Seattle Schools Community Forum

The District will soon adopt a new policy on Advanced Learning to replace policy D12.00, Highly Capable Student Programs . A draft policy was shared at the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee on August 13. Since the committee was seeing the policy for the first time at the meeting they were not prepared to refer to the full board for an approval decision. That's why you don't see it on the agenda for the Board's September 5 meeting. Allow me to offer a little history and context.

As the day nears when the Board will vote on Policy 2200, Equitable Access to Programs and Services, I have to wonder about the policy writing process. I have to wonder because I don't understand how such a poorly conceived policy could be written in the first place or how such a badly written policy could advance so far without major re-writing. Who is in control of the policy writing and what is the process by which policies are formed, drafted, amended, and approved?

Every so often something comes along that exposes and epitomizes a wide range of problems. This week it is the proposed Policy 2200, Equitable Access to Programs and Services . This proposed revision to Board Policy C56.00 reveals and illustrates problems with the Board's procedures, the Board's practices, the staff, program placement, the allocation of authority, the factors that really drive decisions within Seattle Public Schools, and the whole concept of governance vs. management. Where to begin?

The Seattle School Board has launched a big project to review and update all of their policies. Phase I of this process is complete - they have renumbered the policies to conform to WSSDA conventions, they have added some non-controversial policies that other districts typically have but Seattle was missing, they deleted some non-controversial superfluous policies, and they have done some work to thoughtfully re-write the governance policies (series 1000). They are now in Phase II in which they review and thoughtfully revise other policies. Many of these revisions will be the subject of some contention and people should try to pay attention to the Phase II process as it occurs. You should try, but they aren't making it easy. The information provided about Phase II of this process is badly out of date, incomplete, and inaccurate. It's hard not to take this as a sign of the Board's minimal interest in community engagement.

Mark your calendars, folks. You will not want to miss the April 26 meeting of the Curriculum and Instruction committee. And bring a snack because the agenda is going to be packed! According to the timetable for the policy review process, the C & I committee will consider Phase II revisions for five - count 'em, FIVE - different policies. And not quick, simple, non-contentious policies, but five potentially controversial ones. I'm not sure what else the committee hopes to do in that meeting, but the discussion of these five policies could take a long time.

I know that I've mentioned this as a comment on a couple of other threads, but I really want to bring it out for attention.

The School Board will meet today at 4:00 as a Committee of the Whole for the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee to review the Series 2000 and 3000 Policies. The agenda has links to the relevant documents. You will note that the staff suggests that some of the current policies be retained without changes, some be deleted, some be revised now, and some be revised at a later date during "Phase II". In addition, they also recommend the adoption of some new policies. The public will have only very limited opportunity to review and comment on these policies. There will be plenty of time to do it - about a month - but, let's face it, you'll have to do it via email and, as we know, emails to the Board get little or no attention. I made multiple comments on the Series 1000 policies before they were adopted and not only did I not detect any effect I didn't get the courtesy of a response. I don't think anyone read what I sent. I certainly don't have any...

I'm starting to go through the drafts for the Series 2000 Policies. We got them at the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting. There's a lot here and it's going to take some time. They aren't posted anywhere on the district web site, but write to Holly Ferguson if you want a copy.