Seattle Schools Community Forum

The charter school law case has been assigned to King County and to Judge Jean Rietschel.    I was amused to read elsewhere that the lawyers for the plaintiffs were accused of going "court and judge shopping." For the record, most cases involving statewide issues are either heard in Olympia (state capital) or Seattle (largest court system).  No mystery there. As for judge shopping, it is my understanding that plaintiffs have one chance to change judges if they are not happy with their assignment.  That change right was not used in this case. The Times supported Judge Rietschel's election in 2008. I am seeking information on a court date.  I would think the plaintiffs might argue for a date sooner rather than later because of the impacts on all the various entities (districts, schools, charter school operators, Charter Commission, BOE, etc.) My early take on the case is that there are several legal issues likely to be raised, most of them based on the...

Yet another thing I missed on I-1240 (it's just the gift that keeps on giving) - I had thought you could not convert a private school to a charter but yes, you can.  I know, I thought 1240 had prohibited this but, in my defense, I can only say that I had read so many other states' charter laws (and many do prohibit this) that I got confused.  I double-checked with my ace reader, Eric B, and nope, we missed this. Turns out at the Board of Education (which has to write some rules around the law), they have had a bit of a struggle over this issue as well. Okay, so let's go over what we do know. First, the words "private school" do not even appear in I-1240 so that should have been a dead giveaway from the start.   I was told by the BOE that yes, " the statute is indeed silent on this issue. "  They aren't saying it's a omission but I believe it is a deliberate one. The private school has to be a 501c3 (or create one). The private schoo...

Tuesday,  July 30th Charter Commission Meeting , 10 am - 5 pm in Tacoma.  Tacoma Public Schools, Central Administration Building, 601 South 8th Street, Tacoma. Agenda not yet available but I do know a couple of things: - Public Hearing on proposed rules : Tuesday, July 30 from 10:15am to 11:15am.  Written comments can also be submitted to RaShelle Davis by mail or email before Monday August 19, 2013 to the following addresses: PO Box 43113, Olympia, WA 98504 or rashelle.davis@gov.wa.gov - After both the Public Hearing and Public Comment period (from 11:15 am to 11:30 am), the Commission will go into Executive Sessions from 11:40am on. A bit troubling is that the first Executive Session is about "potential litigation" about the Commission and/or a member.  That seems quick for a group that hasn't existed even a year. Then there are four Executive Sessions to discuss the candidates for Executive Director.  I am not happy to say that one of them is a forme...

Both the Board of Education and the Charter Commission are soliciting feedback for draft rules for charter schools. From the BOE: At its July 10-11 meeting, the State Board of Education approved for public hearing draft rules pertaining to annual reports by charter school authorizers under RCW 28A.710.100(4) - proposed WAC 180-19-210 . We are seeking public comment on these draft rules. We encourage you to review the proposed rules and provide feedback by contacting us at sbe@k12.wa.us . Your input will be valuable to the board as they consider these rules for adoption. The Board intends to hold a public hearing on the proposed rules at its September meeting in Yakima, Washington. Formal notification of the date, time and location of the public hearing will follow through the process prescribed in RCW 34.05.

I checked the agenda for tomorrow's Charter Commission meeting and it is truncated because they will be doing interviews for Executive Director in the morning.  So there will be nothing of import for the public to see until 12:50 pm when there will be Public Comment.  They will then discuss rulemaking and planning, reviewing the proposal for work by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Chairman report, Staff report, and Conflict of interest subcommittee report.  This all ends around 3:30 p.m. when they go into Executive Session again for another interview.  After that (about an hour), it's a wrap-up of the day and review of assignments and July's agenda.  They adjourn at 5 pm. Reminder, this time it's at this location in Seattle: Seattle University, Loyola 203 901 12th Ave

I am obviously way behind on this thread as the next Charter Commission meeting is this week.  It was held at the Technology Access Foundation headquarters in White Center.  Very nice building and great staff.  One of the Charter Commission members, Trish Millines Dziko, runs TAF and its programs.  Chair Steve Sundquist, in his chairman remarks, stated that the Commission had sent a letter to the Board of Education.  The Commission would like to influence the BOE on the issues of timelines and fee schedules.  It appears they did get what they wanted.  One, there will be a requirement of a letter of intent to apply for a charter .  This is great because it gives everyone a heads up to who is coming and where they intend to apply (either through the Charter Commission or a school district).  Two, t he timeline for extending the deadline for decision-making has been moved to Feb. 24th.   The BOE rejected their ideas on the fe...

Tuesday, June 18th Audit and Finance Ctm meeting (quarterly audit mtg) from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda . Includes: - exit conference from State Auditor on accountability - internal audits include Kimball Elementary, custodial services/grounds, and Denny - risk management - ethics update Wednesday, June 19th School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm.  Agenda . Includes: - academic calendar for 2013-2014.  There appear to be two Options, A and B (the difference being PD waiver days in A and not in B.) They want the Board to approve both as the BOE doesn't meet to discuss the district's request for PD waiver days until July 12th.  The other difference is 2 days of TRI but different dates for A and B.  There appear to be two snow days at the end of the year in June and one they could use for the Day between Semesters.  And yes, there continues to be a full-week of mid-winter break.  It's unclear to me if this is a final from SEA.   - the NWEA contr...

