Seattle Schools Community Forum

Communications has confirmed to me that there is the possibility that some seniors (not a lot) may have to go to school on a Saturday in May in order to be sure they have the 180 instructional hours to graduate.  They are still looking at things, trying to figure it out and as soon as they decide, I will update you.  KUOW reports on bell times . John Hay Elementary had a shelter-in-place yesterday afternoon because of a vague threat that was phoned in.  Parents who pick up their students had to line up to get their child as the school was not allowing parents to park in front.  From the principal of Hay(partial): This school year, several schools around the state have received a female-sounding automated voice.  The voice indicates they intended to shoot up the school.   Each time law enforcement has investigated and determined that the call has been a hoax.  Unfortunately, schools and other institutions sometimes get these types of pho...

Director Peters sent me these updates and I thought I would pass them along: At the Nov. 19 School Board meeting, noting that the John Hay community members in attendance did not have the opportunity to give public commentary (the roster was already full), I addressed the topic during my Director's Comments and acknowledged that the district needs to do a better job at communication. I also stated that the district has an obligation to meet the academic, emotional and safety needs of all 52,000 of our students. (I note there that at the last Board meeting one director - I believe it was Peaslee - said she wished that people who came to testify (whether they did so or not) would stay for Board comments as often members DO weigh in on issues.) Also , she will attending Wednesday community meeting on Interagency at John Hay Elementary. Here's her letter to those who wrote to her on that topic:

In reaction to the less-than-kind, less-than-welcoming actions of others in Queen Anne, a group has been formed to explore how to make the placement of Interagency, across from John Hay Elementary, a win for all.  As you may or may not be aware there has been an incredibly misleading campaign against the placement of Interagency Recovery School program at the site of the Old QA High School Gym across from John Hay Elementary.  I, amongst many many others, strongly support the implementation of this clean and sober academic wrap-around program at this site. The program is unique and small, and will begin with less than ten students and will eventually grow to a maximum of 80 students. It fills a critical need for students whose success is so vital. The program supports students who have addressed and made the commitment to facing their addictions and remaining clean and sober. For many of these students this is their stepping stone to also returning onto a path towards a...

From SPS Communications: John Hay Families and Neighbors Community Meeting On the Interagency Recovery School Program Date : Wednesday, December 10, 2014 Time : 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Please Note Location Change : McClure Middle School Lunchroom  (1915 1 st Ave W) Dear John Hay Community, You are invited to attend a meeting to learn more about Seattle Public Schools’ Interagency Recovery School Program, scheduled to be located in the old Queen Anne gymnasium building, beginning in early 2015. School district staff will share information and answer questions you may have. Interagency Recovery School is a small program, designed to support high school youth who are committed to recovery from drug and alcohol dependency. Students have self-selected to attend Interagency Recovery School in order to actively work toward their academic and personal goals, while attending school in a clean and sober environment. The program will offer the support of specially trai...

I am seeking information far and wide on what parents with students affected by the data breach can do in terms of filing complaints.  I believe there may be multiple avenues of complaints about the district and at least one for the law firm.  I have no idea if you can sue (maybe for negligence?), so you need to get a lawyer to answer that question. I am troubled that so many call this "a mistake."  Once maybe but more than once? Incredibly sloppy.  I still don't get that the law firm, when they got that data, didn't do a random check just to make sure it was redacted (if only to protect themselves.) I mean, isn't the district paying them to do due diligence? Stay tuned and I'll let you know what I find out. As for the John Hay/Interagency situation , an update from the Queen Anne View (bold mine):

I'm hoping this is good news but I can only observe that Central headquarters grows larger by the week and you have to wonder where the money is coming from. Also, there is no mention of who is filling in at John Hay. From SPS: Ms. Kari Hanson, Principal of John Hay Elementary has accepted the Interim Position of Director of School Based Special Education Services effective November 24, 2014. She will be joining Special Education Interim Executive Director Wyeth Jessee and Director of Special Education Michaela Clancy on the Special Education leadership team. The position of Director of School Based Special Education Services is being added to the Special Education Department to support systems and procedures within the Special Education Department and improve department response to all 97 schools, parents and guardians. This position will work directly with the Special Education Supervisors and Program Specialists to support the needs of the 7,000 plus students receiving s...

