Seattle Schools Community Forum

(Update, Saturday, the 8th. The CPPS Superintendent survey is open until midnight tonight .) Just to let you know, there have been roughly 500 CPPS Superintendent surveys taken since last week. Of those, 270 had comments. The last day to take the survey is tomorrow so if you haven't, here's your chance (or let a friend know). While it is not scientific, I think the results will be of interest to the Board. Also, Matt Halverson at Seattle Metropolitan magazine is doing a story on the new SAP . He is interested in hearing from anyone thinking about and/or looking to move in order to get to a different school. He is trying to find out if this talk about moving to be near a school is an urban rumor or a reality. If you are such a person (or know one), contact him at: mhalverson@sagacitymedia.com or 206-957-2234 x133

I ran down to the Board meeting to give my remarks and had to leave right afterwards. (I then went to the Roosevelt PTSA meeting to be the opposition side to Schools First support of the BTA III levy. More on this later as it was interesting and I may need your input.) But, I had set my Tivo to record the meeting. Silly me, the meeting ended at 11 and I only recorded 3 hours of what turned out to be a 5 hour meeting. They didn't get to the Action items until almost 2:45 minutes into the meeting (they did start late though). So I missed the SAP votes. So help me out. Here's the story from the Times. About the amendments, here's all that was said: "The boundaries approved Wednesday reflect small adjustments in the lines around five pairs of elementary schools: Bryant/View Ridge, McDonald/Green Lake, Whittier, West Woodland, Loyal Heights/Adams, and Alki/Lafayette." So I am thinking the Executive Board's passed, Harium's amendments passed, Mary'...

Thanks to reader Yumpears who linked us to the update from Steve Sundquist's last meeting before the vote tonight at the West Seattle Blog . Steve said he was not "inclined" to change the boundaries except for one (far south end of California SW) and that there would be an amendment for that. (It's still not on the website but they can introduce them without them actually being on the agenda. At least that is what has happened in the past.) He said some pretty interesting things about high schools. He was trying to make people feel better about their assigned high school saying that many kids from areas all over West Seattle/SW go to either high school. Here are the stats from the article: SEALTH 1,000 students - 550 from its “drawing area,” 200 from northern West Seattle WEST SEATTLE HS More than half its 1100 students come from southern West Seattle (574) DENNY Most from its “drawing area,” 136 from north West Seattle MADISON Even split - 449 from north West ...

The speakers list for the Board meeting tonight is full. (I'm speaking near the top of the list but it has me down for the SAP and I'm speaking on the BTA.) There are 5 of us on the list who are regulars and interestingly, there are 5 people from the Sharples family speaking, probably asking why their family name is being moved to another school and why there is a motion to postpone this vote. Directors Bass and Martin-Morris will be introducing amendments. Here is Director Bass': 1. I move to amend that the attendance area boundary for Stevens Elementary School be those set forth in the attached. Rationale: The current eastern boundary for Stevens Elementary School should be retained. 2. I move to designate Madrona K-8 as an option school. I don't know enough whether number one is good. With number two, her rationale is all over the place. Here's the last paragraph: "Our priority should be to serve the families at the school. Over half of the families...

Someone pointed this out to me even though I should have known it if I had thought about it enough. I don't know where all the directors live (obviously within their districts). I do know where Director Carr lives. The first boundaries put her home within Ballard's boundaries. ( As you may recall, she has a child at Roosevelt as does Director Martin-Morris). So that map would have sent her second child to Ballard. (But under the 10% Open Choice seats, her second child would easily get into Roosevelt via that choice.) The second map has her neighborhood in Roosevelt. And personally that is the way I thought it should have been for her neighborhood. (But part of that change was for west Green Lake and I'm still not sure why west Green Lake is in Roosevelt's area because no one from there is going to walk to Roosevelt which is the given reason for the change.) I point this out because I have gone to many boundary meetings, large and small, and I never heard Directo...

