Seattle Schools Community Forum

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 ...

Update 3: Summit Seattle #2 application was approved by the Washington State Charter Commission.  They will open in Fall 2016.  (There was some interesting discussion here that I will report on.  I continue to be pleased by the thoughtfulness of both the Charter Commission members and staff.) Update 2: SOAR charter in Tacoma is scheduled to open on Monday the 17th. However, SOAR's benchmarks not been satisfied.  They include a lack of Sped policies and procedures, staff qualifications (4 of 7 don't have proper certification or emergency certification), child abuse/neglect training not done as well as other school safety/health.  Staff says these items could get done in time but if not, SOAR will not open its doors. Update 1:  the Washington State Charter Commission unanimously approved the charter application for Willow School in Walla Walla.  They will open in Fall 2016. end of update I'm at the Charter Commission meeting today as they v...

I reported previously on the discussion of the issue of NW Center and Cascade as discussed at the Board meeting on Wednesday, March 5th.  That, along with later start time advocates, was the bulk of public testimony.  I note that it seems that a call seems to have gone out that at every Board meeting, there needs to be two non-profit groups working with Seattle schools that come and tell the Board how much they need student data and how careful they are with it.  They also come with an "example."  There were two people at the Board meeting that night. I think I mentioned previously how one of these providers came to a meeting and practically outed a middle school student (with a lot of personal description about the student).   Coincidentally, the district is having a Work Session on how they take care of student data just this coming Wednesday but I'll write separately on that.  I'll just say this the district does NOT have everything in place...

Tuesday, Feb 4th Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council Meeting starting at 6:30 p.m., JSCEE, room 2700 Wednesday, Feb. 5th Parade for the Super Bowl Champion Seahawks 11 am (I put this in because if you are going to the district headquarters that morning, you might be aware of this because of the traffic.  The parade is to end at Century Link Field which is only about a mile north of JSCEE.) School Board Meeting , starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda .  There are some major issues in this agenda and many of them have to do with what really irritates me - when staff leaves out information the Board should have (both informational and in order to take a vote).  I'm going to go over the Agenda at the bottom of the page for those who are interested (allowing anyone else to see the rest of this thread more easily.) Saturday, Feb. 8th Community Meeting with Director Carr at 8:30 am to 10:00 am at Bethany Community Church (enter off playground) SPS News ...

KUOW's Phyllis Fletcher did a piece on the budget on Wednesday.  There wasn't a lot new but I note that Steve Sundquist seems unwilling to admit that yes, some people received raises strictly based on the "market study" or "internal equity adjustments." From the story: Board President Steve Sundquist says some of these came about due to the elimination of 90 jobs. Sundquist: "In situations where an employee is being asked to do significantly more work we need to make sure to retain that employee, so they're in a position to serve the public, that they're fairly compensated for that work. It's admittedly a difficult thing to talk through with people. " No, Steve, we would understand if the district cut back on staff and asked the remaining staff to take on more and paid them for it.  What is tiring is your deflection of the fact that some people got raises just to get raises.  Who paid for the market study?  Why was it impor...

I got there about 5:10 p.m.  A lot of the Mayor's staff, district staff and a middle school rock band warming up.  For all those people, there was no one to officially greet you or tell you anything about the event.  (I get that they needed staff but seriously, it was a lot of people for a simple Q&A.)