Seattle Schools Community Forum

Washington's Paramount Duty has a new website and is still working hard to see McCleary fully enacted. Here's how their home page reads: The shameful, endless STATUS QUO Parents and their children live and breathe it every day: overcrowded classrooms ... lack of basic textbooks and supplies ... disappearing arts and sports programs ... unsafe buildings ... overwhelmed teachers ... Pretty much says it all. Now for something pretty funny - former Governor Christine Gregoire is now the CEO of a group - Challenge Seattle - to work on "transportation and education issues."  From Geek Wire:  The new organization officially came out of stealth mode earlier this month, announcing plans  to solve the region’s pressing transportation and education problems with the help of government, the University of Washington, and 17 leaders from some of the largest and most successful local companies. I'll be honest; when I see more business types than any other in a g...

Lori Dunn , Seattle Public Schools’ Physical Education and Health Literacy Program Manager, has been honored with SHAPE America’s top award for Physical Education administrators.

It was a full house but frankly, not as full as I thought it would be (and certainly not the crowd that Charlie had - Tracy Libros said there were at least 250 people at Monday's event).   There were three legislators there - Rep. Jamie Pedersen, Rep. Gerry Pollet and Senator David Frockt.  I saw just two Board members - Director DeBell and Director Peaslee (odd that Martin-Morris wasn't there - this is his region).  There were also several members of the FACMAC committee. I sat at a table with parents worried about several issues but they seems resigned.  I also sat with two reporters from the Roosevelt News.  They worry over losing diversity at their school and overcrowding.  I set them up to talk with Shauna Heath.  Big Picture A couple of themes I came away with that I hope ALL parents understand. This is a serious situation (and probably more serious than the district is letting on although Flip Herdon did let two things slip that s...

There was a request for this topic which we don't talk much about anymore.   I think there's some reasons why.  One, I think the racial tie-breaker left a bitter taste in a lot of people's mouths (and it cost us a lot of money to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court - wonder what that final bill was?)   Two, we have a neighborhood plan and we need a few years to see what, if any, difference we see in racial diversity at our schools.  Three, we have had little use for the Open Choice seats at the high schools.  That would be one big way to have more diversity - whether racial or socio-economic - get into the high schools.  I'll have to ask Tracy for a breakdown of those seats this year but if there are more than 25 in the whole district, I'd be surprised.  From our readers: What counts as diversity? Income disparities, the blending of poor, middle class, and rich? Homosexual or heterosexual parents at home? First generation ...

First up, congratulations to Green Lake secretary, Debbie Passi , the Washington Education Association's Educational Support Professional of the Year.  Also, congratulations to Sandi Whiton, the Academic Intervention Specialist at Chief Sealth High School who received an award from the private college, Whitman.  Her award is called the Distinguished Elementary/Secondary Teacher Award and is given at their commencement exercises to honor an outstanding teacher who contributes significantly to the intellectual development of students.  My puzzlement comes from two places.  One, Ms. Whiton is an academic intervention specialist and what does that mean?  This is something every middle and high school should have.   As I mentioned previously, at the Alliance Breakfast they showed a Denny Middle School video that mentioned an "early incident specialist" who works there.  So obviously these intervention employees exist at some schools but which ones ...