Tuesday, May 28th Charter Commission meeting from 10 am to 5 pm at TAF in White Center.  Agenda .   Updates on finances, the Ex Director search, bylaws, etc.  Public comment is at 11:24 am and you can sign up at the meeting.  Wednesday, May 29th Curriculum& Instruction Policy Committee of the Whole Meeting: Growth Boundaries from 4-6 p.m. The agenda is quite terse/vague so I'm not sure what they are really aiming for here. This should be interesting as all the directors should be there and what they have to say about C&I vis a vis boundaries. Work Session: General Contractor/Construction Manager from 6-6:45 pm. A head scratcher, this one.  A work session to discuss a construction hire?  The agenda says nothing and has no presentation attached. Thursday, May 30th Operations Committee Meeting from 4-6 p.m., no agenda yet available. Saturday, June 1 Board retreat from 10 am to 5 pm at City University, 521 Wall Street.  No agen...

Roosevelt High School's Jazz Band placed third at this weekend's Essentially Ellington competition in NYC.  Congrats to all! Ballard High students in their video program won two major prizes at the Dominique Dunne Film Competition in Colorado Springs.  The competition only awards four prizes and the judges are a who's who in Hollywood  so this is huge honor for Ballard.  Good job!  Pinehurst K-8 is circulating a petition about their proposed relocation to Broadview-Thompson. From the petition: Pinehurst K-8 at Broadview-Thompson provides the district with a much-needed Option School in the northwest area.  As Pinehurst K-8 community members, we consider these requests to be reasonable for the success of the co-location: • That we retain our principal, administrative staff, and instructional staff to ensure stability for our entire community during the transition; for initial negotiations with Broadview-Thompson staff regarding scheduling...

Charter Commission discussion The biggest bone of contention at this point is the lottery system for approved charter school applications. Now my initial read (and others as well) was that if the Board of Education received more than 8 approved charter applications from all authorizers, then they would go into a straight lottery.  The Attorney General's reading is that the seven that get to the BOE's office first will be stamped and approved.   (The BOE has NO role in authorization - they just need to document when applications come into their office.)  The BOE will, however, decide what the word "simultaneous" means.  Any approved applications that come in eighth (and it's still unclear how big a window there will be - maybe just a day), those will go into the lottery. There are some on the Commission that seem quite uncomfortable with the "race" aspect to the applications.   There seems to be consensus on the Commission to try to get clarit...

The second Charter Commission meeting took place on April 30th at the Bellevue Art Museum where Commission member Larry Wright is the Executive Director.  (I'm going to review the meeting  in two threads as it was a long meeting.)  Here are the two presentations from speakers.  One was Robin Lake from CRPE (I missed that) and William Haft of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (a group looking to make some money off the Charter Commission work.)  I haven't had the chance to look at Ms. Lake's and I will talk about Mr. Haft's in the second thread. One rant.  It was fine to have it at the Bellevue Art Museum except that the room was large and the members were not miked.  It made it very difficult to hear the members (some who are very softspoken like Cindi and Dave Quall).  As well, there were some audience members (and Lisa Macfarlane, I'm looking at you) who repeatedly had side conversations.  (I finally decided to e-...

Here are the documents that school districts will use regarding charter school applications.  One is a letter of instructions . Another is an application (I-V). Still another is a s tatement of assurances.   This one had one thing that I hadn't really seen before -  that districts not only have to solicit applications for new charter schools but for conversion ones as well.  To me, any district that says "hey we have this school that we've tried everything with.  Come take it over, send the students in all directions and take our building."   That would be one interesting solicitation. That was not my reading of the initiative (but, as the AG's rep says, she finds something new every time she reads the law so I'm not alone).  This document - Charter School Authorizer and Approval Process - is lengthy but chockful of good information. This Wednesday, May 8th, a couple of members of the Charter Commission will go to the State Board of Educa...

U.S. Department of Ed official to visit Cleveland High School today to promote "transformation efforts."  From SPS: Brenda Dann-Messier, who heads the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education, will visit Seattle’s Cleveland STEM High School on Tuesday, April 30, spotlighting the school’s transformation efforts aimed at promoting educational excellence for its students. As previewed in President Obama’s State of the Union address, the administration is proposing $300 million for a new High School Redesign program, which would fund competitive grants to districts partnering with postsecondary institutions, businesses and non-profits to help ensure that all students graduate from high school with college credit and career-related experience.   The irony here is that Cleveland was not created to be self-sustaining (because it got rolled out too quickly because of MGJ's ego) and the school actually needs the very kind of grant th...

