Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the South Seattle Emerald via Beacon Hill International School teacher, Rebecca Chase-Chen: I am writing to call Seattle Public Schools (SPS) to shield high poverty schools from these budget cuts. It is challenging to write this because, in order to prove the importance of this move, some may feel the need to hear about what communities lack. I want to focus on the assets of our community and school: the ways we are strong, resilient, complex and creative, rather than what individuals or groups in our community don’t have. Beacon Hill International School is a vibrant, hardworking community committed to learning, growing and critical thinking.  

I spoke at the School Board meeting on Wednesday.  One of my topics was the fact that in order to understand the raging budget deficit facing SPS, I was told to file a public disclosure request.  I pointed out to the Superintendent and Board that this was not transparency at its best and if they want support from the community, it might be useful to be open about the situation. This information  is not some state secret and, in fact, the finance/budgeting folks probably all know the numbers by heart.   To my surprise, I was sent this information by JoLynn Berge,Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance. Great but, once again, not specific enough (but, of course, that's by design.)  I'll first note the obvious for every single one of us adults - when creating a budget, you start with what money you DO have and what you owe/needed spending and THEN you see what is leftover for other things.  The district seemingly operates with what they WANT ...

Email your legislators right now by clicking  here  and ask them to fully fund public schools so they don’t lay off teachers this spring. Dear friend, Please  email your legislators right now and ask them to fully fund public schools so they don’t lay off teachers this spring. Across the state, already-underfunded school districts are being told to prepare for a new round of budget cuts. You may have received letters or emails warning about the possibility of teacher layoffs or program closures. Let's be clear: this is unacceptable. And it's unconstitutional.

Update 3 : partial from letter sent to families that has new information: Next Steps Between Dec. 5, 2016 and Jan. 4, 2017 we will continue to solicit feedback on budget priorities from staff, families, and community partners. I would like to thank the Seattle Council PTSA for hosting three regional meetings for families to provide feedback on budget priorities.  Community Budget Gap Meetings Tues., Dec. 13 , 6:30 - 8 p.m. Ballard High School 1418 NW 65th St. Thurs., Dec. 15 , 6:30 - 8 p.m. South Shore PreK-8 School 4800 S Henderson St. Tues., Jan. 3 , 6:30 - 8 p.m. Franklin High School 3013 S Mt Baker Blvd. Interpretation will be available. To request interpretation please contact publicaffairs@seattleshools.org with your requested needs.  Additional details regarding the budget deficit, budget development timeline, and actions you can take will be posted to the 2017-18 budget webpage by tomorrow, Dec. 2.  If you have specific question...

From Soup for Teachers: The Center School's Model United Nations team just won the prize for Best Large Delegation and nine Center School students won awards. There were 720 students at the conference from schools all over the Northwest, including lots of private schools, a number of which have MUN as a daily class. At Center, MUN is a student run group (with an amazing advisor teacher, Mr Bell) and is currently funded by parents. I'm putting up this notice from SPS but I would tell you not to bother.  The district is seeking members for the SPS Nutrition Services Policies Task Force .  I say don't bother because the district has ignored a very good report (that they paid for) put out earlier this year on the state of Nutrition Services in SPS and what could be done to make it better and continue successes in it.  Why have a taskforce when that work is already done?  As well, neither the Board nor the district ever act on taskforce recommendations so again,...

Despite it being a holiday week, there are SPS meetings happening.

The Seattle Times is the major newspaper of record in our city and it really does fall to them to give the fullest picture in their reporting and then, if they must, lead their readers to a conclusion about that story (or write an editorial.) The Times did both things recently.

One statement that Superintendent Nyland likes to say is "We can do anything, we can't do everything."   This week Seattle Schools hosted  two community meetings (which, for some reason, they called "work sessions." Confusing.)  At the meeting I attended on Tuesday, the 25th, there were four community members including me. Here's what staff said in their announcement for the meetings(partial):

Congrats to the Ballard High School Talisman newspaper. From an SPS tweet: The 2016 # NHSJC Best of Show award for Newspaper, Tabloid 17+ pages goes to The Talisman ( @ BallardTalisman ) from Ballard HS! The newspaper staff also won several individual awards. As well, there was this tweet: Washington Achievement Award April 18, 2016 A total of 258 schools earned for 2015. 16 Award-winning schools in @ seapubschools inc @ Sanislo

Update from the News Tribune (by the way, want to read good reporting? read the News Tribune): That increase in the levy lid is set to expire in January 2018, causing school district officials to seek an extension . Some lawmakers argued that school district officials won’t need the increased levy authority if the Legislature meets its obligations to fully fund public schools before 2018. The compromise budget says the Legislature will revisit the issue next April, if lawmakers determine they aren’t on track to fully fund public schools by April 30.  “We have got to be committed to the solution,” said state Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup, who called the plan a “well-worked compromise.” Other lawmakers said school districts need more certainty than the budget provides. State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, said many school districts will have to plan for layoffs and budget cuts without the extension of the levy cliff. “This is a devastating blow to school di...

Feb. 5th was one of the key dates in the 60-day legislative session. It was the policy cut-off in the House of Origin. Here are the next key dates: