Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tomorrow, Friday, April 1st.  Ironic because it's April Fools' Day (but who will be laughing?) Ironic that yesterday when Governor was signing the education opportunity bill to support more underserved students - he dubbed it the Student Sunshine bill, to try to wipe out the gray of decades and decades of injustice - it was at Aki Kurose Middle School.  (That selection of school was not random; Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos of the 37th picked it.) It's ironic because Aki Kurose was considered - just several years back - to be a "failing" school but now is a "growth" school with a steady rise over several years in test scores.  As well, they have falling discipline rates.  And, their principal, Mia Williams , was just named Middle School Principal of the Year for Washington State.   All these things that charters claim just aren't happening in public schools and yet, there you go. And think of what Ms. Williams and her staff could do with fully-fu...

I have previously pointed out the obvious about Governor Jay Inslee and the situation he is in regarding the charter school bill on his desk.   1) He ran on the Washington State Democratic platform which is against charter schools.  2) He's running for reelection and he needs to consider money AND boots on the ground to support him if he wants another term.  While I don't think the Republican candidate can win, he should run hard (especially given the craziness around what the GOP is doing on the presidential candidate level.) 3) Throughout his tenure, he has said he's against charter schools.  He has never said anything publicly about that stance changing. 4) During the legislature session, he did go visit a charter and said he was glad to meet students who loved reading.  Some interpreted that as a soften of his stance. I'm not sure one visit to a charter school would change anyone's mind.    5) He went to law school and wa...

In February of this year, police went to Summit Tahoma High School (part of the Summit charter school chain) in San Jose, California, on a tip from a parent that there was a sexual relationship going on between a student and a teacher. Imagine their surprise when they found that the principal had done his own "investigation" and believe it to be just a rumor. From the San Jose Mercury News:

The Republican House/Senate Majority Caucus had a press conference to discuss various subjects on the docket as the end of the legislative session draws near.  At about 2:30, Rep Chad Magendanz weighs in on charter legislation.

From Cascadia Weekly : YOU HAD ONE JOB: With fewer than 20 days left in their short legislative session, a nearly paralyzed state House and Senate in Olympia passed watered-down education funding plans on razor-thin margins divided along extremely partisan lines hours before a cutoff deadline that would have stalled the bills in their houses of origin.

As I have previously stated, I have had public disclosure requests in for some time to various groups including former charter schools in Washington State, OSPI, and the Charter Commission.  I am still awaiting yet another drop from OSPI. I had a very difficult time getting ahold of anyone from couple of former charters and gave up.  But, if they ARE public schools, there should be no mystery of who is their public disclosure officer and how to contact that person.

Some items I have mentioned before and some items are probably new to most readers.

Two stories from two noted national newspapers. One is from the New York Times and is one of the most objectively written stories on public education that I have read in a long time.  Its overview is the turmoil in public education in Washington State, including the Seattle teachers strike but is mostly about the Supreme Court decision on the charter law. About the charter ruling; We are now firmly on that chess table,” said Thomas Franta, the chief executive of the Washington State Charter Schools Association. But he said the political terrain had gotten tricky because with two giant education issues facing the Legislature, the pressure would be immense to tackle them at the same time in a special session. “And doing them both at the same time is going to be more difficult,” he added. But David Sciarra, the executive director of the Education Law Center, which advises lawyers on education financing cases, said the Washington ruling could foreshadow fights over char...

The Washington State Charter Commission will not be waiting for their next regularly-scheduled meeting on September 17th to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on the charter school law. Special Commission Meeting (Agenda) Wednesday, September 9, 2015 │ 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Forgot one interesting piece of news; the City has extended the deadline for families to apply for their Preschool Program from July 31st to August 10th.  What? Families aren't breaking down the doors for this "high-quality" preschool?  I note that ALL the classrooms for the City program are indeed in Seattle Schools. The College Board got quite the battle over AP History and apparently more conservative interests won.  From Huffington Post:

Tuesday the 21st sees the public forum for Summit Sierra charter school from 6-8 pm at Freedom Church, 9601 35th Ave. SW.   Unfortunately, the Summit site gives no detail on the format of the evening nor does the Charter Commission site.  From my experience, you sign in if you want to speak and are given a lottery number.  There are usually between 3-5 Charter Commission members there.  After they are introduced, then Summit has about 10 minutes to flesh out what their school is and how they will operate. Then, the public gets a chance to weigh in.  Hopefully, the Charter Commission will not allow what happened in the past which is that the charter school gets supporters to come, each gets lottery number to speak.  However, Green Dot had a staffer who collected all those numbers and Green Dot decided who would speak.  I don't have a problem with any charter being able to bring in supporters but it seems like whoever has the number that is dra...

