Seattle Schools Community Forum

As I previously posted, yesterday's meetings got started late.  I had been there for 3 hours and they still had not gotten to the meat of the Work Session.   It was pretty frustrating but again, they ALWAYS believe they can get through work quickly.   I can only say that maybe if this district would quit getting poor audits then yes, they would have had more time at the Work Session.  Also, I knew from looking at the Powerpoint that there was no way to get through the information in an hour-and-a-half.  So what I heard from the first part of the Work Session is below.  I am hoping that others who attended and stayed longer can report back on the solutions portion of the meeting and, in particular, what the discussion was with the Board directors. It was Pegi McEvoy, Operations, and Bob Boesche, CFO, reporting to the Board.  They first went over the Demographic Task Force Report.   One theme here is communications.  Ever...

The Board Directors are busy attending high school graduations this week so the district is fairly light on meetings. There will be a Work Session with the topic "Strategic Plan Refresh" on Wednesday before the Board meeting . The Work Session is from 4-5:30 p.m. with the Board meeting starting at 6 p.m. There are no presentation materials yet available.

Monday Executive Session with the Superintendent and labor partners.  I suspect this is about the budget and the still-to-be closed $4M shortfall. Tuesday Audit and Finance Committee (Audit) from 4-6 p.m., agenda It looks like continuing audit response follow-ups as well as a VAX update, laptops at Cleveland and Pay for K.  There will also be an update on the search for a director for Internal Audit. Wednesday Executive Committee meeting , 8-10 am, agenda Review of upcoming Board meetings, government relations, capacity management, " planning interim superintendent's feedback next fall ", CFO/COO search updates, etc.   No way they are getting thru this huge agenda in two hours. Executive Session, 10-11 am - Superintendent evaluation Community Meeting with Director Sundquist from 11-12:30 p.m., Delridge Library* Work Session on the Budget - 4-5:30 p.m., no presentation or agenda posted yet. Thursday Audit and Finance Committee (Finance) from 4-6 ...

Not much happening this week in SPS meetings but many education events this month.

Back to school, kids. Monday Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m.  The agenda includes: SEA tentative agreement on calendar (this may be about the shortened Mid-Winter break) textual materials adoption for high school science, social studies, middle school LA and elementary music anti-harassment policy and procedure promotion/retention policies homework policies credit/retrieval/summer opportunities Tuesday Latino College Night, a workshop to prepare students for college, 6-8:30 p.m., Rainier Beach High School.  Dinner is provided.  Workshop topics include: high school graduation requirements vs. college entrance requirements; post-secondary options; and funding post-secondary education. Wednesday Two School Board Work Sessions 4-5:30 p.m. - Budget 7-7:30 p.m. - Governance Policies

The information comes from the April 13th meeting of the Executive Committee.  The three Committee members - DeBell, Sundquist and Smith-Blum -  were in attendance.

Today sees both the Work Session on Capacity Management and the regular Board meeting . The Capacity Management Work Session starts at 4 p.m.  These are the supporting documents. Presentation Timeline - with dates about BEX IV starting in October of this year Model Changes Sample Metrics - look! a matrix of metrics (say that fast three times) Look at the Presentation because there's a definition of Functional Capacity (collect 'em all) AND why it fluctuates.  According to the 2011 Capacity and Enrollment numbers, the district is at 97% capacity utilized with K-5 at 104%. The Board meeting starts at 6 p.m. The Board meeting looks like it could be shorter than usual with a lighter-than-usual agenda.   The public testimony list is full.  The Teaching and Learning update will be presented by Cathy Thompson on ICS and Inclusion.  I note that 6 of the speakers on the public testimony list will be speaking on the ICS program.  As previously...

One, there is an agenda up for the Work Session and basically, staff will review how the gap is to be closed and the other item is...Pay for K. So whether or not the "found" $3.3M will go to it or not, it is to be discussed in some way. Two, I was checking the Board meeting agenda and there was one change on the Transportation document which is to call AS#1, Pinehurst K-8. I don't know why; does anyone else know? Is it to reference them being a K-8? Also, the following information was in the document and I urge you to take it to heart and spread it among your communities. We don't want anyone to NOT understand that there may not be transportation for some elementary students next year based on whether they are attending their attendance area school or not. There are a number of changes to transportation eligibility and service for 2011‐12; please refer to the Transportation Service Standards for 2011‐12 for specific information. Some elementary grade students who...

I attended 4 hours of the Board Work Session on the 2011-2012 Budget. Unfortunately, the meeting was 5+ hours (maybe longer, Dorothy?) It was taped so I will try to get a link if you care to listen. I will write up my notes but for your reading pleasure here are the following: staff finally got information to the Board that I know the Board has wanted for a long time. This would be benchmarking comparisons to other districts (both local and out-of-state). This chart is for 2009-2010 expenditures and FTE comparisons in dollars. This chart is for 2009-2010 expenditures and FTE comparisons (as a % of total) My irritation with these is that this is information that should have been presented LONG ago. It overburdened an already long and heavily detailed meeting. District benchmark template The Powerpoint and another document - the Strategic Plan Budget Planning Tool for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 - are not yet up at the website. You'll want to see those as well but for now, the...

