Seattle Schools Community Forum

A very quiet week - for some reason - with just one event.  There are no director community meetings (and again, why can't they space them out so that there is at least one every Saturday - there's three next Saturday). Wednesday May 21st School Board meeting.   Agenda I note that the recognition this meeting is not for staff or students but for a departing Alliance for Education staff member. Under Superintendent's comments on staffing for 2014-2015, it is noted that there are no reductions for either teachers or classified staff.

SPS is looking to hire a new Director of Project Management (basically a tech director) with a fairly wide-ranging salary (from $94k to $142k annually). 

From SPS Communications: Student  Information System now live, Waiting List Moves will begin August 31 We want all families, including those with students on wait lists, to know what to expect as we implement a new, improved student information system. The system is live as of August 26. However, we must carefully check current capacity at schools before we begin moving waiting lists. We expect to begin moving waiting lists no later than August 31.    Waiting Lists: We expect to begin moving waiting lists no later than August 31 . If your child is on a waiting list for a school, please be sure to check your email and/or voice mail over Labor Day weekend. (August 31, September 1 and 2). We expect to make waiting list moves throughout that period, and will move waiting lists where space is available. Please remember, however, that we typically are not able to offer seats to all waitlisted students. We understand how important it is to families, studen...

 We've heard from many parents who are unhappy about enrollment issues like waitlists.  My understanding is that the district was switching technology systems.  Reading the Queen Anne Elementary principal's blog, it would seem that the whole system has been down,  in one form or another. Principal Elliot's explains that on Back to School Night (an event they are having this week), parents would be able to learn their child's classroom assignment from the school secretary.  He then states that "our student information system is not functioning.   The old system was purchased by a new company and our district has had to transition to the new company, a formidable task.  Our tech department has been working very diligently and we hope to have the system up and running by early next week.  What this means is that we have not seen any new student changes at all for the summer and will not be able to make any necessary changes until the system is...

Monday, Feb. 25th Open Enrollment starts today and ends on March 8th.  Info on enrollment. Wednesday, Feb 27th Oversight Work Session :  Technology Services - 4 pm - 5ish Work Session: Budget - 5:30- 6:30 pm Saturday, March 2nd Board Retreat - no details available about where or when.   A few words on the retreats.  The Alliance for Education has been gracious enough to sponsor Board retreats, probably for the last several years.  Usually this has been in the form of finding a site (although I don't know why they pay for an off-site rather than using one of the many SPS sites for free), food, printing, etc. However, at the last Board retreat, the Alliance staffer sat at the table, with the Superintendent and the Board.  This was not the norm.  She then gave input during the discussion.  I was completely dumbfounded as this retreat is for the Board, the Superintendent and the staff.  I asked the facilitator (also paid for by t...