Seattle Schools Community Forum

From the Superintendent to Pinehurst families: Seattle Public Schools is considering the possibility of closing Pinehurst K-8 School after the 2013-14 school year. No decision has been made at this time. The schedule of events shown below has been created in order to determine whether the school is to be closed. The Superintendent will make a final recommendation to the School Board, which will make the final decision. We are inviting you to attend a meeting 630-8 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Pinehurst. At this meeting, Seattle Public Schools staff members will share information, answer our questions and request your input and feedback.

Readers pointed out this news story - a charter school in Sacramento, just 6 weeks into the school year, closed its doors to 400 students.   Just like that. The story comes from CBS Sacramento .  The CEO claims there are "safety" issues in a building that Placer County said can only hold 75 but had 400.  But the County also said that it didn't tell the CEO to shut down "not wanting to interrupt the school year."  And in shades of SPS, here's how the parent meeting with the CEO went: During a meeting with parents Tuesday night, Heimbichner spent the first 30 minutes of his presentation talking about the history of Horizon Charter Schools before someone finally stood up and yelled for him get to the point. The angry interruptions became a common theme throughout. Some parents got so frustrated they walked out. “He never answered anyone’s questions directly, and it was a waste of time and so frustrating,” student Diamond Matthews said.  What ...

Today's Seattle Times has a story about the re-opening of Rainier View and Viewlands . Director Maier is quoted. District-wide enrollment fell from 2000 to 2007. It has been rising since then. Closures in 2006, after falling enrollment, might have made sense, but how does Mr. Maier justify the school closures that HE voted for since the enrollment has been rising?

As I started this thread, I went to look for the handouts that were available.  Here is the link to the agenda for the handouts.  However, I am very annoyed that I cannot easily locate the one that I thought was the most interesting.  What this means is tomorrow I have to call Tracy and then have someone send me the link because, of course, you can't find a darn thing at the new website.  This also means sending a letter to the Susan Enfield (and the Board)  to request that every single thing staff hand out be posted.   (Sorry to be grumpy but it's tiresome to have to do this multiple times in a week.)  More on the interesting handout at the end of this thread. 

A radio producer for KBCS radio is looking for a parent and/or teacher whose school got closed.  She interested in: How do they handle that, logistically and emotionally? Did they decide to leave the public school system entirely? Here's her contact info if you are willing to share your experience. Heidi Lang Managing Producer, Voices of Diversity Community Radio KBCS 91.3FM www.kbcs.fm 206.909.0044 What:  Voices of Diversity is a weekly talk show that addresses issues with a panel of guests.The show seeks to tell the untold stories in our community as well as celebrate the diversity of cultural expression found in the Northwest. Guests on Voices of Diversity address issues such as racism, sexism and homophobia, as well as the realities of life for vulnerable populations like immigrants and homeless people. Voices of Diversity seeks to literally give voice to those not often heard on the airwaves and to that end, trains community members in radio skills and...

Could folks please offer status reports on the various current legal processes involving the District? Please include links to other blogs or web pages with updates.

A few comments on the agenda for this week's school board meeting. 1. University of Washington Excellence in Educational Leadership Award – Princess Shareef, Cleveland High School I happen to respect Ms Shareef, but I don't really see how anyone can give an award for excellence in educational leadership to the principal of a school that is getting transformed due to persistent low performance. It sends a strange message. I thought the idea was to hold the education professionals responsible for student achievement and for their evaluation to be based, in part, on student achievement. The low performance by Cleveland High School students would seem to disqualify Ms Shareef from any sort of award, regardless of her indisputable talents. 2. "Curriculum" Adoption action items All of the action items for materials adoptions are mislabeled "Curriculum Adoption". This misuse of terms contributes to the confusion of these terms. They should correct the titles of th...

Lots of good public testimony tonight on the high school math adoption but no, it went down as expected 4-3. Sherry was quite crisp and almost stern in her remarks, saying that the "experts" agreed that the research on best math materials is lacking, no books will work without supplements and a couple of other points she felt necessary. She did not change her vote and voted yes. Cheryl went on into principal mode and also gave a lecture. She voted yes. Steve mentioned the Times article and even agreed with their assessment (remember that for future reference) about the role of the Board. He voted yes. Harium gave some off-the-cuffs remarks but remained unconvinced. No from him. Peter Maier put the seal on the deal with his yes, saying the deadly, "It's important to move forward." (I knew someone would.) Mary Bass also gave some quiet remarks and stood by her no. Michael was, once again, quite eloquent (I thought he might be changing his vote), saying we don'...