Sorry this took so long. As I stated previously, I did not stay for the budget portion of the Work Session so this is only about the Strategic Plan. Here is a link to the presentation . Betty Patu was not there and so they recorded the meeting (both audio and video) so it should be available somewhere. Michael DeBell stated that this was to listen to the information but not to set any priorities. What ended up happening was that there were 88 slides to cover and yet for some reason they let the Family Engagement section go on for about 35 minutes. It was interesting info from each of the schools with a FEAT team (Family Engagement Action Team) but I didn't feel it was the right time to present it. So by the time Dr. Goodloe-Johnson got started, she really whipped through the slides. (I've stated in the past that I think the staff presentations are too long and I still believe that is true.) I stepped out as they went into 2010-2011 Governance Priorities starting on slide ...

Update: the district did final put out a press release . The Regional Meetings are: NW - Thursday, November 4th from 6:30-8 p.m. at Ballard HS SE - Monday, November 8th from 6:30-8 p.m. at Rainier Beach HS NE - Wednesday, November 10th from 6:30-8 p.m. at Roosevelt HS Central - Monday, November 15th from 6:30-8 p.m. at Garfield HS West Seattle - Tuesday, November 16th from 6:30-8 p.m. at West Seattle HS No child care but there will be books and drawing materials provided. All Regional Meetings will be led by the Executive Director of that region. Drop-in Sessions Friday, October 29 from 3-5 p.m. at JSCEE, Room 2700 Saturday, November 6th from 10 a.m. to noon, JSCEE Auditorium Thursday, November 18th from 1:30 -3:30 p.m., JSCEE, Room 2700 Tuesday, December 14th from 6-8 p.m. at JSCEE, Room 2750 Board Work Sessions Wednesday, October 26th from 4-8 p.m. in JSCEE Auditorium (note: this Work Session also includes graduation topics) Wednesday, November 3rd from 4-5:30 p.m. at JSCEE Audit...

Director Maier has a community meeting tomorrow morning (the 19th) from 10-11:30 a.m at Lake City Public Library. It seems he may be jockeying with Director Sundquist for president of the School Board. Ask him why he thinks he should be president. (Also, if anyone knows of any good candidates for District 1 - Mr. Maier's seat, please let me know at sss.westbrook@gmail.com. It is always good for every incumbent to have a challenger if only to have a more well-rounded race.) Before the Board meeting there will be a Work Session on "Test Scores." Sounds interesting especially in light of our discussion over MAP scores. They might also discuss Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's interesting comment that maybe some schools might only need to take MAP twice a year or only certain groups of students might need to take MAP 3 times a year. The meeting is from 4-5:30 p.m. Board meeting on Wednesday night so sign up now if you want to be on the Speakers list. (They have, in t...

I'm not sure what they are going to try to accomplish or how they think they can do it in three hours, but the Board has scheduled a Work Session on both Community Schools and Math for 4:00pm - 7:00pm. I'm not sure what the Board has to discuss about Community Schools. The best answer would be that the District intends to make Hawthorne and West Seattle Elementary Schools into Community Schools as part of their federal grant funded and required Transformations. The most like answer is that this will be an open-ended go-nowhere discussion of the idea of Community Schools in general. Let's remember that they ended their Work Session on International Schools by agreeing in principal to discuss making an update to the timetable for the plan. As for Math, once again, I can't imagine what they think they have to discuss. There's no one on the District staff who has allowed any heresy to the current path. Given their true-believer status, there's nothing they could sa...

Mary Bass: She asked about advanced learning and Tracy said that they are trying to expand the number of students working at a higher level. She asked about Rainier View Elementary which currently has a private school program. Tracy said it was short-term so the district could reclaim it (as it is doing). She mentioned that schools like SBOC, Interagency , etc. are not on the map. Tracy said that is because they are not schools that can be assigned under the regular system and students flow in and out throughout the year. Mary asked about money on the Operations side (I didn't get this question) but Tracy said with enrollment climbing, there are more revenues coming in. Mary mentioned Madrona's request to be an Option school and thought it lacked the pedagogy to be one. Tracy looked at Dr. Goodloe-Johnson before answering. Then she said it was unclear about alternatives and their meaning. She said the label of Option means lack of attendance boundaries and no direct assi...

I'm just going to try to plunge in with some info I got at last night's meeting. I'll try to group it but some of the info may seem random. There should be additional space at JSIS. This was explained by moving the BOC kids (I didn't hear where) and so there will be additional seats. Tracy said, "Special Ed and Advanced Learning certainly have plans under this new SAP." I know this is not telling you anything you don't already know but it's good to have heard it said out loud so we can remind them later. She also said about the assumptions used to create the boundaries, "Reasonable people can disagree about the assumptions and their use." We are using a modified VAX until 2011-2012. I guess they can't get us off it until then. Under Next Steps, the Super mentioned that there is early registration going on now. I don't get it. The projected size of the district by 2015 is almost 48,000. Why do some schools look like they have sma...

Board Work Session, Tuesday the 6th from 4-8 p.m. in the John Stanford auditorium on Student Assignment Plan boundaries. Someone asked about the Board Work Session on Boundaries and what the format of the meeting is. Board Work Sessions are open to the public. However, there is no public engagement that happens. The work sessions are for staff to lay out to the Board their detailed plan for a particular issue. It is a time where the staff will give a presentation (using PowerPoint) in chunks with Board questions and comments given at various stop-points. I can't say whether or not the Board sees the materials before they are presented but I think most of the time they don't. I personally don't like it this way because I would want to see the plan before the Work Session to vet it and think about it. It is hard to think of good questions on the fly. Directors DeBell and Martin-Morris tend to ask the most questions, Sundquist tends to ask clarifying questions, Bass d...