Seattle Schools Community Forum

From United Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare is donating $50,000 to fund Food Lifeline’s mobile pantry food distributions. Half of the donation will provide gap funding for the Meals for Minds program for the 2016-2017 school year. Food Lifeline’s Meals for Minds program is a monthly in-school food bank for students at Seattle’s Northgate Elementary School, where 75 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. The Meals for Minds gives Northgate students and their families 22 pounds per student of food including fresh vegetables, milk and chicken.

Crosscut asks the question - Are Seattle schools prepared for heroin epidemic? They are talking about having the drug naloxone in schools as a quick remedy for someone who has overdosed on heroin.  Seattle police have successfully saved three lives in the last month. Locally, Mayor Ed Murray has repeatedly blamed heroin for contributing to the exploding homeless population. He and King County Executive Dow Constantine recently convened the Task Force on Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction, made up of political and health officials. Two representatives from Seattle Public Schools — Assistant Superintendent of Operations Pegi McEvoy and Executive Director of School Health Patricia Sander — are members of that task force, a recognition that schools must play a role in fighting heroin use. As early as summer 2014, board members of the National Association of School Nurses started discussing whether naloxone should be a part of schools’ response plans. Some are comparin...

This just got put on the agenda for tonight's Board meeting (thanks to reader Lynn for the heads up): Motion to Amend the Agenda – Superintendent Nyland has requested that a motion to amend the agenda be made to add an introduction item to accept a grant from the City of Seattle in the amount of $510,017.58, in the form of a Memorandum of Agreement, and to amend the 2015-16 Transportation Service Standards, to implement the ORCA Card Passport Program Enhancement for Free and Reduced Lunch Secondary students for the 2015-16 school year.  Given the time sensitivity of this item, the motion to amend would include a waiver, for the purposes of this motion only, from the requirements that the item be posted to the district’s website at least three days in advance of the meeting, as discussed in Policy No. 1420.

This from OSPI : Washington public schools play a vital role in children’s health by providing free and reduced-price meals to students in need. The following U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition programs are administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI):  National School Lunch Program ,  School Breakfast Program  and  Special Milk Program .

As you may recall, I said there were peripheral issues that I found in the public disclosure e-mails.  Let's go thru them.

I got asked this question by someone who wanted a list of the 20 highest and 20 lowest schools for free and reduced lunch students.  (I couldn't just find this information at the district's website so I compiled the list from OSPI data for 2012-2013.) I wasn't especially surprised at who made the list nor where these schools are located. I was surprised at who is number one overall  (meaning all schools) for highest numbers - bet you can't guess (no peeking first). There was a three-way tie for lowest.  Again, without looking, take a guess.

In the United States. From the NY Times : In a report released Friday by the Southern Education Foundation , researchers found that 51 percent of children in public schools qualified for the lunches in 2013, which means that most of them come from low-income families. By comparison, 38 percent of public school students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunches in 2000. According to the report, which analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics , a majority of students in 21 states are poor. Close to two-thirds of those states are in the South, which has long had a high concentration of poor students. In Mississippi, for example, close to three-fourths of all public school students come from low-income families. But the West also has a large and growing proportion of low-income students. Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada have high rates of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. What say you to that, ed reformers? ...

I recently became aware that just like start times, lunchtime varies widely from school to school.  There is a Board procedure - H61.01 that states: "Meal periods shall be long enough for students to eat and socialize – a minimum of 10 minutes are provided to eat breakfast and 20 minutes to eat lunch with additional time as appropriate for standing in line". "It is the policy of the Seattle School District, that each school located in a District building participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs. Providing quality, nutritious meals that appeal to students in a safe, clean, pleasant dining environment shall be a priority." As Charlie likes to point out, a procedure or policy is only as good as those who will enforce it.  In this case, that would be the Superintendent.  What has come to light is that a growing number of elementary schools are having lunch periods of 20 minutes or less.   While some kids eat quickly, others don'...

 Update:  Cleveland has an orchestra class and will be adding a second one thanks to the efforts of one student, Robert Babs, and yet another dedicated SPS music teacher, Michelle Maury.  Thanks to a reader for this tip; here's the story from KING-5. Some news items first: Congrats to Aki Kurose for winning the City's competition for best middle school attendance.  They got Mollie Moon ice cream for the whole school.  This is the second competition they have won (the other was a national attendance competition). SPS has won a grant for $241k for fresh fruit and veggies for our food program.   This continues a program for a fruit or veggie snack for students and will go to 13 elementary schools where their F/RL rate is 80% or more. One of my favorite little bookshops, Ada's Technical Books , is having a good program this Thursday the 12th at 7 p.m. with author, Jessica Sklar.  She will be discussing her book, Mathematics in Popular Cul...

From the SPS press release: In May, local band Death Cab for Cutie held a surprise concert for Seattle fans, with all proceeds benefiting Seattle Public Schools' lunch program. The concert raised $7,185.06, which will provide a nutritious lunch to hundreds of students who otherwise couldn’t afford it. The donated proceeds will be administered during the 2011‐12 school year, when kitchen managers at all 20 SPS secondary schools can help students access the funds based on need. This is the second time that Death Cab for Cutie has donated money to support the lunch program at Seattle Public Schools. In January 2009, the band contributed $2,200 in ticket sales from shows played the previous year to help students access nutritious meals they might otherwise have gone without. Eric Boutin, Director of Nutrition Services for Seattle Public Schools said: "There's a direct connection between good nutrition and academic achievement, and we appreciate the efforts of Death Cab...