Seattle Schools Community Forum

It's weird. No matter how many times the District breaks its commitments - and they break nearly all of them - I periodically drift into a sort of amnesia or Pollyanna optimism in which I actually give their promises some credibility, only to be brought crashing back to Earth with a thud. If I ever - EVER - believe a District official who makes a commitment, if I ever - EVER - suggest that they will follow through on any promise, please someone slap me and remind me of their astonishing record of faithlessness. We are approaching another round of Community Update meetings on the Strategic Plan so I started writing to the project managers asking them for the basic documents of their initiatives and asking them when they intend to comply with the Engagement Protocols. In response, I got a snippy email from Bridgett Chandler essentially telling me to stop writing and asking for information and suggesting that I only have a right to know what they deign to share. Here is the text of he...

From the District's Assignment Plan page Public invited to quarterly community meetings to discuss updates on Strategic Plan, high school math materials adoption, Student Assignment Plan, and other key topics Seattle Public Schools' strategic plan, Excellence for All, establishes the framework for moving the District toward the goal of all students achieving at high levels and graduating ready for college, career and life. Upcoming quarterly community meetings will provide updates on the strategic plan’s progress and an opportunity to discuss key topics with our community. Included will be updates on the implementation of Excellence for All, high school math materials adoption, and development of the new Student Assignment Plan. All staff, families and community members are welcome. Interpreters will be available. Dates, times and locations are as follows: Saturday, March 21 , from 10 a.m. to noon John Stanford Center, Auditorium 2445 3rd Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98134 Tuesday, Marc...

Updated amendments (Sundquist & Maier) and the Superintendent's Update presentation are posted on the web site . Maier apparently listened to Charlie today. ****************** 9:00 pm The emotional intensity tonight at the Stanford Center was overwhelming. I feel sad and exhausted and I'm going to bed. 8:20 pm Meeting adjourned. 8:10 pm Moving on to rescind School Board policies as listed in the agenda and making changes in reference areas. Unable to continue due to crowd shouting. Now continuing but I can't hear a thing. DeBell speaking about SBOC co-location with Nova at the Meany building. "Wish we had a newly rennovated stand-alone building for the SBOC, but we are at a period of scarcity and we cannot do that." Could not hear votes, but it sounds like both recommendations passed. 8:05 pm Sundquist reading revised final motion. Vote : Yes (5) : Sundquist, Carr, Chow, Maier, DeBell; No (2) Bass, Martin-Morris; revised closure plan passes . 7:50 pm ...

I just read on the West Seattle blog that the School Board's meeting tonight with the final vote on closures will be televised tonight on cable channel 26. See Seattle school-closure vote tonight: District says it’ll be on TV for details.

[Updated 1/4/09 7:20 pm with Special Education Advisory meeting] I can't believe the kids go back to school tomorrow. We've had such a nice relaxing holiday together that I'm not excited to return to the daily grind. Luckily, my kids are excited. They love their school, their teachers and friends and miss them. But beyond my usually reluctance for holidays to end, this year I'm particularly loathe to see tomorrow arrive because it means 24 days of intense, emotional discussions and debate on the school closures proposal. Here's what's happening this month that I know about. Please add other events in the comments and I'll edit this post to include them. Two school/community meeetings scheduled for December 18th (Cooper and SBOC) were postponed and need to be rescheduled, but I haven't see new dates yet. And if any additional buildings are proposed for closure in the Superintendent's final recommendation on Tuesday, public hearings will be scheduled f...

Just saw on the West Seattle Blog that all Seattle School meetings are cancelled for today. That includes the hearing at Lowell on the APP split and the program meeting at Cooper on the proposed closure. On the district website I also saw that the Operations Committee meeting scheduled for today is postponed until after Winter Break.

Beth covered most of this but I wanted to provide bulleted items. (I managed to miss most of the speakers, recording Channel 28, not Channel 26.) UPDATE - Two of the speakers I heard referenced that there would be no more SE Initiative money (this was an RBHS speaker and a AAA speaker). I thought we were in year 2 of a 3 year plan so it was confusing. Anyone know for sure? (My apologies - I skipped over this in my notes.) Center School alum referenced Center School as an "alternative" program. (This may be something that needs to be addressed at Center School keeps moving towards being an alternative rather than non-traditional general ed program.) It looked like an overflow crowd. Michael DeBell thanked the crowd for their respectful attitudes as well as the speakers. Mr. Kennedy went over financials, both revenue and expenditures. He did say something I hadn't heard before; namely, that we might still loss state K-12 money (7% reduction) even if we don't lose I-7...

