Seattle Schools Community Forum

I don’t know about you all, but I’m pretty tired of every discussion devolving into a non-productive back and forth about highly capable services. The discussions have not been very productive because we have been talking to personalities instead of policies. I would like to try addressing policy. Here’s the idea: it’s not enough to rail against a policy or procedure. Offer a workable alternative. You think something is done wrong? Tell us how it should be done right – and please be thoughtful enough to consider the costs (if any) and some of the unintended consequences of the change. We’ll try it for HC services first and, if it goes well, we’ll try it for Advanced Learning.

Gentle readers. I turned off the comment moderation.  I don't like it,  you don't like it and so we'll go back to the way we have done it since this blog started. Most of you have noticed that we now have a person (and most of us know who it is) that blames me for his shortcomings in life.  He is being vicious and unkind and some of you even find his comments to be threatening to me.  That he has even stooped to saying hurtful things about my late husband speaks volumes about his lack of character and humanity. Not to worry; I don't. What I ask is for your patience AND to please ignore him.  Do not answer anything he says.  Answering him will only egg him on. While I'm sure this immature behavior is the highlight of his day, let's not give him any kind of attention. If we ignore him, he has no audience. 

Gentle readers. Charlie and I have never shied away from discussions, even spirited ones. We have a policy of not deleting any comment unless it is anonymous or has name-calling or is off-subject (and that one we don't always enforce.) However, I will have to add a new reason - making threats .  Whether they are vague or direct, we do not want any threats being made against anyone and especially not against this blog.  The blog is a community service and Charlie and I did not work this long and hard to have anyone deliberately try to undermine it.  As well, there seems to be a few readers who know each other and a couple who want to pick a fight each time the other one comments.  That needs to stop - take it elsewhere. So I will delete any comment that has threatening language, using my own best judgment. (Luckily, these few readers have discernible writing styles/tone so I believe I know who to delete.  Changing your name is not going to save your co...

This blog started in May 2006.  It was started by parent Beth Bakeman who was worried about her children's school appearing on the possible closure list during the period of time when the district had determined it was necessary to close schools.  (Her children's school fell off that list and Beth determined that while she couldn't carry on the blog, it should carry on without her because of its reach.  She turned to Charlie Mas, myself and a few others to carry the torch. ) I am always grateful to Beth for getting this thing rolling. Last week we passed over 7,500,000 views.  That's a lot of views. I thank everyone who tells a friend or colleague about the blog.  And, of course, I thank our longtime loyal readers who have stuck with us. 

This is a community forum blog.  To me and Charlie, that means anyone can come and discuss anything relevant to public education from national right down to specific Seattle schools/programs.  We try to guide the conversation but not define it. You can opine/inform on topics on just about anything in public education.  We provide open threads for topics that Charlie and I might have missed. We try to be careful on not talking about issues where we - as the moderators of the blog - have no direct knowledge or have not been given direct information from readers on that issue.

On this blog you cannot (partial): - swear (beyond the occasional BS because we seem to have some readers with delicate sensibilities) - name call - leave racist, sexist, homophobic or likewise undeserved or irrational personal comments - make statements that you cannot back up unless you state it as an OPINION and/or use the words "it is alleged" or "it is my belief" when making comments about someone especially SPS staff It's allowed to comment on someone's job performance.  In public jobs, it's part of what comes with the job.  (And before anyone jumps down my throat, of course, I myself have erred here and there.) Example of what NOT to say:  Staff X is stupid and dumb. Example of how you could say it: I have found that Staff X's job performance is not competent or of low quality.  Make your point about the work/outcomes, not the person.   One person made a point recently about getting sued for statements you make here and that ...

I've been through a lot of changes in my personal and professional life in the past year or so. Actually, I'm still in a sort of transition period, but that period and those changes will be complete in April. Among other things, I'll be moving away from Seattle, which has been my home since 1987. For the past several months I have been splitting my time between Seattle and Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm in Charlottesville now, as a matter of fact. In April I will leave Seattle and make C'ville my new home. I think it will be a little inappropriate for me to comment on Seattle Public Schools when I'm no longer a Seattle resident, so I won't be writing many blog posts after the move. No promises that I'll quit entirely, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to make the committee meetings anymore. I have been writing about Seattle Public Schools for over a decade. I have probably averaged a couple thousand words a day over that period. It sur...

Gentle readers, The last couple of months have been something of a strain for me. I was busy fighting a petition in court for an order of protection against me, claiming I had harassed someone via this blog and this person feared loss of their job because of the alleged harassment. I will go into some detail about this case in another thread but suffice to say that, of course, it was without merit and summarily dismissed. I knew this from the start - as did my lawyer - but the wheels of justice can be slow.  (My lawyer and I also made a motion for a little-known law that protects citizens speaking out on subjects of public interest in a public form.  More on that as well later.) But the broader issue - one we can open up for discussion today - is a discussion of the Internet, privacy and free speech and how they relate to each other with respect to this blog. Charlie and I have tried valiantly to keep this an open and lively place for discussion. We have tried to keep it c...

A lot of discussion arose in the live blog thread about the nature of this blog and the needs of the community. This blog can be the place for people to connect all across the District. If you have a thread that you would like us to start, then you are free to suggest it. We get a lot of such requests and typically fulfill them. There are open discussions twice a week. Please let us know how we can make the threshold even lower. People discuss what they want to discuss. If it leans more in one direction than another then that's what happens. You are free to discuss sparsely mentioned topics, but I know of no way to compel other people to discuss your topic of interest if they don't share that interest. I guess you can just work to make it more interesting for them.

