Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tuesday, August 30th Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Nathan Hale building from 2-3 p.m. (There is going to be just a tour for the media at this event but Hale will be having a Community Celebration on Saturday, Oct. 15th  with public tours of the building.)   Hale's rebuild came in phases but ended up costing about the same as the other high school rebuilds, around $90M. Back to School Event: Community Celebration of Learning from 4-6 p.m. at the Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion.  Program starts at 4:30 p.m.  From the district: At this celebration, you will have an opportunity to learn about valuable resources, services and programs that will be available to support students and families during the 2011-12 school year. Mayor McGinn will be in attendance, some/all of the School Board, the All-City Band and "a few surprises."  You'll receive a ticket as you enter and there will be a drawing for several prizes. Wednesday, August 31st Seattle School...

From the Green Lake PI blog : On Wednesday, August 31, the first of the furlough days, there will be a Teacher Appreciation event from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at  Mockingbird Books  ( 7220 Woodlawn Ave NE ). Deborah Bonjouklian of  FaceTime SkinCare  is teaming up with Mockingbird Books to offer the event free of charge to teachers. Deborah will be providing complimentary mini-facials or hand treatments and the bookstore will offer a special teacher discount. There will also be drawings for various products, including B5 Serum, Self Tanner and Arbonne products, and a drawing for a facial valued at $80. “I think our public school teachers are getting a raw deal with the recent pay cuts,” Deborah says. “I wanted to do something to show they are appreciated.” A nice nod to teachers (while trying to help their own businesses).  

The Board meeting was fairly entertaining and informative tonight. First up was a wonderful presentation about Special Olympics and soccer teams made up of SPS students from 7 of the 10 high schools that formed a league this year.  (Rainier Beach's team won the championship this year.)  Created by SPS Athletic Director Eric McCurdy, it is to expand to all 10 high schools this year.  Really hard-warming and a great community effort from both Special Olympics and the Seattle Sounders. 

The agenda looks fairly light on Wednesday but with a few notable items.   (I note that today - Saturday the 13th - the agenda is not accessible at the SPS website but I had already downloaded it yesterday.  I'll post it when it comes back up.) Update: here's the link . The agenda was reviewed at the Executive Committee meeting held earlier in the week (which no School Board candidates attended which is unfortunate as it's where you see the real work done).

One, don't forget that LEV is having a live on-line chat today at noon about charter schools.   Two, the BEX Oversight Committee meeting tomorrow morning has been moved to Chief Sealth High School (likely because they will be doing a Denny walk-thru) at 8:30 am. Three, I'll be doing a thread on the Executive Committee meeting yesterday but there was mention of the furlough day for SPS staff coming up on August 31st.   Here's the letter that was sent out: "On that day [August 31], all SEA and PASS represented staff as well as all non-represented staff will be furloughed and prohibited from working.   I need to stress this IS NOT OPTIONAL.    The federal Fair Labor Standards Act states that if you are a non-exempt employee (which is how all employees are defined during a furlough week regardless of position), you must be compensated for ALL hours worked during that week. Having to compensate someone for working on a furlough day runs counter to ...

From the Seattle Times : In an effort to show the public that state funding cuts hurt, Seattle Public Schools plans to shut down for one full day before school starts, and close school early on another day during the school year. Principals have agreed to take Aug. 31 as a furlough day, and the district announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative agreement with teachers and other school staff to do the same, plus a half-day later in the year. The Aug. 31shutdown will be a few days before the school year starts on Sept. 7. It will affect training and other activities scheduled for that day. The district's enrollment office will be closed, too. Nearly all district staff will be gone, Harman said. The other half-day will occur sometime in January or February, and the union hopes to hold some kind of joint district-union activity in Olympia. Um, will anyone really notice? In Seattle, Harman said, "we did not feel that, given the reductions we've...

From the Stranger Slog : looks like furloughs are on the SPS tables (although only for Central Office staff and management level employees).  No teacher days yet as they are negotiating with SEA. The district says that "creating these furloughs means we can prioritize direct funding in the classroom."  Good for the district but I'd like a definition of "direct funding."