Seattle Schools Community Forum

Due to a illness in my family, I will be stepping away from blogging for awhile. I want to sincerely thank Beth for asking me to be part of this blog. Beth has so much integrity and I was glad for the opportunity. I know that lively and thoughtful discussions will continue on with Beth, Charlie, Michael and whoever else writes here. I hope all of you continuing reading the blog and getting the message out that it exists because it is the one place in Seattle where parents and others can come and discuss the district. It's good and healthy to make these connections. Please continue to support Seattle public schools, warts and all. There are good things happening in our schools and they need our support (and tough love).

I got this surprising e-mail message today: "Congratulations! Your blog has been nominated for the ED in '08 Blog of the Year Award. Blogging has made a huge impact on the Education debate and we'd like to honor this impact by launching our first annual blog of the year award. Voting will run from now until May 14th and the winner will be announced at our 2008 Blogger Summit on May 15th." If you want to vote for our blog, go to http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/bloggerpoll.aspx . And if you're free next week and want to go to Washington, DC to attend this free event, click on the image below for more details.

Maria Ramirez, the Executive Director of Campana Quetzal, has agreed to join this blog as a contributor. She will make her first post soon, but meanwhile, here's an upcoming Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center she is involved with as well: The Seattle School District’s school for newly arrive immigrant and refugee youth will host a community Open House on Saturday, April 19, from 2:30-5:00. The Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center (SBOC) is at the corner of Boston and 4th “Ave. N. on top of Queen Anne Hill. See http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/secboc/index.htm for more details.

After reading the blog comments posted while I was camping the last two days, I decided it's time to experiment with a change to the blog. I have changed the settings to require "registration" in order to post a comment. This doesn't require you to reveal your true identity when posting, but it does require you to register with some kind of a name and use that when commenting. If you have technical problems with doing this or want to voice your opinion privately, send me an e-mail message. Thanks.

When I started this blog, my goal was to get parents talking together and working together across schools. And that's happened because of the great people who joined the blog. Charlie and Melissa have been the most active contributors by far, and I respect and value their contributions greatly, in addition to liking them both as people. Of course, the other blog contributors, Michael Rice, Andrew Kwatinetz, and Johnny Calcagno, have also been welcome voices on this blog, along with the commenters. The more voices, the better. I value the work of all the district's education advocates --- CPPS, CEASE, Chris Jackins, Von Paul Patu, Roscoe Bass, Don Alexander, and many others. That doesn't mean I always agree with them, but I believe everybody who is motivated to work to improve Seattle Schools for all children has an important voice that should be heard and something to contribute. I joined CPPS because the Board and volunteer staff members share my vision and passion for imp...

On May 25, 2006, frustrated by the school closure and consolidation plan, but invigorated by the discussions I had with others around the district during meetings and hearings, I started this blog. I was completely new to blogging -- I didn't read any blogs on a regular basis, and I had never created one -- but I was determined to do something, and it needed to be something I could do in the evenings from home, after work and putting kids to bed. It was a great decision for me. The research and writing I have done for the blog, has provided a great form of professional development, pushing me to learn more about K-12 education issues, both in Seattle and elsewhere around the state and the country. But it has been reading others' posts and comments that has provided me with the greatest insights and the best learning. Inviting other experienced education advocates, like Charlie Mas, Andrew Kwatinetz, Mel Westbrook, and Johnny Calcagno, to be blog contributors gave me and other ...

This blog currently has 5 contributors (people who can write and post entries on the blog), and, depending upon the day, about 150-200 daily readers . My latest call for action is a request for some additional blog contributors . I would like to see new posts on this blog on an almost daily basis, and need help from others to make that happen. If you are interested in becoming a blog contributor, please e-mail me with a short description of why you would like to be a blog contributor, a description of your connection to Seattle Public Schools (i.e. teacher, parent, district staff, Board member), a list of a few of your areas of concern/interest and a sample of your writing.

Several times, authors on this blog have wanted to post files, and this blog format does not support that. As a temporary solution, I have created a Yahoo group that is not designed to be used for conversations. Rather it is a place that authors and readers of this blog can post and read files. The first file I have posted on the group is Mel Westbrook's BEX III report (see Seattle School Levy/Bond Measure ). If you want to see and download her full report, click here to join the SaveSeattleSchools Yahoo group. Then go to the File Sharing page to view Mel's report and other files that may be posted in the future. If you have any difficulties making this work, click on the E-mail Beth link to the right and I'll try to help you resolve the problem.

I started this blog a little over five months ago out of frustration with Phase I of the school closure plan, and a desire to keep communicating with others I had met around the district during Town Meetings and public hearings. Now, the blog has gotten large enough and has enough traffic (150-250 different people with 350-500 hits per day during weekdays of the last few busy weeks) that it is time to take care of a little blog business. 1) I have invited several people to become Contributors to the blog, which gives them the ability to post items directly, without having to send it to me first. The benefit of this was clear on the day Raj resigned when I was in a 3-hour meeting as the news was announced, but Johnny Calcagno was able to post the news and initiate the conversation. I also cannot continue to spend as much time every day on this blog as I have been doing recently, so it will be nice to share the posting load with others. My goal is to have 8-10 contributors, connected w...

The last two days have brought a lively exchange of ideas in comments on the posts by Graham Hill and Pathfinder parents. I'd like to extend an offer to any of the people who posted comments (or to anyone else who has been reading but has yet to comment) to be a guest blogger on this blog sometime in the next week or so. The rules: 300 word limit, no profanity The guidelines: content should further debate on school closure plan, helping people understand more about the issues involved If you are interested, just send a message to bethbakeman@comcast.net and I will send you a link for posting.