Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the Graduation Alternative Application for Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Boy, is there a lot out there. First up, great news for the students receiving Washington Opportunity Scholarships - their check goes up from $1,000 to $5,000.  From the Times report: The scholarship is for Washington residents studying at in-state institutions who are majoring in science, technology, engineering, math — often called STEM — and health-care fields, and who meet an income threshold that's considered low- to middle-income — up to $102,200 for a family of four. Its aim is to encourage more students to go into those high-paying, high-demand fields. It may be especially important to middle-income families, who often don't qualify for financial-aid programs and must rely instead on loans, especially as tuition has risen so dramatically. Freshmen and sophomore scholarship winners will receive the smaller $1,000 award. Because it's renewable, and can be used for up to five years of college, the value of the scholarship could be as much as $17,000 ...

Wednesday, Jan. 4th Second part of a Work Session around Board policy Series 6000 from 4-5:30 p.m.  This series is about operations including budgeting, revenues, purchasing, etc. School Board Meeting - 6-9 p.m.  Among items on the agenda:

Good news from The Road Map Project.  One of their efforts is to make sure that as many eligible students as possible sign up for the College Bound Scholarships .  Looks like it paid off as a record 91% of eligible students signed up (as compared with 74% lat year).  Thank you to everyone who reminded a kid or their PTA. The scholarship will cover students who pledge to graduate from high school, demonstrate good citizenship and seek admission to a college. The area covered includes South Seattle, Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Renton, and Tukwila.  Tukwila signs up 100% of all eligible students while Auburn climbed from 38% to 67%.  Over 3900 student signed-up.  The Seattle schools covered are Secondary BOC, Merce, Aki Kurose, Orca, South Shore, Washington and Denny.  Secondary BOC, Mercer, and Aki Kurose enrolled 100% of their eligible students.  South Seattle schools overall went from 91% to 95%.

Spoke with Pegi McEvoy, assistant superintendent for Operations, and guess what?  Roosevelt is finally getting its security cameras by the end of the summer.   Cross that one off my "to-do" list. I knew RHS had been put on the BTA III list for the cameras and had advocated for them to get moved up the list (the $80-90k cost and the time it would take was a complete drop in the bucket for the district under BTA).  Kay Smith-Blum had even asked for this at an Operations Committee but former head of Facilities, Bill Martin said they had a schedule and Peter Maier backed him up.  I think Pegi might have gone to bat on this one (she's the former head of SPS Security) so I owe her.  From the Seattle Council PTSA: This Tuesday, June 28 , the Washington State Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the McCleary v. State of Washington case.  The plaintiff is arguing the State of Washington is not meeting its constitutional responsibility to fully fund...