Seattle Schools Community Forum

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...

There have been quite a few questions about enrollment especially as pertains to students coming in at a non-entry grade. I think we do have to wait for the transition plan for some answers. Clearly, they can't give a seat to every child at their attendance area school especially in the NE. I'm sure they will try to find a school in your region at elementary level. As for middle and high school, I can see where someone coming in at 7th would have to go out of region for middle school (unless they chose a space at an Option school that had room). It's an interesting discussion as well historically. The issue of new students who move here after the school year has always been an issue. It is quite shocking to many parents who move to Seattle only to find out that they can't get into their neighborhood school. But we are in a very transitional time so it will be hard on people in that situation. As well, I recall that when Don Nielson was on the Board, he had put fo...

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 ...

Someone had provided a link to the South Shore parent newsletter where the principal discusses some issues with the SAP. It was interesting; here are a few excerpts: Question: What does this plan mean to us as an OPTION SCHOOL? A: Students can apply from all over the district upsetting the ethnic, language and socioeconomic balance we have worked so hard to attain. We want to keep our current demographics and need to be vocal about it. Ways to be heard: Comment Cards, board meetings, Getting involved in Political Advocacy Committee. (Join the club. Many school communities, with the new SAP, will find their diversity changed. I recall that Roosevelt students came down to a Board meeting in large numbers about 5 years ago complaining that changing the SAP would change the diversity there. TOPS was very worried during school closures that their diversity would change under a new SAP. It's an issue for many schools but I don't think it's an argument for one school.)...

From a reader: Attention NW/N Seattle Community – TUESDAY OCTOBER 27th 2009, 7pm Loyal Heights PTA, SCPTSA, and CPPS members would like to invite you to a lively evening of discussion and coffee with Peter Maier. Learn what you can do to influence capacity/boundary issues, address I-1033 and the upcoming levies. Loyal Heights Elementary Cafeteria 2511 NW 80th St Connect with your local PTA/CPPS people. We would like to involve every school in our region so all kids and communities have a voice! RSVP is appreciated. Questions? Concerns? Carmen Hudson cell 206-310-9576

I haven't had time to peruse this myself but a reader said there was new information at the SAPs including about Option schools. I did find this one funny/odd because it is obvious that they don't want to answer the question. Why is South Shore designated as an option school under the proposed attendance area boundaries? What distinguishes option schools is that their buildings are not tied to an attendance area. No one is assigned to an option school unless they apply and are assigned based on the approved tiebreakers. (Not picking on South Shore; our reader pointed this one out.)

I am looking for a little help. I can't be at all the community workshops on the SAP boundaries (my Superwoman cape is at the drycleaners). I am going to try to get to one workshop in every region but you know about the best laid plans. Usually the district allows other information to be given out during public meetings. (At the Board meetings, they have a separate table. I'll have to see if they have that for the community meetings.) If not, I can hand out information directly to parents. I wanted to have half-sheet flyers about this blog to give out so that parents have someplace to go to ask questions and give ideas. I'm sure some schools or regions may have their own Yahoo groups but this blog is good because of the city-wide coverage. I'd like that circle to get bigger. If you live in the SE/SW/West Seattle and are going to the community workshops, would you be willing to hand them out? I would send you the sheet to print out (as I said it is a half-she...

It is dawning on more and more people who read this blog (and, I hope, thinking parents everywhere) that a lot of the success (or even rollout) of the new SAP rests on the shoulders of voters. Meaning, that the BTA III levy contains the money to fix up the 5 reopening buildings. Three are in the north end, 1 in QA and 1 in the SE. Viewlands and Rainier View would open later than the other 3 which are needed ASAP to deal with enrollment issues. Yesterday, being a glutton for punishment, I attended another Work Session just after Tuesday's Work Session on the SAP. This one was for the levy. I have some fairly jaw-dropping and interesting news. The jaw-dropping part is that the cost of fixing up these buildings has grown and they still need a final figure for Rainier View. The original "placeholder" figure in the levy budget for 5-6 buildings was $34.6M . It is now at $48M . As Director DeBell pointed out, it is the largest single component of the levy. The larg...