Thanks to Central Mom for alerting us to the amendments made by the Executive Committee of the Board to the Superintendent for the SAP to be presented at the Board meeting on Wednesday. They include McDonald, Whittier, Alki/Lafayette and Loyal Heights. Here's a link . Note that other individual amendments may surface. I think it unlikely but it is possible. Also to note, Dr. Enfield, our CAO, is doing a presentation on MAP. Here is one bullet point: 100% of elementary & K-8 schools will share results with families during parent-teacher conferences So okay, you heard it from her, all of you elementary/K-8 parents, if you attend a parent-teacher conference, will get results. Middle and high school? A little less clear what will happen: Middle & high schools will share results in conferences (if applicable), send results home with report cards or designate one staff to share results with families. Also, Dr. Enfield has hired 4 "data coaches" to train a MAP tra...

The School Board meeting for votes on both the new SAP boundaries and the levies is this Wednesday, the 18th at 6 p.m. You can sign up to speak starting tomorrow at 8 am by: calling 252-0040 or e-mailing boardagenda@seattleschools.org Here's we are, almost to zero hour. I don't want to disappoint anyone but I'm not sure I believe any amendments will come forward. I think only a broad-based one like the "soft" boundaries one (allowing anyone within a block of a school to have access even if it isn't their attendance area school) or the "one-time" option (which would allow anyone within, say, 3 blocks of a non-attendance area school to make the one-time choice to commit to that school). Those would not require moving boundaries. But I think the Board will say they just can't at this point. (And that's why I do not like staff saying, "Oh yes, the Board can do anything up until the vote.") Please let us know if you attended Dir...

I attended and spoke at the Public Hearing for the SAP Boundaries last night. All the Board were in attendance as well as the Superintendent. The newly-elected Board members were not there and I saw no press that I recognized. The testimony was audio-taped. I would say there were roughly 50-60 people in attendance (not a big crowd at all). I won't go thru every single person's speech (there were 40 including me). Here are some highlights: number one with a bullet (again); grandfathering of siblings . Parents just have such uncertainty about what to do and how they could handle two little children (or more) at two schools. I spoke to this issue in my remarks saying, on the subject of reopening Sand Point, Old Hay and McDonald that all should open as K-5s in order to give those parents the option to have their children in one school. The issue is quite pressing in the NE as many parents may not be able to move Child 1 from an out-of-attendance area school to their new...

I called this morning to get on the Speakers List for the Public Hearing on the BTA III levy for Thursday. I also asked about the list for tonight's hearing for the SAP Boundaries. There is room on the BTA III one and there may still be a few spots for tonight's. Call 252-0042 to get on the list (it's an automated call). I am quite surprised that the Public Hearing for tonight wasn't full as of Friday afternoon. People had seemed so unhappy with the format for the Boundaries meetings that I thought some would take the opportunity to address the Board for 3 full minutes. Also, you can write to hearing@seattleschools.org Your comments will be part of the official record of the public hearing you are addressing. These are hearings that the district is legally obligated to have and ANY input - via phone, e-mail, in person or snail mail - has to be put into the legal record (as opposed to any comments made at the feedback/informational meetings). In fact, this business...

Two Public Hearings this week of note. One is the Public Hearing on the Boundary Maps which is tomorrow, Monday the 9th from 6-8 p.m. at the Stanford Center . This is the LAST public input the Board will take (but e-mail/lobby them all you want privately). I didn't call to get on the list as I felt that it was important for continuing parents to have first dibs. I'll call tomorrow and see if it is full (they have room for 40 speakers). I will note that they will ONLY take 40 speakers; this hearing is a specific legal obligation and I have never seen a variation from even when people ask for time for all those who wish to speak. I would advise going as your presence, your applause will count with the Board. The other Public Hearing is on Thursday, the 12th for the BTA III and Operations levies. It is also from 6-8 p.m. I don't know if they have taken sign-ups for this hearing; I'll check tomorrow. This is also important. I support the idea of both levies...

