Seattle Schools Community Forum

 A story from KPLU about the Rainier Beach High School's new IB program .  It's a good one. From SPS: Seattle Public Schools is seeking applicants for a newly formed Native American Advisory Committee. The committee will advise Superintendent José Banda on implementing Native American Education in Seattle Public Schools. It will be composed of Native families, Native community representatives, Native SPS staff, Native higher education representatives and Native students who represent the diverse Native American population of Seattle Public Schools. The initial committee term is April 2013 to June 2015.  Nomination forms are available here . Nominations can be mailed to: P.O. Box 34164 Mailstop 32156 Seattle, WA, 98124 Nominations can also be emailed to naeac@seattleschools.org . The deadline for submission is Monday, April 15, 2013. Those selected will be notified by Monday, April 22, and the first meeting will be held Monday, April 29 at a lo...

In answer to some questioning here about whether the Board is getting feedback, I can accurately say, YES.  Hundreds and hundreds of e-mails, phone calls - yes, the message is being received so keep it up.  To the Times' story which is pretty good and accurately points out the following: The one-year plan was developed without public comment.  It was announced weeks after the end of the open-enrollment period, a violation of district policy.  More than 1,500 parents have signed an online petition against the plan, citing sleep deprivation, student safety and the strain put on parents with children at schools with vastly different start times.  It was expected to save $4 million, but saved only half that, mainly because not as many buses could be taken out of service as expected. Some teachers worry that the proposal could lead to longer hours, said Olga Addae, president of the Seattle teachers union. Then we get to the excuses:   But offi...

There is a petition out there on this issue with over 500 signatures.  I have Tweeted this and there is also a link for Facebook.  Eric B. has a proposal for transportation:

The Seattle Times is reporting that Governor Gregoire is considering cutting K-12 bus transportation.  But any squeamishness over student-transportation cuts isn't enough to keep that $220 million idea off her list of ways to potentially deal with budget shortfalls, the latest a $2 billion one. Washington would be the first to completely eliminate state dollars for bus service because of the recent recession, said Bob Riley, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. He noted that a few other states, including California and Colorado, have cut school-transportation dollars in previous years. Debra Carnes, who was waiting for the bus with her fourth-grader, called the idea horrible — but better than cutting money going to the classroom. She wondered what impact it would have on the attendance of low-income students and those new to the U.S.   "Our family, we'll figure it out. But there's a lot...

I received a heads up from a reader about changes to the Metro bus routes used by high school students (as well as middle schoolers).  From the PhinneyWood blog : Metro Transit  is asking the King County Council for a temporary $20 annual surcharge on licensed vehicles as a stop-gap measure to maintain bus service. Metro has announced that if the council doesn’t approve the surcharge, it will have to cut up to 600,000 service hours – or 17 percent of current bus routes – in 2012 and 2013. According to Metro’s proposal, routes 5 and 28, which serve Phinney Ridge and Greenwood, will be hit hard. The reader let me know that many Ballard students use the 28 route.  Earlier start times mean up earlier and probably waiting more for buses, transfers and walking more. From the blog: You can weigh in on the issue at three public meetings, including one tonight in Kirkland (6 p.m., Kirkland City Council Chambers, 123 Fifth Ave.); at 6 p.m. next Tuesday, July ...

The district has put out the bus arrival/departure times for next year.    It doesn't say preliminary or draft at the top but I don't think this has been signed off on yet.  I believe the final decision will come in early May.  Note:  the bell times will be somewhat variable as the listed times are for BUSES, not bell times.  The schedule says that " morning start times are generally 15 minutes after bus arrival.  Afternoon end times are generally 5-10 minutes prior to the bus departure .) I don't see a lot of change at the high school level (although it seems that Cleveland has a slightly longer day than other schools starting at the same time.)  I note that West Seattle used to start at 8:10 am and it appears they will start around 7:50 am. All of the K-8s start around 9:10 am with middle schools starting around 7:50 am (except for Jane Addams at 8:20 am and Denny with a TBD designation).    The outliers are Pinehur...

This from Publicola : Here’s what a proposal by Snohomish County-area State Sen. Paull Shin (D-21) would do: Requires the rules of the superintendent of public instruction to allow school districts to place advertising and educational material on and in school buses after approval by the school district board of directors. Directs revenue received for the advertising and educational material to be deposited in the school district’s general fund or transportation vehicle fund. He’s got six co-sponsors, including Seattle-area Sens. Adam Kline (D-37), Joe McDermott (D-34) and (suburbs) Rodney Tom (D-48). Well, that would be great except for what would be allowed? I believe the district has an advertising policy already in place in SPS; would this override that? (You'd better believe staff would want it.) Badly needed money versus not exposing our kids to yet more advertising. Or are they so saturated that they won't even notice? Or can they just ride the bus home with t...

According to reader ArchStanton, Call Transportation 252-0900 and go through the phone menus. They say you should get your letter by Friday.

Called the Transportation Department (252-0900). Notices are going out next Monday to families that will contain the following information: -your bus stop with intersection and corner info -time of pick-up -number of bus route -estimated time of drop-off at school (No, I don't have any more information than this so do call them if you need other information.)

Late start/snow days are tricky things to call. When it was snowing Monday my son was excited that he might have a late start. He got up and checked the website; no late start so off he trudged (we live two blocks away from school). He gets there and the class had 8 kids. He said gradually, through the first period or two, kids came in and the office finally announced that no kid needed a pink "excused" slip to get to first or second period. I heard from another friend her child's bus to Salmon Bay never came and she took her daughter to school. Did anyone else have problems? I think this was tough to call because we usually get warmer temps to melt it (or at least not freeze it to ice) but it seems like that didn't happen this time.

I’m trying to figure out how widespread might be the bus problems that are affecting some families at my son’s school. Apparently because of consolidation and elimination of some routes, plus some cranky new software, there seem to be many more complaints of longer bus rides, less safe stops, etc. Our own story isn’t that horrible I suppose (we have to be at the stop 24 minutes earlier in the morning), but it is annoying and frustrating, especially since it was hard to reach the Transportation Office for weeks, and now they say that there probably isn’t anything to be done. (They are still working through the situations where kids have no bus!) We’ve had the same stop for 4 years, and the bus seemed plenty full in years past. I’m a big fan of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it” philosophy, but maybe that’s just my privilege showing through, because the status quo was working for me. Clearly it is a difficult and complex job to map out bus routes, and of course no one wants to ...