Update: I had bad information about Interagency at Lincoln. Interagency was never at Lincoln.   The student incident with the plastic knife was a Sped student that is part of a Sped program based there. My apologies. Also, the info in italics is from a widely-sent e-mail and included the information about Ms. Powdlodowski. End of update The district plans to move Interagency from its somewhat secret location (until the recent incident with one of its students and a plastic knife) at Lincoln to across the street from John Hay Elementary.  Story from Queen Anne View. There is a online petition against the placement of Interagency across from John Hay Elementary.   The authors of the petition are Christina Economou, Janelle Fowler and Carmen Hagios. Some feel the district is trying to "sneak" the program into their area.  Here are some of their reasons:

  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 ...

The presentation for this Board Work Session tomorrow has been posted.  It's quite interesting.  I note at last night's Capacity meeting for the NE, it was stated that FACMAC would have their recs tomorrow. It's odd because one page is labeled "Development of Recommended Options" and lists input from FACMAC but clearly FACMAC's recommendations are not part of this presentation because they aren't even out yet. Okay, wait a minute.  Page 8 DOES have  FACMAC recommendations.  Confusing.  I do not see any link to the complete FACMAC recommendations. Under Community Feedback : mixed support for repurposing PCP spaces portables?  A surprising amount of support move grade cohorts?  largely not supported maintaining transportation grandfathering?  Mostly supported but I think this is a complete sell job to the Board and public without full information on numbers of students at each school and costs. For SW and Central Regions, FACMA...

This is likely to be one of my last posts on Advanced Learning.  Oh, not because I'm not interested or don't care.  But frankly, I'm tired of caring.  I'm tired of waiting for this district to at least have a program that is coherent and easy to understand.  So I'm done on advocating on this topic in any big way. This comes on the heels of having a small discussion with Dr. Enfield about Spectrum and then a longer meeting with Dr. Vaughn (the head of Advanced Learning) and Roger Daniels, consulting teacher.   These were good conversations and I did feel like they were listening.  But I don't think they really care that the program makes sense to parents.

OSPI announced its list of 2010 Washington Achievement Award winners . There are several Seattle schools on the list (a couple notable for being named in two places) but there aren't many. From OSPI: The Washington Achievement Award: Is awarded collaboratively with the State Board of Education (SBE) and based on the Washington Achievement Index. Celebrates schools for overall excellence and special recognition in: language arts, math, science, graduation rate, improvement and closing achievement gaps. Honors schools at an annual ceremony hosted by the SBE and OSPI. OSPI uses statewide assessment data from the past three years to make their selections. OSPI wants to recognize the efforts of schools and their families into making good schools happen. So what SPS schools are on the list? Overall Excellence Bryant* - Concord Int'l* - Coe - Hay* - Loyal Heights* - McGilvra* - Montlake* - Schmitz Park - Mercer* - Blaine K-8 Language Arts Nova Math Loyal Heights - Schmitz Park Sc...

Thanks to StepJ who let us know the district had posted a document about the kindergarten sibling waitlists . There are 148 siblings on the waiting lists for schools that are not their attendance area school. There is a fairly even city-wide distribution of siblings who didn't get their sibling assignment with the largest for Kimball at 19 and John Hay at 18. Here's the document summary : "The following chart shows results for non-attendance area K siblings who applied for their sibling’s attendance area school during Open Enrollment. In summary: • 556 non-attendance area K students applied for their older sibling’s school.2 • 73% of these applicants (408 students) were assigned to their sibling’s school. • 27% of these applicants (148 students) are on waiting lists for their sibling’s school. These results are in addition to: • Students assigned to their attendance area school their older sibling attends. • 132 K siblings assigned to the Option School their older si...

Dr. Enfield visits Olympic View Elementary PTA on Thursday, the 14th at 6:30 p.m. if you've been wanting to hear her speak or ask a question. From an SPS press release: "Green Lake Elementary Principal Cheryl Grinager will become principal at McDonald Elementary; Coe Elementary Principal David Elliott will be the new principal at Old Hay School, and John Hay Principal Dan Warren will become principal at Sand Point Elementary. Grinager, Elliott and Warren will continue as principals at their current schools while working with members of their respective new school communities in preparation for the 2010 school openings." "Families and staff at Coe, Green Lake and John Hay elementary schools and The Center School will be notified when a hiring timeline for a new principal has been developed. The first step will be for instructional directors to meet with the school community to identify the desired qualities and characteristics for their school leader." I literall...