Seattle Schools Community Forum

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 got there about 5:10 p.m.  A lot of the Mayor's staff, district staff and a middle school rock band warming up.  For all those people, there was no one to officially greet you or tell you anything about the event.  (I get that they needed staff but seriously, it was a lot of people for a simple Q&A.)

Did having a budget survey done matter? On the face of it, no, it did not. I say that because (1) it has not been referenced by staff at all during any budget talks except that it occurred, (2) there is no analysis of the specific questions and (3) the comments section was not broken down at all. However, I'll do it if only to let the Board know what was said. What to keep in mind? This was a poorly design survey (numerous respondents said this so it's not just me). Judging from the answers, the district likely got a certain sub-set of parents/staff. That said, they did receive 2700 responses which is still pretty good. Some respondents clearly did not know certain things about the district so you have to keep that in mind. (It was things like not knowing that high school students only use Metro, APP is not a program at Garfield, etc.) However, 2700 parents, community and staff took the time so let's not make it an exercise in window dressing. Demographics...