Seattle Schools Community Forum

I am very disappointed to have miss the Pinehurst public hearing last night.   Did anyone attend and could you let us know what was said?

Well, a report out from the public hearing last night that I believe is worthy of its own thread.  From reader Danny: I attended the Pinehurst K-8 (aka AS#1) public hearing last night. It was just that, a public hearing for public testimony. No more real information was gleaned from it other than how important the school is to the community of people who send their kids there. One testimony of note was School Board Director Peaslee waited patiently and testified last with no time limit and put on record that the options of temporarily locating at the Decautur bldg while waiting for a permanent co-location with Thornton Creek are absolutely viable solutions. She also stated that it doesn't make sense to close a program due to low enrollment while there are waiting lists and empty buildings in the district. She also stated that she had a conversation with Thornton Creek's principal John Miner who told her Pinehurst must be saved and is on board with the co-loc...

First, the headlines: The big winner is K-5 at Boren, soon to be K-8 STEM at Boren. The big loser is Pinehurst K-8, soon to be closed and clearly treated with bad faith. APP breaks even, getting everything expected, most of it where expected, some of it in difficult spaces but with an extraordinary accommodation that should prove very beneficial in the long term. There isn't likely to be much fighting over the boundaries, the fight will be over the transition plan that dictates who goes into interim sites, when, and for how long. With regard to STEM, the District staff showed itself to be surprisingly reasonable and open to discussion. With regard to Pinehurst, the District staff showed itself to be dishonest and downright mean. With regard to the APP sites, the District staff showed itself to be surprisingly thoughtful. With regard to the transition plan the District staff showed itself to be timid, but politically savvy. The Board, at every step, showed itself to be ...

From the Superintendent to Pinehurst families: Seattle Public Schools is considering the possibility of closing Pinehurst K-8 School after the 2013-14 school year. No decision has been made at this time. The schedule of events shown below has been created in order to determine whether the school is to be closed. The Superintendent will make a final recommendation to the School Board, which will make the final decision. We are inviting you to attend a meeting 630-8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Pinehurst. At this meeting, Seattle Public Schools staff members will share information, answer our questions and request your input and feedback.

Superintendent Banda has sent a letter to Pinehurst families about their school that leaves things pretty up in the air but on a downward trend.  He tells the families that they had been considering moving Pinehurst to Broadview-Thomson K-8 but that it will NOT happen.  Pinehurst will stay where it is for one more year and they will have "discussions over the summer about the school's future beyond the 2013-2014 school year." District, just pull the band aid off.  It might be kinder.

Roosevelt High School's Jazz Band placed third at this weekend's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC.  Congrats to all! Ballard High students in their video program won two major prizes at the Dominique Dunne Film Competition in Colorado Springs.  The competition only awards four prizes and the judges are a who's who in Hollywood  so this is huge honor for Ballard.  Good job!  Pinehurst K-8 is circulating a petition about their proposed relocation to Broadview-Thompson. From the petition: Pinehurst K-8 at Broadview-Thompson provides the district with a much-needed Option School in the northwest area.  As Pinehurst K-8 community members, we consider these requests to be reasonable for the success of the co-location: • That we retain our principal, administrative staff, and instructional staff to ensure stability for our entire community during the transition; for initial negotiations with Broadview-Thompson staff regarding scheduling...

South Shore PreK-8 came up as a topic during a discussion over conversion charters .  I, like many, believe it would be a target (a willing one) for a conversion takeover.  I suspect you could get the parents or teachers to agree and I'm sure LEV, who now directs the foundation money that South Shore gets, would also be agreeable.  That leaves the community and the district that may not like the idea of losing a $73M building to a charter entity. One thing to keep in mind - ALL charters are their own districts .  If they take over a district building, they can decide the parameters - within the law - of public use just as SPS does.  If you use a school building for your local community meetings or Boy Scouts, you might have to find someplace else to go.  I also don't know what it would mean for the joint-use agreement that SPS has with Parks for SPS playfields.  I would assume if a charter group takes over the building and its grounds and is its ...

From the Save Pinehurst group: We hastily formed a new Pinehurst K-8 BEX Levy Committee in response to the following in a letter sent  to the entire School District on October 9, 2012 from Superintendent José Banda. The Seattle School District (BEX IV Levy Team and School Board) has yet to talk with the Pinehurst K-8 community on next steps. We are aware that they have meet with Jane Addams K-8 and other schools over the last few months, including this week. We request the same courtesy and consideration to meet with them ASAP and collaborate on a solution for preserving the 40+ year history of the Pinehurst K-8 alternative school. We are aware that time is of the essence since the Board will be voting on the BEX IV Levy soon. "Jane Addams K-8: Move to Pinehurst K-8 and open Jane Addams building as a middle school by 2015. We will work with the Pinehurst community on next steps for the school." Solutions proposed by our school community: •Keep Pinehurst K-8 in our...

 Two more updates. This from the Board agenda as a change to the BEX list - an addition of RBHS for seismic issues and I note the new amount is at $694.9M. Also, below are notes from a parent who attended a meeting at Jane Addams last night.  This is THEIR reading of what they heard. Anyone else attend who heard the same or different? Here are a few details about the BEXIV bombshell delivered last night at a meeting at Jane Addams. District Staff present included Pegi McEvoy, Lucy Morello, Kim Whitworth. Sharon Peaslee was also there, as were at least two FACMAC members. The Jane Addams K-8 community rejected the Oct 10th proposal, because the enlarged Pinehurst building proposed to house their program was only adequate for 2 classrooms per grade at elementary and 3 cohorts per grade at middle school. The Jane Addams K-8 BEX Task Force group met with District Staff on Friday, and explained to them that the program must have 3 classrooms/cohorts per grade, ...

The Seattle Times is running a story about Pinehurst, " Alternative elementary faces steep climb to stay open "

Monday the 21st Reminder of the lecture on water tonight at by Robert Glennon for the Chief Sealth Int'l High School World Water Week.  Doors open at 6:15 for music and refreshments with the lecture at 7 p.m.  Robert Glennon is the author of "Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It." Tuesday There is a discussion at Jane Addams about serving their advanced learners .   This meeting is a Jane Addams school community discussion around how best to serve their advanced learners. Current Jane Addams families, and families considering the school are welcome to join the conversation.  It runs from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the library.  Please note this is school event (not district) with the discussion about Jane Addams only. Wednesday Oversight Work Session on Human Resources Department from 4-5:30 p.m.  This should be interesting as I haven't seen a work session on human resources previously.  Then there is an half-hou...