Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Seattle Times is reporting that the previously-desired-by-the-District Federal Reserve Building may somehow rise taller under its new owner, Martin Selig.  The article also corrects/contradicts earlier reporting that the roof was part of the historic landmark status; it's not.  Reading what has to be done in order to build higher is pretty much convincing evidence that SPS could not have made this into a school.

The hearing on 1497 (allowing the mayor to appoint 2 school board members) will be in the House Education Committee on Tues., Feb. 3 at 1:30pm in the House Hearing Room A in the John L. O'Brien building.    I would encourage anyone who cares to send in a message to your legislator or even come on down.  On the Federal Reserve building , apparently it DID go the eBay way. The Times is reporting that there were six bidders with the top bid being $7.6M.  We only know for certain that SPS is one of the bidders.  But the deadline - which was yesterday - has been extended because auction rules state that "the bidding continues until the highest bid goes unchallenged for 24 hours."  

It appears the Board agreed to bid on the Federal Reserve building .  Interesting thing, though, is that the feds have lower the opening bid from $3M to $1M. On the one hand, the district could get themselves quite the bargain if no one else bids.  Or, it may go Ebay style and have multiple last minute bidders.  The district is paying for its own appraisal and can go 10% over that amount (with these "capital reserves" that are apparently sitting around).  I'll try to find out what that amount is.  (If the district is successful, look for this project to be number one with a bullet on BEX V.) The district is looking for members for a taskforce on the new 24-credit graduation requirement. In January 2015, the Washington State Board of Education approved the district’s request for a two-year waiver of the new requirement, which will increase the number of course credits needed for graduation from 20 to 24. Seattle Public Schools students currently are requir...

First up, the Board retreat on the 6th.  Apparently, I had been expected because Director Peaslee said something to the effect of, "wait for Melissa" and Director Peters and Michael Tolley (who ostensibly must read the blog and knew I was not coming) said, "She's not coming."  I'm sure there was a sigh of relief that no one from the "angry community " was there. I also learned via public disclosure documents that at least one director feels the need to pass on many of my e-mails to the Board to senior staff .  To note, there are about 13 people who get the e-mails you send via "schoolboard@seattleschools.org."   These include the Board, Legal, the Superintendent, Communications, a couple of cabinet people and a person in the Board office.  So now, if I'm writing to the entire Board, I'll just send it to the main e-mail address because it seems my e-mails get forwarded on anyway.  I don't really like it this way because I...

The agenda is now available for the Operations Committee meeting this week.  There are several items that could give insight about the direction of capacity management and capital renovations. One is the semi-annual BEX Oversight Committee report .  This is generally short and quite dry but who knows?  The Committee members may have some compelling insights (especially if they got asked their opinions on the acquisition of the Federal Reserve building). Two, is a report from Flip Herndon about that very issue of acquisition of the Federal Reserve building. Will the district put in a bid?  They discussed this with the Board in Executive Session.  Opening bid minimum on Dec. 5th was $5M with a $100K deposit required.   There are, so far, no bids on the building.  The government requires an all-cash payment for final sale. Three, there is the " Capital Semi-Annual report update " also from Flip Herndon. There will also be a Bell Times Task...

The Times had a brief article last night when the news broke about the one-week extension for public input on the appointment of Superintendent Nyland to be the permanent superintendent which has now expanded and there are some very interesting quotes. The action slated for a special meeting of the board on December 10 at 4:30 p.m.  The Times says the Board hasn't decided if they will allow comments. - apparently there will be discussion at the Board meeting Wenesday when this is introduced.  (Normally, the discussion at Intro is limited so we'll have to see.) - The district has this e-mail for "interested parties" to weigh in - SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org . - The Times notes that Nyland came from Marysville, serving nine years there.  I'm finding some very telling stories out of Marysville that may be clues to the kind of superintendent he may be. - Peaslee said the board usually introduces and votes on superintendent job offers in the same meeting...

 Monday, December 1st   Want to get on the Speakers list for the Wednesday Board meeting ?  They take e-mails/phone calls starting at 8 am (not before so don't bother).  Phone: 252-0040 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org.   Coffee Chat with Superintendent Nyland at Neighborhood House High Point from 6-7 pm.  The notice states: Dr. Nyland looks forward to listening to your feedback, concerns, and questions. So I think bring any and all input and questions. Community Meeting with Director McLaren at Neighborhood House High Point from 7-8 pm.

