Seattle Schools Community Forum

Here's a brilliant story from the West Seattle Blog about Director McLaren's community meeting in West Seattle.

From the West Seattle Blog: Followup: Middle College HS, K-5 STEM will not share Boren West Seattle’s smallest public high school, Middle College HS , will not be sharing the Boren Building campus in Delridge with the new K-5 STEM elementary school after all – another location for MCHS has been found instead. That’s according to an announcement by West Seattle’s school-board rep Marty McLaren, confirmed by Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Teresa Wippel, though both say the new location cannot be publicly disclosed yet. West Seattle Blog has the scoop!

We've been hearing some news about the District deciding to place the Middle College program, now located on the campus of South Seattle Community College, in the Boren building next year. It would be co-locating there with the new K-5 STEM program. Before you write to the School Board about this, I would remind you that program placement decisions are made unilaterally by the superintendent. They are not board-level decisions. Moreover, the Board has made it clear that they have no interest in enforcing the program placement policy, which would require the superintendent to disclose her process and would require her to provide rationale for them. They have decided that we do not need transparency or evaluation with these decisions and consequently we get the kind of decisions that can come from under the cloak of secrecy and behind the shield of no accountability. In other words, the Board has already determined that they not only will not get involved in this, but t...

 What's on your mind?  To quickly note: from Diane Ravitch's blog , beware of any education petition at Change.org.  Michelle Rhee's group, Students First has numerous "education" petitions there (which you may or may not support).  However, what happens if you sign one is that makes you a member of Students First.   This is how they expand their numbers without you ever knowing.   K-5 STEM Meet & Greet When: Wednesday, June 13th from 6-8 PM Where: Madison Middle School (3429 45th Ave SW) Who: Enrolled families, interested families (kids too!), community members, and partners What: Meet the faculty and staff and get an update on K-5 STEM Fall 2012      

A request was made for a thread about issues at the new K-5 STEM school at Boren .  Among the issues: - Parents signed their children up for STEM before they knew it was requiring uniforms. They gave up their spots at their neighborhood schools and are now forced to go to a school requiring uniforms. - Is there a name for this school yet?  (Not that it matters) - Did anyone talk to McDonald or Viewlands or the other schools that reopened to ask their advice about forming a community? Parents?

Monday, Feb. 27th Open Enrollment for Seattle Public Schools begins . Open Enrollment ends on March 9, 2012. Wednesday, Feb. 29th PTA Charter School Forum at Washington Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m. moderated by C.R. Douglas of Q13 Fox News. This should be interesting as it comes almost at the end of the legislative session instead of its original date nearer the beginning. Also, the charter bill(s) are in such limbo, I wondering if there will be any discussion of the bill itself. That would be a pity because the issue should be about this charter bill. You can have abstract but detailed discussions around charters but it's how charters would play out in our state that matters. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this event so I hope to see a lot of feedback from those who do. Also, there are two different Board events, both at the same time on Wednesday. One is a Work Session on the Budget from 4-5:30 p.m. and the other is an Executive Committee Meeting of th...

I realized we might want a thread on the STEM school meeting last night at Schmitz Park.   So let us know if you went. According to the West Seattle blog, the place was packed and the district officials were caught off guard (I think happily). I did see these tweets and updates from our friends at the West Seattle blog from the meeting (note, they have video of the entire event): Going to be a full house at K5 STEM school info meeting Design team will be formed for new STEM school. Online survey planned too Now in comment period. The mentioned concept of 'business partners' has stirred some concern. Boeing, Disney have reportedly reached out.  (Disney?) Lady concerned about STEM Boren diversity. Looking around, she said, "This room looks like a Dave Matthews concert" (quote of the night) The consensus on comments seems to be: Doesn’t anyone have a vision for this school. Wait, wait, wait and see. With only a few weeks until open enrollment ends.. ...