It's always good to keep up with what is happening in all parts of the district and our friends over at the super West Seattle blog went to the Saturday community meeting with Steve Sundquist. Some eye-opening stuff there that is valid for many other parts of the district. Here's what I found interesting: - parents in West Seattle (well, some) are worried about the economic divide that is being created by schools with higher free/reduced lunch students all feeding into one middle school while the schools with less F/RL feed into the other. Since they are setting up the middle schools areas to almost "feed" into the high schools (even though that isn't technically what the SAP does), then you'll have that same divide continuing into high school. -one parent has a very passionate plea about PTAs (she's talking about Concord). She said she knew going in that they were struggling and that she sees that not having a PTA system in place makes the struggle h...

I attended the informational meeting on boundaries at Roosevelt High on Thursday night. There were about 60+ attendees along with staff. Steve Sundquist, Hairum Martin-Morris, Peter Maier and Sherry Carr attended as well. Dr Enfield was the lead staff person with Tracy Libros giving the presentation. The handouts included the new map, the SAP, information about map revisions as well as a curious handout about the STEM program (I'll try to get a link for it). The information sheets about the map revisions were very cursory and did not fully flesh out how boundary changes impacted other schools. For example, they noted Roosevelt's changes and Ingraham's changes but not that it made Hale's boundaries much smaller. They said at the Work Session that something like 42 out of 58 elementaries boundaries changed but that was not reflected in the information on the sheet. Also, Tracy made note of the updating of the FAQs but I could swear that questions I've heard at...

Not too much more as I ended up covering some of it in the Enrollment thread. I am going to put the notes in italic as I have made a lot of comments here. Tracy mentioned a group of parents joining together around Sand Point (she called it a PTA but that's not really possible at this point). She also mentioned community support around McDonald from neighbors who live around it and who have been working on its playground. Michael brought up the issue of not having many Options for the NW and where would all the kids on the Old Hay option school go for middle school? When Sherry had explained her visit to McDonald , she was careful to explain that some of the money was for desks, etc. so that's why the cost is so high. Well, wait a minute. Don't we have a lot of desks left over from closed buildings? No, oh, so this is one perk from having your building renovated or remodeled; you get new desks. It's kind of like moving into a newly-built house and wanting new f...

To note again here: I was mistaken about next week's P ublic Hearing speaking time. It IS 3 minutes as it is at the Board meetings so they will have room for 40 speakers . Please note: I may go out of order of what was said when to group like items. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson went over a lot of backstory on the SAP but did say a couple of interesting things about "first implementation steps". She said that they need to gather information about incoming kindergarten siblings . I'm guessing that means how many there are for next year and possibly after. They have to "complete transportation eligibility analysis". Again, figuring out who gets transportation where. (Someone asked about an analysis of how we save any money on transportation under the new SAP but it will take several years to realize it. I can't see how they could anytime soon.) Fall 2010 opening Sand Point, McDonald and Old Hay with Rainier View and Viewlands to follow . This is a bit of a ...

I'll do a separate thread on the Work Session itself. So I'm sure some people have poured over the maps so point out anything I miss. (As well, the Work Session presentation gave some reasoning for changes but not in-depth. The only way at this point I can find it is at the Board website - clink on the link for the plan.) Please note: for whatever reason, staff did NOT use the same coloring or streets on the two different maps. They said by tomorrow they will have up side by side comparisons but it is not easy to clearly see what changed. High Schools - They shifted Ingraham's NE boundary further east past the Jackson Golf Course. The reasoning is that it provided more of a walk area. Ballard did NOT shift north of 85th but did lose the area of North Green Lake and west of Green Lake to Phinney/Greenwood Ave and lower West Woodland. All that area went into Roosevelt. Roosevelt, for some strange reason, gained north area now moving to 85th as well as the area ar...

