Seattle Schools Community Forum

From SPS Communications: Seattle, Highline and Kent School Districts Honor                                              the Multilingualism of Public School Students Seattle, WA – Seattle Public Schools is proud to release its "Speak English AND Your Home Language" video honoring the multilingualism of students in Seattle and neighboring districts. The video, available with subtitles in eight languages plus English , was made in collaboration with Highline Public Schools, the Kent School District and OneAmerica.

Below is a letter from Feb. 2014 from Superintendent Susan Enfield of Highline SD that I believe was originally for her staff but was also later handed out to Rainier Prep parents (but not by Enfield.)  You'll note two things.

Good story from KOMO news about Highline's in-school suspension program.  Sounds to me like they have covered their bases well but to have this kind of in-school suspension program you need resources and space.  SPS would probably have the resources if they devoted some McCleary dollars but space?  Kind of at a premium.  Oh wait, maybe those City pre-K classrooms.

The Waskowitz Outdoor School and the WELS program in Highline School District sound really great.  I had never heard of this before. 

I don't know this issue well enough but apparently the City Council is, once again, considering annexing part of White Center to Seattle.  What reader asks is a compelling question: are there schools in that area and would that mean they would become part of SPS? From the White Center Blog :

Two Special Education stories of note. First, the Times reports that the State will accept SPS's Special Ed plan with a few extra conditions.  The concern seems to be that the staffing plan seems more worried about teachers's needs than meeting student needs.  The State also wants the district to spend more federal dollars on consultants to help to shape/improve services.  Also, the AP is reporting that Bainbridge School District has to pay the family of a student with Asperger's who was bullied $300,000 in damages .  The lawsuit started in 2010 when the student was then 14 and at Bainbridge High School.  The parents had gone so far as to get a restraining order against four male students as well as contacting the Bainbridge Island police.   The students were found guilty of criminal conduct relating to their actions towards the victim. Another STEM school with an aviation twist has opened in south Seattle.  The school, Raisbeck Aviation High Sch...

Honestly, they have some of the most entertaining posts over at the WPC.  Omit details, pump up (to the point of near explosion) any point they feel they must - it's all good fun. So they have one post about how a Highline School Board director, Susan Goding,  wrote - on her education blog how she thinks charter schools will hurt districts.  I can only say that she is entitled to her own professional opinion (indeed the state directors association came out against 1240).   She also explains how Highline has many of the programs that Spokane addresses in their application (and so does Seattle).  Almost seems like Spokane is too lazy to do any of this development of programs on their own. But the WPC?  Not buying it. This article is a clear attempt to discourage implementation of the new charter school law. This statement shows an elected school board director actively campaigning to influence school districts to deny their students access to char...