"On Tuesday Oct 6, 2009 the district will release the new attendance boundaries. A video of the board work session presentation will be available on the district website. The proposed attendance area boundary maps will be presented at the board work session and made available Tuesday evening on the district website. A helpful and new tool for families is a Web-based program that displays initial attendance area school assignments based on an address. The tool will be available beginning the morning of Wednesday, October 7 on the district Web site. Each school will also have a computer available to families to enable them to look up information on boundaries and assignments." (bold mine)

UPDATE Number 2: I asked Communications today about the lack of information in this Action Item. I was told that they would be following state regulations and all would have the same seat hours. Am I sure this is correct? No. But, I find it hard to believe that both the news release and the action item would not mention seat hours if they were to be voted on. So I'm going to be patient and see what actually happens. UPDATE: Here is a link to the News and Calendar page on this issue. You will note there is NO mention of the vote including the variance of seat time at high schools. Now did staff not tell Communications staff about this or were Communications staff instructed to leave it out? Either way, if they believe this is the right thing to do, why is it not in the motion for the Board vote OR in the news release? Speaks volumes about this district. An op-ed appeared in the Saturday Times by Garfield parent, Kevin Larensen. It was about the issue of seat time in ...

So we are finally here. We've hashed out the SAP, the Board has approved it and what's left is who goes where (at least on paper). There are many issues to consider when we look at the maps. We may end up needing separate threads. For example, one thing I will be looking for (and I hope is in the presentation) is an enrollment number attached to each school. I know that some schools will likely be slightly undersized to allow for growth. Know this so that you can help others understand how they came by the size of the school and therefore its boundaries. It's even trickier for high schools as they will have Open Choice seats that may have sliding percentages based on their freshman class size. I do know that Board members have been thinking about walk distances and the most basic question is: what is a reasonable walk distance for elementary, middle and high schools ? The transportation eligibility distances - 1 mile for elementary, 2 miles for middle and 2.5 miles ...

I received an advisory notice today about more SAP meetings . There are now: 9 feedback meetings 2 informational meetings 2 Board Work Sessions 1 public hearing 2 Board meetings (one to introduce the boundary maps and another to vote on it). Here's a link to all the meetings so mark your calendars. I think they may have heard from parents in the north end who said, "Where's a north end meeting besides the one at Ballard?" (I hadn't seen before how they were all in the south end.) There are now feedback meetings at Eckstein (NE), Ballard (NW), Denny (SW) and Washington (Central). There are two community information meetings, one in the north and one in the south. Unfortunately, the district just sent out in the mail a list of meetings but it was the old list. Sigh.

The Student Assignment Plan page has posted the Community meetings for the boundaries for the new student assignment plan. They stretch over nearly 4 weeks (and thank you to Tracy Libros who had the smarts to realize that fairness dictates giving parents a large window to give input). Interpretation and sign language interpretation will be available at some meetings. The meetings start on Monday, Oct. 12 and end on Saturday, Nov. 7th. The comments page is at this link . The boundary maps will first be seen at the Board Work Session on Tuesday, October 6th from 4-8 p.m.

As usual many interesting items on the agenda for the Board meeting on Wednesday. One is to sign off on the money spent on Rainier Beach High School upgrades. I have no quarrel with the money spent but I am on-board with Kay Smith-Blum's idea of making these items/powerpoints more understandable. The chart on the money spent at RBHS is almost unreadable and I'm going to waste somebody's time at the district tomorrow by asking them to explain it. Kay is right; it should be in plain English that anyone could understand (educational jargon not withstanding). One item of special note to me on RBHS improvements: "Building security improvements via new CCTV system." Now I get that RBHS may have more security challenges than Roosevelt but might the district throw us a bone and give us our first security system? Also, in tiny type under Calendar reminders was this: Board workshop on student assignment plan boundaries, Tuesday, October 6, 4-8p, Auditorium You heard ...

So I received my new school calendar and there are some interesting items in it. First, hate the new size. Kinda of awkward to handle. Second, theme anyone? Coming in at #1 (with a bullet and mentioned no less than 20 times): accountable/accountability. Number 2? "Improving services for our students in special ed, advanced learning and bilingual programs." Given how little information there is available on the website about what or how this is happening, the jury is way out on this one. Under Measuring Performance, page 2 "Every person employed by the District is accountable to contribute to our central goal of student achievement." Really? How are they held accountable? They sling that word around like hash at a diner and yet, who is ever really accountable? Three, is it me or does the text in this calendar have problems? It does not seem to be not well written. I also note a couple of items that are either confusing or incorrect. On the Family Engageme...

