Seattle Schools Community Forum

I call them "former charter schools" because, according to OSPI, that's what they are.  They are "contractors" fulfilling a program formulated by OSPI for their students. My reading of all that is going on comes to two conclusions. One, the current charter school law is dead.  Two Eastern Washington legislators, Senator Andy Billig and Senator Michael Baumgartner, are introducing a rather hacked-up bill (it's formatted using the old law to show the changes) - SB 6163 .  It's what Charlie calls "charter-lite" and it's nonsense.  It would allow any school board in a district to become  an authorizer of a charter.  (The previous law made the district the authorizer with the school board having true role.)  It is a vague mess that would put both districts and school boards in uncharted waters without a map. Two, there is no frankensteining these former charter schools back to life.  They have passed from being charter schools to being ...

Three years since the Sandy Hook shootings . The SEA , at their representative assembly last night, voted in a resolution in support of Middle College High School (MCHS) for its almost 25 years of serving students of color who are disenfranchised or in crisis.  They note that this means that six teachers of color have been administratively displace or removed from their positions. State that SEA’s position is that the historical focus of the MCHS program and curriculum on social justice and critical pedagogy at all sites must be maintained. We believe failure to do so would contradict the focus on equity agreed to by both SEA and the district during the recent contract negotiations; Los Angeles schools were shut down today over an electronic terror threat relating to backpacks and was directed at schools themselves (not places like buses.)

Today the Washington State Charter School Association announced that the state Supreme Court had granted their request for more time to file for a reconsideration of the ruling on the charter law from the Court.  The due date had been around this time and is now October 24th.  I'm thinking the Court is a bit chastised for the timing of their ruling and may be throwing a bone out there.  I don't think it means much else. Second, the State Auditor released an audit of First Place Charter School.  Below is the press release.  Pretty damning and expands even more on issues the Charter Commission had raised for months.   Public charter schools are required to follow state laws holding them accountable for the use of public resources. The state Charter School Commission asked our Office to conduct an audit of First Place Scholars Charter School, the first school to receive public funding under Washington’s Charter School I...

From KPLU : A network of donors will step up if necessary to keep Washington state's nine charter schools open through the school year, a leading charter advocate said Tuesday, even if public dollars stop flowing in the wake of a state Supreme Court decision voiding Washington's charter school law . Tom Franta, who heads the Washington State Charter Schools Association, said his organization has reached out to a network of something like 50 donors — whom Franta declined to identify — that can help cover the estimated $14 million necessary to cover all nine schools' operating costs through the end of the year. Here's some remaining mysteries:

That would be First Place Scholars except that it may not even be open at this point. From the Times' coverage of the striking down of the charter law by the Washington State Supreme Court: In Seattle, Summit Sierra, a new college-prep high school, opened Aug. 17 in the Chinatown International District with its inaugural freshman class of 130. School also started Aug. 17 at SOAR Academy and Summit: Olympus in Tacoma. Excel Public Charter School in Kent began Aug. 20, and Destiny Charter Middle School in Tacoma opened Aug. 24. Rainier Prep’s first day of class was Tuesday.“We will absolutely be here ready for kids on Tuesday,” said Executive Director Malia Burns. PRIDE Prep and Spokane International Academy in the Spokane area opened last month. You'll see two things in that reporting.  No mention of FPS.  I don't know why but I suspect that may be because they haven't opened their doors for this year or may not be at all.  But not mentioning them is odd given th...

The Charter Commission - at the end of almost five hours of presentations and discussions - took a vote to revoke the charter of First Place Scholars and the vote lost, 4-3.  And at least two of those yes votes are very tenuous.  Main takeaways:

The Charter Commission meeting tomorrow morning will let us know if First Place Scholars charter school has met the requirements laid out for them.  I do not believe there will be any more chances for this scrappy little charter if the requirements are not met.

