Seattle Schools Community Forum

From School Start Later-Seattle: As a brief update, the school board approved transportation standards for next year that will move us to a 3-tier system in order to save approximately $3 million.  It was impossible to get the school board to consider putting secondary schools in the later tiers and elementaries in the earlier tiers. The good news is that Sharon Peaslee, board president has introduced a resolution to make analysis and community engagement on start times a high priority and then to decide, based on feedback whether to flip elementary and secondary start times for 2015.   The resolution will be introduced on 3/5 and voted on 3/19. We need to win this vote in March otherwise the district will halt any further progress on the issue. Thank you for all of your recent emails.  They made a major impact and helped bring Peaslee's resolution to the table. Please write to board directors and urge them to prioritize analyis and community engagement on start...

There are lots and lots of great reasons for Seattle Public Schools to swap around the start times for school so that elementary school starts earlier and middle and high school starts later. A group called Start School Later Seattle has is looking for a resounding show of support for moving secondary schools to a later start time. They have created a petition. You can express your support for the effort by signing the petition at :  http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/later-start-time-for?mailing_id=13345

Start School Later Seattle will meet at the Wayward Coffee House at 5 pm on Wed 5/30.  The coffee house is at 65th and Roosevelt, parking is off the alley just west of Roosevelt Court. 

Finally at this discussion at 9:15 p.m. Basically, there is one proposal plus two alternatives. I haven't seen alts but staff doesn't seem enthused. Staff says there were 21 start times and this would get it down to 8. As well, this current proposal would be "temporary" in service to later/better bell times in 1-2 years. That sounds great but what happens when we get there and whoops? Can't change those times then?   I would want a guarantee that any changes for 2012-2013 are TEMPORARY with a set endtime. Update:  Dorothy Neville says that Transportation said the EXACT same thing three years ago when the NSAP was rolled out.  Meaning, "this is temporary, we'll save money, better service, will have a taskforce."  No taskforce ever came about and they say there is one now.  There are "civil twilight" issues which I can't speak to but it is a legal issue around children being out in the dark during certain hours and at certa...

There are still some spaces available on tonight's speakers list for the Board meeting. I wanted to let you know because of the concerns, districtwide, over the introduction of changes to the Transportation Standards on the agenda. Understand - changes to Transportation Standards means changes to bus schedules AND start times.   Now is the time to pay attention.

Our friends at the West Seattle blog have some good stories from West Seattle schools.

The district has put out the bus arrival/departure times for next year.    It doesn't say preliminary or draft at the top but I don't think this has been signed off on yet.  I believe the final decision will come in early May.  Note:  the bell times will be somewhat variable as the listed times are for BUSES, not bell times.  The schedule says that " morning start times are generally 15 minutes after bus arrival.  Afternoon end times are generally 5-10 minutes prior to the bus departure .) I don't see a lot of change at the high school level (although it seems that Cleveland has a slightly longer day than other schools starting at the same time.)  I note that West Seattle used to start at 8:10 am and it appears they will start around 7:50 am. All of the K-8s start around 9:10 am with middle schools starting around 7:50 am (except for Jane Addams at 8:20 am and Denny with a TBD designation).    The outliers are Pinehur...

I attended DeBell's (crowded) meeting yesterday.  I'll post about it later but would like to hear from others. Update:   Michael DeBell's meeting had about 13-15 people (at various points).  I like how Michael has people introduce themselves and then he writes down their topic and tries to get to everyone's topic.   There were several teachers and staff as well as Ramona Hattendorf from the Washington State PTSA.

For those who don't know, McGilvra is a small (269) thriving elementary in Madison Park. Because of the dedication of their parents and being in a fairly well-to-do area, McGilvra has high test scores and a PTA that raises roughly $260,000 a year. Yes, a year. They fund 3.6 FTE. InJuly of 2000, bought 2 portables for their school to lower class size and to increase the overall capacity of the school. When they bought the portables, they and the district signed an agreement about their use. So what's the problem? It's a dual one. First, under NCLB, students at schools that did not meet AYP were allowed to leave their school for another school in their same area. McGilvra could not get out of this federal regulation and may have had to take in some students (although it seems like it must have been very few). This is not discussed anywhere at the McGilvra website but I know from other research that it was an issue. Second, of course, was the New Student Assignment Pl...

