Seattle Schools Community Forum

As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of The Stranger's Slog.  It's where I get the latest dinosaur news (no kidding, they keep up), politics, religion, good deeds/misdeeds and everything in-between.  (They also have some of the funniest comments ever.) They also, thanks to Dan Savage, talk about sex.  The latest letter to his sex column was one I found interesting and worthy of your attention (especially the middle/high school parents).    Please note, it uses sexual language but is not graphic.  But, be warned. The dilemma posted by the reader was that when he was in high school, he had a girlfriend from age 14-16.  They had sex and they filmed themselves.  They each walked away from the relationship with videotapes of their escapades.  They are now in their late '20s and she contacted him to ask if he would burn DVDs from his tapes and send it to her. From his letter:

The Stranger Slog (ever the smarty-pants bunch) gave the three District Position 1 School Board candidates a pop quiz today.  From the thread: I n front of the SECB right now are incumbent Peter Maier along with challengers Sharon Peaslee and John Cummings, who appear sane but must be nutters because they want—actually want —to be on the Seattle School Board. First we're giving them a civics quiz —eight questions you're required to know in high school—then what do you want to know? Put your questions in comments and we'll try to ask 'em Unfortunately, they didn't print the questions but I'll try to ring someone up tomorrow and ask what they were.  Congrats to Peter Maier who came in first at 87.5%, Sharon Peaslee at 87% and John Cummings at 75%.  It is pointed out that those scores are all better than most Americans and most educators (again, no idea where these stats came from). 

In one of the first reports I've read about the School Board elections, the Slog's Riya Bhattacharjee (I think her name should be in the next spelling bee - it's that cool) weighs in. Most of the new candidates are running because they are tired of the corruption and cronyism in Seattle Public Schools. Some want to focus on closing the achievement gap and raising test scores. Others are just sick of the influence a plethora of foundations have on education these days.  At least one of the candidates is a reluctant one who says he's running because he is tired of mediocrity in our schools and the "business as usual approach" of our school board. Another lists this thing as his campaign website. This one sued the district against its new high school math textbooks in 2009. It's an interesting group, right? But then she editorializes a little and it's very funny (because it's so true): I've always found it really amusing h...

Couple of quick Olympia updates.

So I guess you guys (and others) sent in a lot of questions to the upcoming Stranger Slog Questionland featuring Dr. Enfield on April 13th.  She has committed to answering 10 questions (and so far there are 35).  V ote for which ones she will be answering.    There are lots of good questions (and you can still submit one as well). 

It's heartening to see difficult questions getting asked.

Here's the headline at the Stranger Slog : Goodloe-Johnson Resigns from Board Amidst Criticism of Conflict of Interest I know, I know you read the first 3 words and get a little...well, something. The story is about her resignation from the NWEA Board that she announced at Wednesday's Board meeting. The SEA's comment (bold theirs): The Seattle teachers union, the Seattle Education Association, listed Goodloe-Johnson's position on the board as a conflict of interest when they voted to have no-confidence in her last month. "It's good that she is hearing concerns of educators in Seattle and taking account of what they think of her leadership," said union vice president Jonathan Knapp. "There would have been more confidence in her had she disclosed that she had this connection and nevertheless recommended the services of this company. In my opinion that's not good practice." Good for the Slog because they seem to be trying to keep up m...