I feel like a teacher with some 5th graders. What part of "no name-calling allowed at this blog" is not understood? That means no name-calling of: - administrators - teachers - staff - students - schools If you had a bad experience with a teacher or school, you are welcome to tell us about it but you cannot label a person or place with an unsavory name. You can certainly say  - as I have - that I believe someone's work is unsatisfactory or even incompetent.  That labels the work, the outcome and not the person or place. I do not understand why I have to say this over and over (and then delete comments based on acting against this policy).  We're all adults and I know you know what name-calling looks like. Please, do not do this.  We are a community forum for discussion (even if it gets heated) and we want it to remain open and civil.

The Seattle Times has an interesting job posting.  One-Year Community Engagement Editor Here's the job description: The community engagement editor for the Seattle Times-Solutions Journalism Project will bring a startup mentality and passion and tenacity for seeking solutions to the big questions facing education. In this one-year position, the editor will develop and manage a blog for the project that will become the region’s destination for education conversations . This editor will edit and curate staff and community contributions and conversations, making the blog a destination for the latest news and most innovative thinking on education advances and policies . It would appear that the Times would like to compete with this blog. That's not necessary. They can get a better deal by simply offering the job to Melissa. That way for the same price as a chance to steal this blog's traffic they can simply buy it.

From recent elections, there are those who confuse arguing with attacking in order to get what they want or to marginalize others.  I saw this during the charter school election when I got personally attacked by both Lisa Macfarlane and Shannon Campion at several debates.  (What is interesting is that Tim Ceis, the former city official who was known as a pitbull, could not have been nicer at the debates.)  I had thought, in the moment to respond back, but my reward was watching the faces of the audience and clearly, people think little of personal attacks.  Now from Ms. Campion, I expected that.  She's a shill for Stand for Children.  But Lisa and I have known each other professionally for years.  We have stood together on issues around the World School.  I expected better from her but apparently they wanted to win the election at any cost.  Now, over at the Times, there is an op-ed - well, really an advertisement - from the head of th...

We had an e-mail from a reader who stated that while he enjoyed the blog, he didn't read as often because people don't sign their names. We've had some discussion around this before but I thought it worth revisiting. Now for those who don't know it, we allow monikers because many of our readers are SPS employees who might otherwise face issues if they signed their names.  (Also, we allow NO purely anonymous names because it becomes difficult to follow with multiple anonymous posts and well, if you are unable to think up a blog name, you probably are not in the right place.) However, I do find sometimes when people make grand claims, I long for a name.  Who is willing to make big statements/opinions - usually backed by no data - and not sign their name?  That is the frustration of the internet; that ability to say anything you want without having to take credit/blame for it. To the credit of our readers, we rarely get trolls.  We carry on a fairly civil disco...

I put word verification back on because I read the blog comments on Google Reader and I am tired of scrolling through hundreds of spam posts selling Tramadol online to find the few real posts. Hope this works.

When I’m wrong I admit it. I have a pretty good record of doing so. Let’s see who else can do the same. A lot of people think that my snarky comment about the Board's plan for a proclamation for Cheryl Chow was wrong. In particular, a lot of people thought it was anti-gay or homophobic. First, I would like to thank all of the people who have chided me for name-calling, putting people on the defensive, and using vinegar rather than honey to persuade, then called me names, tried to put me on the defensive, and wrote scathingly about me. Good coaching there. I'm learning a lot from you. Second, I would like to thank everyone who thinks they know me well enough to make unfounded conjecture about my thoughts and feelings. Since you know me so well you don’t need me to tell you how much I love that. Apparently people want to talk about this. I'm open to it. Let's see who else is.

We had a comment from a reader who had several complaints about the blog, largely around creation of threads and the belief we don't cover enough individual school items/topics. Our reader acknowledges that we create threads based on demand but apparently that isn't enough (even though readers then take control of the thread and the direction of the discussion).    We also have Open Threads twice a week but that isn't enough either.  Charlie and I regularly get guest posts sent to us and about 90% of the time print them verbatim.  We have had this policy for years.  So if you have a topic you want to write about, please send it to us.  This is a down time for the district; summer is a time it goes very dead.  Much of what we could discuss about various topics in the district is, at this point, speculation.  Superintendent Banda has to come in, get the lay of the land, hire the new people for senior positions that are either interim or open...

I write and speak about Seattle Public Schools with some authority and credibility due to my long history, experience, and observation of the district. I know what I know and people believe what I write because I have been around and watching closely for over eleven years. But given the rapid and near total turnover of personnel, I don't really know the current players all that well. Given the lack of any kind of institutional continuity, I can't be sure of the procedures. And given those two factors, we should all seriously question the relevance of any history. My expertise is dangerously close to obsolete.

I have reserved the previous thread for the conversation with the Seattle Times, but I know that people will want to comment on that conversation (whether the Times shows up for it or not). So here is a thread for public comments on that thread. Too meta?

After six years, Charlie and I have decided to monetize the blog.  It'll be a slow-go with Google's own AdSense.  There will not be any flashing ads and no pop-up ads.  We are not so interested in making a profit as maybe just paying for gas to go all over the city.  It will start sometime over the weekend and we'll see how it goes. 

We get a certain amount of heat here at Seattle Schools Community Blog for being "negative". We are, from time to time, accused of being whiners, complainers, gossips, and worse. I'm not looking to discuss the merits of those accusations right now - we can entertain that topic in another thread. Instead, I would like to open the discussion to the question of how this blog can be a tool for positive change in the district. We can certainly serve as a news and information source - and we do. Newspapers, radio and television can't describe the detailed doings in the district as we can. I think we offer deeper and more comprehensive coverage than they ever could. We can also address specific questions that people have about the district - how things are supposed to work, how they actually work, and the regulatory and historical context for procedures. The blog certainly works as a discussion space. I think that's also a positive. You may not like what some folks s...