I pointed out recently that in the SPS calendar, there were two school start times that were incorrect. It says that all the K-8s start at 8:20 a.m. Now we here know that it's not so; TOPS and Salmon Bay have a different start time. I had called around at the district yesterday, trying to find out how this happened but I got a very irritated person in Transportation saying the calendars were not their doing. I spoke to someone in Communications who said they would have Tom Bishop of Transportation call me back. I pointed this at to the Board, both in an e-mail and at the Board meeting. I told them, "One thing you need to get right is the time you expect parents to have their child at school." I ran into Mr. Bishop as I left the Board meeting. He explained that yes, two K-8s don't start at the same time as the others. He seemed very calm and not a whole lot concerned. I told him the calendar reflected that they all start at the same time. He said thanks for tel...

Well, well, well. This certainly is a big, important Board meeting coming up this week. On the agenda are action on such long-discussed topics as: High School Math Adoption Revised Student Assignment Policy Transfer of another $1.45 million to the Garfield capital project A technical amendment to the Transportation Service Standards (for introduction and action) Also introduction of high school grading policy reform and the annual Reduction In Force. There are a number of capital projects on the agenda. I believe that a number of them are related to the Capacity Management project. If you're going to this Board meeting, I suggest you pack a snack. It's going to be a long one.

The new start time proposal that will be presented at the School Board meeting tomorrow night not only returns to the 8:00 am middle school/high school/K-8 start time and the 9:15 am elementary school start time, but it also includes a return to some very vague language about which schools are impacted. The proposal says: Designated Elementary and K-8 Schools 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM Middle Schools 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM Elementary Schools 9:15 AM to 3:25 PM (With individual exceptions to accommodate shared school bus service) So does that mean that Lowell and Thurgood Marshall are back on the early start time list? Or are some other unsuspecting elementary schools going to be added? And which K-8 schools had enough influence with Ruth Medsker to get off the early start time list? And how about this interesting tidbit: "Individual schools may request a waiver from these times provided that the requesting school funds any additional transportation cost." So if your PTSA can rai...

With the Open Enrollment period under way, we can expect to hear the proposal to change start times announced as a final decision very soon . The district website completely soft-pedals this change, saying they are "considering changes" to "school bell times." That sounds like they are beginning to discuss changing the length of school periods or something like that. The reality is that they have almost already decided, with no public input, to change school start times, affecting thousands of students. If you have strong opinions about the proposal (in favor or against), please share them with the following people ASAP: 1) The Board member for your region and/or the entire School Board: schoolboard@seattleschools.org 2) Tom Bishop (Transportation Manager) tabishop@seattleschools.org 3) Ammon McWashington (Tom's boss, who oversees transportation, athletics, etc); mcwashington@seattleschools.org 4) Don Kennedy Chief Operating Officer drkennedy@seattleschools.org...

From the district website: Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee Meeting February 23, 2009 4:30 - 6:00 pm AGENDA 1. Grading Policy 2. Promotion/Non-Promotion Policy 3. Transportation/Bell Times Committee meetings do not include public input but you can hear how issues are presented to the Board by staff and glean some insight into Board feelings by the questions they ask. I e-mailed the Board and 4 (count 'em four) members wrote back. (I expressed my annoyance that every decision seems money-driven and if ever there was an academic benefit to be had, it's a later start for middle/high school and 15 minutes wasn't it). They seem to be going on what staff is saying is possible (they must have an hour and 15 minute turnaround). I felt their responses were thoughtful. Director Carr indicated that she would be asking some questions. I wrote back and told her of the discussions here. I mentioned that some here have asked about the multiple stops and might there n...