See the Superintendent's Update slide presentation for details on the budget, high school closure, special education and functional capacity updates. 7:50 pm Meeting continues, but I'm signing off for the evening. See the West Seattle Blog for more details. 7:37 pm Functional Capacity Analysis; Brad Bernatek; reviewed process and timeline; talked again about "building walkthroughs." Final functional capacity done by January 13th. Elementary & K-8 process different than for secondary schools. Work done in consultation with principals to make sure fully understand spaces and uses. Existing portables are included in functional capacity. 7:33 pm Special Education update; Carla Santorno; special education student assignment information connected to closures will be released in the final capacity management recommendations on January 6th. In addition, we have really looked at making some changes based on our audit and students will be reassigned based on service del...

(Here's a link to the excellent coverage of the Genesee Hill public hearing last night over at the West Seattle blog .) A reply in a recent thread lead me to another blog (let's call it Blog S) where the closures are being discussed. Now I had initially thought to provide a link because our blog strives to give as much information and coverage as possible on Seattle education. However, when I popped over to it, I found a LOT of anger and vitriol and near-slander. I posted one thing and promptly got flamed. It is a very angry blog. None of you are children but I don't even want to give out the URL (you could find it if you tried). The tag line of the blog is "You can disagree, but I’ll still be right; that means, I don’t need you to agree with me for me to be right." (That pretty much says it all.) So why am I bringing it up? I'm posting about it because there are claims that no one is covering the story that Steve Sundquist allegedly worked with pare...

Assuming that snow doesn't cause a cancellation of tomorrow's School Board meeting, here are the list of people who are testifying tomorrow night: 1. Chris Jackins, Garfield Construction Contract 2. Carol Simmons, Alliance Grant 3. Patty Iwamoto, Arbor Heights Elementary 4. Eric Iwamoto, Arbor Heights Elementary 5. Kim McCormick, Capacity - NE Cluster 6. Tamara Leonard, Capacity - NE Cluster 7. Lauren McGuire, Capacity - NE Cluster 8. Kelly Van Gelder, Center School 9. Caroline Brown , Center School 10. Kendra Wagner, Center School 11. Ricky Malone, Closures 12. Molly Gras-Usry, Cooper 13. Jean Hoppe, Lowell 14. Tracy Dobmeier, Montlake 15. Kenneth Sherr, Montlake 16. Lara Kreyenhagen, Montlake 17. Heidi Kaplan, Montlake 18. Shannon Callahan, Nova 19. Melissa Cain, Preliminary. Recommendations 20. Pam Berry, School Closures ***** The agenda also includes: Superintendent’s Update the Preliminary Recommendation for Capacity and Closures Chief Academic Officer’s Update Chief Opera...

Open thread for people to post on their experiences at any of the three public hearings on Tuesday: Genesee Hill, Mann and Old Hay.

Here is the transcript from last night's hearing at Pinehurst; it was the only one I saw at the Capacity Management website. I myself haven't had time to read it. Also, here is this message from Bridgett Chander, Director of Communications, for the district about tonight's Genesee Hill meeting: Dear community members, We want to thank those of you who have signed up to testify at tonight's public hearing and those who wish to attend . The weather has created concerns about safety, and we send this information to update you about conditions around the Genesee Hill building where the hearing will be held from 6:30-8:30 tonight . Road conditions this morning lead us to recommend that those who choose to drive to attend the hearing consider carpool ing if they can and look for parking along the north shoulder (school side) of Genesee. That road was recently sanded. While there is some remaining ice on the shoulder area, it is much clearer than t...

Our good friends over at the West Seattle Blog had this about the public hearings and the weather via Patti Spencer at the District: "At this time, we plan to proceed with all scheduled public hearings. If there is a change, we will announce that immediately via our Web site and other means. We understand that some locations in the city are experiencing more challenging road conditions than others. We want our families and community to be safe, and we also want to hear from them. In addition to public hearings, we also continue to receive feedback via e-mail at capacity@seattleschools.org and schoolboard@seattleschools.org " The weather is due to stay cold and perhaps snow Wednesday or Thursday night. So be careful out there. Also, some thoughts on what might or might not help in public remarks: -the obvious - no name-calling, no swearing, no yelling - your audience will tune you and your message out -humor always helps - takes the bite out the situation and calms the room d...

From Seattle Public Schools: As you are aware the District has announced preliminary recommendations on district-wide capacity management and building closures. We recognize that the topic of potential school closure is always an emotional one fraught with concerns about where will my child be placed next year if my school closes? It is especially concerning when dealing with students that have more significant disabilities. Superintendent, Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, wants parents to understand that "We are considering building closures in order to strengthen academic programs and protect the District's long-term financial health." She recognizes and has said "these are very difficult decisions to make, but they are decisions we must face now, and we must face them together, as a community." The District is committed to using this opportunity to strengthen and expand services for special education students consistent with recommendations from the "Special Educati...