Update : the process is the Charter Commission really bending over backwards to help First Place Scholars stay afloat.  This is NOT the process for revocation of their charter.  If these items are not completed to the satisfaction of the Commission, then the revocation process would probably start.  (Both the Commissioners and the Director of the Commission have given FPS repeated chances to get their ducks in a row and apparently, the Commission has not seen enough progress on those stated issues.) end of update I'm listening into a special phone meeting of the Washington State Charter Commission.  The top agenda item is  First Place Scholars charter school. The Commission is giving First Place until June 15, 2015 to finish corrections that the Commission needed to see to keep First Place as a charter school.  It is quite a lengthy list of items.  (This comes from a 5-2 vote of the Charter Commission whether to give FPS these corrections condi...

 Update: the Times has more reporting on the situation with First Place Scholars.  According to their article, two Commissioners wanted to revoke their charter. It was pointed out that FPS will probably owe money back to the state because they did not enroll as many students as they said they would.   FPS has another deadline of June 17th - less than a month - to meet the Commission's requests.  It appears most of the Commissioners agree that if these requests are not met by June 17th, they won't "kick the can" down the road again.  Head of FPS, Dawn Mason, continues to claim it's not FPS' fault because they opened too quickly.  end of updates From the PI , news about charter schools in Washington State: First Place Scholars is still under scrutiny. According to written reports to the commission, the school has made some progress in its work with students who do not speak English at home and in setting academic plans for children with spec...

Update: forgot to include this fascinating piece of news. Sarah Morningstar , the late Cheryl Chow's partner, applied for Sally Clark's soon to be vacant City Council seat.  Morningstar mentions her work as a school administrator in Seattle Schools in her application.  Morningstar is currently assistant principal at TOPS . The City Council will announce the finalists on Monday at 2 pm.  There will be 3-minute presentations from the finalists on Friday, the 24th with an announcement of the winner on Monday, April 27th.  Good luck, Ms. Morningstar. end of update In news about First Place Scholars , it's good news.  Apparently, they have shown enough progress for their turnaround for the Charter Commission's Executive Director, Joshua Halsey, to say that things are looking good.  They just need to turn in their documentation on Special Education to meet what the CC asked for in changes at FPS. Did you get a robo-call from Ready Washington (brought t...

First Place Scholars, Washington's first charter school, has gotten a one week reprieve for its need to show the Charter Commission that they are stable and on-track.  Multiple issues had been found by the Commission including services for Sped and ELL students. Interestingly, former WA state legislator Dawn Mason, who now heads FPS' Board, has taken a tough stance against the Charter Commission, saying that the fault lies with the Commission, not FPS.  Her thought pattern is that the CC allowed FPS to open too soon when they were not ready.  (This, of course, is somewhat puzzling considering FS had been open for two decades as a school.)  She says FPS was concerned and the CC is a late-comer to the issues at the school.  On April 5th she said this about the work to be done by FPS: That will of course mean they have to give us time to raise funds, test the new systems, stress test the structures, train our teachers to the measurement systems. That do...

From Florida, a state where ed reform is almost completely out of control, two stories. The first is a continuing issue of Florida's insistence on testing all students, even the most severely disabled.

From the "there goes that idea" - Expedia is moving its corporate headquarters  to the Amgen campus .  Several readers had thought that might be an ideal spot to share space with a business and an SPS high school.  (This is considered a huge win for Seattle as Expedia is leaving Bellevue.)  Sen. Maralyn Chase (D) and Senate President Pro Tem Pam Roach (R) will lead a bipartisan press conference Thursday afternoon followed by an exposé of the Common Core educational standards adopted by the Legislature in 2011.

I titled this thread "Early Warning" because I believe we are starting to see the signs of some major upheaval. First, I'd like to just take a pulse about opting out.   If you feel comfortable, could you comment if you are opting your child(ren) out of the SBAC and at what school (or, if not the school, the region - NE, NW, Central, WS, SW or SE)?  You don't have to give grade level, gender or names, of course.   As well, let us know if this is a source of open discussion or quiet discussion and if you are getting pushback from staff. Next, I believe the Charter Commission will be releasing a statement soon - probably in the next couple of days - that they will either be suspending First Place Scholars ' charter or closing it down entirely.  This will be sad but my impression is that the new Board/Director at First Place have not been able to meet the requirements set out by the Charter Commission when FP was placed on probation.  Lastly, below is ...