Seattle Schools Community Forum

I got a query from a parent about changes coming to Washington Middle School and its Spectrum program. The parent stated that he/she was not able to attend the PTSA meeting where this was presented but that it seemed to others to be fairly vague and no one is really sure what is coming.  The parent also asked: I see that there are similar changes happening at McClure, so wonder if this is district-wide? Well, the district has said very, very little about Spectrum and is seemingly allowing principals to chart their own course. 

Before school started we heard about a new peer tutoring program at McClure. How's that working out? Before school started we heard that Whitman was going to dissolve their 7th and 8th grade Spectrum classes. How's that working out? How is transportation going? All smoothed out? Are the schedules for secondary students smoothed out? Do kids still need to fill their schedules with classes? What about the school software? Is that working now?

I don't do this often but because I saw this huge number of hits with a fairly large number of comments on one post, I wanted to put this out there. This week's Tuesday Open Thread has been one of the most read and commented posts we have had in a long time.  The number of hits is so hit as to preclude it being the same 20 people coming back, again and again. The post is mostly a math discussion about readiness, equity, resources and implementation for an idea at one middle school to drop the entire 8th grade into algebra. There was a comment or two that were not worthy (and one got deleted for that reason) but everyone seems to be trying to flesh out what this means to drop an entire grade of students into an advanced math class (and mind you, without much notice to either students or parents).  I appreciate the idea of "having faith" in the teachers, the principal and, most of all, the kids, to embrace this idea and get it right.  But again, like many things ha...

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...

From SPS: Seattle Public Schools will host three community meetings on September 20, 24 and 27 to share information and ask for comments about building construction projects to be included in the Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) Capital Levy package.  Once approved by the School Board, the BEX IV Capital Levy resolution will be submitted to Seattle voters in February 2013. The community meeting dates are: Thursday, September 20, 6:30-8:00pm at Whitman Middle School Monday, September 24, 6:30-8:00pm at Madison Middle School Thursday, September 27, 6:30-8:00pm at McClure Middle School For more information on BEX IV, please visit: www.bit.ly/SPSBEX On this topic, Rep. Reuven Carlyle weighed in on it at his blog .  McClure Middle School is in his neighborhood and he feels that people don't attend it (despite the elementaries around it being full) and that's because of the building.  He could be partially right but m...

I attended Michael DeBell's community meeting.  Did anyone attend Sharon Peaslee's?  If so, let us know about the discussion. DeBell's meeting was interesting with the majority of participants from McClure Middle School.  They had a variety of concerns including less-than-stellar science program, loss of students from "good" elementaries like Coe, John Hay, etc. from elementary to middle school (thus creating funding issues for McClure) and issues around discipline at the school.  (You may recall that I mentioned in the SB meeting wrap-up that a mother from McClure had expressed some concerns around discipline as well.) DeBell gave the group an update on the SB meeting.  He said the MOU that passed had been an addendum to the collective bargaining agreement.  He said that 15 schools had expressed interest in the idea.  He was fairly blase about it so I mentioned that the vote took oversight away from the Board and left it all in the hands of the Su...

Monday Parent Perspectives on Standardized Testing forum , Thornton Creek Elementary from 6-8 p.m. McDonald meeting for families who don't want foreign language immersion from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at Lincoln library.   (Note; this is not a district-wide meeting and is only about McDonald but it might be interesting to hear what is said.)     Wednesday Board Work Session on Capacity Management from 4:00-5:30 p.m. School Board meeting from 6-9 p.m.   Call first thing Monday morning if you want to speak (252-0040) or boardagenda@seattleschools.org.  (I note that President Sundquist did say at the last Board meeting that you should be speaking on the topic you signed up for your slot.  I always try to do so but then I include other items.  The speakers list has not been full lately so I don't see this as a major issue.)

A round-up from all over (thanks to Maureen for this story from the My Ballard blog): Ballard High School students are learning how to handle oil spills. On Thursday, students in the school’s Maritime Academy conducted an “oil spill drill” as part of their Sophomore Maritime Survey. The fictitious spill took place off Port Angeles where one oil tanker collided with another vessel. “The students had to demonstrate their familiarity with different types of spill response equipment (containment boom, skimmers, etc.), nautical charts, NOAA oil spill response software, tide tables and federal guidelines for spill response.,” Foster tells us. “Within an hour the teams were able to locate the spill, predict its trajectory for the next three days, organize and stage equipment to respond, and set up a decontamination station for effected personnel and animals.” If you’re not familiar with the Ballard Maritime Academy, it is a three-year program at Ballard High School with a hands-on...

It's Labor Day weekend and I decided to labor by reorganizing my upstairs files. Naturally, most of it is SPS information. It's a little overwhelming trying to look through and then decide what to keep. However, at the end, less paper and more organization. And you know what? You never know what you might find. I've found information that, at the time, was not so important and now, after the Auditor's report, might be quite useful. But all that requires more work before disclosure. However, I thought I would pass along some info that I've come across to put on your radar as we move towards planning BEX IV . Having done nearly all the high schools (sorry, RBHS, Sealth and Ingraham; although Sealth just got quite a nice upgrade) and a couple of middle schools, it seems like BEX IV will be heavy on elementary schools . (I do believe the district is likely to do either Eckstein or Whitman or Washington under BEX IV but given the huge amounts we need to spend now ...

I've attended a few meetings and received some information from other sources that may be of interest. First Item - Math Placement Apparently the district math department (via MAP scores) sent out honors math placements to middle schools based on winter MAP scores . The placement lists were done BEFORE all 5th graders had taken the Spring test. Teachers had been assured that the Spring MAP exam would determine placement . I was told that, for example, at one school 80% of the kids would have qualified using the Spring scores versus about 50% with the Winter scores. There seems to be an issue with seats but if we have qualified kids, they all should get the placement. The district will probably get a lot of blowback on this issue but may try to dodge it some other way. Second Item - Facilities I attended the BEX Oversight Committee meeting on Friday. I was particularly interested in hearing what was happening with South Shore. I arrive a few minutes late and wo...

What's in the water this week? This story comes from the Seattle Times. Apparently there was cyberbullying going on at McClure Middle School. And, apparently, it was proven as the school suspended more than 20(!) students for between 2-8 days. Sigh. Ah, the old days when there were a couple of bullies and flunkies but now everyone can be (or so they thought) anonymous and tease/torment/bully a classmate. I'm thinking some or all of this took place at school. Otherwise, I'm not sure how the school managed to link all this together if it was taking place at home (and the school could get the evidence). And it must have been fairly serious language (not "you're fat" which is serious but not the same as "Watch your back; we'll find you" kind of language). Every kid has to learn to face down haters. But I can only go back in my head to being a middle-schooler and try to imagine it coming from all sides on your computer. (I was just in McClur...