Seattle Schools Community Forum

Dr. Enfield has said, via both e-mail and in person, that Rainier Beach High School would receive an announcement of who their new principal is for the fall by today.  (She really said this week but since it is Friday at 4:27 p.m., I'm thinking 4:59 pm would be the cut-off time for this week.) If you are part of the Rainier Beach community, let us know if she sent only the community an announcement (rather than sending out a press release). Update:  it's now 4:45 p.m.  Still no news.

I got there about 5:10 p.m.  A lot of the Mayor's staff, district staff and a middle school rock band warming up.  For all those people, there was no one to officially greet you or tell you anything about the event.  (I get that they needed staff but seriously, it was a lot of people for a simple Q&A.)

There has been much conversation about the happenings at Rainier Beach High School. As we head into the final couple of days of the school year, I feel compelled to comment on what is and what is not happening at RBHS. As of right now, there is no principal at RB, even though the timeline was to have someone hired by the middle of May. I am not on the interview team, but the last update I received is that no one is even under serious consideration at this time. I have met the candidates in the informal "meet and greets" that the district organized. I have to say that I was summarily unimpressed by all of the candidates except one. The one candidate I was impressed by was the assistant principal from Foster. I think in a different situation, he would have been a very good candidate for RB. He understands the school and the students, but at this time, RB needs to hire an experienced principal. This cannot be someone’s first principal assignment. The gentleman from Foster will...

We know that neither of the two principals currently at Rainier Beach High School will be there next year. Now we learn that nearly all of the teachers currently at Rainier Beach High School are also leaving. It's a combination of factors, including RiF's, dissatisfaction with the school administration, the challenges associated with teaching there, and concern about how student outcomes will impact the teachers' performance evaluations. There will be almost a complete turnover of personnel at Rainier Beach between this year and next. While that might be one of the hallmarks of a transformation, this is not a transformation. In a transformation the personnel turnover is targeted, deliberate, and planned. This isn't. There isn't anyone guiding this turnover; it's just happening. It's a crisis, not a strategy. The school is going to get hit with all of the negative consequences of turnover. All of the established student relationships will be destroyed. ...

The district has announced another round of principal/assistant principal appointments.  (I'll list those below.)  But what about Rainier Beach HS ?  When we last left them, both of their current co-principals, Dr. Robert Gary and Lisa Escobar, were leaving to go to other posts (Interagency and Viewlands, respectively). Nearly every other school who has been searching for a principal as far back as RBHS has found one.  It's not for lacking of trying because they did form a search committee and did interviews starting back in early April.  But they still haven't announced a principal appointment. I've served on a principal search committee and it was very structured and, of course, that because you need to be completely fair to each applicant.  Same questions, from the same people, etc.  The district did an initial screening search to find candidates who would meet the criteria - both from their resume and the screening - to be a principal for SPS....

According to the SPS website, Open Enrollment letters are to be mailed out Tuesday, May 31st. Update: The automatic enrollment/waitlist number is working. 252-0410 - you must have student's ID # and birthdate.  (Thank you to reader Laura for this info.) There will also be an online lookup tool and automated phone line that families can use to check assignment and waiting list status. These should be available by mid-day May 31, so check back here for the online link and phone number. Also, the district wants to remind families that there will be no SPS summer programs but there's a summer resource list . Free Youth Cardiac-Screenings at Garfield on Wednesday, June 1st from 8 am to 5 p.m.  These are in partnership with the Nick of Time Foundation.   The screening takes about 25 minutes. Screening packets are available at the Garfield office or Teen Health Clinic or can be downloaded .  You can also pre-register your child for a screening by email (ja...

The Superintendent announced these principal assignments today: Appointments: * Kelly Aramaki to Beacon Hill International School (Susie Murphy is retiring) * Anitra Pinchback-Jones to Rainier View, which opens this fall * Lisa Escobar to Viewlands, which opens this fall * Dr. Robert Gary to Principal-on-special-assignment at Interagency Academy, joining Kaaren Andrews Note: Pinchback-Jones has been at Bagley Elementary, Lisa Escobar and Robert Gary have been at RBHS.   Also, the word is that Bryant will either have an assistant principal or head teacher and not continue having two principals. The following individuals have served in an Interim role this year and are officially being appointed as principal. In each case the ExecutiveDirector of Schools gathered feedback from staff, families and communitybefore making these recommendations: * Keven Wynkoop at Ballard * Kelley Archer at Stevens * Keisha Scar...

