Seattle Schools Community Forum

Just wanted to give advance notice of this talk but I will have more to say soon.  I greatly admire Ms. Burris and look forward to her talk. To note, the Work Session on the SAP will also be that day at JSCEE but it is from 4:30-5:15pm with a Work Session on the Budget to follow from 5:15-6:45 pm. It is very disappointing that not a single Board member will have a community on Saturday in order to talk with parents about the SAP and get their input. PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN EVENING WITH CAROL BURRIS Closing the Opportunity Gap through Detracking and De-Testing Wednesday, January 11 - 6:30 – 8 p.m.  Garfield High School Quincy Jones Performing Arts Center  400 23rd Avenue, Seattle 98122 Carol Burris will deliver a keynote address regarding the tremendous benefits of detracking, and how ranking students based on their perceived intellectual abilities creates defacto segregation in our schools. Wayne Au, Professor of Education at the University of Washington, ...

On October 19th, 2016 hundreds of Seattle teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, nurses, instructional assistants, librarians, and other educators will be wearing Black Lives Matter shirts to school in an unprecedented action, “ Black Lives Matter At School .”  That's how the Seattle Equality Educators' FAQ document starts.  I have previously only seen the day called "day of solidarity" but now it seems it is officially "Black Lives Matter at School." There are a couple of con fusing things. 

Update: letter from Knapp below.  Oddly, he doesn't say who is interim president. End of update Sources tell me that Jonathan Knapp resigned last week as the president of the SEA.  He also stepped down from the King County Labor Council Board as well.  I don't know why and I have not seen a notice about an interim head. I am being told there will likely be a special election in April to find a new leader.  Knapp's letter

From SPS via KPLU (here's link to complete page with footnotes):

There's a mediator and hopefully, both sides are talking thru this person.  Cross your fingers. There are still many schools that need support from parents and community.  Check out the list at Soup for Teachers .  They now have over 1600 members.  I myself walked over to the Roosevelt teachers and told them they were welcome to come and use my bathroom anytime today.  A Parent Petition about what parents want from the contract.  They have over 4500 signatures. From the West Seattle blog: If the Seattle Public Schools teacher strike continues through the end of the week, please join West Seattle educators and families on Friday afternoon from 12:30-3:00 for an Alki Beach Read-In after a morning of community service in honor of September 11th (check with educators from individual schools for project specifics). ALL families are welcome! We are coordinating with multiple schools for this event and hope to have a great turnout. Please bring your boo...

FAQ page from Seattle Schools on Teacher Contract issues and start of school. From the Times: Also according to Seattle union officials, agreement was reached Sunday to increase pay for certificated and classified substitutes, an attempt to address a general shortage of substitutes. As well, a group of parents have started a support group for teachers, Soup for Teachers: Soup for Teachers is a Facebook group that SPS parent Ljiljana Stanojevic Penuela started a few days ago to support striking teachers with food, cards from kids, and other necessities: https://www.facebook.com/groups/507823286040448/ .

First, after review by hired reviewers, the Washington State Charter Commission staff are recommending approval of two new charter schools in our state.  These are the recommendations that the Commission members themselves will be considering at their next meeting on August 13th. The schools the applicants have put forth: Operator: Innovation Schools School Name: Willow Public School Grades Served: 6-8 School Location: Walla Walla Operator: Summit Public Schools Washington School Name: Summit Public School: Seattle #2  Grades Served: 6-12 School Location: South Seattle Both schools received "Meets" standard in four categories (out of four measures with "Exceeds" being the best, followed by "Meets," "Partially Meets," and "Does Not Meet.") I note that Summit has this named at their website at "Summit Public School:Sierra" and both appear on the application but under the Proposal Overview, it's "Summit...

 In what I believe to be a nuanced letter to school communities about the May 19th walkout by teachers, Superintendent Nyland says this in closing: It is important for families to know that this SEA action is not directed at Seattle Public School families or community, but is a statement to the state legislature about the current lack of adequate state funding for basic education. I note that SEA president, Jonanthan Knapp, speaking on KUOW about two hours ago was also careful to say that the district agrees that McCleary must be enacted and on that point, the SEA and the district are in agreement. Yes, schools will be closed on May 19th and yes, there will be one day added to the end of the school year.

Update on the teacher walkout: I heard SEA prez Jonathan Knapp on KUOW during the noon hour.  He said that it should be about 5,000 teachers.  They will be having rallies in front of high schools in the morning (I'll try to get details) with teachers busing downtown for a rally (not sure of the location but I'd guess JSCEE). Two main issues: Will schools be closed on May 19th?  I will try to get an answer.  KUOW said they had asked the district but no answer yet (ditto for me). Will a day extra be tacked on at the end of the year if schools do close?  Probably.  Again, I will verify this today. end of update The Times is reporting that the SEA voted to strike on Tuesday, May 19th.  Some districts' teachers have already walked while there are still at least five others in the wings with three more to walk on Friday. While I understand the teachers' frustrations with the Legislature, I'm not sure I agree with the walkout.  If it was d...

