Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Tell your kids about this - those Instagram photos ?  They don't own them once they are on Instagram AND they can be publicly shown AND someone can make money off them.  From the Washington Post: The Internet is the place where nothing goes to die. Those embarrassing photos of your high school dance you marked “private” on Facebook? The drunk Instagram posts? The NSFW snapchats? If you use social media, you’ve probably heard a warning akin to “don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your employer (or future employer) to see.” We agree, and are adding this caveat: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want hanging in an art gallery. Safe Routes to Schools needs YOUR help.  Here's 10 ways you can make getting to school safer for students. Great info-map on the relative size of Africa - show the kids. Congrats to West Seattle High School softball coach, Trevor Leopold as Metro Coach of the Year.  His team is on their way to state finals.  Good l...

 UPdate:   huge shout-out to the Seahawks Richard Sherman who made a surprise visit to Rainier Beach High School yesterday.  It's already started but the ( NFFTY ) Film Festival for Talented Youth is a good bet for this weekend. Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times tries to talk about ed reform , with the premise that K-12 ed reform is over and now it's about birth to five .  (Geez, do these people just all get the same memo/tweet/fax in the morning?)  Of course, the early years are important but that's not really the point. His real premise (as I see it) is buried in one of his three reasons why everyone should move on: Education inequity is America’s original sin. No, it's not.  America's original sin is a two-fold one.  It is the double whammy of slavery (and its generational legacy) and the treatment of the original peoples of this land.  That, Mr. Kristof, is our "original sin."  As well, it is not education inequity that is reall...

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:

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...

 Update: Here is the Personnel Report to be presented, as part of the Consent agenda, at Wednesday's Board meeting.  It has a number of comings and goings including the departure of Bob Vaughan from Advanced Learning. Madison is losing its principal, Carlisle Henterson, and he will be replaced by Dr. Robert Gary, Jr as interim principal.  Dr. Gary has been at Madison previously as a teacher and interim assistant principal.  No info on whether Mr. Carlisle is staying in the district. (By coincidence, Mayor McGinn will be at Madison tomorrow for a media event around health services at that school.  This from our friends at the West Seattle blog .) Beacon Hill Int'l School is losing principal Kelly Aramaki who is being appointed the SE region Executive Director.  He's a great administrator and I think this is a good choice. Jo Lute-Ervin has been named interim principal for Kimball Elementary.  She's been a principal at many schools. 

Listening to speaker after speaker talk about the Indian Heritage Middle College program, I thought, "Well, add them to the list that includes Special Ed, Nova, and World School."  What do these programs have in common?   They get moved around as though they were furniture.   Each and every one of them deserves a permanent home. I spoke to Sarah Kelly, one of the speakers, and asked her about someone in their community doing a guest post about the history of their program.  (I was surprised to learn that Pathfinder K-8 used to be a feeder school for the program.)  One thing I told her was that once we had a history - one that is written by those who know it - it would be here for a long time.  The district may purge some history from its website but at least here it would have a home.  I'm hoping I will get that guest post within a couple of weeks. Also, there is an issue over the feeder patterns in West Seattle from middle to high sch...

From our friends at the West Seattle Blog : An urgent message from the MMS Counseling Department….. Dear MMS Families, Every year, we have to fight to keep school counselors in our schools and plead with our school district and state to put children’s well-being at the forefront of their priorities. Because elementary school counselors are not put in the WSS (Weighted Staffing Standard), we have had a huge RIF (Reduction-in-Force) in School Counselors across the district that will leave many Elementary Schools without a Counselor. If the district were to put elementary school counselors back in the WSS(Weighted Staffing Standard), each elementary school would be funded for a counselor based on weighted staffing funding allocation. They have chosen not to fund counselors in elementary schools and force schools to come up with a way to fund counselors. Many schools do not have the money so they had to let go of their counselors. This move by the district is all in t...

Started sunny, ending rainy - another Seattle week gone by. Five Seattle schools named "Schools of Distinction" for academic improvements in math and reading that put them in the top five percent of improving schools in the state.  Drum roll - - Alki Elementary - Hamilton Int'l Middle - Madison Middle - Mercer Middle - Orca K-8 Madison has won for the last four years - good for them.  Likewise Mercer and Orca have won for three straight years.  Hamilton, no slouch, this is their second year in a row to win this honor. There were 99 schools statewide earning this honor.  The selection is through a group of educational entities; Center for Educational Effectiveness,  Association of Educational Service Districts, Assn. of WA State Principals, Phi Delta Kappa-Washington Chapter, WA Assn. of School Administrators, WA State ASCA and WA State School Directors' Assn. More honors - two of our elementary PE teachers were honored last week and they are Chuck ...

