Seattle Schools Community Forum

From headquarters, Dr. Enfield has requested that the TIF consultant contract be moved to the May 4th Board meeting. Smart girl.  Better for the Board (to do due diligence and oversight), better for staff (to be able to coherently explain it to the Board and the public) and better for the public who barely had 2 days to read and think about it.  

I received notice that the TIF contract is now available for viewing (and is attached to the Board agenda item). In the motion itself there is some interesting wording like: The ultimate outcome of TIF will be a dramatic improvement in student achievement. Specifically, SPS expects that over the next five years the district will see a reduction in the percentage of schools in the lowest two segments on our quantitative performance framework from 40% to 25%. I like action wording but saying improvement will be dramatic seems pretty bold. Is that a guarantee because it sounds like it. Exhibit A, Scope of Service, Background is interesting in that it is a lot of what the district ends up getting and not what students get.  To whit, TIF " will position SPS as a strong regional model of how performance-based compensation systems can support teacher and principal professional growth and, in the process, improve student learning outcomes. " Note how improving student outcom...

Just a few things to start our week. First up, do not forget to participate in any surveys available on curriculum adoption , the new SPS website or to apply to be on a curriculum adoption committee . Monday The survey on Parent/Teacher Conferences is only live through 4 p.m. on Monday the 3rd . Also, sign up for the School Board meeting speakers list starting at 8 am on Monday , 252-0040 or e-mail: boardagenda@seattleschools.org. Wednesday There will be a School Board Executive Session from 4-5:30 p.m. before the regular School Board meeting at 6 p.m. (The public cannot attend Executive Sessions; this on is on "contract negotiations" and an "employee appeal". I'm thinking the contract one may be about the principals' contract.) Agenda the Superintendent will be speaking about TIF, the Teachers Incentive Fund . Things have been quiet on this front so it might be interesting. the CAO, Susan Enfield, will giving an annual update on CTE (Career-Techni...

The Committee for Responsible Education Spending (opposing passage of the supplemental levy) has been going to different venues to speak. Our goal is to give people the fullest picture of what the levy will and will not do. I'll write up a separate thread and try to go through each statement by the district. (We did get support from Dem. district #11 who voted a No on their endorsement and the 43rd Dems voted to give no endorsement at all. It's interesting because some PTAs are choosing to remain neutral and/or still haven't taken a vote.) One question we have gotten is " what happens to the teachers' raises if the levy doesn't pass ?" We researched this question and here's the answer and readers can all try to decipher how it got bargained this way. (By the way, this is information the district and Schools First haven't answered at all.) According to the contract, if the levy doesn't pass, the teachers will not get their raises for ...

( NOTE: I updated this thread a couple of hours later to reflect other info I saw in the news release.) It was announced today that the district has won a $12.5M Teacher Incentive Grant. This is money to be used for staffing at 34 high-need schools over 5 years. There are a lot of interesting things in both the feds' press release and the district's. Let's start with the district's PR. The five- year TIF program seeks to strengthen the education profession by rewarding excellence, attracting teachers and principals to high-need and hard to staff areas, and providing all teachers and principals with the feedback and support they need to succeed. “I want to thank our teachers and leaders for their work to reach this historic agreement, which was a key factor that evaluators considered when they awarded this grant to our district.” (Dr. Goodloe-Johnson) Glenn Bafia, Seattle Education Association’s (SEA) Executive Director, said that “SEA is excited that portions o...