Seattle Schools Community Forum

I recently wrote to the Board with some of the bigger ideas that I have heard here and percolated up from the Growth Boundary meetings.   Here's what I told them about Wilson-Pacific: What I hear from parents is that they do NOT want to share their valuable neighborhood space with any program if they don't have to.  APP is NOT a beloved program and it will not be welcomed with open arms anywhere in the N/NE.  Why set up a situation like that especially if it may end up that the program might need to be exited? I honestly believe the right course is to leave APP elementary North at Lincoln.  Permanently. (Clearly, not the whole building but it sets up great possibilities.)  You could even have an APP 1-8 there and believe me, it would make many people (pro and con APP) happy.  But what about Lincoln as a high school?  Look, it is really close to Roosevelt already, has virtually no field space and needs massive updates.  So the sol...

A reader with background in planning and with much knowledge/background on the district and facilities offers these thoughts on what may be coming for high schools and growth.   ( Gray areas are my thoughts as we go along and the rest is the reader's.) To understand: coming up fast is the possibility of very overcrowded high schools.  Not 5, 10 years out but probably three years.  But a three-year plan may be all that is possible at this point especially since the needs/growth is very different for each region of the district. And guess what?  Nearly out of inventory.  Where will everyone go?  Will the district go to shifts (and they have done this in the past)?  Portables?  The reader's basic thoughts: get this out to the Seattle legislators.  We need help. get high school on the table now.  High schools are high stakes for students and parents. fix the worst of the BEX mistakes.  There were many but all of the stuf...

It was a full house but frankly, not as full as I thought it would be (and certainly not the crowd that Charlie had - Tracy Libros said there were at least 250 people at Monday's event).   There were three legislators there - Rep. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Gerry Pollet and Senator David Frockt.  I saw just two Board members - Director DeBell and Director Peaslee (odd that Martin-Morris wasn't there - this is his region).  There were also several members of the FACMAC committee. I sat at a table with parents worried about several issues but they seems resigned.  I also sat with two reporters from the Roosevelt News.  They worry over losing diversity at their school and overcrowding.  I set them up to talk with Shauna Heath.  Big Picture A couple of themes I came away with that I hope ALL parents understand. This is a serious situation (and probably more serious than the district is letting on although Flip Herdon did let two things slip that s...

Wednesday, Sept 4th It's the start of a brand-new year.  Welcome back, kids. School Board Meeting , 4:15 pm.  Agenda . Several items got held over from the last Board meeting.

I understand that the Superintendent is scheduled to have a long meeting today with Native American parents and leaders.  I'm sure it will be a compelling discussion and I hope he listens. Like all of U.S. history with Native Americans, the Seattle Schools' history doesn't have a whole lot to hold its head up about.  I'm not even part of that community, nor was it on my radar for many years but even I know that things have not been handled well. I can't give you the whole history of the Wilson-Pacific building and the Native American program.  But the program always did the best it could with a lousy building and underfunding.  Now that the building IS getting a rebuild, is it for the Native American program?  No.  Was there even discussion of keeping the program there?  If there was, it was on the down low.  And, they had to beg to save the beautiful and moving murals painted on the side of the building.  This was not graffiti - these ...

Even though school is out there are several important meetings this week. Tuesday, June 25th Work Session on Growth Boundaries , 4:30-6:30 pm, no presentation yet available. This is the Work Session that Tracy Libros referenced in her remarks to the Board at the School Board meeting last Wednesday.  She mentioned that Lucy Morello of BEX would also be presenting in conjunction with capacity management. Community Meeting about the Wilson-Pacific projects , 7:30 pm at W-P Wednesday, June 26th Work Session on Strategic Partnerships and Communications , 4-5:30 pm  (I have no idea of how anyone thinks there could be any real discussion of any of these departments in this amount of time.  It's just ridiculous unless, of course, the idea is to NOT have discussion.) - Government Relations presentation - Office of Public Affairs and Communications presentation . - School and Community Partnerships Department presentation .  Oddly, this one includes the new - - - ...

 I would bookmark this SSCF page as it has a lot of boundary dates/meetings noted. Thanks to reader Kim for alerting me to this page .  Tracy Libros told the Board about this last night.  She updated the Board on this work including: - Growth Boundaries website - Work Session on this work next Tuesday the 25th from 4:30-6:30 pm.* - They are developing FAQs for this work - the Walk the Boundaries project is being worked on with help from parent volunteers (good for you, Tracy, for reaching out to willing parents) - They have a consultant working on Seattle housing changes to assist with projections. - Email comments to: GrowthBoundaries@seattleschools.org .    (Please put your school or topic in the subject line.) * There is also a Community Meeting on the Wilson-Pacific BEX IV projects that night at the Wilson-Pacific Seamat Center, 1330 N. 90th St. from 7:30-8:30 p.m. (it will go later if there are enough community questions).   ...

