Seattle Schools Community Forum

I went to the Board meeting two weeks ago and a couple of Work Sessions/Committee meetings.   This thread is the Board meeting and Operations Ctm. meeting. Here are the highlights: Board Meeting This was the one where the high school basketball teams were honored.  Very fun to be there (although the Garfield boys wanted to look as serious as possible).  Paul Apostle of HR said they were making "exceptional" progress to hire early in hard-to -fill posts like Sped and ELL.  There was a bit of mention for Genesee Hill which is now running about $2M behind.  As Chris Jackins pointed out, just looking at the site, you can see potential problems.  I'm not sure why this wasn't apparent sooner.  The later start for secondary schools had about 3800 signatures by then. One lone NW Center father spoke about the issue of where their program will end up.  He did say they didn't want to stay but that the district should "own" what they did in...

Tonight is the second of the Superintendent's regional meetings about the Strategic Plan at 6:30 p.m. at Hale High School. I suspect that this particular meeting - coming on the heels of pushback from staff on later start times AND the brewing rebellion by schools over cuts to their budgets - might prove to be larger and more contentious than the one earlier this week.  And Hale - having had a later start time for 10 years - is perfect backdrop for this discussion. That said, the district loves its Powerpoint presentations and I suspect they will make whoever shows up wait for any questioning beyond issues around the Strategic Plan.  But the district press release does say attendees can question district leadership so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Also to note, next week's School Board meeting should be a barnburner as several groups - Start School Later-Seattle, school staffs and NW Center parents - could show up to "express" their opinions ...