Seattle Schools Community Forum

In something of a shocker, the Stranger Slog is reporting the following: The union representing 26,000 "educational support professionals" in the public school system says today that Republican Rob McKenna can do in the governor's mansion what Democrat Jay Inslee can't. He can restore funding for K-12 education (even though he's never convincingly explained how he can do this without crushing employee unions). Meanwhile, Inslee is "too committed to preserving the status quo."  The union is Public School Employees of Washington/SEIU 1948.   The WEA, Washington Education Association, is endorsing Inslee. One issue that has split the education workers' unions is health care benefits. From a Q&A on this issue:   Won’t Rob McKenna take away our collective bargaining rights?  We are a union and we strongly support collective bargaining. Rob McKenna has...

Seattle Public Schools was fined $6,000 for a persistent unsafe condition in the food prep area of the John Stanford Center. Ice built up on the floor of the freezer creating a serious risk for people to slip and fall. They should have fixed it, but they didn't. Now they have to fix the problem and pay a fine to the state. That's not an efficient use of District resources.

If you watch enough Board meetings you will eventually see one of these , a PERC decision. These occur when the District engages in unfair labor practices. I'd say that we see about two of these a year. The superintendent is directly responsible for all of them. Well, folks, it looks like there will be another one coming soon. Remember how happy everyone was with the new promotion to get more high school kids to eat breakfast? Well I guess not everyone was happy about it. West Seattle High School has unilaterally reduced the most popular breakfast period from 15 minutes last school year to only 5 minutes this year. An average of about 200 kids a day ate "2nd Breakfast" at WSHS. The schedule change was implemented with no notice to the Labor Relations, General Counsel’s office or the union despite repeated past (legal) commitments from Central Administration that such unilateral actions would never be allowed again, and a caution (from the longtime Kitchen Manager)...

The National Council on Teacher Quality, an Ed Reform organization posing as a think tank, has issued another report on Seattle. This one explores the proposals discussed in the negotiations over the teachers' contract. I have reviewed their report and found it to be a mixed bag. I agree with the District and the NCTQ regarding teacher assignment. I, too, would like to see principals have more authority to determine who works in their schools. I support the District proposal to eliminate super-seniority privileges and the forced placement of any teacher in any school. I also support mutual consent hiring for all teachers regardless of the reason a teacher is transferring schools or when the position is being filled. Under such a system, excessed teachers would be able to remain in the displaced pool for a limited amount of time while they search for a new position: 12 months for teachers on a continuing contract; 6 months for teachers on a provisional contract. After this period, ...

The District wants to include measures of student growth as part of the annual teacher performance evaluation. That seems reasonable. In fact, I don't think there is anyone who would be opposed to a fair and thoughtful use of student outcomes as part of the teacher evaluation. How will the District measure student growth for the purposes of teacher evaluation? That's not entirely clear, but we do have some hints: From the letter to teachers dated 8/3/10 Student learning and growth will be based in both teacher-determined and District-determined data and measures, and will account for the fact that not all children are the same. The District measure will be based on the overall growth of a teacher's students relative to students of similar demographics who have performed like them in previous assessments, and will be calculated as a two-year rolling average on at least two student assessments. I'm not sure what this means. A. " the overall growth of a teacher's...

This was reportedly distributed to principals for their reference when discussing teacher contract negotiations. TALKING POINTS FOR SPS LEADERS ON LABOR NEGOTIATIONS OVERVIEW COMMENTS • The vision for Seattle Public Schools is clear: We want every school to be an excellent school where every student receives excellent instruction. • Nothing matters more to student achievement than good teachers. • Our teachers deserve a system that recognizes their excellence and supports their growth as professionals. • That is why we are proposing a new system to support all teachers at all levels of proficiency. • We are building on our efforts in recent years to improve instruction through high quality aligned materials at all schools, professional development, and real time assessments of student learning. NEW SYSTEM OF TEACHER SUPPORT NEEDED • The next critical piece for improving instruction is clear. The District must hold itself accountable for results in student learning. W...

Those horrible people at the Our Schools Coalition placed a guest column full of lies in the Seattle Times.

The Alliance for Education wasted $14,000 on a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality that doesn't say anything different from what the NCTQ always says and doesn't recommend anything different from what the NCTQ always recommends. The Alliance could have spent that money in classrooms improving outcomes for children and the NCTQ could have made their recommendations for free. This is no different from the evaluation of your insurance from the insurance salesmand that indicate - shockingly - that you need more insurance. Except that the insurance salesman does the evaluation for free. The full report is available on the Alliance web site , right here . According to this story in the Seattle Times , " The report focused solely on policies that affect teacher quality, such as how teachers are hired, paid, assigned, trained and evaluated. " That's a remarkable statement since none of those things, except maybe training, actually affect teacher quality. A...

Yesterday, the teacher's union, Seattle Education Association (SEA), and the Seattle Public Schools (SPS), reached a tentative agreement on a one-year contract. A summary of the agreement will be posted on the SEA web site next week and the full agreement (with the actual contract language) before the end of the month. Here are some key features: For all staff: BLT decision-making authority and seniority rights remain intact Two flexible use personal leave days The contract is for one-year, and a new contract will be bargained in 2010. For certificated staff: Learning Improvement Day (LID) restored A 1% pay raise The District's performance pay proposals have been removed The District's proposals for "flexible staffing" have been removed A $1,500 ESA national certification bonus All special education staff will get ten additional IEP hours For classified employees: Two additional paid professional development days (equal to a 1% pay raise) 201 and 220 day classifie...

The Seattle Times ran an editorial today on the kerfuffle over the letter to the teachers. The Times editors made their first mistake in the lead sentence. They wrote: "Seattle school district officials followed Washington state law by notifying teachers of a proposed one-day reduction in the length of next year's contract." But the District officials did NOT follow the law (RCW 28A.405.210). The law requires that: "Such notice shall be served upon the employee personally, or by certified or registered mail, or by leaving a copy of the notice at the house of his or her usual abode with some person of suitable age and discretion then resident therein." As we know, these notifications were sent through the regular first class mail. Every single one of these nonrenewals could be easily and successfully appealed on the basis of faulty notification alone. The Times editors are not lawyers, but they should be journalists enough to check their facts. Before they claim...

The state legislature cut the funding for paid "Learning Improvement Day"s from two days to one. With that cut in funding, Seattle Public Schools apparently decided to eliminate the paid day for teachers, librarians, counselors and other certificated staff. That reduces their working year from 182 paid days to 181 paid days. Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson sent a letter to the affected staff about the reduction. In their usual unfortunate communications style, the District communicated directly with the teachers on contract issues. They aren't supposed to do that. They are supposed to negotiate with the union, not individual teachers. In addition, the letter essentially threatened every teacher with the nonrenewal of their contract if they do not accept the reduction in the work year and the reduction in pay. There are a number of disputed facts involved in this. The union says some things that the District denies and vice versa. Here are the information sources I have fou...