Seattle Schools Community Forum

 (Moderator's note: the bell times folks found great success with their cause when they got UW researchers to come and testify to the Board, repeatedly, on the benefits of late start for teens.  This new coalition detailed below could do the same for PE.)

Lori Dunn , Seattle Public Schools’ Physical Education and Health Literacy Program Manager, has been honored with SHAPE America’s top award for Physical Education administrators.

Where we are today? There have been two of the district's four School Bell Times Community discussion events.  (Anyone go to New Holly on Tuesday night or Garfield on Thursday night?)  I reported back on what I saw and heard at Hamilton. The district has chosen to NOT go with the Taskforce's top picks, citing the Taskforce's agreement with the district on transportation costs.  I would like anyone on the Taskforce who might be reading this to contact me (sss.westbrook@gmail.com) and let me know if this is completely accurate.  This is only what I heard from the district. The last discussion event is on Tuesday, May 12th at Chief Sealth at 7:00 pm  I'll just state a couple of things that I believe.

Unhappy with Pearson ?  Apparently you are not alone.  Speaking of Big Brother, here's the SBAC's "Guidance for Social Media Monitoring during the Field Test."  The State Senate is to drop its budget this week.  Let's see how that fulfillment of McCleary is going and where they find the funding.  I spoke to Speaker Chopp last week and that's pretty much all he would say.  I note that when I mentioned that while I think preschool is great, that the Constitution says K-12 is the state's paramount duty and that I was worried about the push that both preschool and higher education are receiving this session.  He said something to the effort that there would be more dollars for preschool but not in McCleary. Whether it's in McCleary or not is not really the point.  Because, frankly, education dollars are education dollars. I note that there's a new group, Why Not Us Washington that is pushing the Legislature to invest more in preschool.  ...

Interesting article about the pressure on kids to "specialize" in a sport from the Steve Nash Youth Basketball blog, called The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports. We had mixed experiences with sports with both our boys.  Great Little League experience (especially with the son with a disability).  Great rec soccer experience for my younger son.  (He did try one year of select soccer - too expensive, too much travel, too much pressure.  My son, who had real talent, was the one to say no.) We had great parents on our team but some teams had win-at-all-costs parents and to hear them and their coaches scream at kids was astonishing. Both played Ultimate Frisbee in SPS.  Mixed bag as one son was at a school - that shall remain nameless - that had a no-cut policy but also, basically, a no-play policy if you were not a star.  Really hurt his feelings to be told he would never play in a game - not even for 5 minutes because they had a "competitive" team and wan...

Update: In my original thread, I mentioned that "several" staffers are to go on a trip to Toronto for an Asian American Alliance.  Now I get a press release - again, on info from the earlier thread - about who is going to the White House to represent SPS for a discussion about SPS' PE programs.   It's Superintendent Nyland. It seems the invitation was just for superintendents from districts who have programs that are working well to share ideas (SPS' being PE).  I'm sure that despite the Superintendent being so new that staff will have him well-prepped for questions and, of course, he may come back with many good ideas from other districts. As well, on the story of a student getting hit by a car in Wallingford today : - it is a 7th grader - he was being treated and would be released today From SPS Communications: There were also new flashing lights installed within the past week on 43 rd /Stone as another safe crossing option for students. This ca...

This was in the Northgate Community Center activities schedule.  Apparently, you can get a high school (maybe middle school) PE credit for this class.  Have you seen this elsewhere?  (Credit to Carolyn Leith for pointing this out.)

I attended (and spoke at) the City Council meeting yesterday where the two pre-K for all programs were discussed and voted on.  Boy, you want to see a president of a group control the conversation, look at the master, Tim Burgess.  I'll have a thread on this but it is astonishing the City did not work with pre-school teachers and their union on this issue.  Both measures will be going before voters in the fall, not as complimentary measures on the same topic but competing ones.  It's a pity. Wow, big news out of Milwaukee.  NPR is reporting that in order to boost attendance they are bringing back art, music and PE .  Milwaukee Public Schools is one of several school systems across the country — i ncluding Los Angeles, San Diego and Nashville, Tenn . — that are re-investing in subjects like art and physical education. The Milwaukee school district is hiring new specialty teachers with the hope of attracting more families and boosting academic achiev...