I did forget to mention this previously and an alert reader reminded me of it; there's a notation on the Board agenda for an Executive Session at the end of the meeting: Executive Session: To consider the selection of a site or the acquisition of real estate – This closed session will begin at the conclusion of the regular Board meeting and last approximately forty-five minutes. The legislative session will not reconvene after the executive session, and no action will be taken as a result of the executive session.    I believe this is likely to be over how much the district is willing to pay for the Federal Reserve building and land.  $10M? $15M? $20M?  I haven't seen any estimates of how much it is worth (given its condition and its landmarking status). The auction starts on Dec. 5th and continues until Jan. 28, 2015.  Opening bid is $5M.   The district, if successful, would buy themselves land and a building and, doing it t...

The General Services Administration has announced that the Federal Reserve Building will go up for auction on December 5th with an opening bid of $5M.  The closing date for bids is January 28th, 2015.  From the GSA website: At the close of the auction, the high bid will be considered for acceptance by the Government.  The Government reserves the right to reject any or all bids for any reason.   The building cannot be demolished because of historic preservation regulations (although the zoning for that area would allow unlimited height if those regulations did not apply to the building).  That right there will severely limit the number of bidders.  So, the district could try to bid on it and obviously, set a limit on how high they go.  I suspect the money could be found a number of ways.  Of course, then it would be quite awhile for the district to find the real money to renovate it.  Is that worth it? Possibly.  Or, as o...

Monday, November 3rd Growth Boundary Meeting from 6:30-7:30 pm at Alki Elementary Has anyone attended one of these?  I wanted to get to the one at Northgate last week but didn't. Tuesday, November 4th Election Day .  This may be the day when we learn the fate of 1A/1B and 1351.   I say "may" because as we have all seen from previous elections, our "postmarked by election day" voting means some races don't get determined on election day. I have had a very hard time reading the tea leaves on 1A/1B - it is a source of much confusion to voters.  On the one hand, voters do tend to vote no to items they don't understand.  On the other hand, we are in Seattle where voters love kids and education. I perceive that 1B may "win" because of the King County Labor Council endorsement.  Unions tend to be good at getting out the vote but we do have the awkward sight of unions against unions for 1A/1B.  That should tell you something about winners ...

  Summary : About the Gates Foundation grant for a preschool at Bailey-Gatzert.   Several on the Board want a more careful explanation about who is in charge of what (like curriculum, alignment, costs) while a few on the Board want to grab this opportunity.  There seems to be confusion over what early learning is in SPS.  The Board will not be voting on this grant until November 19th, well after the election vote on the preschool props, 1A and 1B. About the downtown school .  Some on the Board pressed for costs around finding room at other schools and the actual numbers for space for students in Central/downtown.  It is unclear what will actually happen but one thing that I believe is firmly settled is that the Board is not going to vote in to take on more debt to renovate the Federal Reserve building.  So unless some generous donor(s) come forward, it seems unlikely that the district will be given the Federal Reserve building.  However, the ...

The reporting on the School Board meeting will be in two parts as there was major discussion around the Gates grant for a preschool at Bailey-Gatzert and discussion around funding a downtown school building. Part One. It was an evening of back-and-forth about the Gates Foundation grant for a preschool at SPS, curious claims on room at that school (for preschool AND for downtown kids) and not one, but two, mariachi performances.  Director Blanford was not present for the majority of the meeting (but came in later).

Monday, October 13th Curriculum&Instruction Committee meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm at JSCEE. There quite a jam-packed agenda here including discussion of Advanced Learning/Highly Capable programs and discussion about the Board endorsing Prop 1B, the City's preschool measure. I note that the name of this item has changed: BAR for P-5 Schools Aligned with Seattle Preschool Program Universal Pre-K Initiative It a bit amusing as the City rebrands the name of their preschool initiative over and over.  But again, pre-k is NOT the district's state mandate nor are they state funded for it.   At Publicola, there is one person saying that Cashel Toner, who is the district's person for Early Learning, has been working with the Gates Foundation on aligning SPS with this effort via a $750K grant.  (This person says there are e-mails to show this and I hope to see them soon.)  I can only say that in e-mails I have obtained, Toner is very in the loop with many City peo...

Update :  I was mistaken about why the meeting was cancelled.  Several directors were unable to make the meeting. end of update The Work Session scheduled for today is cancelled according to the district website.   I don't know the reason but it may have something to do with today's announced settlement with the family of the Garfield field trip incident.

