Seattle Schools Community Forum

(Forgot I wanted to fire this off so it's on the fly.) When we last left this discussion , the district had received a $1M grant from the Wallace Foundation to improve arts education in SPS.  The money was enough to allow surveys among parents and school staff, create a plan and then plan how to roll it out. The district did not get the implementation grant money (very few districts did) BUT the City of Seattle discovered more revenue from the Seattle Great Wheel and the Chihuly Museum.  We should all be grateful that Mayor McGinn and the City Council directed $500,000 towards arts education in Seattle Schools. The name of the plan is The Creative Advantage.   This program will be rolled out over several years so you may not see the impacts for several years.  However, discussions are starting in schools. SPS is encouraging you and I do, too - ask your principals, "What's the plan for arts at our school?"  Get your PTA to be proactive now and get ideas o...

I just got back from a news conference where it was announced that the City of Seattle will be investing $500,000 in arts education in Seattle Public Schools.   This will advance the already established partnership between the City and SPS called The Creative Advantage. (That's Mayor McGinn's mom, Joyce, looking at students' artwork.  The boy to her right is McGinn's brother, Kevin.  McGinn is the boy hiding at her left side.) The goal is one hour of music and one hour of visual arts per week for every single student in SPS by 2020. The investment dollars came from something of a surprising source - admission tax revenue from the Great Wheel on the waterfront and the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum was higher than expected.  So thank you tourists for those dollars.  The $500k will be invested over the next two years to start rolling out the planning done under the $1M Wallace Foundation grant.  The Central district will be the first to see some doll...

Precisely what I thought might happen with the Wallace Foundation grant to develop a plan for arts education in Seattle, did happen. The district received about $1M to develop this plan about 18 months ago.  At the time I thought, well, great but what if you plan and don't get any money to carry it out? Yesterday it was announced that the Wallace Foundation declined to fund the SPS plan.  The district's communication says: While we’re disappointed that Seattle did not fit the Foundation’s research criteria and needs, we know this plan is right for our community. That's a bit of a bitter pill to swallow.  While the district forges ahead with a pilot, the fact remains there is no money to follow-thru district-wide.  Why didn't the district create the plan to meet the criteria and needs even if it was not exactly what the district wanted?  In these cash-strapped times, that money would have been a boon and the arts program could have reached more students....

Monday, December 17th Capacity Management meeting for the NE area from 6:30-8 p.m. at Olympic Hills cafeteria, 13018 20th Avenue Tuesday, December 18th Audit&Finance Quarterly Audit Meeting from 4-7 p.m.  Agenda .  Much of this is the higher-level work of this committee - internal audit, external audit, risk management.  The last hour of this committee is just for committee members to discuss labor negotiations. Superintendent Meeting with Pacific Islander Community from 6-8 p.m. at RBHS Wednesday, December 19th Enrollment Services close at noon. Board Work Session on International Education/Wallace Grant update from 4-5:30 p.m.  (The Wallace Grant is an arts grant that the district worked very hard to get.  I believe it's in its second year.  I'll check but I think it was a planning grant and not an implemented one.)  Here's what we had at the blog in April 2012 when this grant was first announced: Seattle Public Schools was recen...

Seattle Public Schools won a million dollar competitive grant from the Wallace Foundation for arts education planning. You will recall that the approval of this grant was rushed by the board so the work of planning our arts education program could begin right away. A four-week delay in getting started was regarded as intolerable. The grant was presented for introduction and action at the same board meeting on July 6, 2011 . So, nu? It has been nine months of the year gone by now. How is that arts education planning going? Did it get off to a fast start? Was this another case when the staff rushed the Board to vote with a false urgency and then, once they secured the vote, all of the urgency drained away and the work stalled? Or did the District get right to work on the arts education plan and they are making rapid progress? Does anyone know?

Reminder that the only Director community meeting tomorrow is Director Carr's at 8:30 am at Bethany Community Church across from Bagley Elementary. Also, the Seattle Council PTSA meeting on the nuts and bolts of school and district budgets is Monday the 13th at the John Stanford Center in rooms 2772-2774 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Also a heads up - the City and the district are sponsoring an Arts Education Forum  on Thursday, Feb. 16th at Seattle University, Pigott Auditorium from 6:30-8:00 p.m.   You are invited to join Mayor Mike McGinn, Seattle Public Schools Interim Superintendent Susan Enfield and youth for a lively panel discussion and community forum about arts education, creative learning and student success. Learn about a coordinated effort to create a comprehensive K-12 visual and performing arts plan for Seattle Public Schools. The district recently received a grant from The Wallace Foundation to engage the community in developing a plan to provide greater ...

I was going through the public testimony when I last posted on this topic.

If you wish to speak on the Board agenda on Wednesday, the 6th, be sure to call 252-0040 and leave your name, phone number, e-mail address and topic you wish to speak on. The agenda has several interesting items of note.  one is a renewal of an agreement with Microsoft for software.   There is one puzzling item which I'm sure someone here can explain to me.  "Allows District staff access to the most current version of MS Office for home use."   Does that mean so they can take it home?  Work from home?   a huge item - approval of the budgets.   General Fund for $577,741,503; ASB for $4.4M; Debt Service fund for $85M and Capital Projects fund for $101M.  Adding all those up you get roughly $770M.  That's a lot of dough. Final vote on the attendance policy. The change I see is this: This motion has been discussed at the 5/23/2011 and 6/27/2011 meetings of the Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee. On 5/236/27/2011, after ...