Update: for one, turns out there's someone from the Gates Foundation on the Committee.  I'm sure that's a bit voice for charters.  His name is David Wertheimer. What seems to be the explanation for this "mandate" for investment in charter schools is the idea that (1) SPS isn't building new schools (wrong) and (2) that school facilities could be built into housing. On the first issue, we all know SPS is opening up every building they can (and those are some schools that have been closed so long, they might as well be new) and, as well, the district IS opening two new schools at the Wilson-Pacific site.  I have no idea why someone would say the District isn't building new schools if they didn't know for sure but you'd have to ask members of the Committee. Now if the City thinks that having charters will serve all these new students, they clearly don't know charters.  For one thing, charters are deliberately smaller so any idea that a char...

From the Washington Post's Answer Sheet (partial): Along with the Common Core, the big winners in terms of issue were charter schools — especially in Washington state (where Gates helps finance a campaign to win voter approval of charters) — and online and technology-based learning initiatives.

The Washington State Charter School Commission (Commission) will be hosting two (2) public forums in July. These public forums are a chance for the parents, community members, local residents, and school district board members and staff to learn about and provide input on the proposed charter school. Commission representatives will be in attendance. Below are the dates, times and locations for each public forum: Summit Public School: Seattle #2 6:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 21, 2015 9601 35th Ave SW Seattle, WA 98126

 Update: the Times has more reporting on the situation with First Place Scholars.  According to their article, two Commissioners wanted to revoke their charter. It was pointed out that FPS will probably owe money back to the state because they did not enroll as many students as they said they would.   FPS has another deadline of June 17th - less than a month - to meet the Commission's requests.  It appears most of the Commissioners agree that if these requests are not met by June 17th, they won't "kick the can" down the road again.  Head of FPS, Dawn Mason, continues to claim it's not FPS' fault because they opened too quickly.  end of updates From the PI , news about charter schools in Washington State: First Place Scholars is still under scrutiny. According to written reports to the commission, the school has made some progress in its work with students who do not speak English at home and in setting academic plans for children with spec...

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...

Looks like three people have filed to start campaigns for School Board , each in a different region. Ruben Van Kempen, a 35-year teacher and head of the drama program at Roosevelt High School , is retiring.  I can't say enough about this man, his energy, his hard work to build a stellar drama program and, most of all, his belief in students.  A fund has been set up to raise money to name RHS' theater the " Ruben Van Kempen Theatre ."   Who got the Federal Reserve building?  Long-time developer Martin Selig.  No word on what he'll do with it. I had been waiting to see what tomorrow's Work Session on Charters/Strategic Plan was about and now I know. The Board is actually considering being an charter school authorizer.   The Presentation reads like a campaign ad for 1240 and includes "best interests" of the District and discussion of continuum of partnership and collaboration .   And guess what?  Not a single Director or staff ...

From Florida, a state where ed reform is almost completely out of control, two stories. The first is a continuing issue of Florida's insistence on testing all students, even the most severely disabled.

As many readers have reported, seven Democratic senators, in the Washington State Legislature, including three from Seattle, voted to move forward a bill (SB 5748)  that would tie student test scores to teacher evaluation.  The vote was 26 yeas to 23 nays.

West Seattle Blog editor, Tracy Record, has discovered that it appears Green Dot is trying to remodel a church building in the Roxbury area of West Seattle.  Reviewing city permit application files today, we discovered a just-filed early-stage proposal to remodel and add to what is currently the Jesus Center/Freedom Church building at 35th/Roxbury, in the name of Los Angeles-based Pacific Charter School Development .  The one document publicly visible in the Department of Planning and Development system so far, dated December 31st, is a roughed-out site plan , showing the addition primarily along the Roxbury side of the 2 1/3-acre site. I note that the Pacific Charter School Development is a capital building/renovation group funded by the Gates Foundation, the NewSchools Venture Fund, Broad Foundation, Walton Foundation - in short, ALL the usual suspects.  It's based on this:    Venture Philanthropy These organizations support PCSD’s adherence to ...