Seattle Schools Community Forum

At the Tuesday Open Thread, I noticed a discussion going on over this Facebook post from some members of Soup for Teachers (partial): We need your help. We are a small group of parents with kids in public elementary schools in Seattle who are seeking some data from parents from all public elementary schools in the Seattle School District.

There is an Audit and Finance Committee meeting today at 4:30 p.m.  Wish I could attend but I have an event.  Here's the agenda which has some interesting items: - adoption of the 2014-2015 budget book .  This might be interesting since the pick of MIF for K-5 Math adoption.  Of course, until a contract is executed, no one truly knows how much MIF will cost the district.  They had, according to their presentation at the last Board meeting, been willing to spend about $3.6M on enVision.  MIF is more expensive but, as has been pointed out, many of the items that staff pointed to as costs can be mitigated one way or another. - a loan from the Capital Eligible Program (CEP) to pay for the renovations at TT Minor for the Seattle World School .  They don't give a figure for this loan.  - one of my perennial favors is on the agenda - JSCEE Bonds annual update .  It's amazing how that building is the gift that keeps on taking from this distri...

As we grapple with the minutia of boundaries and enrollment, here's some higher level thinking on education to challenge you. From Ed Week , "What the Goal of Public Education?" , author Tom Segal offers his and others' ideas: Reform, however, has more to do with the learning experience itself. What should we be teaching? How do we think about accountability? How do we balance standards with the complexities of population diversity? Undoubtedly, technology is typically an offshoot of this dialogue, a tool through which much of this reform can be delivered and administered. But they are not the same thing. Reform is a big fancy buzzword that floats around one particular concept: what are we trying to get out of this educational experience, and how do we adjust the current system to reflect these changes?  In your opinion, what is the current goal of the American Public Education System? and.. What should be the goal of the American Public Education Sys...

Yes, I know. It's quite early in the year but this rather fascinating op-ed just appeared in the NY Times about fundraising.  What's interesting is that it is not about PTAs per se but about foundations that are created to support schools.  (Most of our comprehensive high schools have them.  Not sure about any others except I know Laurelhurst Elementary has one as well.) The op-ed, entitled "Not Very Giving" is by Rob Reich, a professor of political science at Stanford and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.   (I'm linking the website but I haven't looked at it myself.) He starts off in his own backyard with a bang: Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest towns in the United States. Median family income is over $250,000, and residents enjoy one of the best school districts in the state. It’s not hard for Hillsborough families to donate to their own children’s school. These funds supplement the annual public spending of $13,500...

It's a map, map, map world. You saw the map I put up yesterday about the most highly paid public employee in each state (mostly sports coaches of some sort).  More interesting maps have crossed my path and some you might share with your children. ArtsEd Washington , a group that supports arts education in public schools,  has a map showing all the school districts in the state.  It does give you pause in terms of how many tiny districts there are and the state spending that entails.   They are also sending a survey on arts education to every school board candidate in the state.  From Twister Sifter (funny), "40 maps that will help you make sense of the world."   Your kids might like some of these. Also of interest to kids, the first school in Seattle opened on August 15, 1870.   From HistoryLink : On August 15, 1870, Seattle’s first public schoolhouse opens. (Seattle's first school, opened in 1854, was a tuition-based or private school. ...

I did speak with Teresa Wippel, SPS Communications.  Our conversation helped clear up some issues but my reading of the RCWs cited now muddies it.  I will follow up with Teresa and the SCPTSA President to try to get more clarification but here is what I was told.  (Also, I hope the SCPTA president sends out a detailed explanation of what school PTAs can and cannot do with these types of funds and how to handle them.) The district had been working with the SCPTSA last year on this issue as the Washington Association of School Business Officers (WASBO) told the district they were not collecting the funds from on-site, school-hours fundraising properly.  They cited two RCWs - 28A.325.010 and 28A.325.030 .  What the district is saying those RCWs say is that students should partially benefit from any proceeds of these events, not the PTA.  The money - 10% or $1500 - should go into the school's ASB fund.  I was surprised as I hadn't really given muc...

Want a job with the SCPTA interfacing with SPS staff?  Here you go .  (I would actually be swell at this job but they would never hire me.) They need folks to represent most areas of the city. Do you have an interest in issues that go beyond your local school and affect children throughout the district? If so, we need you! Transportation, capacity, family engagement and district policies are just a few areas that SCPTSA is currently working on. SCPTSA board members have a number of opportunities to serve on committees in the district, as well as meet with district officials and school board members. SCPTSA works with all local PTAs throughout Seattle, including outreach, education, training and troubleshooting. We are looking for Area Directors for : NE, NW, SE, SW and Central Districts. The board meets monthly at the John Stanford Center, or via conference call. Are you interested in helping, but are not sure what role is right for you? Contact us so we can learn about ...

I had nearly forgotten that I had received a reply from Director Carr on the issue of the district considering partial funding for the IAs at McDonald for next year (despite the district saying previously that they weren't and it wasn't necessary to have IAs to have the program). I want to say upfront - the district created this program and after having sat through the Board Work Session on International Schools, I absolutely see the need for the IAs.  If the district wants the program to work, best practices would say have an IA in every room. However, there are two points to consider here. The main one is that that despite the popularity of the programs and the desire by many parents for access to them, they are ONLY available to children in certain neighborhoods.   This is not the fault of the parents but they also need to understand that they are getting something that other students have no access to.  And they need to understand that their program costs more ...

People have often asked me, "Why don't you run for office?"  The painful slog that is sometimes the Board meetings and/or committee meetings is one reason.  Today's Executive Committee meeting was one such experience.  Started at 8:30 am and ran probably till noon (probably because I left at 11:45 am).  This is Part 1.  Not that it wasn't chock-a-block full of news - it was.  But Brian Rosenthal from the Times left early (and surprisingly right before a good part) and Charlie, a twitchy guy on his own, was fairly chomping at the bit to get out of there. I'll start backwards because that's one of the most interesting parts. Good news - they picked the "focus group' community for the superintendent search.  For the most part, a good list with touches of greatness and one truly bad choice.   But I have faith in the abilities of the majority of the committee. Bad news - the process was a mess.  I hate to be this hard on the Execut...

Another fine article by Brian Rosenthal in the Sunday Seattle Times, this time about PTA fundraising and our schools.  He certainly did his homework and here's some interesting information: McGilvra Elementary raised over $390K last year.   They have about 240 students.  You do the math. So far this school year, four of the district's nearly 100 schools make up more than one-third of the expenditures. They are all elementary schools in wealthy areas: McGilvra, of Madison Park ($240,280); Queen Anne's John Hay ($215,077) and Coe ($180,000); and View Ridge ($195,000) in Northeast Seattle. Other elementary schools at the top include Adams, John Stanford, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights and Stevens. At the same time, dozens of Seattle schools, mostly in the South End, don't appear on the list because they don't have PTAs or don't raise enough to go through the central office. Wow.  There is no districtwide database documenting PTA fundraising by school, ...

This Accountability Audit Report by the State Auditor was better than the one in February if you are only looking at money.  But yes, money was once again lost and while the amounts are smaller than in February, it still damning and painful.

I have a couple of items to note about work I'm doing around Seattle public education.