Seattle Schools Community Forum

Another week, another Friday Memo . Read this to the end for the best part.

Friday memos , the gift that keeps on giving.

Another week, another Friday memo .

Nothing particularly earth-shattering or even noteworthy in the last couple of Friday Memos. But what there is worth mentioning is mentioned below:

Oh, these Friday Memos and the stuff you find in them. The Superintendent's letter  covered a lot of topics quickly. His recap of the Board Retreat would is, I suspect, better than the Board Retreat. It covered all of the topics at about the same level of detail, but used up only a few seconds of reading time instead of a whole day. It's mostly platitudes until the One Time Funds part at the end. The good news there is money to start the middle school math adoption (we can see the beginning of the end for CMP II), and money for IB and teacher cut back mitigation. In the brief blurb about the Seattle Center, we learn that the school district's needs (which includes a high school) were among the primary topics for discussion. The superintendent has made it clear that it is up to the Board to decide where and how to add north end elementary HCC capacity. Michael Tolley's letter includes a feeble defense of the arbitrary caps put on Special Education enrollment at Opt...

The Friday memo to the Board for May 6 includes answers to questions from the Board that could not be answered at the Curriculum and Instruction Management Oversight meeting. It makes for interesting (and odd) reading.

Friday memos to the Board are always interesting. Here you will find all sorts of interesting stuff. From March 4, 2016, Teaching and Learning Update : " District achievement testing in reading and math (MAP or SBA) is required to determine Advanced Learning eligibility. Candidates are required to participate in district achievement testing. Opting out of testing is a decision to opt out of the Advanced Learning eligibility testing process. " So there we have it: Students who are opted out of SBAC are ineligible for Advanced Learning.

The last Superintendent's Friday Memo on April 3, 2015 says this: Rainier Beach: The recent recognition of the Rainier Beach International Baccalaureate program is well deserved. Rainier Beach has benefitted from the state School Improvement Grants, Race to the Top grants, and support from many community partners. The district has supported the IB program as we do for all schools – during the first five years. That funding will continue for the next two years. And we are certainly hopeful that added state support will make longer term funding possible. As a result of community complaints, the Office of Civil Rights has opened a file on inequitable funding for Rainier Beach (furniture, curriculum, staffing). Our responses to OCR will show that we are funding Rainier Beach as well or (in some cases) better than other similar schools in the district.  I feel like there's something a little backhanded in that reply.  Maybe that's jus...

Each week the superintendent prepares a "Friday memo" for the Board. This memo is used to inform the Board about ongoing issues and to answer questions that have been asked at meetings or in emails. The Friday Memos are made public each week, one week after the Board sees them. They are posted to the district web site here . The December 12 Friday Memo has information about: Board SMART Goals set at the Board Retreat on December 6 Specific efforts to close achievement gaps Special Education - the corrective action and the data leaks John Hay/Interagency Garfield Field Trip Legislative issues (McCleary) Bailey-Gatzert PreK enrollment rules Bell Times Task Force update Capital Projects update