Seattle Schools Community Forum

In advance of the meeting tonight at Mt. Zion Baptist Church at 6 pm with Garfield principal Ted Howard and black parents at GHS,  I thought I would put up their short survey. I'm putting it up for two reasons. One, if there are any black Garfield parents who haven't seen it, they might want to weigh in. Two, I note the list of items that is their wish list of 17 items.  Know what's NOT on it?  Blended classes.  It's a long list and that's not on it.  What they do say on honors is this:

In African-American Communities, More Interest in Homeschooling from KPLU earlier this year.

Apparently not, at least when it comes to charter schools.  My second batch of public disclosure e-mails raises more troubling questions. In my first batch, I explained how a couple of other districts' lawyers were worried about running afoul of state law in signing interlocal documents to allow students within their district borders to have an ALE with Mary Walker School District. This batch reveals more concerns from other people. Among them was the overarching role of Washington State Charter Schools Association. Who are they?

I call them "former charter schools" because, according to OSPI, that's what they are.  They are "contractors" fulfilling a program formulated by OSPI for their students. My reading of all that is going on comes to two conclusions. One, the current charter school law is dead.  Two Eastern Washington legislators, Senator Andy Billig and Senator Michael Baumgartner, are introducing a rather hacked-up bill (it's formatted using the old law to show the changes) - SB 6163 .  It's what Charlie calls "charter-lite" and it's nonsense.  It would allow any school board in a district to become  an authorizer of a charter.  (The previous law made the district the authorizer with the school board having true role.)  It is a vague mess that would put both districts and school boards in uncharted waters without a map. Two, there is no frankensteining these former charter schools back to life.  They have passed from being charter schools to being ...

 Update from Twitter via SPS: The ACT exams scheduled for tomorrow at Franklin & Nathan Hale will still be held. Not impacted by strike. end of update Both President Carr's community meeting and the Board Retreat (scheduled for tomorrow, Sept. 12th) have been cancelled.  What a surprise.  Don't know when Carr will be available again; the Retreat is rescheduled for Sept. 26th. There is another district press conference with updates on the strike at 3 pm.   I may not be able to make it but again, will track -via Twitter- any new information. Listened to both the KUOW Week in Review and their noon show as both talked about the strike (and charter schools, remember them?). First, I actually like the people at Washington Policy Center as people but man, there is NOTHING they won't say to promote ed reform.  Paul Guppy was on the Week in Review and he had some whoppers: - He said the strike was the "nuclear option." - He says that Aviation High and ...