, June 15, 6:30 - 9 p.m. Eckstein Middle School, 3003 NE 75th See map Thursday, June 25, 6:30 - 9 p.m. The Hall at Fauntleroy, 9131 California Ave SW Also: An education forum next week with key leaders in the 36 th District: Rep. Reuven Ca...