Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update:   there's a new movie out about a gifted child called...Gifted. Also, thank you to reader NE Parent for this link to a NY Times article on finding more gifted students of color.  It makes for fascinating reading.

The Times is reporting that the district is using the Bill Clinton school of language to explain what the word "support"means in matching funding from the Alliance for Education for the IB program at Rainier Beach High School. The Times includes footage of the Alliance event where the announcement was made by President Patu.  It must have come as quite the surprise to her to learn what "support" means.  Despite great fanfare at the announcement that Seattle Public Schools had made an agreement to fund International Baccalaureate (IB) classes at Rainier Beach High earlier this month, the district says promising to support that program does not mean giving it extra money.

From SPS Communications: The Alliance for Education and Seattle Public Schools today announced a multi-year agreement to sustain the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Rainier Beach High School, which has been at risk of being discontinued at the end of the current academic year due to lack of funds. The Alliance for Education has pledged $50,000 per year in philanthropic funds for each of the next three school years – 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019 – for a total of $150,000. This pledge has been made possible through the early support of the Thomas B. Foster Endowment and the John Stanford Fund. Seattle Public Schools will fund the remaining costs of the program and will be examining mechanisms to sustain the program beyond the 2018-2019 school year.

From OSPI: OLYMPIA — April 13, 2016 — Funds are now available for low-income students who are eligible for Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Capstone program exams, the US Department of Education announced yesterday. Qualified low-income students will now pay $15 per exam. This is a $3 increase from last year’s reduced rate of $12 per exam. There is no limit to the number of exams a student may take. For more information on the program, as well how students qualify for the fee reduction, please visit Advanced Placement .

There's an article in the Times this morning about IB funding, particularly at Rainier Beach High School.  It reflects a pattern in Seattle Schools that truly has to be addressed.  That pattern is for the district - with a flourish and applause - likes to roll out new and "innovative" programs that are usually wildly popular.  And fund them with seed money and then expect them to continue on (finding the funding themselves.) I truly dislike that the district - and many school boards - like to start programs that they have no idea how to continually fund.  

KPLU's Sound Effects has created a wonderful, vital piece of work in Renaissance Beach, a story about the turnaround of Rainier Beach High School.  It is told thru the eyes of staff and students and is truly compelling.

Somehow I missed this but PBS had a story in June.  on the International Baccalaureate program at Rainier Beach High School.  I am glad they are getting this notice.  The International Baccalaureate program, once thought of as a college preparatory curriculum exclusively for the rich, may also help students at struggling schools. The NewsHour’s April Brown explores how the program has transformed one high school in Seattle.

There is an issue going on with Sand Point Elementary and the sudden pulling of a grant from the Families & Education levy because SP's principal is leaving.  The school planned staff around that grant and are now scrambling because of the rescinding of the grant.  The school is looking for answers and so far no one - from the City or the District - has any to give them. This could mean dire things for other schools who may get F&E grants and then see them taken back should they lose their principal. I have never seen any documentation mentioning this nor did the Department of Early Childhood and Education staff at a recent Board Work Session on the levy mention this possibility.  I'll have full details after I get some answers to queries I have put to various stakeholders. Today I will be attending an odd sort of panel discussion on charter schools at UW via the Evans Schools of Public Affairs.  It's called Charter Schools: Problems and Poss...

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...

From SPS: The Office of Advanced Learning is collaborating with school and community members to develop a Highly Capable Cohort pathway for students in West Seattle. That is, when the pathway is established, students identified as Highly Capable could eventually be served from kindergarten through 12th grade in HC classrooms at schools located in West Seattle. We are forming a Focus Group to provide an opportunity for school leaders and community members to collaborate on implementing new HC services at Madison Middle School and West Seattle High School. If you are interested in joining the Focus Group, application forms will be made available by mid-April on the Advanced Learning website www.seattleschools.org/advlearning . The pathway will take time to develop and will not be fully in place by next school year, but we want to help families understand their options for this fall:

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.

From Rainier Beach High's IB coordinator,  Cambrie Nelson: Dear interested community members, Rainier Beach High School students are transforming the very nature of education in South East Seattle . Equipped with the new International Baccalaureate Program and their personal experiences as educational muses, our youth are surging ahead to become some of the most potent global leaders in the region and beyond. A cohort of students have been selected to pursue a unique opportunity in Barcelona, Spain this summer-- the International Baccalaureate World Conference. For a week in July, these students will join 200 other change-makers from across the world in Global Action Teams to examine the theme of "Technology in the Global Society".

I finally finished the notes I had taken on the first hour+ of the latest School Board meeting.  I think it worthy reading for several issues. - enrollment is continuing to increase - NCLB waiver and the Senate bill designed to get it back - why SPS isn't funding IB textbooks - artificial caps on enrollment at some schools - Africatown MOU That last one is pretty eye-opening as it featured a last-minute change to the MOU, a blank space for the dollar amount on the lease document, and a question about any religious connections for this learning center that Africatown is running. Very odd and very troubling. 

Happy First Day of Spring! The Teenaged Brain: Spock versus Kirk via NPR . Mukilteo Education Association at Mariner High School in Everett speaks out about SBAC testing of 11th graders. Look who was on both the local and national NBC news - students at John Rogers Elementary.    They did a class project on who is on U.S. paper money and found not a single woman.  So there's now a petition to get a woman on the $20 by 2020 (getting rid of Andrew Jackson who apparently didn't even want to allow paper money).  But who? Via KING-5 Via NBC Nightly News Womenon20s campaign NY Times article on this subject by notable women Update: want to learn more about Rainier Beach High's IB program?  Here's your chance: Join us for food, fun, and community: When: Saturday, March 21st from 1:00pm-3:00pm Where: El Centro de La Raza, 2524 16th Ave S Dear guardians, families, and community members, Join your neighbors for a free meal to learn about how to suppo...

I didn't attend the Board meeting last night but watched the first hour or so on tv.  (President Carr wasn't there so Director Peaslee filled in but I never heard why Carr was not there.) Highlights ( updated and complete ):

 Update: I realize my original headline that did contain ("no thanks to the district") and  was not fair.  The district DID create the IB programs at Ingraham, Chief Sealth and now Rainier Beach.  It just that they don't support them in the way those programs should be supported if they expect them to thrive.  Again, the district creates programs they do not support (like IB and dual-language.) end of update The Times owns up to something good happening in Seattle Public Schools (without charters or a state turnaround order).  Tangled in bureaucracy and tradition, public schools need years — often the better part of a decade — for real turnaround, so skeptics may wave off the spike in graduation rates at Rainier Beach High as a mere blip. Or ignore its ballooning enrollment. Or shrug at the dozens of students on track to leave with college credit for advanced studies. No marker is more stunning than Beach’s 25-point increase in graduation r...

I note that the district's home page has a prominent section on the upcoming Open Enrollment period that starts on Monday, Feb. 23rd.  It lasts until Friday, March 6th.  This period is to request "a school or program outside" of your regular assignment. As a general rule, your student is assigned to the same school he or she is attending now. In the case of students moving up to middle or high school, students will be automatically assigned to their neighborhood school. You will be able to confirm your student's school assignment via the Assignment Look-Up Tool after Feb. 23 or by calling our automated phone system at (206) 252-0212. If you would like to change your current or assigned school for the 2015-16 school year, get detailed Open Enrollment instructions at bit.ly/Apply-OpenEnrollment or by contacting the Admissions office at (206) 252-0760. School Choice forms will be available when Open Enrollment begins on on Feb. 23. If you request a different schoo...

Updated from Sunday morning, 1/11, with two Tuesday, Jan. 13th events. Monday, Jan. 12th Financial Aid Event: College Goal Washington Financial Aid Event for Seniors at Franklin High School from 5-7 pm. Curriculum & Instruction Committee Meeting from 4:30-6:30 pm. Agenda A seemingly brief agenda for a two-hour meeting.  The total items seems to clock in at about an hour but two items, Special Education RC-CAP (Jessee/Clancy/Hanson) MTSS (Heath/Dysart) would seem to need a lot longer than 10 minutes each. 

The Shoreline School district is currently in lockdown.  A staff member at Meridian Park Elementary reported seeing a man with a gun. Students on buses currently enroute to school have been rerouted to Spartan Rec Center where parents with ID may pick them up.  The district is asking parents to NOT send their kids to school today.  Also today, Hoquiam School District, Taholah School District on the Quinalt Reservation, Aberdeen School District and South Bend School district - all of these are closed today because of the landslides and flooding in their area. Please send out some good karma/prayers for all these districts and their students and staffs.

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).