Wednesday, June 4nd School Board meeting , starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda . It is quite a long agenda with a longer-than-usual Consent agenda.  I was surprised to see a item like this not being discussed with Intro and then Action but they need to get work done on the North Queen Anne  Elementary School as soon as possible for the move in of the Cascade Parent Partnership Program.   I find this also disturbing in its rush as there is no contract attached to this Consent item (and may not be until Tuesday).  Not a lot of time for public review on spending over $400k in capital dollars.  The very odd notation for where the revenue is coming from is "capital funds."  BEX IV?  BTA III? CIP?  What?  I also raise the concern over BEX IV funds being used to replace the elevator at Jane Addams Middle School. This elevator has been problematic for several years and yet it was NOT on BEX IV.  The BEX IV funding for JAMS is very small at $7.3M...

KUOW's Ann Dornfeld has done a three-part series on PE in public schools that is both informative and illuminating.  Some of what she reports is troubling. Part One - Seattle Area Kids Don't Get Enough P.E., but Who's Keeping Track? This was the most troubling part as we find that neither SPS nor OSPI is really tracking what is a legal requirement.  In fact, SPS almost has a "all the other kids are doing it" attitude. But a KUOW investigation found that few elementary schools in the Seattle area provide the required amount of P.E. In fact, not one of the eight Seattle-area school districts contacted by KUOW meets the state P.E. law. Who is keeping track of how much P.E. students are getting? Not Olympia’s state school officials. "We do not have a data collection mechanism in place," said Lisa Rakoz, the health and fitness education program supervisor at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. "We trust that school dist...

Wedgwood teacher, Kelly Clark, has been given the  2014 Civic Educator of the Year Award.  From Rep Gerry Pollet's office:   The award is sponsored by the Washington State Legislature to honor outstanding instructors in civics education.    Other SPS honorees : • Lori Dunn,  program manager for Physical Education and Health Literacy, will be presented a  Fellow for Professional Excellence  at a convention sponsored by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).  • Gayle See, coordinator for Physical Education for Progress, will be acknowledged at the same convention for her outstanding contributions with an Honor Award, Non-college/University.  Article from Crosscut by City Councilwomen Jean Godden and Sally Bagshaw about the long-promised playground at Seattle Center.  They are looking for input on its design. The project team will begin its robust community engage...

Popped into the City Club's One-Stop Ballot Stop this evening.  Not so many people but the mayoral debate was interesting.  One quick-fire question: " Do you think the Seattle School Board is doing a good job?"   Murray - yellow (waffle), McGinn (refused to answer - "I think they are doing the best they can at a hard job.  I don't want to put them down." , crowd (mostly yellows with a smattering of green - yes and red-no).  I had forgotten but City Club puts all the candidates for each type of election together so there was this uneasy line of Dale Estey, Peters, Blanford and Green.  Blanford and Green appeared to completely ignore each other (as did Dale Estey and Peters) while Dale Estey and Blanford appear to be pretty good buddies (so I guess that CASE - the Chamber of Commerce PAC - isn't wrong in calling them "a slate.") The Supreme Court has taken on case on affirmative action which involves a Michigan case using race for college ...

The two items I took away from this Work Session on April 10th were these: The phrase "differentiating resource allocation" came up prominently.  I didn't really hear the Directors call it out but my own notes reflect "uh oh."  I say that because the Strategic Plan - in its early stages - seems to lean towards closing the achievement gap rather than supporting ALL students and their learning.  Differentiating resource allocation would tend to support that view.   And, with parents putting in more and more financial support to schools, I can see where some schools could become resentful of their efforts being taken for granted as the district guides money in certain directions. Director Patu called this one out and Michael Tolley said that it meant not necessarily "equal support" but to support students who need help. The other phrase was "academic assurances - basic education - for all students".   One of my first concerns...

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...