Let's go through the Transition Plan amendments being proposed by Board Directors. Harium Martin-Morris I move that there be a one-year special program preference for Thornton Creek 5th graders applying to Salmon Bay as their first choice school, without transportation, with tiebreakers applied in the following sequence: 1.Sibling 2.Special program preference for Thornton Creek 5th graders 3.Geography 4. Lottery So this would keep TC students flowing to Salmon Bay. Of course, without transportation, how many will be able to make this choice? Maybe someone at TC could let us know what they think the rough numbers might be. Salmon Bay is less difficult to get into than it used and if more TC students didn't go, there'd be more spaces for other students. The accompanying chart shows that it truly varies from year to year where TC 5th graders go for middle school. Oddly, either the number got left off, but they give no numbers for how many TC 5th graders went to Eckstein f...

Last week's Board meeting was fairly interesting (well, until you got to the staff updates but more on that later). The room wasn't full of the usual suspects but there definitely were sides. Highlights from speakers list: District watchdog Chris Jackins pointed out that the sale of MLK, Jr . property gives buyers all the money. (Apparently the presumed buyers - First AME Church - is getting the money from the state and the state will give it to the district. This is because the church, in its offer, says it will be offering youth programming and other community activities.) The idea of selling it to First AME is to create a community center in that neighborhood that would offer community services like youth activities. Then came a long line of people against the sale of the property to First AME. This was introduced and will be voted on by the Board in two weeks. Everyone spoke respectfully of the church's long history here in Seattle but the issue seems to be tha...

Sorry so late but I just saw this at the West Seattle blog: Start the New Year off right by attending the next Madison PTSA meeting, to be held on Wednesday, January 13, 2010. We will be holding a panel for parents, guardians and students called “ High School Choices for Your Tween .” At this PTSA meeting from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, come and hear from various high schools in the areas about their school and the programs it has to offer. High schools who will be attending thus far include: West Seattle, Cleveland, and Chief Sealth. There will also be time at the end for Q & A (questions and answers)! The PTSA is looking forward to seeing you and your child at this meeting! We’ll also have time to discuss the early dismissals and its impact on this school year 2009-2010, as well as next year’s schedule & early dismissals for 2010-2011! If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact Kim Early at ann8726@aol.com or 206-328-9335. Note that Cleveland will be there. This comes ...

I finally got through the Transition Plan part of the Board meeting (but don't ask me about Transportation). However, I have not gone through the slides that she showed (and I couldn't find them online). So she referenced needing to make some technical corrections to the boundaries pages, saying they are forgotten the text to match the maps. She said the Transition Plan overview was about timeline/content, kindergarten siblings and transportation (to be done by Tom Bishop). She said Early registration was still going on until Jan. 15th. Timeline Design teams meeting in January Superintendent decides on program for Old Hay (so what about the rest of the schools?) Principal appointments for reopening schools (keep this in mind: they may shift some good principals - maybe yours - to shore up these new schools) Open Houses for all schools (late Jan-early Feb.) Late Feb-mid March - school visits at all schools (info will be sent at the end of Feb. in a letter to all parents of c...

Thanks to reader Yumpears who linked us to the update from Steve Sundquist's last meeting before the vote tonight at the West Seattle Blog . Steve said he was not "inclined" to change the boundaries except for one (far south end of California SW) and that there would be an amendment for that. (It's still not on the website but they can introduce them without them actually being on the agenda. At least that is what has happened in the past.) He said some pretty interesting things about high schools. He was trying to make people feel better about their assigned high school saying that many kids from areas all over West Seattle/SW go to either high school. Here are the stats from the article: SEALTH 1,000 students - 550 from its “drawing area,” 200 from northern West Seattle WEST SEATTLE HS More than half its 1100 students come from southern West Seattle (574) DENNY Most from its “drawing area,” 136 from north West Seattle MADISON Even split - 449 from north West ...

In what I would consider a large leap, the district has these new announcements in leadership posts. "Superintendent Maria L. Goodloe-Johnson, Ph.D., announced the appointment of Ms. Marni Campbell as the Executive Director of Special Education for Seattle Public Schools. In this key leadership role, Ms. Campbell will oversee delivery of services to students with special needs, including implementation of a service delivery model that focuses on integrated comprehensive services. One of the major strategies of the district’s strategic plan, Excellence for All , is to implement national best practices in serving students with special needs. In an integrated comprehensive services model, general education and special education teachers work together to support students with a range of differing needs. In addition, Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson announced the appointments of Dr. Jill Hudson as principal of Nathan Hale High School and Mr. Henterson Carlisle as interim principal of ...