Seattle Schools Community Forum

 From SPS Communications regarding the Strategic Plan, SE Region and Hiring/Spending Freeze: Strategic Plan Seattle Public Schools will host five community meetings to share information and ask for public comments about updating the District’s current Strategic Plan, Excellence for All.  The updated plan will guide academic and operational priorities for the next three to five years and include ongoing benchmarking to measure the District’s performance. The community meetings will be held: · Monday, April 1, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Eckstein Middle School auditorium, 3003 N.E. 75th St. (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Amharic and Tigrigna) · Tuesday, April 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Chief Sealth International High School auditorium, 2600 S.W. Thistle (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Amharic) · Saturday, April 6, 10 a.m.-noon, at Garfield High School commons, 400-23rd Ave.(Interpreters...

CFO Bob Boesche sent Dorothy Neville a reply and a follow-up to her questions about understaffing and its ramifications on the first day of school.  I personally was a bit confused by some of his answers and I guess the only answer at this point is to wait and see.  But, keep in mind, the Board and the staff knew that any poor outcomes were entirely possible and did nothing to protect the most likely to be overenrolled schools. His first e-mail said this (and I edited it down): The attached document should provide additional specifics, but I want to clarify that this is not a "hiring freeze" in the traditional sense. Hiring freezes are often long-term in nature. In this case, we will be making key adjustments within the first two weeks of the school year. Decisions will be based upon actual enrollment, addressing schools which are under, as well as over, in staffing. In the past, SPS often did not take away staff at schools which were under-enrolled. We can no lon...

Dorothy Neville sent an e-mail to the Board with her concerns over the what is likely to be more than one school opening its doors next Wednesday understaffed.  She said it well so below is her e-mail entitled Avoidable chaos: