Seattle Schools Community Forum

Our friends to the south certainly have a lot going on in their district.  I'll create a list (with outcomes):

Let's start with what raised my antenna - the memo staff gave to the Board about Seattle Schools becoming a charter school authorizer.   Staffer Clover Codd, who wrote the memo, told the Board: We have formed a cross- departmental working group to better understand the implications for the district. The working group includes representatives from Budget, Enrollment, Facilities, Legal, DoTS, Policy and Strategic Planning. So I wrote to the Board this morning after I was cc'ed on an e-mail from Ms. Codd to President Peaslee. Ms Codd wrote: Just to clarify, the District does NOT intend to submit a LOI by the October 1st deadline. We do have this school year to learn more about the pros/cons of becoming an authorizer. Staff wants to be sure we provide you with all the information you need to make informed decisions. Seven people in SPS formed a group to work on this? Why, don't they have enough to do with the schools we have? If you read Ms. Codd's e-mail, it se...

 Update:   I think some of my confusion over who's in and who's out is that some of the letters of intent were filed under the non-profit name and then the actual charter school name was used for the application title. Figuring this out, I learned (via a California activist) that the Coral Academy of Science is a Gulen-affiliated charter school.  Gulen is the largest charter operator in the country with 140 in 26 different states.  The schools deny that they are part of the Gulen movement and yet the evidence is that they are.  Here's a good site to explain the issue.  There have been huge issues over these schools in Hawaii, Utah, Georgia, Ohio, Arizona and Texas (which wants them out of the state). The FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education are investigating them.  They hire mostly Turkish teachers, saying there are not enough American teachers available.  From the NY Times .   A lengthy article from City Journal about t...