Seattle Schools Community Forum

I'm at the Charter Commission meeting today (although still hasn't started due to rain and traffic, whew!) I see this included  the packet of materials on the charter school lawsuit from Executive Director, Joshua Halsey: " The parties to the charter school lawsuit have agreed to a summary judgment briefing schedule with a hearing on Jan. 27, 2017 at 10 am.  In a summary judgment motion, the moving party argues that the issues presented to the judge are purely legal (rather than factual) and can be resolved based solely on briefs and arguments at the hearing."  

I'll have a full write-up but here's a new fun fact. Under the new law there are two new commissioners.  One would come from the State Board of Education and one from OPSI (the law says the executive director board chair of BOE and the state superintendent but we all knew that was never going to happen.) OSPI has not put forth someone yet but from the BOE it's going to be Isabel Muñoz-Colón . Ms. Muñoz-Colón is the K-12 Investments Manager for the City of Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning, where she also co-chairs the English Language Learner working group for the South King County Road Map Project. That's quite a cross-reference of groups for Ms. Muñoz-Colón.

Update 2: I did forget one key thing. From the get go, the former charter schools wanted reimbursement from the State from their costs, from Sep. 4, 2015, to run their schools if a new charter law came thru.  I found this fairly interesting given that the Court ruled the law unconstitutional and just because the legislature could find a financial fix, it didn't seem to me that the State owed them money. I cannot tell if this is still valid in this bill. 

Apparently not, at least when it comes to charter schools.  My second batch of public disclosure e-mails raises more troubling questions. In my first batch, I explained how a couple of other districts' lawyers were worried about running afoul of state law in signing interlocal documents to allow students within their district borders to have an ALE with Mary Walker School District. This batch reveals more concerns from other people. Among them was the overarching role of Washington State Charter Schools Association. Who are they?

I was interviewed last Friday for a KUOW story by Ann Dornfeld on the legislative efforts to save the (former) charter schools.  It played today.  Astonishing.

That was one uneventful and less-than-insightful Charter Commission meeting.

Monday, Nov. 9th Washington State Charter Commission meeting from 10 am - 5 pm at the STAR Center in Tacoma. Highlights of the agenda: - State Supreme Court Ruling Calendar update - First Place Scholars presentation/update (after which the Commission has an Executive Session)

The Charter Commission - at the end of almost five hours of presentations and discussions - took a vote to revoke the charter of First Place Scholars and the vote lost, 4-3.  And at least two of those yes votes are very tenuous.  Main takeaways:

Update: forgot to include this fascinating piece of news. Sarah Morningstar , the late Cheryl Chow's partner, applied for Sally Clark's soon to be vacant City Council seat.  Morningstar mentions her work as a school administrator in Seattle Schools in her application.  Morningstar is currently assistant principal at TOPS . The City Council will announce the finalists on Monday at 2 pm.  There will be 3-minute presentations from the finalists on Friday, the 24th with an announcement of the winner on Monday, April 27th.  Good luck, Ms. Morningstar. end of update In news about First Place Scholars , it's good news.  Apparently, they have shown enough progress for their turnaround for the Charter Commission's Executive Director, Joshua Halsey, to say that things are looking good.  They just need to turn in their documentation on Special Education to meet what the CC asked for in changes at FPS. Did you get a robo-call from Ready Washington (brought t...

First Place Scholars, Washington's first charter school, has gotten a one week reprieve for its need to show the Charter Commission that they are stable and on-track.  Multiple issues had been found by the Commission including services for Sped and ELL students. Interestingly, former WA state legislator Dawn Mason, who now heads FPS' Board, has taken a tough stance against the Charter Commission, saying that the fault lies with the Commission, not FPS.  Her thought pattern is that the CC allowed FPS to open too soon when they were not ready.  (This, of course, is somewhat puzzling considering FS had been open for two decades as a school.)  She says FPS was concerned and the CC is a late-comer to the issues at the school.  On April 5th she said this about the work to be done by FPS: That will of course mean they have to give us time to raise funds, test the new systems, stress test the structures, train our teachers to the measurement systems. That do...

Let's start with the local which would be the Work Session on Seattle Schools becoming a charter authorizer.  This work session on was April 8th and the staff leads were Ronald Boyd (Legal),  Erin Bennett, Director Policy and Strategy Research, and Clover Codd, Executive Director of Strategic Planning & Partnerships. All the Board members were present as was Superintendent Nyland.  Nyland led with "From some time ago, the Board opposed them (charters) and that was then and this is now."   He said something about SPS being the biggest district.  He said the deadline to apply to to be an authorizer was in June and "we have just enough time to get on-board."   He also said SPS had " no option of not playing" as part of future levies will be going to charters (which is true).  He said SPS would want to know about charters located within district; what their focus is, location, etc.  He failed to mention that that information can be easily...

From the "there goes that idea" - Expedia is moving its corporate headquarters  to the Amgen campus .  Several readers had thought that might be an ideal spot to share space with a business and an SPS high school.  (This is considered a huge win for Seattle as Expedia is leaving Bellevue.)  Sen. Maralyn Chase (D) and Senate President Pro Tem Pam Roach (R) will lead a bipartisan press conference Thursday afternoon followed by an exposé of the Common Core educational standards adopted by the Legislature in 2011.

