Seattle Schools Community Forum

Another week, another Friday Memo . This week's memo has some interesting bits including:

Monday, June 13th Curriculum&Instruction meeting , JSCEE from 4:30-6:30 pm.  Agenda Once again, a jam-packed agenda which would seem to mean little discussion. Tuesday, June 14th OSPI is have a series of forums on the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which replaces NCLB.  There will not be a forum in Seattle but one of the closest ones - in Everett - will be on Tuesday at the Everett Community Resource Center, 3900 Broadway. The next one in our region will be July 19 at the Highline Performing Arts Center in Burien.  There will be a webinar on August 1st.   Wednesday, June 15th School Board meeting , JSCEE starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda 

 Update:  here is a link to all the updated BTA IV documents .  There is now a line: Capital and Technology Financing Obligations principal payments - $8.1M Where did this money come from (did they add dollars or rearrange?)  They rearranged but I'm not sure what projects lost what. Now I did ask if this is all just to pay off JSCEE.  The answer was...not sure.  I really would love a full accounting of all that has been paid into JSCEE, how much remains, when payments are due and when there is an end in sight.  This is patently ridiculous at this point.  While I realize there is virtually NO one at JSCEE who helped enact this nonsense, the fact of the matter is a lot of people there - both on the Board and in management - have kicked this can down the road for a very long time. end of update In advance of Wednesday's public comment meeting for BTA IV levy and the Operations levy, I have uploaded the handout from the community meetings ...

A busy, busy week.

Update: here's the Executive Committee meeting agenda .  There are no links to any documents but t he agenda packet is 90 (!) pages.   Kids, that may be a record.  Highlights include the City's preschool program.

Audit and Finance Committee meeting today at 4:30 p.m..  Agenda

Quite an interesting and packed agenda for the Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Thursday.  (It's also interesting that the Executive Ctm meeting, normally in the morning, is at the exact same time so it won't be possible to attend both.) Items of interest : Washington State Auditor’s Office Entrance Conference (Technow)  Always interesting to hear from the Auditor.

  Summary : About the Gates Foundation grant for a preschool at Bailey-Gatzert.   Several on the Board want a more careful explanation about who is in charge of what (like curriculum, alignment, costs) while a few on the Board want to grab this opportunity.  There seems to be confusion over what early learning is in SPS.  The Board will not be voting on this grant until November 19th, well after the election vote on the preschool props, 1A and 1B. About the downtown school .  Some on the Board pressed for costs around finding room at other schools and the actual numbers for space for students in Central/downtown.  It is unclear what will actually happen but one thing that I believe is firmly settled is that the Board is not going to vote in to take on more debt to renovate the Federal Reserve building.  So unless some generous donor(s) come forward, it seems unlikely that the district will be given the Federal Reserve building.  However, the ...

There is an Audit and Finance Committee meeting today at 4:30 p.m.  Wish I could attend but I have an event.  Here's the agenda which has some interesting items: - adoption of the 2014-2015 budget book .  This might be interesting since the pick of MIF for K-5 Math adoption.  Of course, until a contract is executed, no one truly knows how much MIF will cost the district.  They had, according to their presentation at the last Board meeting, been willing to spend about $3.6M on enVision.  MIF is more expensive but, as has been pointed out, many of the items that staff pointed to as costs can be mitigated one way or another. - a loan from the Capital Eligible Program (CEP) to pay for the renovations at TT Minor for the Seattle World School .  They don't give a figure for this loan.  - one of my perennial favors is on the agenda - JSCEE Bonds annual update .  It's amazing how that building is the gift that keeps on taking from this distri...