Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Board will be having the Operations Committee meeting on Thursday, the 17th, from 4-7:15 pm.  Why such a lengthy committee meeting?  For one, it's a packed agenda but there are a couple of high profile issues that could take some time. They are: - Approval of the Student Assignment Plan for 2017-18 (F. Herndon) - Transportation service standards and contract (P. McEvoy) As well, there will be a COW (Committee of the Whole) session for Special Education Placement Update.  That they want the entire Board at this meeting must mean something.  (Frankly, it would be great if the entire Board was there to hear about the other two big issues as well.) I have not read thru the SAP info but reader Lynn has:

First up, some good news from SPS Communications: The McClure Middle School boys team won first place in the Team Relay Heat of Erg Ed’s Indoor Rowing Championship. In second place were the Pathfinder K-8 girls, and in third place were the Madrona K-8/Broadview-Thomson K-8 team. Launched in 2010, Erg Ed is a classroom-based indoor rowing education program operating as part of Seattle Public School's physical education curriculum.  In partnership with Seattle Public Schools, Erg Ed is currently provided at 14 middle and K-8 schools across the city.  With more than 800 pledges, Roosevelt High School let it be known loud and clear that they are against texting and driving . And to celebrate this massive turnout for the "Save it Seattle" campaign, Roosevelt welcomed Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson to their campus March 22. The Verizon Wireless "Save It Seattle” contest challenged students at four Seattle high schools to take a pledge against textin...

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...

South Shore PreK-8 came up as a topic during a discussion over conversion charters .  I, like many, believe it would be a target (a willing one) for a conversion takeover.  I suspect you could get the parents or teachers to agree and I'm sure LEV, who now directs the foundation money that South Shore gets, would also be agreeable.  That leaves the community and the district that may not like the idea of losing a $73M building to a charter entity. One thing to keep in mind - ALL charters are their own districts .  If they take over a district building, they can decide the parameters - within the law - of public use just as SPS does.  If you use a school building for your local community meetings or Boy Scouts, you might have to find someplace else to go.  I also don't know what it would mean for the joint-use agreement that SPS has with Parks for SPS playfields.  I would assume if a charter group takes over the building and its grounds and is its ...

The District's program placement practice used to be something of a mystery. A committee, the Program Placement Committee, used to meet, discuss the program placement proposals, and make recommendations to the superintendent. Then the superintendent would decide which proposals to accept, which to reject, and which to amend. We didn't know who was on the committee, when they met, or what they discussed. I once requested committee meeting minutes as a public document and they stopped keeping minutes after that. In short, the entire process was secretive, corrupt, and political. In 2007 the district wanted to split middle school APP. The decision, however, was a clear violation of the Highly Capable Student Program policy D12.00. The policy prohibits the creation of additional sites. The Board gave the policy an interpretation that was VERY sympathetic to the district administration and determined that the split could go forward after Board review. The Board delegated the Stude...

The School Board had some interesting moments last night and I'll write an update on that later. But I did want to call out some really great acknowledgments last night from both the district and the Board. The Family Support Worker program had a segment where they acknowledged four groups (among many) who have been a huge help in their work.  They are: Theraputic Health Services which has provided a full-time mental health worker at Madrona K-8 since 2009.  They allowed Madrona staff to be part of the interview process.  The director at THS, Norm Johnson, was noted as someone who went out of his way to help (he also organized a conference for FSW going into the MSW program at UW).  In receiving the praise, he said not to just look at what is offered in their brochure but if you need something, ask about it.   What a guy and what a great organization. The Assistance League of Seattle and their Operation School Bell program provided new coats and ot...

Looking at the School Board agenda for tonight's meeting, there are many changes. (One thing that hasn't changed is that there is no information what the Superintendent's update, CAO update or COO update will be about tonight.) One big change is that Kay Smith-Blum has withdrawn her amendment . Her statement seems to reflect having listened to her constituents and finding their reasoning plausible. First, I have withdrawn my amendment from tonight's agenda. I greatly appreciate your input and sincerely apologize for any anxiety caused. My amendment would NOT have reassigned any student, but I appreciate neighbors who would like to see their children continue to be assigned to the same school and greatly appreciate the upheaval the NSAP/TT Minor closure has had on the neighborhood. The numbers the board received LAST NIGHT from Tracy Libros show that Steven's enrollment will be up from the already 111% capacity, and do not include siblings of current Stev...

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...

(Did anyone attend Tuesday's? I think Dorothy said she did. I looked at the PowerPoint and there is a lot of stuff that I wish I had heard presented. I'll have to tease it out in another thread. Here are my notes from the PowerPoint of the 2nd of last week's "integrated" work sessions (a mash-up of budget and transition plan). I did not stay until the end so help me out if you did. All the Directors were in attendance as was Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. They started at page 45 of the previous day's work session. They started talking about program placement and the new possible Accelerated IB program in response to the overcrowding at Garfield. It would be modeled after the program at Interlake over in Bellevue. (I'll just say here that I think it's done. The community would have to rise up, en masse, to prevent it. I just think there's way too much work already done for this to be just a "possibility." The question is whe...

There's a great program going on in several of our elementary schools called the Walking Bus, where families walk their children and other students to school. It's an effort to get kids more exercise, show them that walking is a viable way to get around and, of course, cut back on emissions. Nicole Brodeur of the Times had a column this morning about the program at Phinney Ridge which has been going on for 5 years (this one 10-year points out that that's half his life, very cute). I believe there are programs at Phinney Ridge, Lawton Elementary, Graham Hill, Sacajawea, Concord International and John Muir. Some schools do this every day and some, like John Muir, do a "Walking Wednesdays." I believe there is also a program in development at Roxhill Elementary. There is a group called "Feet First" that works to promote more walking in general. They have info there as well. We currently provide a Safe Routes to School program at John Muir and Concor...

( Update : Charlie and others discuss the meeting on the thread I wrote about the Transition Plan vote. Check there for more.) I have not finished watching my tape of the School Board meeting. There was an article in the Times this morning about it. Apparently the Transition Plan passed, 6-1 (with Betty Patu voting against). Both Director Martin-Morris' amendment for Thorton Creek and Director Carr's amendment for JSIS passed. And, South Shore got its own Geographic Zone amendment for next year. Nice. So here's an open thread for the meeting. Here are my notes: I must have missed it but apparently Kaaren Andrews of Madrona is leaving mid-year for Interagency. There were several speakers about this including many children. This mid-year stuff strikes me as hard on everyone and particularly for the poor principal coming in. A good point was made when one speaker said that Ruth Medsker, the middle school director, told a parent that "it was in the best inte...

According to the Central District News , there was a rally held in support of Kaaren Andrews, the principal at Madrona K-8. The Central District News reports that Ms Andrews will be re-assigned to be the new principal of the Interagency Academy.

This topic came up in another thread. From that thread: Deidre F. writes: " Only 1/3 of the families assigned to Hale this year actually chose to be there. The other 2/3 received mandatory assignment. Don't get me wrong, I love Hale, and chose it for my son, but many people don't want what Hale offers. Should they have to just suck it up and go there because there is not enough space at Roosevelt. " Charlie Mas replied: How unreasonable is it to expect Hale to change their culture and programming to reflect the desires of 2/3's of the families sending students there? If the Northeast wants another Roosevelt, then why doesn't Hale become another Roosevelt? Who gets to decide the culture and the programming at the school and why aren't they more responsive to the community they ostensibly serve? There were also several posts about Madrona. It is a unpopular school for its neighborhood (about 23% of neighborhood students go there) and has a very unique focu...