Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools, like other Washington state school districts, has to deliver an October 1st student count to OSPI for funding.   I have been hearing from several schools, especially elementaries, that they get their schools geared up with services only to suddenly see a loss of students because of some kind of change/switch that the district does so that students leave their schools.  Apparently this has happened to some schools last year and it appears it will happen again this year.

I'll let Representative Gerry Pollet - who worked his ass off to make sure this law was fair to Sped students - tell you about it (written on March 12th): Earlier today we did something terrific for our children and schools. We were faced with a punitive Senate bill to require every student to finish 24 credits to graduate from high school even if they were sick or homeless for some period of time, or had special education needs that were not met, and couldn't complete courses.  We would drive up the dr opout rate when students who are behind discover there is no way to make up and graduate with their classmates. As I pointed out repeatedly, the state and districts (like Seattle) don't even provide for free make-up, summer and remedial courses. This would have kicked in with students becoming freshmen a year from now - before we added guidance counselors, lowered class sizes, or provided students with options for career and technical education courses.  ...

From Representative Gerry Pollet: I will be prime sponsor in House of AG Bob Ferguson's open government agenda bill (HB 2121). We've spent the past year collaborating and refining the bill to require that public officials take an on-line training to learn their obligations to the public to meet in open public meetings, and ensure that the public has access to public records . Watch the AG's news conference here from TVW.  I will also be introducing a constitutional amendment to undo the recent State Supreme C ourt decision giving Nixon-like Executive Privilege to the Governor to hide public records and corporate lobbying (the decision was not about Gov Inslee, who pledges not to claim Executive Privilege).  The 3rd piece of my open government agenda is HB 1197 to guarantee that you have a right to comment at a city / county or other council or state agency board meeting BEFORE the council or agency takes action. Many councils and board don't take...