Seattle Schools Community Forum

I had heard that Emerson Elementary was losing a large number of teachers (somewhere between 10-12) and I asked the district about this. Here is their reply:

I'm sorry to report that a Denny middle school student was robbed at knifepoint this morning.  From the SPD Blotter: The student was reportedly walking in the 2100 block of SW Thistle St around 7:30 AM when two teenage boys approached him. One suspect brandished a knife, demanded money from the victim, and forced him to empty out his backpack. Both suspects then fled with the student’s cell phone. The student ran to school and contacted staff, who called 911. Here's something the City can do if it wants to help with public education.  This is just one of numerous incidents for students at Denny and Chief Sealth.  You have to wonder how parents are feeling. As well, from the West Seattle blog, the principal of K-8 STEM sent home this letter to parents of both K-8 STEM and Arbor Heights:

Demography Talk The talk by SPS demographer, Dr. Natasha Rivers, on January 29th didn't have much new information.  She stated that there are links to her reports at the SPS page on demography. To note: - the district is definitely working with the City on housing trends - she stated that the district had thought they would grow by 1,000 students as they had in previous years but only gained 336.  That number seems much lower than I recall from the fall. - fun fact: the average age for new mothers in Seattle is 32 and for fathers it's 35. - the growth in SPS is not equally scattered.  Most of the growth is in the NE/NW, some in the Central area but down somewhat in the SW and especially down in the SE.

From a teacher reader; The problem with opacity with teacher pulls:  we don't know if they are legitimate or punitive.    The problem when no one speaks up for a school that is under attack is that it gives permission to launch attacks against other schools in the future!  Hence, Schmitz Park today! If they do this to JAMS, they will do it to Meany, Eagle Staff and Lincoln High School.    

Let's see. One story is that the District is consistent in collecting fines from the State over workplace safety violations for Local 609 members.  It's a sad thing because 1) it's money walking out the door (just this money $32K) and 2) because apparently the District does not care enough about the safety of its employees.  (I'll note this is not the first time for the District - they have paid out $28K in fines since 2011).  It's things like not properly training employees to use equipment that can burn their hands or amputate fingers.  No emergency eye wash station.  No training on hazardous chemicals.  Out of eight violations, seven were labelled by the Department of Labor and Industries as "serious." The West Seattle Blog reports that the largest elementary in West Seattle, Schmitz Park, is receiving three more portables (for what I was told is called "Schmitzville" by parents) this month.  They are expecting 642 kids at SP in Septe...

Sent March 5 Dear Principal Hudson and the Nathan Hale Senate: We, the undersigned teachers of Schmitz Park, join with the Nathan Hale Senate in its concerns over the validity, reliability, and equity of SBAC (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium) including the questionable cut score strategy.  Like the Nathan Hale Senate, we are also concerned with the loss of instructional time devoted to this questionable test.  We stand with you in asserting a commitment to a judicious use of valid, reliable, and equitable assessments.  We urge parents to inform themselves about the tests their children are taking and the validity of those tests. Thank you for putting students first. Sincerely, (signed by the majority of teachers at Schmitz Park)

The Times had a brief article last night when the news broke about the one-week extension for public input on the appointment of Superintendent Nyland to be the permanent superintendent which has now expanded and there are some very interesting quotes. The action slated for a special meeting of the board on December 10 at 4:30 p.m.  The Times says the Board hasn't decided if they will allow comments. - apparently there will be discussion at the Board meeting Wenesday when this is introduced.  (Normally, the discussion at Intro is limited so we'll have to see.) - The district has this e-mail for "interested parties" to weigh in - SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org . - The Times notes that Nyland came from Marysville, serving nine years there.  I'm finding some very telling stories out of Marysville that may be clues to the kind of superintendent he may be. - Peaslee said the board usually introduces and votes on superintendent job offers in the same meeting...