Monday, April 29th Special meeting of Audit& Finance .  One single thing on the agenda - potential RIF presentation by HR head, Paul Apostle. Also, if you wish to speak at the School Board meeting on Wednesday, you can start calling/writing at 8 am on Monday. Tuesday, April 30th Charter Commission Meeting in Bellevue from 10 am - 5 p.m. at the Bellevue Arts Museum.  Agenda .  Open to the public (and people do come and go). They will be having an Executive Session first thing until 10:40 am.  They will then have a presentation about "charter school research findings" from the CRPE's Robin Lake.  (I have heard Ms. Lake speak before and she's a charter cheerleader. I'll be interested to see what the reaction is from the members.) Public Comment is at noon.  They are electing officers and any bets that Steve Sundquist won't be chair?  Mayoral forum from 6:30-9:00 pm at Garfield High School.  

Back down to 12 school districts applying to be charter authorizers as yesterday Eastmont School district in Wenatchee dropped out.  From The Wenatchee World : “I think this isn’t the time,” said Steve Piccirillo.. “We don’t have the time, staff or money,” said Annette Eggers. Both are members of the five person school board. “It seems like an awful lot of work to become an authorizer when they have the option not to go to us. If we were more in control of our destiny, I would support it,” said board member Chris Gibbs.  No kidding.  It's a big job to even apply and I can see where smaller districts might not even want to try. Superintendent Garn Christensen said the district wasn’t advocating a charter school as much as wanting to have the option of involvement in any plans to start a local charter school. “We wanted to keep the door unlocked if this is something we want to pursue. We want to be involved in the review,” Christensen said.  Bu...

I ended Part One explaining that there had been two large issues that arose during the meeting.  One is the rabbit hole I mentioned and the other is the funding of the Commission's work. Here's the rabbit hole explained. To get a charter from the state two things have to happen.  A charter applicant has to apply to just one authorizer and, after getting the authorizer's approval, then that approved application has to get to the State Board of Education for certification.  However, as you may recall, 1240 is quite vague on the timing of turning in approved charters to the State Board of Education.  Many of us who opposed this measure called this section out, asking "what does this mean?"  It's actually much worse than I thought.  Here's the original text: 3) Upon the receipt of notice from an authorizer that a charter school has been approved, the state board of education shall certify whether the approval is in compliance with the limits on th...

This particular thread will probably end up being quite long as there is both news to report from the actual meeting as well as the upshot of what we are going to end up getting for charter schools. The meeting was held in a conference room off the Governor's office.  There was a high wooden conference table with chairs that had low seats but high backs.  (I found this both funny and irritating because it had the effect of a bunch of kids sitting at an adults' table but you also could not see almost anyone's face as they spoke because the chairbacks block all views.) Not surprisingly, Steve Sundquist "volunteered" to chair the meeting (and, as I tweeted, I suspect he will end up chair of the commission).  To his credit, he's very good at chairing meetings.  I did not recognize anyone else not on the Commission except for long-time charter supporter, Jim Spady.  (He left the meeting quite frequently to confer with various people.)  I was seated next to ...

So not all the Charter Commission picks have been happily received and there have been some surprising things said about some of the newly minted members. The two primary targets are Kevin Jacka and Steve Sundquist.  Superintendent Jacka is from Springdale and leads the Mary Walker School District.  He is suspect because he signed a No on 1240 page (I can't discern if it was the No on 1240 campaign or the WEA campaign.)  Nonetheless, many superintendents, out of concern for their districts, did sign the petition.  (And indeed, even some of the districts recently signed up with a letter of intent to become authorizers are still expressing concern.)  Steve Sundquist, well, we all know he ran in November 2011 as being against charters.  He filled out a King County Dems questionnaire and said he was against them (as well as vouchers).  But he lost and by January 2012 was at his Legislative district meeting touting them.   Over at the Washingto...

From the Governor's office : Date: Thurs. April 4, 2013 Time: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Location: Governor's Conference Room Legislative Building, 2nd Floor 416 Sid Snyder Ave. SW Olympia, WA 98501 Printable map of Capitol Campus Handouts: Agenda Commission Members Dr. Doreen Cato Trish Millines Dziko Kevin Jacka Chris Martin Dr. Margit McGuire Dave Quall Steve Sundquist Cindi Williams Larry Wright Read commission member bios . For more information, contact RaShelle Davis at (360) 902-0551 or rashelle.davis@gov.wa.gov . The agenda has introductions, review of the agenda, lunch, overview from Attorney General's office, ethics training, State Board of Ed proposed rules, training for Sharepoint, Operating procedures and structure, public comment, next steps. The agenda seems quite out of order.  They are starting later to ac...

Here's the link to the Governor's e-mail page should you want to weigh in on the appropriateness of Sundquist's appointment. Steve Sundquist on KUOW on the Charter Commission yesterday.   Naturally the host of the show did not ask why Steve had been against charters when he ran for his second term and now is for them.  (I like KUOW but boy, they don't do their homework before they interview education folks.) Sundquist dodged the question about the conversion schools.  He said, over and over, that the performance criteria would determine who would open a charter school. When asked about the argument that charters would take money out of public schools, he said "no, that charter schools are public schools."  Which, of course, did not answer the question.  As a former Board member, he should well know that districts will be losing dollars. He said "objectivity" would be very important for the CC. He also said - and this was surprising but ...