Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Times had a brief article last night when the news broke about the one-week extension for public input on the appointment of Superintendent Nyland to be the permanent superintendent which has now expanded and there are some very interesting quotes. The action slated for a special meeting of the board on December 10 at 4:30 p.m.  The Times says the Board hasn't decided if they will allow comments. - apparently there will be discussion at the Board meeting Wenesday when this is introduced.  (Normally, the discussion at Intro is limited so we'll have to see.) - The district has this e-mail for "interested parties" to weigh in - SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org . - The Times notes that Nyland came from Marysville, serving nine years there.  I'm finding some very telling stories out of Marysville that may be clues to the kind of superintendent he may be. - Peaslee said the board usually introduces and votes on superintendent job offers in the same meeting...

The two items I've been tracking are the denial of renewal of the NCLB waiver for Washington State and the SPS math adoption . Today Secretary Duncan appeared before the U.S. Senate budget committee.  He did get asked about waivers but not by Senator Murray.  From Ed Week: Unlike late last month, when Duncan faced hostile declarations about his NCLB waiver moves from lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, the only significant exchange Duncan had with the Senate budget committee about waivers was with Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa whose state does not have a waiver from the NCLB law. (Duncan's department rejected Iowa's waiver proposal back in 2012, the first state to be turned down for a waiver.) If you find that last sentence confusing, Iowa was the first state to get a waiver turned down and Washington was the first state to have a waiver not renewed. Grassley told Duncan he thought the DOE was being vague on how Iowa should proceed without...

Fun at Teacher Appreciation Day at Arbor Heights Elementary.      I happened to be checking what schools require uniforms (I believe there are only 3-4 elementaries).  K-5 STEM is one of them.  From their webpage, the school certainly has quite a different feel to it.  For example, they have four sections to their Uniforms page and the FAQ is really long and fairly strict.  I can only say that you would have a problem getting most kids on the autism spectrum to abide by these rules (they say they make a case-by-case exception for kids with special needs).  Also, to put on your calendar, there will be a showing of the film, " Standardized; Lies, Money and Civil Rights, How Testing is Ruining Public Education" on Wednesday, May 14th at 6:30 p.m. at the NW Film Forum.  The movie is free and sponsored by Seattle Education and Parents Across America, Seattle. The push is on for the NCLB waiver.   I always smile because you can te...

First, the headlines: The big winner is K-5 at Boren, soon to be K-8 STEM at Boren. The big loser is Pinehurst K-8, soon to be closed and clearly treated with bad faith. APP breaks even, getting everything expected, most of it where expected, some of it in difficult spaces but with an extraordinary accommodation that should prove very beneficial in the long term. There isn't likely to be much fighting over the boundaries, the fight will be over the transition plan that dictates who goes into interim sites, when, and for how long. With regard to STEM, the District staff showed itself to be surprisingly reasonable and open to discussion. With regard to Pinehurst, the District staff showed itself to be dishonest and downright mean. With regard to the APP sites, the District staff showed itself to be surprisingly thoughtful. With regard to the transition plan the District staff showed itself to be timid, but politically savvy. The Board, at every step, showed itself to be ...

SPS Communications explained this about the technology issues on the first day of school: We needed to make the switch from our old computer system to Power Schools as the old system was failing. It began failing more quickly than we anticipated, so what was supposed to be an 18-month transition was compressed into six months. Our Department of Technology staff has been working around the clock all summer to get this done. We did transition to Power Schools on Aug. 26, two weeks later than initially planned due to some technical issues with the transfer. What this meant was, when staff came back to their schools in August, they had very little time for training. We are still trying to pinpoint the reasons for the problems people are having, but some appears to be a result of people not being familiar with the system. There are also more technical issues involved as well – for example, our Dept. of Technology staff have run numerous tests showing that students names that...

The West Seattle Blog is reporting that  Superintendent Bandahas received a letter of support from the North Delridge Neighborhood Council supporting the K-5 STEM program staying at Boren. Co-chairs  Parie Hines  and  Kirsten Smith  write, in part: Delridge as a neighborhood has felt the negative effects of having the Boren school used as a transitional and temporary school for many long years. It has been a pleasure to see the students, parents, and staff of the STEM school begin to “take ownership” of the building. They urge the Superintendent to reconsider moving the program and note that the building is large enough to support a K-8. Again, we should have this discussion about creating K-8s but it is good for the Superintendent to hear from the community on these issues.

I attended the Growth Boundaries meeting hosted by Director McLaren this morning and two themes stood out. One came from the District and the other from the community. The District's theme was mystery. There is simply no telling who would make the decisions about schools and buildings, no clue about how they would make these decisions, no sense of what data or criteria would be the basis for the decisions, or even when the decisions would be made. Nevertheless we got a very strong message about what the decision would be: K-5 STEM placed at Schmitz Park in 2016. This is the pre-ordained choice, despite the fact that this is probably the worst option of them all. The theme from the community was primarily frustration. That frustration was directed a bit at the mystery - the decisions are made by a secret committee using a secret process and secret criteria - but mostly at the trainwreck of a decision.

Over at the West Seattle Blog, they have a story about the K-5 STEM location debate, complete with links to two "viable" proposals.  More good reading on this subject.

First weekend in August and it's starting out cool (but I'm not complaining as I know we have more great weather to come). Report from KING-5 on the upcoming Board races .   I spent awhile talking with the reporter and yet a lot of it didn't make it here.  I also want to say that this statement I made in the story: The difference in achievement between different ethnic groups is another tough issue facing the board. "If a child's not in school, a child's not learning," Melissa Westbrook said at Seattle Schools Community forum. What NOT about the achievement gap but about disproportional discipline. I did say this: "If they are disrupting learning in the classroom, something has to be done, but don't take them out of school," said Westbrook. But they left out that I said it was important to examine the reasons for the behavior and give teachers/principals training in cultural difference that might help.   Fun Event on August 9t...