Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Updates: - there were full tables and most were about one school or area.  There was a Coe table, a Beacon Hill table (with some hard facts about the changes for that area), a TT Minor table, Montlake, etc. - I found these to be people who knew their facts and, if they didn't, wanted to find out more.  One man pushed back against the format, asking why staff couldn't explain who thought up the boundaries and explain them.  He was told they just wanted "comments and feedback."  I don't think many were satisfied with that answer. -Rep Jamie Pedersen was there and he spoke as a father of four (one in school).  I think he's getting a good picture of the issues. Takeaways : - this region HAS had a lot of push-pull from the district.  I honestly had not realized how bad it has been.   And, like other regions, the boundaries are NOT taking into account established "community boundaries or geographical features.  For example, one are...

Based on statements made by Superintendent Banda and President Smith-Blum, I believe the district is doing its best to be diplomatic and pragmatic with the former tenants in the Horace Mann building. The Superintendent has said he wants to try to find solutions. President Smith-Blum says staff made it clear when leasing the building that it was for a limited time and has a "claw back" clause (as nearly every lease of a school building does because the district needs to have the use of the building in case of need or crisis). What is interesting is that it appears the actual lease holders (those who contracted with the district) HAVE moved out to other locations.  The other groups that remain (with subleases from the original lease holders) are the ones asking to stay. She says: "The Superintendent felt it was important to help the groups still in the building relocate as they are doing some good things with kids at risk. The task force has a fairly succinct chart...

There are a number of challenges around the District's plan for a middle school at Meany. I choose to call them challenges instead of problems in the hope that it will make me sound less pessimistic, but they amount to the same thing.

There was much of interest discussed at last week's Operations Committee meeting. I think the Capacity Management issue will be a bigger item of interest but as I stated previously, I'm still waiting for some documents to be on-line so that I can link to them. There were three documents related to Facilities (not including the monthly summary which is almost useless). Two were labeled "Annual Report" but I'm not sure anyone would think of them as reports. (One page, both sides? Considering all the work done in a year on facilities, how is that a report?) The first was was an annual report on " BTA Related Information ." It reviewed the work need to be done in seven weeks to get BTA projects done on Queen Anne, Rainier View and Viewlands. (The seven-week period was not specified so I don't know when they are talking about. Summer?) They point out that there are many unknowns in the work. Now look, I get that some of these b...

I, along with other citizens, had written to the State Auditor several years back, complaining about the BEX capital building program. When you write to the Auditor, they log your letter and make sure you get a follow-up (I know that seems odd to have a public entity actually listen and keep track of your concerns but that's just how the SAO rolls.) The letter said some points made in the audit like: District facilities staff was unable to provide all requested documents in a complete and timely manner. We could not always determine whether the documents did not exist or whether they could not be located. Project documents were not store consistently, and some were in multiple locations. But they also said this: We were unable to address your specific concerns related to the District's decision to select specific school projects for inclusion in its BEX III program because we discovered larger issues related to the BEX II projects. I find that interesting because I wondered...

Before the Board meeting yesterday, there was a Board Work Session on the Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (better known as SBOC) which is a long name for the 6-12 immigrant school. SBOC has long been neglected and put in that "To Do" list for many Boards and many Superintendents. I think some of it was because that they just didn't know what to do (the needs are varied and large) and some of it was because they are an easy population to ignore given their parents may not speak any English nor have any understanding of how to navigate our system. Currently, SBOC is a transitional school. Students come and go, staying from 3 months to maybe a year. The idea is to get them to a place where they can go to a regular school. The basic change is to have SBOC be transitional for those students who do want to leave BUT be a real middle/high school for those who want to finish there. Basically, they would be a comprehensive ELL high school serving about 500 students...

Among the twisting paperstorm of definitions for accountability generated by the District there must be one about keeping commitments to students, families and communities. If the Board is going to have any role in accountability and "holding the superintendent accountable" - whatever that means - it must include some element of requiring the superintendent to keep the commitments the District has made. And, if they are going to hold themselves accountable - whatever that means - it must mean keeping the commitments that they have made. Nevermind the long list of broken commitments on Director Martin-Morris' blog. Commitments that were made by staff that were never kept and never will be kept - by design and intent from the start. It would be difficult to hold staff to any of those promises. These, of course, provide an object lesson to everyone to " Never accept a promise of future action from a member of the Seattle Public Schools staff because you must presume th...

According to the Seattle Times , there was a melee at the promotion ceremony for Meany's 8th graders. From the article: "Graduation ceremonies at a Seattle middle school were interrupted Tuesday when two girls incited a disturbance and attacked an off-duty police officer, according to Seattle police. Dozens of police were called to Meany Middle School on Capitol Hill to quell the disturbance, delaying the event for about a half-hour, Seattle police spokeswoman Reneé Witt said. Police also arrested two girls, ages 14 and 15, for causing the stir. Both girls now face criminal charges. The 14-year-old faces felony assault of an officer and a trespassing charge, while the 15-year old could be charged with trespass and disruption of school activities, Witt said. The disturbance happened shortly before 6 p.m. at the school, Witt said, when the 14-year-old girl, who had been ordered to stay away from the school earlier in the year, showed up at the graduation and started makin...

The Seattle Weekly is running a story, School Closures: Math that Doesn't Add Up , on the misguided plan to co-locate the S.B.O.C. and NOVA at Meany.

There are all kinds of imprudent instructions available online. How to hack, how to phreak, how to build a pipe, how to disappear and assume a new identity, etc. So it is in that tradition that I offer this sketch of instruction on how to sue the School District to stop the closures. It may be irresponsible of me to provide this information. It may also be pointless to offer the instruction because the chances for success are so poor. So there is no need to write a comment to advise me of either of these two points. I am already well aware of them, thank you. I'm providing the information so that people will have the facts while a tornado of misinformation swirls around them. Information wants to be free. Knowledge is power and this blog is about empowering people with knowledge. So spare me, please, the rants about how I am either irresponsible or foolish. The best chance to blocking the closures will only delay them, not really stop them. And the only ones that I think can be del...

The amount of change being proposed for the Central cluster is mind-boggling. By my count, 8 schools in the cluster are affected by the current proposal. And, on top of that, the proposed changes to the APP program, which affect students from all over the city, is part of the mix. Add in the couple of proposed changes to the Queen Anne/Magnolia cluster and the whole thing is messy. Out of the whole thing, I think the proposed closure of the Center School is the worst idea. With Summit either being closed or reduced to a K-8, the closure of the Center School would leave only Nova as an alternative school option for 9-12 graders. Not all students who want/need an alternative high school learning environment will do well in Nova's program. The Center School differs greatly from Nova and provides some students the small 9-12 alternative option they need. I don't know enough about all the other schools and programs (T.T. Minor, Bailey-Gazert, Thurgood Marshall, Montlake, Lowell...