Seattle Schools Community Forum

We've had discussions here about the role of PTA in public education in our district.  There are several schools that are now PTOs (parent-teacher organizations) that operate solely at their schools.  Being a PTO is more work in some ways but in another way, it's better as your school gets to keep all your fund-raising dollars (without dollars going to state and national PTA.) We've talked about trying to figure out if it would be possible to share PTA wealth from some more empowered schools since other schools have small PTAs.  (I was doing a random check and so far I haven't found a school without a PTA/PTO.)  As I previously reported, the district says that PTA grants are now well over $3M a year and that's now above some other grant providers. Seattle PTAs have certainly taken on more and more. But it's not just the money but how PTA at all levels seems to be different to me.

 (This is a quite long wrap-up of the latest Board retreat held this past Saturday.  Not all will want to wade through it but I can say it allowed me to see how the Board is interacting and some issues within the group.  I believe that all seem to have high regard for Superintendent Banda.) First, I have to say that this was a slightly odd Retreat as I had never been to this venue, The Hub Seattle, before.  The set-up had us sitting in a seating area - with couches and chairs - and I sat as if I were part of the group (normally the visitors sit on the perimeter so I did feel like I was eavesdropping). As I said before, I was the only outside visitor to the Retreat (unless someone came after 2:30 pm when I left). What seems difficult to understand is how the Board has given over (nearly all) control to the Alliance about what the retreats will cover.   I don't get it.  As I previously mentioned, Directors Peaslee, DeBell and McLaren all said they had n...

The Mayor had organized an Education Leadership Team awhile back and I finally got to attend a meeting today.  The Team is made up of City staff, SPS staff, UW staff, community college reps, business reps and labor reps.  It's quite a diverse group (well, in what they do - not so much diversity in what they look like).  SPS staff there today included Pegi McEvoy, Duggan Harman and the Superintendent. Most of the meeting was about the legislative agenda for each group. The overwhelming talk was of McCleary and its enactment .  Basically it was stated that the McCleary decision said: - not spending enough on K-12 education - the way the dollars are received is structurally unsound - the outcomes are not good enough to create good citizens and a sound economy The final meeting for the legislative taskforce is Monday morning but no one is expecting any great news or outcomes.  What was suggested is the levy swap PLUS a tax so that NO district loses mon...

This is a bit early but I happened to be at the district website and decided to check the agenda for this Wednesday's Board meeting. I'm a bit perplexed. One item is the district asking OSPI for a waiver for Cleveland High to be exempt from the 150-hour state requirement.  It is now an ALE (alternative learning experience) school versus a traditional school.  Under OSPI an ALE school does not meet the 150-hour requirement and so only gets 90% of funding that traditional schools receive.  The district wants Cleveland to get that extra 10% (about 300k) for this year.  What's perplexing is that they explain how they created Cleveland two years ago with a block schedule.  They knew the block schedule would mean less class time and yet they went ahead.  Now, they are unhappy they don't get full funding. OSPI recognizes that block schedules cannot meet the 150 hour/credit requirement, and therefore is willing to grant waivers for schools doing a block sch...