Here's a round-up of meetings this week (if I missed one, please let me know and I will add it): December 17th - School Board Meeting at 6 p.m. Should be a dogfight for speaking seats as schools try to get their voices heard as many times as possible. Signups starting 8 a.m. tomorrow via e-mail or by phone 252-0040. Public hearings on closures will be held at buildings proposed for closure from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on the days and locations below. Sign-ups via phone (252-0042) or email will be accepted until 12:00 noon on the day of the hearing. After that time, if spaces are available, they will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis at the site of the hearing. Interpreters will be available at the hearings to assist individuals who need those services. Monday, Dec. 15, 2008 ▪ T.T. Minor - 1700 E. Union St. (13 people signed up to speak) ▪ Pinehurst – 11530 12th Ave. N.E. (19 people signed up to speak) ▪ Van Asselt - 7201 Beacon Ave. S. (4 people signed up to speak) Tuesday...

Since the full presentation and summary are now published on the district website, I wanted to start this thread to discuss all the recommended proposals. I'd like to keep this in one thread if possible. End of meeting recap : took notes by hand for most of the rest of the meeting; left near the end of the high school discussion. Here's what I can read from my notes: Maier: concerned about transportation costs in option of moving Summit K-8 to Meany. Maier also asked whether Summit K-12 costs in the 9-12 grades had enrollment priority for getting into high schools. Answer from Tracy Libros was "no", would be enrolled in high school closest to home address on space available basis. Said that only displaced students getting ability to choose spots at any school they want are a handful of T.T. Minor 4th grade students who were also moved (from M.L.K.) during last round of closures. DeBell: likes the option of Summit K-8 and Nova together because it provides a pathway ...

MOVING rest of Board Workshop "Live" coverage to above thread 5:50 pm: Taking 20 minute break 5:35 pm : Functional capacity presentation by Holly Ferguson. Reviewing planning capacity v. functional capacity distinction again. Staff (with former teachers and principlas) has now done complete walk-through of all elementary, K-8, middle and high schools. Created a database of all rooms in the district. "Short answer is no" to the question of whether there is sufficient capacity in north end for elementary students, particularly with closure of AS#1 and Summit K-12. Will need space for an additional 200 students if they don't choose to go to Thornton Creek. Maier: points out that capacity numbers are aggregate, adding #s in N, NE and NW clusters, as presented doesn't answer question about whether there is adequate capacity where students are. Rachel: says this can be addressed when redrawing assignment boundaries and clusters Harium: doesn't like this sl...

The excellent Summit parent group website has a very good list of upcoming meetings which they have posted previously but I thought I'd point out the meetings this week. It is interesting that Hawthorne is having two meetings (one on Monday and one on Tuesday). As well, there's one each at Bailey Gatzert, Madrona and Leschi. Michael Tolley, the High School Director, will be Summit's guest on Wednesday - it would be interesting to hear what he has to say about closures. Monday, December 8th, 6:00 - 7:45 at Douglass-Truth Library , 2300 E Yesler Way: A meeting of the alternative, all-city draw schools ( Summit , Nova, AS1) to strategize around closures and consolidations, and school assignment issues. For this meeting we need to be out promptly at 7:45 so we should try to get started as close to 6:00 as possible. Please help get out the word to families from these schools (Nova and AS1). 6:00 - 7:00 p.m., Bailey Gatzert Elementary , 1301 E Yesler Way, Community Me...

I attended the first Community Engagement meeting on closures (I love how the district is using "capacity issues" for closures) on Wednesday night. I was surprised that the room wasn't full but it nearly was by the time the meeting started. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson went through the whole process (and frankly, I think it could have been abbreviated to give people more time to talk). We were asked to discuss the closures/moves at each table and come back with questions or comments. Staff was going around the room to see if there were any questions they could address. I was at a table with 2 Lowell parents, 3 TT Minor (1 a parent and 1 a teacher), a Summit parent and myself. We all introduced ourselves and afterwards one parent said he knew I blogged here and asked if I would be blogging about the meeting. I said yes but anything off the record, I wouldn't write about. He asked that I not blog about anything the table discussed because it would as if a reporter was the...

I don't know about the rest of all y'all, but I've received a couple of requests for a comprehensive list of all of the upcoming meetings. All of the meetings dates and times we could find are listed on the first page of www.summitparentgroup.org . We are crossing out past ones and adding more as we get them. If you know of meetings that are not listed, please send them to admin@summitparentgroup.org so we can get them up there, too. Thanks! Sabia Becerra Chair, Summit K-12 Parent Group