Seattle Schools Community Forum

Well, whoops - it appears that thousands of Northshore students, grades 7-12,  were accidentally sent spam emails that contained porn.  This was not a hacking issue.  The Times reports that the district's tech department was able to block anymore e-mails from coming in and shut down the students' Gmail accounts temporarily. Also on the subject of Northshore, I had written how that district was going to revamp their long-standing highly capable program despite parents' displeasure.  Apparently the parents won the day as their board voted to keep the program the same. Good story from KUOW about music in Seattle Schools via Seattle Music Partners.  The story covers students at Bailey Gatzert, Leschi, Madrona and Lowell.

Entering the last month of this school year this week, always an exciting time. 

 GiveBIG has been extended to midnight tonight because of technical difficulties yesterday.  Please consider giving so that your donation gets stretched from their giving fund. Have you been keeping up with the story on Bellevue High school and their football team ?  Long story short, they became a football powerhouse when they hired a new coach around 2000.  The team has won multiple state titles since then.  But their school board heard rumors of improprieties and hired two lawyers to investigate. The main issue is students who don't live in their district being on the team as well as some of them not even attending the school and being at some off-site non-Bellevue district diploma mill program. And, Bellevue High had many more transfers of students who ended up playing football there than other high schools in the district.

Tuesday, May 3rd Teacher Appreciation Day.  #ThankaTeacher If I could thank a teacher, I'd thank my second grade teacher, Mrs. Gates, for her kindness and letting us listen to musicals, I'd thank my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Springer, who was a giant to me (he was 6"3" and I was very small but he was a giant in his patience as well), and Mr. Brendan, my band teacher in both middle and high school ,who believed in excellence even in a small, dusty border town. Operations Committee Meeting at JSCEE from 4:30-6:30 pm. Agenda Looks like a pretty straightforward meeting but there is to be a bell times update (but there is no attachment to the agenda.) International School and Dual Language Immersion programs meeting from 6-7:30 pm at Mercer Middle International School. African-American Male Scholars Initiative Community Meeting from 6-7:30 pm at the New Holly Gathering Hall. GiveBIG day - all day - please consider donating to a group doing good works for Sea...

From Sped PTSA: Please be assured that the October Seattle Special Education PTSA meeting IS STILL BEING HELD on October 20th 7pm - 9pm at West Seattle High School (in the library).  Confirmed speakers are: Israel Vela Executive Director of Schools Southwest Region Seattle Public Schools And Mike Starosky, Chief of Schools. *Please Note - There is some confusion as our meeting was to originally be held directly after the Seattle School Districts SpEd Regional meeting.  The SPS SpEd Department cancelled their meeting. They have rescheduled their Regional Meeting to Nov. 10th. The Seattle SpEd PTSA has decided to keep our meeting as it was originally scheduled on Oct. 20th. Please help spread the word, and pass this information on! Thank you. We hope to see you there! Rainier Beach High School  RBHS is holding a transportation summit on Thursday, October 22nd around the number of kids at the school who have to walk there thru unsafe terr...

From SPS Communications: The Washington Art Education Association (WAEA) announced two Seattle Public Schools’ teachers as Educators of the Year for the elementary and middle school levels. Jennifer Lundgren of Montlake Elementary School and Jennifer Heller of Eckstein Middle School received the award based on their accomplished teaching.

Got this from Facebook (via Leslie Harris) about kids and the arts via a guy named Darryl A. Chamberlain: We must always remember the importance of giving our best to our kids. Here is the Monti's Czardas played by The Kanneh-Mason kids. This is what happens when you are willing to get music lessons for your kids. I always tell anyone who will listen - but especially elected officials - that after class size, the arts seem to be the most important thing to parents for their children.   Mr. Chamberlain speaks of g etting music lessons for your kids which may be difficult for many parents (time, cost, getting your child there) but if we had more arts in our schools, that would be something most parents would be overjoyed to see. Not to start a fight but we were having a discussion on another thread about sports in schools.  Which would you rather see funded and finding the time for - sports or arts?

Talk about fast and furious - there's no end to public ed news in the summer. In the "wish we had more School Board members who do this," there are two City Council candidates, Mike O'Brien and Catherine Weatbrook who ask the hard questions (sadly, in the same district - # 6).  Publicola has an article about the HALA report and Councilman O'Brien's pushback to the Mayor on some of the data.

I just came across an article in the Capitol Hill Times (thank you former Board member, Kay Smith-Blum) about arts in Seattle Schools. You may recall that the district had received a Wallace Foundation grant to develop a district-wide vision for arts in Seattle Schools.  It was for $1M of planning which was great but the district didn't receive the follow-up grant from the Foundation for the implementation .  But I know this didn't stop Carri Campbell, the director of School and Community Partnerships at SPS and so, with the City's Office of Arts and Culture and the Seattle Foundation, the District started the Creative Advantage partnership.  They are also partnering with groups like the Seattle Art Museum, Arts Corps, Arts Impact, EMP and others. 

A bit of a slow week at SPS, probably because of the MLK, Jr. day off.  It's a good day to reflect on issues around race relations and our district, our city, our state and our country.  Maybe a good day to go see Selma.  (I read that one student - at a sponsored viewing of the movie - had said thank you to the producers for making it because he finally learned what "MLK" stood for - meaning, the actual letters, not the man. Amazing.) Looking over the Board agenda for the school board meeting on Wednesday, I found a compare and contrast moment.  The Times had a good story about the Creative Advance Initiative - arts in the schools program - and it's highly successful launch.  The Creative Advantage Initiative, a program paid for by the city of Seattle, Seattle Public Schools and the private Seattle Foundation, this school year helped 1,659 students in about 12 schools — mostly in the central part of the city — who wouldn’t otherwise have ...

