Seattle Schools Community Forum

 This from SPS Communications on the upcoming closure of the Viaduct and traffic issues : School bus transportation and commute times for nearly all schools will be affected by the closure.

Remember when we had the discussion about some kindergartners starting school later than others and that the District had let parents know this news as well as information about the before-school-readiness program, Jump Start?  Well, it got worse.

Update: well, will you look at that?  On the same day, Publicola and The Stranger choose to highlight one campaign issue.  And it's their support for 1B.  Hmmm. End of update. After several forums (most of which I was invited to), I've learned a lot about the two campaigns for childcare/preschool, 1A and 1B. Here's my vote: Vote NO on the first question (and your conscience on the second one but I'm voting for 1A because I believe that, overall, it will serve more low-income children, faster, than 1B.  That's where I want my tax dollars going.) That will get the City Council and the unions back to the table to deliver one early learning proposition they both agree on.

Tuesday, September 30th Meet Superintendent Nyland from 6 pm - 7:00 pm at New Holly Community Center, 7054 32nd Ave S Wednesday, October 1st Meet Superintendent Nyland from 8:30 am-9:30 am at John Muir Elementary, 3301 S. Horton St. School Board meeting , starting at 4:15 pm (note: there is to be an Executive Session on Potential Litigation from 8-8:30 pm Agenda On the Consent Agenda are various Board policies that have been revised.  Of note is that the Board will not be posting their agenda three "working" days before the meeting but three days.  Under the old policy, you could see the agenda on Friday (with Friday, Monday and Tuesday being the three "working" days) but under this new policy, you may not see the agenda until Sunday.  Action Items (partial) Race to the Top money for Pre-K-3.   Parents, we need to have a very serious talk soon about the district's PreK-3 Action Plan.  I did not know this existed until today (and it's in i...

Between the issue of the Pre-K mission study junket and the appalling action (or lack thereof) on the issue of the Garfield field trip rape case, it's hard not to feel very angry.  As you may recall, in the e-mails about the Pre-K mission study, there was a lot of back and forth over where the money - about $2700 per person - was going to come from to pay for the trip.  Well, I found out where the "temporary" money came from.  I say temporary because there were funds used from one pot that will now have to be paid back to that pot by finding another pot of money. Here's how it breaks down (from SPS Public Disclosure): Budget codes that were charged Charles (Wright) - baseline funds (meaning not grant-funded) from the Office of Strategic Planning Keisha (Scarlett) - South Shore funds (Title I, I believe), “borrowed” due to the time crunch to get good flight prices, meant to be paid back Laurie (Morrison )– ditto Cashel (Toner) – Teaching and Learning, “bridg...

I will do my best to get this in a linear order but the e-mails were not always provided in that manner. To note, the trip was March 3-6th so clearly, getting started in early Feb was difficult on staff.  I wonder how the City thought the district had so much travel money to try to send 5+ people to three cities.   Key staffers involved: Cashel Toner - head of SPS Early Learning, seemingly the lead on this effort - went on trip Flip Herndon - head of Facilities, pushed to go on the trip by Toner - went on trip, provided an overview of his impressions vis a vis Seattle (I'll put this up separately as it gives some insights as to what the district's current thinking is.  I have no idea what the Board thinks but Blanford wanted to go on this trip.) Patricia Stambor - in HR, oversee Strategic Partnerships - had the biggest lift of anyone involved and seems like a good foot soldier in all this.  I note that at the end of all the work Toner thanks everyone but Stamb...

The Seattle Alliance of Black School Educators, in partnership with Seattle Public Schools, will be holding a Parent Summit on August 20 at Cleveland High School. Topics will include parent and family engagement, Seattle Public Schools initiatives, early learning education, and much more. More information here .

I had hoped to just put forth some ideas of what you might possibly advocate for the 2011-2012 budget. But there's a lot of pre-information that I think is important to put out there (dates, overview, etc.) so this first part is that information. The budget shortfall (gap) is $36.6M. Staff is recommending increasing the non-grant Strategic Plan spending by $321,476 but say that the impact to the gap is a decrease of $254,546 "due to things already assumed in the gap e.g. Special Ed. This is one statement that I have a hard time believing and even if it is so, that leaves $67k to increase the gap. The gap should not be increased at all for any reason . If we have no money, there is no money to expand. Timeline: It looks from the district's own timeline document that they are somewhat behind in the process. The Central Budget submittals were due between 1/18-1/28. I believe Don Kennedy, COO, said that staff was working over the weekend to have the final submittals to ...

A couple of education news items in today's Times. First, a big whoops. Looks like the contractor remodeling Hale doesn't think it rains much in the summer. "About 18 classrooms at Seattle's Nathan Hale High were damaged Monday when rain came through tarps covering a part of the roof that's under renovation. The extent of the damage is still being assessed, but school is expected to open on schedule, said district spokesman David Tucker. Hale is in the middle of a major renovation project, set to run through 2011." Now, obviously, it would appear the contractor is liable but you'd be surprised the number of times the district has lost in arguments with contractors and sub-contractors about these kinds of things. I'll have to see if the district loses any money on this one. The second article was about an early-learning center in White Center that is getting an infusion of money from the Gates Foundation. From the article by Times' repo...