Seattle Schools Community Forum

FYI Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn will conduct an election in November 2016 for one position on the State Board of Education: Western Region Position 4. The position is a four-year term beginning the second Monday in January 2017.

Two words - not impressed . This is not to say that the Superintendent dissed the Governor.  No, he liked: Inslee does fund some increases to Jobs for Washington’s Graduates , CorePlus , Career and Technical Education , Healthiest Next Generation initiative , language access for families and discipline equity. And he did raise beginning teacher salaries and increase funding for  mentoring to help decrease our state’s teacher shortage .

Time on your hands this summer?  This Index from OSPI and the State Board of Education has some interesting data (although it may be me, but I'm not sure I get how they get to their final number for any given school.)

The State Board of Education is holding a board meeting July 7-9 in Seattle . Please join board members for an open discussion July 8 at the Rainier Community Center on important topics such as strategies for closing the achievement gap, standards, and assessment. Please note that the regular meeting will be held at the Museum of Flight. Rainier Community Center, Seattle, WA 4600 38th Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 From 6:30-8:00 pm    Might want to come and give them a cheerful earful on Common Core and SBAC. From the Times: The forum is part of the board’s regular meeting, which begins today at the Museum of Flight. The three-day  agenda includes a review of of experiences districts had giving the new Smarter Balanced state math and reading tests this spring on July 9 from 10-11:30 a.m. The meetings on July 8 and July 9 both have times scheduled for publi...

Off the next Charter Commission meeting on Thursday - looks like they still don't have an Executive Director.  Maybe they'll have more info on the charter lawsuit (as it pertains to their work). FYI, there are a couple of open seats coming up on the State Board of Education.  Mary Jean Ryan's (Position 6 - our area) will be expiring in January 2014 as does Judy Jennings( private school rep), Phyllis Bunker Frank (Eastern Washington), Isabel Munoz-Colon (Position 3) and Peter Maier (our area).  If you are interested, details here .

The charter school law case has been assigned to King County and to Judge Jean Rietschel.    I was amused to read elsewhere that the lawyers for the plaintiffs were accused of going "court and judge shopping." For the record, most cases involving statewide issues are either heard in Olympia (state capital) or Seattle (largest court system).  No mystery there. As for judge shopping, it is my understanding that plaintiffs have one chance to change judges if they are not happy with their assignment.  That change right was not used in this case. The Times supported Judge Rietschel's election in 2008. I am seeking information on a court date.  I would think the plaintiffs might argue for a date sooner rather than later because of the impacts on all the various entities (districts, schools, charter school operators, Charter Commission, BOE, etc.) My early take on the case is that there are several legal issues likely to be raised, most of them based on the...

The candidates for an interim seat on the Washington State Board of Education has narrowed by one. President Smith-Blum who applied (and was interviewed) has withdrawn her application, saying that she did not want to leave SPS in the middle of the year.  Critical boundary discussions, construction contracts for over $500 million, restorative discipline policies, the Green Resolution – all of these things have been key issues in my tenure and I hope to see them all through to fruition.  She said the conversation with SBE members was great and she was glad for the opportunity. Now it's anyone but Peter Maier.  His past inactions on the Seattle School Board should make him unwanted on any other public commission or board.

Here are the documents that school districts will use regarding charter school applications.  One is a letter of instructions . Another is an application (I-V). Still another is a s tatement of assurances.   This one had one thing that I hadn't really seen before -  that districts not only have to solicit applications for new charter schools but for conversion ones as well.  To me, any district that says "hey we have this school that we've tried everything with.  Come take it over, send the students in all directions and take our building."   That would be one interesting solicitation. That was not my reading of the initiative (but, as the AG's rep says, she finds something new every time she reads the law so I'm not alone).  This document - Charter School Authorizer and Approval Process - is lengthy but chockful of good information. This Wednesday, May 8th, a couple of members of the Charter Commission will go to the State Board of Educa...

In a somewhat old-school turn of events, Yakima School District has been added to the list of 12 districts that have filed letter of intent to become charter school authorizers.   Now the State Board of Ed didn't specify how the letter was to come to them so, according to their office, most of the districts send their letter via e-mail with a few following up with a hard copy via the mail. Yakima, though, sent theirs thru first-class mail (with no signature required) and yup, it got lost in the mail because the SBE never received it.  So, when the announcement of who had applied came out after the April 1 deadline, Yakima was perplexed as to why they were not on the list.  But all's well that ends well and they have been added to the list. In my spot-check of districts that have filed letters of intent, several have stated they are buying time.  Time gives them the chance to consider what the pros/cons would be to being an authorizer.  Could a dis...

I ended Part One explaining that there had been two large issues that arose during the meeting.  One is the rabbit hole I mentioned and the other is the funding of the Commission's work. Here's the rabbit hole explained. To get a charter from the state two things have to happen.  A charter applicant has to apply to just one authorizer and, after getting the authorizer's approval, then that approved application has to get to the State Board of Education for certification.  However, as you may recall, 1240 is quite vague on the timing of turning in approved charters to the State Board of Education.  Many of us who opposed this measure called this section out, asking "what does this mean?"  It's actually much worse than I thought.  Here's the original text: 3) Upon the receipt of notice from an authorizer that a charter school has been approved, the state board of education shall certify whether the approval is in compliance with the limits on th...

This particular thread will probably end up being quite long as there is both news to report from the actual meeting as well as the upshot of what we are going to end up getting for charter schools. The meeting was held in a conference room off the Governor's office.  There was a high wooden conference table with chairs that had low seats but high backs.  (I found this both funny and irritating because it had the effect of a bunch of kids sitting at an adults' table but you also could not see almost anyone's face as they spoke because the chairbacks block all views.) Not surprisingly, Steve Sundquist "volunteered" to chair the meeting (and, as I tweeted, I suspect he will end up chair of the commission).  To his credit, he's very good at chairing meetings.  I did not recognize anyone else not on the Commission except for long-time charter supporter, Jim Spady.  (He left the meeting quite frequently to confer with various people.)  I was seated next to ...

The Washington State Board of Education is seeking input via a survey "on how we should measure the performance of Washington's K-12 schools. Your answers will help us improve the Washington Achievement Index."

The State Board of Education had a two-day meeting last week in Tumwater to address various issues under their purview.   One of them is figuring out their role/duties and the boundaries of both under the newly-passed I-1240 to create charter schools in Washington State. (I was also honored and pleased to meet Jeff Charbonneau, the Washington State Teacher of the Year from Zillah High School.  I want to write a separate thread on him and the great work they are doing there but boy, what a great guy and a great teacher.) What came first before the discussion was a presentation by Alex Medler who works for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers .  Keep in mind, this is an organization just for authorizers and not charter schools themselves.  It's a very specialized group. As you may recall from 1240, the Board of Education will be the authorizers for any school board that wants to itself become an authorizer of charter schools within its di...