Overview Schmitz Park Elementary is one of many schools that will be affected by new enrollment boundaries that were agreed on in 2013 but now will affect the school differently given the huge and continuing growth in SPS. Meaning, what was agreed to before is not going to play out as thought. Schmitz Park has been trying, very hard, to explain to district staff what is happening (and what will get worse).  This subject of enactment of these new boundaries came up at the Executive Committee meeting yesterday.  This is what my notes reflect: Flip Herndon said they were "between a rock and hard place."  He said there was no space at Alki for portables.  He said SP had space but not "infrastructure."  The interim director, Brent (something) said, "We really need to make these changes."    Director McLaren was there but said nothing. Here's what Schmitz Park sent to parents and has told the district (bold mine):

Update :  it appears that the district is working with the City and the Downtown Seattle Association on a proposal for the former Federal Building.  I am somewhat surprised given the district's seeming lack of interest.  The proposal is due July 3rd.  I have no further details until I hear back from the district capital spokesman on this issue. End of update. The West Seattle blog reports on a fire at one play area at Schmitz Park early Thursday morning.  It did $50K in damage to a playground that the district paid for last year.   That likely means it is covered by insurance.  The Fire Department is unsure if it was arson, an accident or spontaneous combustion (from wood chips).   From Principal Kischner: “We appreciate the prompt response of the Seattle Fire Department, which prevented what could have been a much more serious outcome. Although the heat was enough to blister paint on the outside of the building and crack nu...

A reader who is deeply concerned about the math adoption conducted a public records request to SPS for e-mail about the math adoption.  She got about 237 pages of e-mails.  I have not yet read all of them but the ones I have read do concern me about both the process and the outcomes. We all realize that, in our jobs, when we are asked to help formulate decisions on what direction to go or products to use for a job, we need to do a couple of things.  One, making sure we cast the net far enough so that we are doing a thorough job, both for quality of product and cost of product.  Two, that there's a fair comparison - the "apples to apples" comparison - both to allow the end user/buyer to accurately compare items and to do due diligence for each product/company we are considering. (As we saw from the recent Board meeting with the Network Wireless upgrade, when the district changes the rules, repeatedly, during the RFP period (no matter the explanation), compani...

A letter from the Schmitz Park PTA was sent this week to the Board, the Superintendent and other district officials: Dear Seattle Public School Board Directors and District Staff, On behalf of the Schmitz Park PTA, we write this letter in opposition to the Math Adoption Committee’s recommendation to implement the enVision Math Program as the new math curriculum for all elementary schools in September 2014. Schmitz Park is in an advanced, and deliberate, position as one of six schools across the district currently using a Singapore Math-based curriculum to teach math and a transition to enVision will be a step backwards for our students. As part of our opposition to the recommendation, the Schmitz Park PTA states that:

The two items I've been tracking are the denial of renewal of the NCLB waiver for Washington State and the SPS math adoption . Today Secretary Duncan appeared before the U.S. Senate budget committee.  He did get asked about waivers but not by Senator Murray.  From Ed Week: Unlike late last month, when Duncan faced hostile declarations about his NCLB waiver moves from lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, the only significant exchange Duncan had with the Senate budget committee about waivers was with Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa whose state does not have a waiver from the NCLB law. (Duncan's department rejected Iowa's waiver proposal back in 2012, the first state to be turned down for a waiver.) If you find that last sentence confusing, Iowa was the first state to get a waiver turned down and Washington was the first state to have a waiver not renewed. Grassley told Duncan he thought the DOE was being vague on how Iowa should proceed without...

SPS Communications explained this about the technology issues on the first day of school: We needed to make the switch from our old computer system to Power Schools as the old system was failing. It began failing more quickly than we anticipated, so what was supposed to be an 18-month transition was compressed into six months. Our Department of Technology staff has been working around the clock all summer to get this done. We did transition to Power Schools on Aug. 26, two weeks later than initially planned due to some technical issues with the transfer. What this meant was, when staff came back to their schools in August, they had very little time for training. We are still trying to pinpoint the reasons for the problems people are having, but some appears to be a result of people not being familiar with the system. There are also more technical issues involved as well – for example, our Dept. of Technology staff have run numerous tests showing that students names that...

