Seattle Schools Community Forum

"From the district: The Seattle School Board is seeking four community volunteers to serve on the Building Excellence Oversight Committee, for terms of up to four years.  The unpaid 9-member Committee provides advice to the School Board on the District's major capital construction program.  The Committee meets monthly and provides advice on planning, construction and related activities, to assure wise capital investments by the District.  Members should have familiarity with large capital program activities such as planning, budgeting, cost estimating and controls, and organization and management of public agency capital programs as well as knowledge of leading edge sustainable building practices and conservation techniques.  The District seeks individuals with experience as school district capital planners and managers, architects, construction managers, attorneys, contractors and subcontractors, parents and others as appropriate. A copy of the Com...

I'm behind on this one and I forgot about something happening today - it's National Library Week and today a picture is going to be taken in every Washington state library.  I hope the schools put this word out and got kids in their school library for the photo.  My apologies.

I actually don't have time to get into this in depth but let me explain what I know about how this idea about outreach to small businesses that are minority/woman-owned. (I will try to flesh this out more later or, hopefully, some media-type will do it.) This started with an idea from former School Board member Mary Bass. It became a policy (but again, I don't have the policy number or date in front of me). What I understood it to be was merely a way to say to those smaller companies, "Here is a staff person you can call with questions. He/She can help guide you through the process." In addition, I think they were probably going to make a small brochure with tips and maybe have a couple of classes a year on doing business with SPS.This work would be part of one person's job in capital. That's it. No roster of classes, no roster of instructors, no personal service contracts so that prominent people in the community could do outreach. Just a way to bro...

There was much of interest discussed at last week's Operations Committee meeting. I think the Capacity Management issue will be a bigger item of interest but as I stated previously, I'm still waiting for some documents to be on-line so that I can link to them. There were three documents related to Facilities (not including the monthly summary which is almost useless). Two were labeled "Annual Report" but I'm not sure anyone would think of them as reports. (One page, both sides? Considering all the work done in a year on facilities, how is that a report?) The first was was an annual report on " BTA Related Information ." It reviewed the work need to be done in seven weeks to get BTA projects done on Queen Anne, Rainier View and Viewlands. (The seven-week period was not specified so I don't know when they are talking about. Summer?) They point out that there are many unknowns in the work. Now look, I get that some of these b...

Sigh. Just heard from someone at the State Auditor's office; no audit until mid-February. FYI, it's called, "Seattle School District Construction Management performance audit".

A big shout-out to all of you who first posted about these items. I thought them important enough to start a news thread. A lawsuit has been filed against the district and Board directors over the Teach for America contract. Here's a story from KOMO-news. Steve Sundquist certainly clear about the fact that TFA recruits are getting certification at the SAME time they are first-year teachers. He doesn't give a single reason to be doing this and claims there is no "obligation" to hire TFA recruits. (Yes, the claim is true but we didn't go to this trouble and cost to NOT hire them.) Then, from the Huffington Post, a story by the lawyer, John Affeldt, representing the plaintiffs in the California case in the 9th Circuit over this issue. He found that in a Senate appropriations bill, there had been an amendment slipped in to allow novice teachers to be called "highly qualified" and to concentrate their numbers in poor, minority schools. It is unkno...

Here is the press release from the District. The Washington State Department of Commerce awarded grants to school districts for making energy efficient changes. $3.8 million of the $17 million awarded to districts across the state goes to Seattle, where 21 schools will get upgrades. The grants cover about one-third of costs of the changes. • $1,030,360 for replacing heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and boilers in six schools (out of a total cost of $3,733,800). Those schools are: Arbor Heights, Decatur/Thornton Creek, Graham Hill, Green Lake, Northgate and Schmitz Park elementary schools. • $749,000 for replacing HVAC systems and controls and to retrofit lighting at Green Lake Elementary School and Ballard High School. (Total cost: $2,445,249) • $565,800 for replacing HVAC systems/controls and lighting retrofits at Madrona and Pathfinder K-8 schools (Total cost: $2,043,300) • $513,300 for replacing HVAC system, controls and retrofitting lighting at Viewlands Ele...

Fred Stephens, long-time director of district facilities, is leaving the district by the end of the month. I will be kind of sad to see Mr. Stephens go because I always felt he cared about the district even if he was not always able to see the buildings get the care they needed. It was not announced where he is going or what he will be doing. Bill Martin who is currently the head of BEX projects will be interim director. There is a bit of mystery about this resignation. Just last week Mr. Stephens had an argument in the district headquarters parking lot with an employee in his department. The police had to be called to escort the employee from the premises. The mystery is that this employee was overseeing the program that the recent state audit called out (the Small Business Development program). (To review, the district, based on Board policy, has a program to help small business owners make bids on district capital projects. This is in conjunction with other public enti...