Seattle Schools Community Forum

New and clarified information on kindergarten enrollment from the district: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL – September 12 The first day of school for ALL kindergarten students is Monday, September 12 . The three-day delayed start enables teachers to launch “Family Connections” and meet with each family on September 7 , 8 or 9 to answer questions families may have and better support our youngest learners as they join our school and classroom communities. These teacher-parent visits will be available at every elementary and K-8 school, are an opportunity for teachers to hear families’ hopes and dreams for their children and shape instruction accordingly. Your conference will be scheduled by your child’s school. JUMP START, August 22-26 It is not too late to get a jump on the school year! This free transition-to-kindergarten program is offered at most Seattle elementary and K-8 schools. Jump Start offers children a chance to get comfortable in their new school, meet teach...

From SPS Communications: Get ready to join us for at the first ever Seattle Public Schools Kindergarten Kickoff! Seattle Schools is celebrating all the new adventures of learning that await our youngest students and we are spreading the word. Kindergarten Kick Off will be held at Van Asselt Community Center this Saturday, August 8, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. All are welcome.

Remember when we had the discussion about some kindergartners starting school later than others and that the District had let parents know this news as well as information about the before-school-readiness program, Jump Start?  Well, it got worse.

The Times has a great story about a student with Asperger's at Marysville Arts and Technology High School becoming valedictorian of his 50 student graduating class.  Chance Mair never told most classmates.  Good with math ( "I can count better than I can talk sometimes" ) and loving bowling, he went from special education classes in his beginning years in school to regular classes.  He will be attending WSU  on a full-ride scholarship.  In his speech to his classmates he said, "We choose whether we sink or swim, stand up or lay down, fight or fall, succeed or fail."   The Olympian is reporting that Governor Inslee will be signing a new state law to expand computer science in high schools by creating standards for teachers and students.  No word on where the money would come from to create these classes.  By popular demand, at least five people have sent me this article from the NY Times on kids and kindergarten.   I absolutely ag...

As a heads up, the district is offering (at nearly every elementary and K-8), Jump Start for kindergarteners.   Sounds like a great program.  From the flyer: It is a weeklong experience for new kindergarteners and their families to learn about their new school. Children will become familiar with the school building, staff, and typical school-day activities and practices. This summer, over 50 elementary and K-8 schools across the city of Seattle will offer Jump Start the week of August 18-22 . Jump Start will run for five consecutive half-days (usually 9 a.m. to noon). Parents/guardians will have a chance to meet with the school principal during the week. Interpreters will be available for children who are English-language learners. Families who have enrolled their child in kindergarten will receive a letter from their assigned school inviting them to participate. Families will need to reserve a space and return needed health and safety forms ahead of time. Not every ...

I come to this issue because of two recent stories about kindergarteners. One was from Oregon where - guess what?  Bad news about testing kindergarteners for "school readiness."  Two state official up the food chain in public education in Oregon called the kindergartener readiness results " sobering ." It is important to have a baseline for each child.  But this pressure of testing and standards - which are not developmentally appropriate for these children - is wrong.  It is unlikely to move the needle and, in fact, is more likely to hurt them.  Every single book or article I have ever read about early childhood  development talks about the learning through play model (which is rapidly disappearing). So then we come to the story from Elwood, New York about the cancellation of a kindergarten play in the name of  "college and career" readiness goals. From  The Answer Sheet, Kindergarten (and even preschool) has increasingly beco...

From Ed Week: The youngest kindergarteners in any class are about five times more likely to be retained in school compared to their older peers, a new study states. Moreover, educators don't tend to modify their teaching to include a variety of age groups present in kindergartens—but they should make such accommodations, wrote Francis L. Huang, assistant professor in the University of Missouri College of Education, in her study "Further Understanding Factors Associated with Grade Retention: Birthday Effects and Socioemotional Skills," published in the January 2014 issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. The age difference between the oldest children and their youngest peers in any kindergarten might be 12 months—a difference of 20 percent less life experience, Huang wrote. Their Early Years s ection had an article last year about holding back a younger-than-the rest kindergartner.  This study says that children from wealthier families hold bac...

KUOW is reporting a sticking point in the SEA and SPS contract negotiations - class size .  Yes, SPS wants to go bigger in the upper grades. Seattle Education Association President Jonathan Knapp says the district’s latest proposal, made last week, would increase class sizes in Seattle by two students per class in grades four through twelve. That would create average class sizes of 30 students in fourth and fifth grades, and 32 students in grades six through 12. Class sizes in grades one through three would remain the same. Knapp says a survey by the National Education Association earlier this year found Washington state has the fourth-largest average class size in the nation. According to the report, the district is using the capacity management issue as the problem.  I gently point out, who's fault is that?  And, what happens in three years with the next contract?  If I were a teacher I might say okay to this upping of class ...