Vermont says no .  From the Vermont government website, an op-ed by a member of their Board of Education: On Tuesday, March 17, 2015, the Vermont State Board of Education unanimously voted to suspend the use of Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) scores for the 2014-2015 school year for the purpose of annual school evaluation determinations. These English Language Arts and Mathematics assessments were developed to measure student mastery of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which were adopted in 2010. Until students' education has been guided by the new standards and schools have practiced administering and interpreting SBAC, the results will not support reliable and valid inferences about student performance and should not be used as the basis for any consequential purpose. Unless empirical studies confirm a sound relationship between performance on the SBAC and critical and valued life outcomes ("college and career-ready"), test res...

This morning the Times has an article about Superintendent Nyland.  Here's what I said in the Times' comment section:

Update : West Seattle meeting with Senator Sharon Nelson West Seattle Blog ‏ @ westseattleblog 15m 15 minutes ago Nelson says she expects the Republicans to ask that i-1351 be suspended. # waleg @ 34dems end of update Passage of ballot outcomes according to Seattle Schools: 1B for Preschool: Yay! Great! Thanks Seattle voters. 1351 for Lower Class Sizes : Not so much. From Interim Superintendent Larry Nyland: It is too soon to know exactly how I-1351 will impact Seattle Public Schools in the wake of the Supreme Court McCleary ruling and actions anticipated during this Legislative session. Class size is one of the top four priorities of the McCleary ruling and long overdue since Washington’s class sizes rank among the highest in the nation. If fully funded by the legislature, the initiative would have a significant impact on staffing and building facilities. That will put pressure on Seattle...

I will be taking a short break for a few days as my family will be happily attending the graduation of my youngest son from his university.  We are very proud that he was accepted to the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW to work on his Master's. I am disappointed to report that teacher Jesse Hagopian narrowly lost to Jonathan Knapp for president of the SEA .  The vote difference was 45 votes out of 1,342 cast.  About 54% of the SEA members voted which was apparently nearly twice what they have had in past elections.  There is to be a runoff for the treasurer's spot between Jennifer Matter (Knapp slate) and Dan Troccoli (Hagopian slate).   According to OSPI, Rainier Beach High School will continue to receive a federal grant to help improve academic outcomes. Ballard High School students won two awards for short films at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY).  Song for Anna by Lucy Harstrick, Isaiah Hoban-Halvorsen, Josh Vredevoogd...

Monday began the voting period for teachers in SPS to elect the leadership of their union the Seattle Education Association (SEA). The RESPECT slate is hoping to win office and I’m hoping they do too.  The voting continues for the next ten days. The RESPECT platform proposes a new way of collaborating with parents and community members in the interest of unifying the power of those fighting for genuine reform of our public schools. Many of us believe Seattle needs its own research-based vision for the schools our children deserve. Those developed in Chicago , Portland and St. Paul through a collaborative process between teachers, parents and the community became a foundation from which strong alliances blossomed. With the RESPECT slate leading the SEA I’m confident that we will move forward on creating such a vision that meets the needs of Seattle Schools' students. I also believe the RESPECT slate will help us come closer to achieving the kind of partnership between tea...

--> Dear SEA members, Congratulations! By acting collectively on behalf of students and schools, and by shining a light on SPS budget practices that have routinely overestimated expenses, we have succeeded in getting the District to reverse the $4 million in school budget cuts! By Monday night, 40 schools had voted no on their school budgets, with dozens more set to follow suit this week.   Hundreds of members were making plans to come to the school board meeting tomorrow night.   Now that will not be necessary; the school board action is cancelled. This unprecedented action by SEA members helped District leaders understand the devastating impact the cuts would have, and focused them on SEA’s budget analysis, which showed a pattern of overestimating expenses which has resulted in substantial end of year savings for the last 4 years. We also commend the many principals, executive directors and central office administrators who worked diligently to un...

I have received word of the following: The district is to recind the budget cuts to schools and add $1.8M to the budget to cover these cuts. The union is urging members to still attend the School Board meeting on Wednesday to support later start times. I'll be checking in with both groups tomorrow. Update:  Banda's letter to school staff (which I find wordy and not entirely clear).   But, the upshot is that $1.8M will be "restored" to schools and "We intend to fully restore what was cut during the WSS allocation."  It is unclear to me when that might happen (meaning, is this aspirational or doable?)