I titled this thread "Early Warning" because I believe we are starting to see the signs of some major upheaval. First, I'd like to just take a pulse about opting out.   If you feel comfortable, could you comment if you are opting your child(ren) out of the SBAC and at what school (or, if not the school, the region - NE, NW, Central, WS, SW or SE)?  You don't have to give grade level, gender or names, of course.   As well, let us know if this is a source of open discussion or quiet discussion and if you are getting pushback from staff. Next, I believe the Charter Commission will be releasing a statement soon - probably in the next couple of days - that they will either be suspending First Place Scholars ' charter or closing it down entirely.  This will be sad but my impression is that the new Board/Director at First Place have not been able to meet the requirements set out by the Charter Commission when FP was placed on probation.  Lastly, below is ...

 Update:  I have attempted to get rid of the annoying CAPTCHA feature.  I'm hoping it works but that we don't see a lot of spam because of it.  I know if I found it annoying so did my readers.  Let me know how it goes. Update on SBAC from SPS Communications:   our assessment folks have communicated to principals that they may use the form or accept any signed refusal.   End of update    I will have a follow-up to the SBAC opt-out form.   I sought clarity from the district, got it partially and am now awaiting a response. The House budget will come out today but the hearing has been moved to Monday. Healthy Student Survey results - I haven't had time to read it in-depth yet.   The Charter Commission is having a special phone-in meeting today.  It's an interesting thing - they will go into Executive Session to discuss a "legal matter" with no final action taken.  Then, they will go back to having a public...

The Taliban stormed a school in Pakistan today and killed about 140 people, the majority children.  Is there really a special place in heaven for "martyrs?"  Then the corollary must also be true - there's a special place in hell for those who kill children.  We learn the fate of First Place charter school today since the Charter Commission rejected their corrective plan.  Apparently, there will now be negotiations over what needs to be done to keep it open.  It would seem that if this is happening this early on, that perhaps the school was opened too quickly.  Governor Inslee announced his plan for K-12 public education funding during the next legislative session.  He gave the "what" - $2.3B - but not the "where" as in, where to get the money (that comes on Thursday).  He wants: paying for full-day K (by 2016-2017) smaller class size in K-3 (by 2016-2017) increase basic education funding to cover school operations raises for teacher...

Update One comes from the Charter Commission which, according to the Times , has rejected the plan that First Place charter school, created in light of issues discovered in the management and running of the school. The plan from First Place, which has floundered  since opening in September , was deficient in some key areas and not submitted on time, said Joshua Halsey, the commission’s executive director. As a result, Halsey said he didn’t have enough time to review it. Now begins a round of stricter negotiations, where Halsey will detail what changes First Place must complete or face losing its charter. “The next step is to go over (the corrective action plan),” Halsey said. “It will become more prescriptive, as opposed to the school having the ability to pick the plan and how they’re going to go about that.” Update Two is that the district has hired a handwriting expert to uncovered who may have altered many test booklets at Beacon Hill International School last ...

About preschool and SPS, a few items: - Director Blanford has been working with the City on their preschool plan almost since he got elected.  (I know this from some public disclosure e-mails.)  Trouble is, I went back and looked at his campaign interviews and I can't find one that mentions it.  Not even in a very detailed questionaire from the King County Dems where mentions being the director of an early learning center.  That seems odd given this statement he made in an e-mail to Councilman Burgess, Sara Morris from the Alliance and Holly Miller at the Office of Education in January 2014 about joining them on the preschool junket Thanks for including me in this opportunity, which I'd like to pursue.  As you know, I have some background in Early Learning (as the Executive Director of the White Center Early Learning Initiative) and hope to be a strong and informed advocate for Universal Preschool in my position on the Seattle School Board.   ...

...both mandated and non-mandated, along comes charter schools. Yes, some mysterious Board member (I'm taking bets but remember I will win) asked staff about the district becoming a charter authorizer. Now when some Board members ask staff for analysis, staff waffles, balks or just ignores their requests.  Or, Charles Wright, Deputy Superintendent, will call them out in public for making "too many requests." That's if they don't like the topic asked about and/or the volume of work it might take to get answers. But ask about charter schools and well, staff has lots of time. The timeline on all this is a bit confusing but somewhere during the summer (while Banda was still here?) some Board member asked for info on the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a charter authorizer. So staff, at least from this memo of August 7, 2014 , sprung into action.  Because: As you are aware, staff has been asked to understand and communicate the implications o...

A wealthy person trying to buy a basketball team?  Well, that would be Steve Ballmer buying the LA Clippers but according to a very well-done story from the Seattle Times, he cut his teeth doing it at Lakeside. I note that some of the comments call out Bellevue School District for this kind of thing as well as Rainier Beach High School.  The activities at RBHS have been covered in the Times previously but I don't really know what the story is in Bellevue. But when parents want sports to become the focus at a school (and the school allows it), it benefits no one.  There is no "you're helping low-income/minority students" when they are allowed to play as they are not passing classes. From the John Rogers Elementary school community: "John Rogers will have  4  kindergarten classes this year!  With that many kindergarteners (85) the school is scrambling to move classrooms, offices and closets around.  Staff have aske...

Update: I asked the Washington State Charter Commission staff about the letter of intent as I had gone back, read the WAC and realized that anything in it was "nonbinding" (including the fact that the letter of intent doesn't mean anyone has to follow-thru).  Here was their reply: The purpose of the Notice of Intent (NOI) is two-fold: First, they help us as staff plan for the upcoming application cycle. Second, per WAC 108-20-010 (1) a NOI is a requirement of the application process.  As you pointed out, the NOI is nonbinding.  Information submitted on an NOI does not prevent an applicant from submitting a different application from what is suggested in the NOI. End of update. As I previously reported, Green Dot has submitted a letter of intent to the Charter Commission to open their second Puget Sound region charter school this time in "south Seattle."  A couple of readers alerted me that Green Dot had two open houses this week, one in the SW and one in...