A thought-provoking study on day field trips has come out from the University of Arkansas and is covered in Education Next .  (bold mine)  (One irony here is that the students were taken on a tour of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas that was founded by...Alice Walton of Walmart who I perceive as not a friend to public education.) Schools exist not only to provide economically useful skills in numeracy and literacy, but also to produce civilized young men and women who would appreciate the arts and culture.  More-advantaged families may take their children to these cultural institutions outside of school hours, but less-advantaged students are less likely to have these experiences if schools do not provide them. With field trips, public schools viewed themselves as the great equalizer in terms of access to our cultural heritage. Today, culturally enriching field trips are in decline.  A survey by the American Association of...

I attended (and spoke at) the City Council meeting yesterday where the two pre-K for all programs were discussed and voted on.  Boy, you want to see a president of a group control the conversation, look at the master, Tim Burgess.  I'll have a thread on this but it is astonishing the City did not work with pre-school teachers and their union on this issue.  Both measures will be going before voters in the fall, not as complimentary measures on the same topic but competing ones.  It's a pity. Wow, big news out of Milwaukee.  NPR is reporting that in order to boost attendance they are bringing back art, music and PE .  Milwaukee Public Schools is one of several school systems across the country — i ncluding Los Angeles, San Diego and Nashville, Tenn . — that are re-investing in subjects like art and physical education. The Milwaukee school district is hiring new specialty teachers with the hope of attracting more families and boosting academic achiev...

Just learned about the National Association for Music Education's Broader Minded : think beyond the bubbles program.  Music not only impacts academic achievement, it also shapes the way our students understand themselves and the world around them. Let's think beyond the bubbles and educate the whole student. They have good insights and arguments for supporting music in our schools.  Consider this going forward - as more and more time goes for testing.  

Two items of note: Your youth jazz story can become a KCTS film! Do you have a connection to a jazz program, jazz teacher or jazz student, and have an idea for a story you think should be told? The instructors at KCTS’s 9 Media Lab can help you tell it and share it with our viewers. Beginning in March, we will be offering free workshops to individuals interested in learning the fundamentals of video production to create their Jazzed! story. No experience necessary! Professional filmmakers will teach you how to tell your story about young jazz musicians and jazz education in Seattle. Participants will come to the 9 Media Lab and learn storytelling skills as well as how to shoot, produce and edit video. Final films may be shared with the community on KCTS9.org and considered for broadcast. The program is free of charge, but space is limited so sign up now! For more information and to register click here . Do you know someone who might be interested? Please feel free to forward thi...

 Updated with Pinehurst news Monday, October 28th Operations Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda .   It includes the policies on weapons prohibition for both students and adults/visitors, data sharing (clarification on opting out procedures) and discussion of the green resolution impact on policies and procedures.  Pegi McEvoy will also report on transportation service standards. SPED PTA meeting at 7pm at JSCEE .  Tracy Libros of Enrollment Planning as well as Sped Director Zakiyyah McWilliams will be there.  Everyone is welcome.   Tuesday, October 29th Performing and Visual Arts College Fair from 7-9 p.m.  List of colleges/programs at this fair.  This is not a district event but sponsored by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Final Hearing for Pinehurst K-8 from 7-8 p.m. at the Pinehurst building.   Apparently, Thornton Creek principal, John Miner, will be there to speak on the feasibility ...

(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...

From the City of Seattle: Mayor McGinn will present free Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony Friday, August 30 at 4 p.m. SEATTLE — The 2013 Mayor’s Arts Awards ceremony will take place this Friday, August 30 at 4 p.m. at the North Fountain Lawn of Seattle Center. The honorees include two individuals and four organizations, and represent categories ranging from promoting arts as a means of social change to artistic excellence. The Seattle Arts Commission recommended the recipients from a pool of more than 600 public nominations, a new record. The Mayor’s Arts Awards recognize the contributions of artists, arts and cultural organizations and community members who make Seattle a city of creativity. The ceremony is open and free to the public. The 2013 categories and honorees are: · Future Focus: 826 Seattle · Cultural Ambassador: Barbara Earl Thomas · Venture Culturalist: Frye Art Museum · Arts as the How: Pongo Teen Writing Project · Raising the Bar: Pres...

It's a map, map, map world. You saw the map I put up yesterday about the most highly paid public employee in each state (mostly sports coaches of some sort).  More interesting maps have crossed my path and some you might share with your children. ArtsEd Washington , a group that supports arts education in public schools,  has a map showing all the school districts in the state.  It does give you pause in terms of how many tiny districts there are and the state spending that entails.   They are also sending a survey on arts education to every school board candidate in the state.  From Twister Sifter (funny), "40 maps that will help you make sense of the world."   Your kids might like some of these. Also of interest to kids, the first school in Seattle opened on August 15, 1870.   From HistoryLink : On August 15, 1870, Seattle’s first public schoolhouse opens. (Seattle's first school, opened in 1854, was a tuition-based or private school. ...

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...

From SPS Communications : Students from Ballard, Roosevelt and Garfield high schools won top  honors in the prestigious Washington State Solo and Ensemble Contest held April 26-27 at Central Washington University. Students from Ballard, Roosevelt and Garfield high schools took first place in their categories. I note that these schools (and I include Chief Sealth Int'l which also won an award) won a large number of awards, both group and individual.  Congrats to all the students, teachers and parents! Also, Roosevelt student Benjamin Briggs was a semifinalist at the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition in NYC in April.  The public is invited to the Naramore Art Show's closing reception and awards ceremony May 10 at the Seattle Arts Museum. The show, which ends May 12, features the artwork of about 200 young artists from Seattle Public Schools' middle and high schools . The event will start at 6 p.m. as the organ...