UPDATE: Here's the Powerpoint link. Following up on my Summary thread, here are the highlights of the discussion. Steve started with a bit of a monologue about Board's role versus staff's (I'm going to have to have him repeat it for me). He did say something interesting that I'm not sure the rest of the Board would agree with, namely, that if the Board asked more questions than staff could answer in this Work Session, it is the job of the Audit&Finance Committee to prioritize them. It is unclear to me if he meant that if some of the lower questions didn't get answered, it was okay. It seemed that way. Frankly, with this kind of climate and for a budget, I think ALL Board questions should be answered. Overall themes: a struggle over what will take priority; the Strategic Plan or WSS for schools. frustration by several Board members but mostly Sherry and Michael over the lack of clarity in this presentation. The Board seemed very frustrated ove...

I attended the press conference today about the Transition Plan for 2011-2012. Tracy Libros was there along with the new(ish) head of Customer Service, Brandon Holst and Teresa Whipple of Public Affairs. The media was represented (in person) by me, Phyllis Fletcher of KUOW and Jerry of KING-5 tv. (By the way, I think KING-5, followed by KIRO-7, do the best job for tv coverage. KOMO and KCPQ always seem awol on these issues.) On the phone were reporters from the West Seattle blog, PI-online, Seattle's Child and The Stranger. Two of the most important things before Q&A. Again, as I posted previously, the deadline for issues/concerns to Board members in order to create amendments is FRIDAY, JAN. 7th (tomorrow), not Monday, the 10th. Steve Sundquist abruptly changed this date. Second, I asked and Tracy verified the following point. There used to be an amendment to the enrollment plan called the Waldman/Barnhart amendment. Basically it was a hold safe amendment. Yo...

(Did anyone attend Tuesday's? I think Dorothy said she did. I looked at the PowerPoint and there is a lot of stuff that I wish I had heard presented. I'll have to tease it out in another thread. Here are my notes from the PowerPoint of the 2nd of last week's "integrated" work sessions (a mash-up of budget and transition plan). I did not stay until the end so help me out if you did. All the Directors were in attendance as was Dr. Goodloe-Johnson. They started at page 45 of the previous day's work session. They started talking about program placement and the new possible Accelerated IB program in response to the overcrowding at Garfield. It would be modeled after the program at Interlake over in Bellevue. (I'll just say here that I think it's done. The community would have to rise up, en masse, to prevent it. I just think there's way too much work already done for this to be just a "possibility." The question is whe...

There's been some articles/opinion pieces I've read over the last couple of days, combined with some discussions with other people, that lead me to believe we need to have some very serious discussions about parenting for educational success and how that is viewed (or not) within different communities. Some of this is spurred by the call of political correctness over Brave New World (over at the Stranger Slog several people referred to whiny victimhood). I'm also reading a good book my son recommended to me that he read in his high school social studies class called Ishmael by Daniel Quinn in which a gorilla attempts to teach a young man how to view the world. It's very well done and very thought provoking. I don't pretend to know all the answers nor can I say I understand the complexities of every group. I don't believe for a minute that we all live in equality and/or equity in this country. I do believe this country does represent the best chance ...

Update: here's a link to Bellevue's survey and supporting material . Very interesting and detailed. Their PowerPoint presentation shows WA state as 38th in spending in the U.S while Seattle always uses the 46th in the nation number. The PowerPoint has some great charts where Seattle's central spending really comes across. Yet another fascinating yet odd survey , this one on how the district spends the dough. It's live until December 3rd. Shall we go through it together? First page are questions that are informational. Second page (and here's where you have to put on your thinking cap): ranking areas, from 1-5, that you feel are necessary to maintaining an efficiently run school district that consistently improves learning. (BUT, you can only use your 1-5 once each question.) Your choices are: student/teacher ratio books and instructional materials that are aligned to state grad req and college entrance standards wide range of program offering...