About ConnectEdu , their college/career division was acquired by a group called Graduation Alliance.    Some other activists and I are looking into this as the FTC had said they were not going to allow ConnectEdu to sell student data. SPS students (and their parents) should have each received an e-mail in the last week, telling them they can take their data off or leave it, should they want to access GA's services.  I was also told that GA had sent a letter to every parent, telling them this and introducing their company. If anyone got such a letter, could you scan it and send it to me?  I'd like to see what they said. I am going to be on hiatus again over the next week but will try to keep up especially if there is breaking news.  It would be great if anyone attending the Work Session on the Federal Reserve building could take careful notes (especially on the recommendation) and either send them to me or write up a report yourself and send it to me. Wh...

Monday, October 6th Growth Boundary meeting from 6:30-7:30 pm at Mercer Middle School Tuesday, October 7th  Community Meeting with Director McLaren from 6:00-745 pm at the West Seattle Branch Library Growth Boundary meeting from 6:30-7:30 pm at Rainier Beach High School Wednesday, October 8th Executive Committee meeting from 8:30-10:00 am.  Agenda .  Reading over the agenda, I find it exceeding vague/cryptic. There's an interesting notation on the agenda which is " items requiring Board Action on October 15 and/or Nov. 5th."   This stands out because at the Executive Ctm meetings, they normally go over major items on the agendas for upcoming Board meetings (and that is on the agenda for the Ctm meeting). So I wonder about this notation that perhaps there might be Intro/Action items on those two Board meeting agendas.  If so, what could be so urgent that it couldn't have been introduced last Wednesday?  I recall Director Carr saying (a coupl...

That was interesting.  I'm going to flesh this out because I think a lot of these questions asked about Eckstein might ring true for your school building. I was a little confused at first as there were very few parents (even at 5:45 pm) and no handout.  It was in the Eckstein auditorium (about 1/3 ish full by the time it started.) The organizers were smart; Eckstein's curriculum night followed at 7 pm.  (although what a parking nightmare). The district was represented by Flip Herndon, Richard Best, Bruce Skowyra.  The meeting was videotaped (by I don't know by whom). Principal Sherry Kokx was there as was Executive Director, Kim Whitworth.  Elected officials included Rep. Gerry Pollet and Rep. David Frockt.  I saw no School Board members. Dr. Herndon said he would answer some questions already submitted and then take questions.   It's pretty easy - as the parents/staff circled back to the same questions - what the issue is. The district has a c...

Update :  the Discipline Appeals Counci l has been set with a couple of issues. One big one is that they did not get any volunteers to represent Sped.  It was stated they asked internally but it was unclear to me if any Sped parent organizations were contacted.  They would like a Sped teacher.  Peaslee wants SPed in there.  Peters said SPed is important because of disproportionality and Sped issues in discipline cases. Two is that Director Carr is on this council.  I was confused when I saw the name as she is listed as "community."  I asked and according to the policy, she can be on the committee as a community member. I personally think it is strange that a sitting board member could be on this council (or even want to). Also, Memorial Stadium got new turf and Richard Best, head of Capital Projects, casually said that they are considering putting a new high school there AND it could be on BTA IV (which is becoming quite large just with this ...

(This is going to be an excerpt from the Audit&Finance Committee meeting held on Tuesday.  I note that this information is likely to be again discussed at today's Operations Committee meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm.  Also at the Operations Ctm meeting, there will be a bell times analysis update , a Facilities Condition Assessment and Study and Survey by the group, MENG , 2015-2016 proposed growth boundaries adjustments and Title IX update. I also know that many of you are waiting for updates on MAP and other testing and I promise to get that up in the next day or so. It's been a very busy week to cover.) There were two rather extraordinary presentations (and a couple of just plain "huh" ones that I will also get to later) at the Audit&Finance committee meeting on Tuesday.  One was about Title IX and sexual harassment which I just covered in the Garfield field trip rape update thread posted today. The other was the discussion lead by Flip Herndon, the head...

There is nothing on the Seattle Schools calendar for this week.  Well, there is one meeting happening and yet strangely, it does not appear on the district calendar.  It's almost as if this meeting is really for one purpose or group.  It's the meeting at the Downtown Library about SPS taking over the Federal Reserve building. (The meeting is at 6 pm in the "Microsoft" auditorium with a walk-thru of the Federal Reserve building around 7:15 pm.)  Again, this is billed as a "conversational" meeting so I will have to see what form that conversation takes. I also see, at the notice at the district webpage, NO mention of how to pay for these renovations.  According to the Times, it would be something on the order of $53M (up from Flip Herndon's ballpark $40M) AND they would be seeking levies funds to pay for it.  No mention either of downtown businesses or foundations willing to help this effort for a school they all seem to so deeply need/want. I hope...