Seattle Schools Community Forum

Field Trip The proposed field trip last Friday to Vashon Island, an eight-year annual tradition by the Garfield jazz vocal group (about 70 students),  had been pulled at what seemed like the last second. This confusion happened because despite the approval of the principal and the district's risk manager, approval was not given by the Executive Director, Sarah Pritchett.  They had only two weeks from the time that the ban on field trips at Garfield had been lifted and felt they had all the necessary documentation done.   The Vocal Music supporters sent a letter to Ms. Pritchett and Mr. Tolley to ask what happened.  They are really upset because there are potential costs of $10K from breach of "various contracts."  They maintain they repeatedly called Ms. Pritchett on Friday to get an explanation and she could not be reached.  They want the district to help mitigate those potential costs. Richard Staudt, Risk Manager, wrote them back today, explainin...

I'm just on my way out the door to the Garfield walk-out and this message came up on my feed.  It's from Superintendent Nyland.  (I don't see they are saying their numbers are wrong.  Well, something's wrong if Garfield says they DID meet the district's stated goal.) Nyland also says:   We are still working through this process, and we would hope the community will allow us time to complete our process.  What? How does that help Garfield to say a process is still going on? Nyland Letter

Dear Garfield families, The Seattle School District has announced its intention to withdraw one full-time teacher from Garfield, effective Monday, October 25, 2014 - leaving 150 students without a class for the rest of the semester, unless Garfield produces $92,000 by Friday, October 24 . This cut will occur despite the fact that SPS holds $8.5 million in reserves that could be used to cover this expense. Garfield High School is already the lowest funded High School in Seattle .  At $5,951 per student, we are a full 15% below the average of $7,004 per student per the 2014/2015   district funding report (page 44). High Schools   Proj Enrol lment FTE  Grant Budget  Non-Grant Budget Total Budget Budget per Student Ballard 1572 106.1 $71,500 $9,472,548 $9,544,048 $6,071 Center 271 20.3 $12,500 $1,866,756 $1,879,256 $6,935 Chief Sealth 1170 97.2 $186,500 $8,673,628 $8,860,128 $...

  I first heard from Issa George, who is the VP of the Garfield High Black Student Union.   He says: On Wednesday October 22nd, 2014 we are hosting a march from Garfield High School to the East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department on 12th and Pine.  We plan on beginning our march at Garfield High School at 3:30pm , then we plan to walk up 23rd until we reach Union st. where we will make a left and march up Union until we hit 12th, then we will proceed to the police department. We are using this march to call attention to the mass amounts of police brutality that happen in our country every day. We have prepared a statement to address the Seattle Police Department. Our march is completely student run, and adult supported. We are advertising this as a place for young people of color to express their feelings about the police. Attached is our statement. We are only affiliated with Garfield High School, and this is a Black Student Union lead march....

From reader Data Hungry (bold mine), letter from Dr. Nyland to principals about staffing changes. Dear principals, I am pleased to report that nearly 52,000 students are attending Seattle Public Schools this year, according to our official October headcount. That is an increase of 978 students over last year and is within 1 percent of our enrollment forecast. Now that we have the official October enrollment counts for each school, as we do every year, we are moving forward with annual staffing adjustments – up and down – based on each school’s enrollment. Some schools have additional enrollment and require additional staff. Some schools have lower enrollments than projected and require staff reductions. We also consider equity factors, such as special education, English Language Learners, free and reduced price lunch qualifications and grade and program configurations. This year our school board has highlighted resource stewardship as a board priority, refocusing th...