From SPS Communications: Seattle Public Schools will host two community meetings to present information on projects funded by the Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) Capital Levy. The levy was passed by voters in February 2013. • Wilson-Pacific Elementary and Middle School projects These projects are to construct a new elementary school building and a new middle school building on the Wilson-Pacific site, both scheduled to open in the 2017-18 school year. The meeting will be presented by representatives of Seattle Public Schools capital projects team and Mahlum Architects. The meeting will include information about the projects’ early design progress. 7:30–8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, 2013 Wilson-Pacific Seamat Center 1330 N. 90th St. • New Thornton Creek Building project This project is to construct a new elementary school building, scheduled to open in the 2016-17 school year. The meeting will be presented by representatives of Seattle Public Schools capital projects team an...

Sitting at the Executive Committee Meeting and wondering: - if the district is a partner in the new Seattle Teacher Residency program and the first year costs are $50k and escalate up to $1M by year 5 (it's part of Strategic Plan for teacher development), why do we need TFA at all?  Why complicate things if our district and its partners are creating home-grown talent from outside of schools of education? - wondering why, if Jane Addams has a planning principal and planning team, Wilson-Pacific doesn't have a team.  Apparently Chris Cronas, principal at Wedgwood, is the planning principal for W-P middle school but I haven't heard anything about outreach to parents. That middle school will open at John Marshall for 2014-20115.  Should parents with students assigned there get to give input just like JA parents?  (Note: just because Mr. Cronas is the planning principal doesn't mean he is leaving Wedgwood.) - I still need to do a write-up of the Board retreat but I ...

Another film-making competition that high school students can enter from the NW High School Film Festival.  They also have a scholarship competition as well. Looks like the district may not be able to save the Native American murals at Wilson-Pacific after all.  The artist feels he's getting the runaround from the district and has declined permission to digital reproduce them. From the Times: He repeatedly congratulated the district for the passage of the levy, which he opposed. But Morrison said he’s lost trust in the district, in part because no school official approached him about saving the murals until he started showing up at public meetings about the levy. He also said he’s talked wit h four different officials, and has no confidence they won’t simply continue to pass him along. “For many reasons,” he said, “it’s in my best interests to step away.” (P.S.  This may be one of the last Times' articles I will be able to link to for the blog.  I...

The district loves to do an end-of-school-year flurry of activities.  It's like parents are just about out the door and the district says "have a good summer and oh, we are changing XYZ". Bryant's long-time child-care provider (17 years)  is getting the boot (but can reapply but good luck).  Parents are rightly suspicious as the answers they are receiving on why this is happening don't quite mesh.  The district says it is compliance issues but it seems that may not be the issue (the provider's license is fine).  Their PTA had no notification this was coming and the Bryant administration does not favor the decision.  Over in West Seattle, it suddenly got announced that the Middle College program that has been at South Seattle Community College for nearly 20 years is getting the boot because SSCC needs the space.  Interestingly, the district has never paid a cent of rent to SSCC and it might have been that with tight times, they asked for some mone...

I want to support BEX IV. I know that the District desperately needs to build additional capacity to meet the demands of increased enrollment. I would be a lot more comfortable supporting the levy if I could just get a few questions answered.

There is an urgent need for additional middle school capacity in the north-end. Possible Solution A: A new attendance area middle school with a capacity of about 1,000 eventually located at the Wilson-Pacific site (the building is a tear-down). The program will meet at the Lincoln site until the new building is ready. I, personally, think this is the best path. Possible Solution B: A new attendance area middle school eventually located at the John Marshall site (the building needs significant renovation). The program will meet at the Lincoln site until the building is ready. Possible Solution C: What suggestion do you have?

Here is the opening act of the most recent edition of Capacity Management, a meeting of the Operations Committee of the Whole. It is an Operations Committee meeting but with the whole board as committee members for this meeting. The presentation is both predictable and disappointing. Predictable in that it proclaims the need for another middle school in north Seattle. And, let's face it, Wilson-Pacific is the only property that will work. The District has known this for six months but hasn't taken any action. They have allowed that time to slip away and later, when they are doing everything in a frantic rush they will regret their idleness of the spring and summer. It also (predictably) says that the district needs to re-open some closed elementary schools - they suggest Van Asselt, Columbia, Hughes, and Boren. I would have suggested Fairmount Park as one of the West Seattle locations. Again, they should have started this work months ago. The other disappointment is th...

The District is dragging out a number of decisions that should have been made already. In most cases they should just make the decision because they have only a single viable option. There's no decision to be made. 1. Re-open John Marshall as an elementary option school and the site of north-end elementary APP. They need to bring north-end APP up north and there is no other building that will hold the 500 students in the program. John Marshall would allow space for the APP students and a small general education program as well. That would help to relieve some of the overcrowding in the northeast. Enrollment in the general education program should be by choice only. That would bring a lot of advantages. It would give preference to APP siblings and keep families together. It would allow the District to cap the enrollment of the gen ed program so they aren't guaranteeing enrollment to two different groups. It would evade any need to alter the attendance area boundaries. If the ...