Tomorrow marks exactly one month until school starts (sorry). The district, as usual, powers down during the summer but there are things starting up as well as things that should be showing up (and aren't). For example, the teachers union, SEA, has resumed contract negotiations with the district. Their deadline is August 31. The union has a general meeting scheduled on that day. (More on this issue in a separate thread.) Keep in mind that if they don't reach agreement, we could have a strike. No one wants that to happen. The Board is also powering back up and has an Executive Committee meeting tomorrow with different committee meetings coming at the end of the week and into next week. The next School Board meeting is Wednesday, August 19th. Director Carr is having a community meeting next Saturday the 15th (no details on where). What's missing? Well, what's up with the new Student Assignment Plan and specifically, the boundary maps ? I had spoken to T...

After 3 hours the Work Session finally got to boundary discussions. This included the PowerPoint as well as a sheet which I haven't found yet online. One side as high school enrollment, overall and by clusters (which is very interesting) and the other side has what Tracy termed "dummy data" to illustrate what might patterns might occur because of the new SAP. As Tracy said, this is very complex. They listed 8 steps to the boundary planning process (slide 53). Then slide 54 listed the first step - Identify Factors (like proximity, walk zones, demographics, etc.) As I have previously said, t he Board is not going to rank or weigh any of these so you may think proximity is the most important but that's not how it will be for the Board. Keep that in mind. (I'll have an update on the proximity issue. As Tracy ran through it, I had a scenario in my head. I e-mailed her to ask her if I got it right and I'm waiting for an answer. Basically she said they are ...

This will be the shortest piece mainly because not much was said and frankly, I am just taken aback that (1) this seems to be something that should have been done years (if not decades) ago and (2) some of this work HAS been done and I'm confused why it seems like it is starting from scratch. Kathy Johnson of Facilities did this presentation. She talked about creating "trigger metrics" for opening/closing schools/criteria, when boundaries need to be changed, portable placement and capacity mitigation measures. Well, first, yes it would be nice to have a set of criteria to use for opening and closing schools given that we have now had 3 rounds of closures (2 that actually occurred). And portables? This is the same group that said we couldn't afford them and that they weren't available even if we had the money. Do we have that many left over here and there to move around? Michael asked her what the metrics would be founded on and Kathy said that they want the...

I am going to try to give some analysis to what was presented yesterday at the Board Work Session. As I mentioned previously, the first part was Demographics with many charts presented by district demographer, Rachel Cassidy. (FYI, all the Board was there except Cheryl Chow, out of the country, and Harium Martin-Morris on Board business.) There were a number of things both on the charts and in Rachel's remarks that didn't quite ring true to me. I am not trained so she probably has good reason to come to her conclusions. Slide 8 about factors driving enrollment. One of the factors listed was "dropout and graduation rates". I thought this odd simply because I'm not sure that most people, when enrolling their student, think about this. Or maybe it was meant as there is more room in high schools because we have a high dropout rate. Slide 9 was a chart showing births and kindergarten enrollment. We lose about 2,000 of these kids from birth to enrollment. She said...

Thanks to some clever eyes, I got to the Work Session on time (well, they started 15 minutes late so it worked for me). I grabbed the handouts and sank in my seat. Well, I started to sink lower as I read. Excuse the middle school jargon but OMG! Now, wait, it's not bad news but this Powerpoint (down the page under Past Meetings) was one of the most data-heavy I have ever seen and that wasn't even with the presentation. Honestly, I think without some explanation it may not be easy to understand. I'm tired and don't have the energy now (and I think it's a definite two or three part thread) but basically, Rachel Cassidy, the demographer, laid out many charts explaining where we are and where we are going. I got lost at several points because (1) I didn't always understand the charts and (2) I didn't absolutely agree with her conclusions. More on this later. There was then a section on capacity management that I'm not sure needed to be here. It se...