Seattle Schools Community Forum

From our friends at the West Seattle Blog, a great round-up of news about who is on the new K-5 STEM at Boren design team and the discussion at their first meeting held last night.  Some interesting comments: - -What do you want to build? “The sky’s the limit,” declared Thompson, within reason. I think that's a lovely sentiment but highly unlikely.  This district is cash-poor and, just like STEM at Cleveland, this school is being opened very quickly without building partnerships that could enrich the program.  That said, several of the parents seem to have community connections that may help that process.  It is a lot of work to build a technology-based school. -They’ll talk about the community partners who have expressed interest – Boeing et al. And Thompson said they don’t just mean those that have come forward; they might actively recruit some.   - instructional materials?  They are just one piece of what happens in a classroom,” warned T...

Here are a couple of good news items from our district. First, a Lowell physical therapist, Cindy Nofziger , founded a non-profit called Schools for Salone.  They build and support schools and educational infrastructure in Sierra Leone, West Africa (Cindy had been a Peace Corps volunteer there in the '80s). They have built 12 schools and are building another.  They have also helped build a library and dig water wells. This is the real work of building goodwill between nations AND helping to rebuild a war-torn area.  Cindy was recently notified that she and Schools for Salone were picked to receive a local Jefferson Award for community and public service.   Along with four other Washington State winners, Cindy will be featured at an awards ceremony on March 12th.  But, more importantly, she and her group are now eligible for a national Jefferson award. I urge you to check out her website or Facebook page at Schools for Salone.  On Monday, Marc...

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.. ...

Monday Seattle Council PTSA General Meeting (topic: school budgets) from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the JSCEE Tuesday Executive Committee Meeting of the Whole from 4-6 p.m. at JSCEE.   After the committee meeting, they will go into Executive Session (no public allowed) for "labor negotiations/potential litigation."  The agenda only reflects "superintendent search." Wednesday Work Session: BEX IV - 4-5:30 p.m. at JSCEE Executive Session immediately afterwards for "potential litigation" School Board Meeting from 6-9 p.m.   Agenda .  The agenda reflects: - update on the John Stanford Building Bonds - several votes on Board policies including visitors to schools and Series 6000 with Director Smith-Blum offering an amendment - an amendment by Director Smith-Blum on moving the timeline slightly further out for Policy 1620BP due to on-going governance training that may serve this policy better. -introduction of the item to change testimony time from 3 ...

Rainier Beach High School is having an Open House and several school tour dates: Thursday, January 19th - School Tour from 8-9:30 am and Open House from 6:30-8p.m. Thursday, , February 9th - Tour from 8-9:30 am Thursday, February 16th - Open House from 6:30-8:30 pm Thursday, March 1st - School Tour from 8-9:30 am Thursday, March 8th - School Tour from 8-9:30 am For more info, please contact the Main Office at 206-252-6350. Also from SPS Communications: In response to strong enrollment growth in West Seattle, Seattle Public Schools will be opening a new elementary program for fall 2012: K-5 STEM at Boren. The new STEM program will be housed in the Louisa Boren Building (5950 Delridge Way SW). It will be a K-5 option program and will open with all six grades in September 2012. Family Information & Input Night: There will be a K-5 STEM at Boren information meeting on Wednesday, February 15 from 7:00-8:30 PM at Schmitz Park Elementary (5000 SW Spokane Street). I...

From the West Seattle Blog :  Thank you to all the West Seattle (and other) people who have joined the dialogue about short term solutions for overcrowding in our elementary schools.

I attended the press conference today about the 2012-2013 Transition Plan and short-term capacity management options.   (I also listened to the public input from the Board meeting about this issue.) It was actually a full house of reporters so look for something on the tv news.  There was nothing new but here are some of the highlights:

Just heading out the door to the FACMAC meeting, I reviewed the Board agenda .  It has changed somewhat (and there are still open slots on the Speakers List, 252-0040). The renewal of the MAP contract through the Northwest Evaluation Association has been taking off the Action items and postponed until the November 16th meeting per a Steve Sundquist request.  They are late on this subscription renewal (having overlooked it) and now they are waiting?  Hmmm, I wonder why.   Also, the Intro Item on the exemption they are seeking from OSPI for the number of instructional hours for Cleveland High School has been radically rewritten.  It's almost like someone realized that there was a WAC attached to this kind of action and they needed more evidence to prove what they were doing.  I'm thinking this was the doing of some "activist" type person who knew the WAC and pointed this out to staff (but it sure wasn't me).    What is interesting is t...

The reality is that our country, our state, our city are in a recession that has gone on now for at least two years.  We are moving at a glacial pace out of it.  Our district tells us over and over there is not enough money for all we need to do to the point where we laid off teachers and counselors (and other district workers) and put off planned purchases.  Now, technically, the district has marginally more money than last year, not from the state, but from increased enrollment.  Any other time this might be major good news but just as money comes with those students, so do costs.  I come to an interesting article in the Saturday Seattle Times about schools districts and their budgets.  The State Legislature included a 1.9% pay cut for teachers in the state budget but the teacher contracts are all decided locally.  So that means, our district is, right now, negotiating with the SEA about those cuts.  Now, you may recall that we voted in a...

This Accountability Audit Report by the State Auditor was better than the one in February if you are only looking at money.  But yes, money was once again lost and while the amounts are smaller than in February, it still damning and painful.

