Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: Sometimes there are such pluses to what I do.  No, it wasn't seeing Caroline Kennedy (although she is a lovely and gracious person) but going to a school and seeing such enthusiasm from both students and staff.   Director McLaren was also in attendance.  Sanislo Elementary is a school I have not visited before and it has to be one of the most tucked-away schools we have.  It's tiny (about 200 students) and it sits in its own kind of glade with a huge playground. Their teacher-librarian, Craig Seasholes, is just one of those rockstar kind of staff members.  Excited about his work, trying to do more (he has a grant in with the Allen Foundation and Seattle Library Foundation to help his school) and he handled the kids and Ms. Kennedy with a steady hand.  They brought in a first grade class (complete with their poetry scrapbooks), some third-graders and members of their Poetry Club.  They all recited a new "pledge" this one by Jane...

...but they are not boycotting the MAP test.   Their letter to the Superintendent is both alloquent and heartfelt. From the West Seattle blog comes this report about a letter sent to Superintendent Banda from the teachers at Sanislo: We the staff at Sanislo Elementary, by a unanimous vote, write to express our support for Garfield High School’s decision to not administer the MAP test. We share many of their same concerns, including the impact on a struggling student’s esteem and the lack of usability of the results when given the current text adoptions. We similarly decry the loss of instructional time, the loss of computer lab access and the loss of instructional assistants who are used as test proctors, in addition to the financial costs of the subscription itself and the tech support for implementing it. Garfield and all high school teachers find themselves in a Kafkaesque situation in which their employment (including career ladder and terminati...

This story from the Times on Roosevelt's Ruben Van Kempen , drama teacher and director extraordinaire who will be inducted into the Educational Theatre Association's Hall of Fame in San Diego this week.  One interesting item that most don't know - RHS offers the only full-time theater program in SPS with multiple classes.   His legacy (but he's not going anywhere) - this from a student: "He instilled a belief in me, a belief in following my passions and dreams. Whether I'd gone on to be an engineer or a teacher or anything else, I'd appreciate what he gave me at a really important time." An accomplished stage director as well as an innovative teacher, Van Kempen has trained and inspired dozens of theater professionals, working from here to Broadway. They include Chad Kimball, a recent Tony Award nominee in the Broadway musical "Memphis," as well as Noah Racey, a busy performer-choreographer who'll be the lead in the 5th Avenu...

Our friends at the West Seattle blog have some good stories from West Seattle schools.

From Dan Dempsey: Today, June 4, 2010, union members of Sanislo Elementary voted “ no confidence ” in the Seattle School District Superintendent. They approved the following motion by a vote of 18 to 1 with no abstentions.