Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tuesday, April 10th Director McLaren Community meeting at Delridge Library from 1:15-3:15 p.m. Audit&Finance Committee Meeting (audit) from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda includes MLK FAME covenant compliance update where we find out if FAME is honoring its agreement with SPS,  a 2010-2011 Financial, Federal and Accountability audit update (not sure what this is),  ALE policy update a "special attention" item from Director Carr called "A&F operating rhythm." BEX IV meeting at Mercer Middle School from 6:30-8:00 p.m.   Eckstein's meeting seem to focus more on capacity issues especially Lowell at Lincoln.  Denny's meeting seemed to focus on issues around Arbor Heights/Roxhill.  I was a little surprised as I didn't see as many parents from Alki, Lafayette or Schmitz Park as I thought might come out.  It will be interesting to see the focus from the communities in the Mercer area. Wednesday, April 11th Executive Committee meeting from 8-11 ...

The State Auditor's office has determined that the sale of the Martin Luther King, Jr. building to First AME church did not violate any laws and there was no conflict of interest.  However, digging deeper, there are some interesting items. Update:  I got it wrong about Noel Treat being on the selection committee.  The selection committee was made up of Don Kennedy, Ron English, Holly Ferguson and Chanin Kelly-Rae (public member).   Mr. Treat only attended the August 2010 meeting with MGJ at the request of Ron English (and this was right after Mr. Treat was hired). New Update:  Yoo hoo, Seattle Times?  Are you there?  There is nothing at their website on this story.  I have searched and I found nothing.  What an odd thing (especially since it clears the district).  Maybe they are worried about what this looks like to voters in terms of the School Board incumbents.   The lobbyist's name is Clifford Traisman (it is unclear to ...

From the Central District News : Some Madison Valley residents were convinced the fix was in . The Seattle School District would wait out the clock, let August pass, and then city permitting rules and remodeling costs would make it financially impossible to turn the old MLK Elementary School into a community center. But according to Seattle Schools spokesperson Teresa Wippel, last month the school district worked out a deal with the city to extend that timeline, with the city agreeing to allow the building to be occupied in early 2011 without having to bring the old building up to current development codes. That change opened up a new window for revised bids from the parties that are vying to purchase or lease the property, which has been empty since the school was closed by the district in 2006. The big surprise from the new bids is a new bidder: the Central Area Development Association has submitted a bid to purchase 33% of the property for $750,000, proposing to crea...

Good news from around our district: Rainier Beach High School took 1st place in the M.E.S.A. Math Olympiad this last Saturday. to Garfield High school for their jazz band winning, for the 4th time, first place at the NYC Essentially Ellington jazz competition. Roosevelt High also did well with an honorable mention. to Orca K-8' s team of readers who share the Global Reading Challenge title with a BC school. to Franklin High school whose robotics team won the state title for the FIRST Robotics Microsoft Seattle Regional Competition in March. Franklin also won the Engineering Inspiration Award at this competition. Additionally, Franklin's mock trial team took second place in the 2010 YMCA Mock Trial Competition. Franklin has long had a strong mock trial team. 13 former MLK, Jr. Elementary students were awarded scholarships from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Foundation. Eckstein 's Orchestras took top places (in beginning, junior, intermediate and senior) at the...

This week sees another School Board meeting on Wednesday at 6 p.m . (Before that, there is a work session on International Education. I'm thinking it didn't get covered enough at last week's work session. This one is from 4:15-5:30 p.m.) One interesting item is the approval of some work done at Ingraham for asbestos floor removal, communications, mats for the entries and more security cameras. This contract went 47% over its estimate with change orders of $240k. Okay so $160K of this was the district asking to do complete removal of all asbestos flooring. That is great and fine. But (1) how come more cameras at Ingraham? and (2) what was the other $80K for? I really dislike when a partial explanation is given when you read these things and you are left with, "okay, what else?" Doesn't the Board read this and wonder about this? I question this extra spending because hello? we have a HUGE backlog of maintenance issues and yet we don't consider tha...

The community is invited to Brighton Elementary School on Tuesday, April 6, to share comments and learn more about a proposal to change the name of the school to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary. Is this how they honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Is this an appropriate way to honor his work and his memory? Is there no more appropriate way?

A couple of updates before the Board meeting tonight. One, is that there is a Board Work Session before the Board meeting on what the district will be doing with the MLK, Jr. Elementary building. There have been several bids from various groups (both public and private) that were discussed here in a separate thread. It will be interesting to see what the decision is. Two, the speakers' list is full. The majority of comments will be about the SAP Transition Plan . I predict another long meeting given how much detail there is to the plan. Three, the idea to rename Old Hay with Casper Sharples has been rejected. Apparently the family did not want the building named after their relative. From discussion at previous Board meetings, I believe the issue is largely that the Sharples name was originally attached to a middle school and the family is unhappy that now the district wants to use it for an elementary school. The new name that is being put forth by Dr. Goodloe-Johnson is...

From the Central District News website, a story about 4 proposals for the use of the now-closed Martin Luther King, Jr. school and grounds. It looks like 2 private schools want it (Bush and Hamlin Robinson). Bush is offering use of the fields (they are non-lighted) to the community when Bush isn't using it. This is tempting because they are offering the highest price and the offer of field usage. The other two offers are community-based. One is from a community group (Citizens for a Community Center at MLK) and the other from the First AME church. The two community groups were trying to work together to present one offer but it didn't work out. A decision is expected in January. So this is one of the first buildings to really have bidders. As I have mentioned previously, when I worked on the CAC, we had many e-mails about what to do with closed buildings. It fell into the two camps above. Sell to the highest bidder or give preference to the community. Given there i...

From reader DJ, ''Sorry, didn't know where to post this or where to find the confirming information, but this piece was on the CD News: http://centraldistrictnews.com/2009/09/30/two-competing-proposals-for-mlk-school Is the district indeed selling, as opposed to retaining, the MLK building? " The answer is yes but it also includes the option for a long-term lease (20 years or more). Here is the information from the SPS website. From the School Use Advisory Committee for MLK Elementary School document: "The residential makeup surrounding MLK School is principally single-family homes. All members of the committee and other nearby neighbors expressed their desire to retain the quality of life that reflects the residential character of the neighborhood. Some of the concerns expressed both by committee members and other community members were traffic, parking, security, lighting and noise; and minimizing their impacts on the neighborhood. The second and third meeting...