Kind of an interesting story from Indie Reader to tell your art-inspired kids - the story of the first cover of The Great Gatsby and the ones that came after.  Remember kindergarten ?  I do and it wasn't like this (from Boston.com). Yet there is a growing disconnect between what the research says is best for children -- a classroom free of pressure -- and what’s actually going on in schools. Take the example of a girl who was barely 5 when she entered Gerzon’s classroom. She didn’t know her ABCs, but one day in class she made up a song and taught it to the other children. But because of new requirements, “I had to send a letter to her parents saying that [she] is not proficient,” says Gerzon. “You tell me that [she] is not proficient in language skills!” The Concord resident, who usually exudes a gentle presence, bristles. “It’s destructive, even abusive. That’s a pretty strong word, but what do you call it when you take a group of children and you force t...

The answer to that headline is - not really.  Are they getting more money?  Yes.  Enough money? No.  Can the Supreme Court really do anything?  Doubtful. So really, it's a lot of legislators blowing smoke about education.  (And no legislator should pat themself on the back for finally getting a budget.  That said, I know many districts are relieved to finally have some answers so they can finish their own budgets.) The Times reports that half the money would go to fund "student transportation, school supplies and building utilities" (things districts now pay for that the Supreme Court - go figure - said the state should pay for). The rest would go toward expanding state-funded all-day kindergarten and class-size reduction in kindergarten/1st grade in high-povery schools. This is all great but not enough.  (I believe the class-size reduction is about two students per class.  I don't know if the kindergarten funding means no more pay-fo...

I attended the Budget Work Session on Wednesday.  It was pretty sobering.  Key facts: There is a projected deficit of $18.4M .  I would love to explain it all to you (and I will try to at least get the PowerPoint up by tomorrow) but frankly, I look down at the paper version and I don't know what half of it is.  Imagine my happiness (and surprise) to hear Board Directors say, "Now, what is this?" because they don't know either.  I don't know if it is the Budget office trying to use smoke and mirrors or just too much jargon but if the people who will make the final decisions don't know what you are talking about, you're doing something wrong. By April 10th, we will have the Governor's budget, the House budget and the Senate budget.  We were told that is when "the rubber meets the road."  The Governor released his budget today and it seems quite favorable to K-12 ed (if not quite the amount everyone would want).  He seems to be finding the m...

Is this homework a kindergartener should be able to do?  I heard that at one Seattle elementary (it slips my mind which one but I think it is Roxhill) that they have ended homework and require only reading every night.    Should kindergartners have homework ? An upcoming event that may be of interest to you and your student - the unveiling of Mirror, a permanent art installation at SAM.   From their website : MIRROR is an urban earthwork that changes in real time in response to the movements and life around it. At the unveiling, guests will experience an unprecedented performance with synchronized choreography of MIRROR in relation to compositions by minimalist composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley. Mr. Riley will be in Seattle for the performance of his monumental work In C, featuring musicians from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. The event is free as are SAM galleries that day but you have to print out tickets for the Mirror event as well as pick up ti...

I know this was posted by readers in other threads but to be official; SPS has announced higher rates for full-day kindergarten.  The rate going up  from $2,370 to $2720 next school year.  There are 19 state fully-funded Ks in SPS that are fee-free.  There are 26 schools where F/RL students are eligible for fully-funded full-day kindergarten.  (There is overlap between the schools where all students get free kindergarten and those that allow F/RL students to waive the full-day kindergarten fee.) From SPS : The Kindergarten fee is only waived for: All students at certain schools that are fully funded by state and federal funds.   Students that have applied and approved by Nutrition Services for Free/Reduced priced meals .  For confidentiality reason, applicants must sign a consent form to share eligibility information with Accounting Department to attend full day kindergarten at no charge.   The waiver is only effec...

The Whittier Elementary PTA has put forth a petition to the Board to ask them to not add an additional kindergarten class next year (which would take away their long-time child-care program. From PhinneyWood.com Members of Whittier Elementary School ’s PTA plan to attend Wednesday night’s Seattle School Board meeting to oppose a proposal to add a fourth kindergarten class next year. Whittier, which is at 13th Avenue NW and NW 75th Street in Ballard, currently has three kindergarten classes of 23 students each. The letter from PTA Co-Presidents Lisa Melenyzer and April Brown states that 80 percent of this year’s kindergarteners live within the school’s attendance area, and that there was no waitlist for kindergarten at Whittier this year. The two say that there is room within the current three classes to add any anticipated population growth in the next few years. In the letter from the PTA: Please note that we are not suggesting that kids in the attendance area wh...