I attended the Growth Boundaries meeting hosted by Director McLaren this morning and two themes stood out. One came from the District and the other from the community. The District's theme was mystery. There is simply no telling who would make the decisions about schools and buildings, no clue about how they would make these decisions, no sense of what data or criteria would be the basis for the decisions, or even when the decisions would be made. Nevertheless we got a very strong message about what the decision would be: K-5 STEM placed at Schmitz Park in 2016. This is the pre-ordained choice, despite the fact that this is probably the worst option of them all. The theme from the community was primarily frustration. That frustration was directed a bit at the mystery - the decisions are made by a secret committee using a secret process and secret criteria - but mostly at the trainwreck of a decision.

Over at the West Seattle Blog, they have a story about the K-5 STEM location debate, complete with links to two "viable" proposals.  More good reading on this subject.

I'm not an architect so someone who know building design or construction, help me out. The West Seattle Blog has a report about the "preferred schematic" for the future Genesee Hill school where Schmitz Park will be moving.    The good: The design principles were described as including “really fit(ting) into the challenging site” where Genesee Hill Elementary now sits, and being “timeless” as well as serving as a “community resource … not just a place of learning … to be a community center, to allow for community access onto the site, to use as a park, if you will,” plus “to be sustainable … good steward of taxpayer dollars and good steward of our environment.” On the second floor, the library would be located in a way that would take advantage of the Mount Rainier and territorial views from that location.” Donelson said that the preferred scheme, even with some two-story buildings, would still allow nearby neighbors to maintain their views. The bad: ...

I will say at the outset that there has to be something the Board can do to make Work Sessions work better.  Staff takes took much time explaining their lengthy presentations. President DeBell said at the beginning the Board should only ask clarifying questions during the presentation and leave big questions for the discussion at the end. As usual, though,  they ran out of time as the staff couldn't get to thru the presentation in the time allotted.   9I know staff wants to explain but they waste time at the beginning going over what the Board already knows.  It's fine to have a longer written presentation but that doesn't mean going over every page during the presentation.)  There was also this document, Service Area Analysis. The community meeting next week on BEX/Capacity Management on Tuesday the 11th was noted.  We were told there would be some way to listen to the meeting via computer but I'll have to get details on how that will work.

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

From our friends at the West Seattle blog, news I had to print from Roxhill Elementary: Last Thursday, November 10th, Roxhill fourth graders were treated to a Living Voices performance of Native Vision . Lisa Gladstone, a Blackfoot Indian from Browning, Montana did a remarkable job of engaging our students in the story of Alice, a Navajo girl sent to a government run boarding school in the 30’s and 40’s. Alice became a nurse in the Pacific during World War ll, struggling to keep true to her native culture in a changing world. Before the performance, Roxhill students had read about and discussed how native children fared in the boarding schools and had also learned about the contributions of the Navajo Code Talkers. Their rapt attention during the performance and perceptive questions afterward spoke to how valuable this performance was in enhancing their knowledge of a very complex subject. I am writing to you because this performance was a gift to Roxhill, a gift from th...

Trying to finish up on the Curriculum & Instruction Committee meeting minutes, I come to instructional materials waivers.  I can sum it up in one sentence. Forget anything happening this year.   Yup, because the committee kicked that can right down the road.  As I mentioned previously, Steve S. and Michael DeB stayed on with the committee regulars, Betty P., Peter M. and Harium M-M.  So there was quite the discussion but most of it was circular.  Harium started off by saying that this issue was generated by discussion at the Board's retreat.  (I didn't attend so I can't fill in the story.)  He said they needed to " refine what the true objective is here, what are we trying to fix ?"  I'm not sure it's fixing something but rather allowing schools to find the best solution.  Michael said he wanted all sites to have the opportunity to examine alternative materials and methods of teaching. Kay S-B had sent in notes saying she ...