UPDATE: For the Public Hearing on the Boundaries, each speaker will have 3 minutes so there will be only 40 speakers. The new boundary maps will be released today. Here is the exact wording from the School Board meeting agenda: "Map will be attached to this report, Tuesday afternoon, November 3rd " Not sure if that means at noon, 1 p.m. or right before the Work Session starts at 4. I'll keep checking and update this thread if something comes up before the Work Session. Also, to keep in mind for next week's Public Hearing on the SAP Boundaries : At the public hearing scheduled for Monday, November 9, 6:00-8:00pm , you may sign up to testify at the public hearing starting Thursday, November 5, 8:00am , by e-mailing hearing@seattleschools.org or by calling (206) 252-0042. In my experience, the Public Hearing has about 5 minutes of introductions. They are legally obligated to read an official statement and state which Board members are present.

Tuesday, Nov. 3rd from 4-6 p.m., Board Work Session on SAP boundaries. This is the last Work Session before the final vote on November 18th AND the first look at any changes to the boundaries . I would expect the most changes for high schools given that Tracy Libros said that they were not "well-balanced" from the initial release of the boundaries. I am hoping to see the Sand Point Elementary boundaries redrawn as well due to the oddities of how large its F/RL population would be relative to all the other NE elementaries as well as how it doesn't include the Windermere neighborhood. I know the Board has heard from several neighborhoods about issues of boundaries that split neighborhoods (or the perception of) but it is difficult to say how hard the Board will push for any changes here. It is VITAL for any and all of you who look at the new boundaries and are unhappy (and feel it is a good reason) to go to your PTAs/CPPS rep and get going now. The Board needs to her...

I recently reported that the QA/Magnolia schools group, Successful Schools in Action (SSIA), was having some community meetings (there's one tonight) on the reopening of Old Hay as a K-5 school. The district said they thought a K-5 Montessori school could be an idea. So then there was this in the Seattle PI from the SSIA group: "With the recently released assignment plan and proposed attendance boundaries, the school district has announced the reopening of several schools, including the Old Hay school located on Boston Street. This school will be renovated and reopened in 2011 as an option school to help ease the overcrowding in our neighborhood schools. For the 2010-2011 school year, students will be bused and the program will be located in Lincoln High School. Options schools typically offer unique programs and are all-city draws, with attendance preference given to a small, local geographic area. The district has proposed this school become a Montessori K-5 school, b...

I mentioned a bit previously from the last Board Work Session on the BTA Levy . (It was that the figure for Sand Point was changed; it seems they forgot to include the portables space. The figure they gave was 225 for the building, with portables, it's 325.) From the Work Session: I need to get clarification on this but they referenced a "ghost law" (just in time for Halloween). It seems that there is some I-728 money that could accelerate levy collection. I am unclear on how I-728 money (which I believe is for operations) could be part of capital funds. They went through, building by building, the rationale for reopening each and each time Tracy said we are going to need the capacity. Board members seemed to have some unease with reopening McDonald which had the weakest case for the capacity issue and the biggest price tag. Michael said it might be an opportunity to consider opening McDonald as an option school to draw off attendance area kids from other schools tha...

So initially I had my doubts about this meeting. So rainy and there were more staff than attendees. It ended up being about even - I'd say there were 20 people there. (FYI, I did draw Cheryl Chow aside and tell her about concerns about lack of books at RBHS. She said she hadn't heard anything but was glad to know about it. I did talk with the principal and still have a few more phone calls to make before I can say how we might help the situation. It's a little unclear about what the situation is and why it is the way it is. More on this next week.) So the theme here seemed to be that people felt the district had been really trying with this plan and they appreciated the effort. But as one person who read for their group said, "We preface all our statements with "if the plan is done correctly". But I did learn a couple of new things. Here's what came out here: Everyone gets an attendance area assigned; we all know that, right? So if you choose a ...