I wanted to follow up on some notes I had take from the C&I meeting about MAP testing.  (I'm going to do a separate thread on instructional material waivers as this one is quite long.)   The Committee is made up of Chair Martin-Morris, Peter Maier and Betty Patu but in a somewhat unusual action, they were joined by Director DeBell and Director Sundquist for the discussion on MAP and instructional material waivers.

So they hashed it all out about the $3.3M at the truncated Work Session this afternoon. All the Directors were there, save Betty Patu who was traveling. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson was also in attendance. There were several options laid out including breaking the money into chunks to help several different areas. The bottom line is that the Directors felt the over $100 increase per month for full-day kindergarten was too much. They agreed to a $30 per month increase for 2011-12 with the sum gradually going up year-by-year to meet the costs. That will take up $2.1M. The rest of the money will go into a "risk" reserve contingency fund. To be clear, the district already has a contingency fund of $4.6M but that is truly disaster money. Staff identified a number of "risks"for this budget year from either federal or state funding (or both) that are still unknown. If the numbers don't come thru (and the latest state economy numbers that came out are not good), then the d...

I am going to create a one-sheet list of my suggestions for easy reading but here it is fleshed out. (I'll have the one-sheeter by the end of the evening.) As a preamble to what I would suggest the district should cut, I make these disclaimers: I have looked through all the documents available for 2011-2012 budgeting. They do not follow in a real and coherent fashion so it is not really possible to discern exactly what staff is saying. There was an initial listing , followed by another presentation and the Strategic Plan Budget Planning Tool followed by the Budget Balancing tool . I can't tell if the planning tools overlap. I know that the Board pushed back on some initial ideas (like selling the radio station at Hale) so naturally it fell to staff to look at other areas. Staff is right about the difficulty of planning when there are unknowns looming. What will the economic update forecast be on March 17th? What will labor partners have to say? I am going wi...

Update 7:03 p.m.: It appears that the amendment to eliminate funding for highly capable programs and full-day K (except for high poverty schools) has FAILED . It is unclear to me whether the highly capable funding is going to still be suspended for this year but we'll probably know this week. There was a sigh of relief last week over the state funding for highly capable programs (called Advanced Learning in SPS). However, the funding is again being threatened. A so-called " striker amendment " introduced by Rep. Alexander has appeared in Appropriations bill 1086. What is particularly onerous about this amendment is not that it cuts some funding; it would eliminate all state funding for highly capable programs. Allocations for school district programs for highly capable students shall be distributed at a maximum rate of $401.08 per funded student for the 2009-10 school year and $401.08 per funded student for the portion of the 2010-11 school year from September 1, ...

So much to talk about but I did want to put up some interesting highlights from last week's Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Jan. 13th. There was some discussion of how to get Director Patu up to speed (as she is new to the Committee and, seemingly, finance). Enrollment: district is up by 188 kindergarteners and over 900 9th graders. Wow. There was some discussion about the various ways that BEX and BTA dollars were being spent as well as the bond sale late last year to get even more capital money for the reopened schools. I tell ya, the money just gets moved around and around. So those who were waiting on the item about the Audit Response to AE3.1 conflict of interest issue. It was reported that: this was about NWEA which the Superintendent did not disclose that she was on their Board. What was said at the meeting is that the district noted that this was a specific item and not just "you did not fully disclose all the boards you sit on". the wording on audit re...

UPDATE: Here is the Powerpoint link. Item 8: There was some confusion/frustration over an item on page 12 ( Strategic Plans: Moving Forward ) about the item " School Performance Framework (to include MTSS) . Thanks to Kay who said, "What is MTSS?" Turns out that RTI is now MTSS ( multi-tiered system of support ; a response to intervention) Susan Enfield talked about using what they have learned works and taking it out to other schools. This generated a lot of discussion. The item has its original cost at $8.7M and its proposed cost at $0-3.1M. The focus here has been on Level 1 and 2 schools and the interventions scale-up for all schools. Duggan said that of the $5.2 current budget for 37 schools, they have revenue for $2.1M so they need $3.1M to keep up. But Sherry could not follow the bouncing dollar signs (I couldn't either). Duggan said the $8.7M is in the gap. MGJ said that in a Dece. 15th conversation (I believe it was another ...