Seattle Schools Community Forum

Building Leadership Teams (BLTs) exist at every SPS school (or should). There should be parent/community representation at every SPS school's BLT (or should).  That representation should NOT be controlled by the principal. There should be bylaws written and readily available for anyone to be able to access about the decision-making process for each school. Let us know how the BLT at your school works. A huge thank you to  Ann Donovan  who pulled all this info together.  Follow her on Twitter: @ann_donovan for great ed news in one place.

The National Council on Teacher Quality , an Education Reform propaganda engine, has reviewed the recent two-year contract between Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association, the teachers' union. The review by the NCTQ compares the final contract language to the Seattle Public Schools’ Bargaining Platform and - inexplicably- the Our Schools Coalition’s platform as if the Our Schools Coalition had any kind of standing or qualifications. Inexplicable, that is, until we discover that the Our Schools Coalition commissioned the review . So when the question is "How closely does the contract align with OUR goals?", then things that are aligned with the OSC goals appear to be good and variances appear to be bad, without any determination of whether the OSC goals are good or bad. This subtlety was either lost on Lynne Varner or intentionally omitted from her editorial about the review. You can read it for yourself. Lines like this: " The six pages ...

Basically, not much. No meetings scheduled for the district except on Saturday, August 31st, Director Patu has her Community Meeting from 10 am to noon at Caffe Vita.  I have no new updates from the teacher contract talks but I assume there will be a vote on the newest (and, according to the district, last) offer either tomorrow or Tuesday.  I feel confident both sides will find agreement before the start of school on September 4th.  Upcoming threads: - more unraveling of ed reform - FERPA and protecting your student's data

From SPS Communications: We are working with our labor association partners to achieve what we all desire – what is best for our staff and for our students. We have discussed and explored a variety of options during negotiations with the Seattle Education Association.  We have discussed with SEA an increase to the cap on class size.  Enrollment in Seattle Public Schools has increased dramatically over the past five years and that trend is projected to continue.  An increase to the class size cap is one of a number of solutions we are exploring to ensure that we can accommodate all students as they enroll.  We are still in conversation with SEA, and we are optimistic that an agreement will be reached so that we can get the school year off to a great start.   What other solutions besides increasing class size is the district exploring?  I'm sure parents would like to know.   I was at the Executive Committee meeting t...

In the comments section at the Times about an education op-ed, there was this recent comment: Just in from "the bargain." SEA Prez Knapp guarantees they will get what they came to the table for - 1% across the board. All that other stuff is just confusinggggg. Membership will vote on the 500 page package in two hours at a place to be named later. SEA recommends passage as the best contract the district would offer. A bit hard to decipher.  They will get a raise but everything else is up in the air?  Is a raise all teachers want (hard to believe given their rising workload). We'll keep you up-to-date as news comes in.