Thursday, May 12th The " Friends of Cleveland " group is holding their annual Red & White auction.  This year, the auction will be held on Thursday, May 12th, at the Museum of Flight, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.  They are raising funds towards next year’s First Robotics fees for the School of Engineering and Design, and toward the purchase of video equipment for student projects in the School of Life Sciences.  Those who wish to support could do so by purchasing a ticket to attend, then bidding on items.  It is also possible to donate without attending. The last day to reserve a seat is Monday, May 9.  Contact Catherine Brown cmbrown@seattleschools.org or Dick Lee rjlee@seattleschools.org , 252-0476 at Cleveland for more info. Saturday, May 14th The Franklin High School Arts Festival is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., May 14 at the school, 3013 S. Mt. Baker Blvd., and will feature student art, ceramics, woodcrafts, lion dancers, fa...

I'm behind on this one and I forgot about something happening today - it's National Library Week and today a picture is going to be taken in every Washington state library.  I hope the schools put this word out and got kids in their school library for the photo.  My apologies.

Just as spring heralds the arrival of new growth, it is sometimes difficult to tell the flowers from the weeds (and to figure out how some things just keep growing). As previously announced, the money for the TFA recruit fees ($4k per teacher per year for SPS and $3k per teacher per year for Federal Way) will come from a grant from the Washington STEM organization.  This would be okay except in trying to figure out how this large grant ($475k) brings more math and science to either district, it gets murky. At the Washington STEM website, the media kit on the grants explains they will " over-recruit " for TFA recruits with a math or science degree.  I asked what this meant and couldn't quite get an answer.  (They don't have their own PR people and the question got farmed out to their PR person.)  As per TFA, I eventually had to go through the TFA regional person, Janis Ortega.  (This happens a great deal of the time.  Try to contact a former TFAer and yo...

I attended DeBell's (crowded) meeting yesterday.  I'll post about it later but would like to hear from others. Update:   Michael DeBell's meeting had about 13-15 people (at various points).  I like how Michael has people introduce themselves and then he writes down their topic and tries to get to everyone's topic.   There were several teachers and staff as well as Ramona Hattendorf from the Washington State PTSA.

There was something of a mystery about where the money was going to come from to pay our TFA "teachers" their fee ($4k per year for two years) for Seattle Public Schools. The story from the Times is the Washington STEM program grants funded by - wait for it - the Gates Foundation and other donors. This is quite charming given that the other grants DO have something to do with work around STEM. TFA, not so much (maybe TFA will get to Cleveland High's STEM program). But the money had to come from somewhere. Of course, that doesn't cover all the money SPS will have to now find for TFA (in addition to finding the extra cash to pay off MGJ and Kennedy). There is overhead for tracking these "teachers" as well as mentorship costs for all of them (especially for those who may teach - shudder - Special Education).

Before going over what was discussed line-for-line, I wanted to throw out some items that popped out to me as ah ha! or oddities or questions. One thing to point out off the bat - and please help me out if you know for certain - is that on the sheet entitled "SPS 2011-12 (Gap) Estimate Summary" (bundled in a group of documents) was a total list of losses from the state. It STILL has Highly Capable as eliminated. I thought that got put back by both the House and Senate. They budget in about $1.16M to reopen Rainier View, Viewlands and McDonald/QA. I had forgotten that basically McDonald and QA will have TWO opening costs because they are first in Lincoln and then go to their own buildings this fall. Interestingly, I hear that Broadview-Thompson could handle Viewlands for another year so maybe the district could consider waiting one more year and save that money. STEM update - $100k. Look for that to be on-going. STEM came along at a time when the district really di...

So in advance of the upcoming tours and open houses at both public and private high schools, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine latest issue has several articles about high school education with 78 public and 50 private schools graded. Among the articles: The New School Plan - about the NSAP One Size Fits Some - about the LA alignment Talk Supe - about who else? (We'll have to discuss this one because she flatly denies saying something I heard her say out loud at a meeting.) Geek Boot Camp - about STEM at Cleveland (I'll have to take them to task for this title; no, no, and no.) Smart and Smarter - about a West Seattle mom who worked to get IB at Chief Sealth 6 Ways for Seattle Schools to Score Higher - hey, this one's by me and Charlie Parents as Search Engines - mostly about applying for private school (but boy does the district take a ding here) Private Lives - about a couple of private schools Grading our High Schools - the listing and grades of area high school...

Six months ago I made a couple of predictions about the enrollment at Cleveland STEM. I predicted that the school wouldn't attract much more than 100 freshman and I predicted a massive turnover in the demographic. Both of those predictions have proven wrong. First, Cleveland STEM has 233 freshman. That is essentially full enrollment. The school has (contractually) a capacity for 250 students in each class and this is just about 95% full. Congratulations to the school and the community for drawing so many students. This is wonderful news. I'm positively delighted. Second, the demographic of the freshman class at Cleveland STEM is little changed from the the demographics of previous classes. Here's the breakdown: Cleveland 9th grade 2010 Asian: 87 - 37.3% Black: 90 - 38.6% Latino: 31 - 13.3% Indian: 10 - 4.3% White: 15 - 6.4% Total: 233 - 100.0% This is not much different from previous classes at Cleveland. In 2008, the last non-STEM year the school was: Cleve...

(Update at bottom.) From the SPS communications department, we found ourselves a Chief Talent Officer. No, don't get all excited that there is someone combing the schools for the next Justin Bieber. It's just the new-fangled way of saying the new head of Human Services. (I'm sorry but that is just a ridiculous name that doesn't fool anyone hired at SPS into thinking, "gee I'm talented AND people like me!") We also have a new Director of Labor and Employee Relations AND a new Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships. Ann Chan is from Chicago Public Schools (hey, maybe she knows Arne Duncan) and our Talent Officer. Howard Pripas is the Employee and Labor guy who hails from the University of California system but was previously at UW from 2001-2004. Mark Teoh is the new Executive Director of Strategic Planning et al. He comes from the Boston school system. (Now he follows a woman who had her salary paid for one year by the Alliance a...