Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tuesday the 23rd Audit&Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. (for Audit issues) Agenda reflects these items:  capital performance audit follow-up, update on Pottergate, update and action plan on yet another audit, intro of Internal Auditor, schedule of departmental reviews, more School Board policies updates (HR) Wednesday, August 24th Board Work Session on Technology in Schools from 4-6 p.m. Thursday, August 25  Audit&Finance Committee meeting from 4-6 p.m. (for Finance issues) Agenda reflects these items: financials update, community schools report, daily attendance issues, budget update Saturday, August 27 Community Meeting with Director Kay Smith-Blum from 10-11:30 am at the Douglass-Truth library, 2300 Yesler Way at 23rd Anyone attend the Parent Summit or Martin-Morris community meeting on Saturday? 

The agenda looks fairly light on Wednesday but with a few notable items.   (I note that today - Saturday the 13th - the agenda is not accessible at the SPS website but I had already downloaded it yesterday.  I'll post it when it comes back up.) Update: here's the link . The agenda was reviewed at the Executive Committee meeting held earlier in the week (which no School Board candidates attended which is unfortunate as it's where you see the real work done).

From our IT head, Jim Ratchford, comes news of grant via Title IID of about $105k for  classroom technology.  In the past, the money had been used for their Educational Technologist Program (for teachers) but the money was reduced so they decided to go a different route - mobile technology. All schools were invited to apply for mobile computing devices (a cart of them) for a pilot program.  The carts will have iPods (Touch) and iPads for use in the classroom during the 2011-2012 school year.  After the selection, school teams will receive professional development about their use during the summer and during the school year.   The iPad carts will have a laptop with 15 iPads and the iPod carts will have a laptop and 30 iPod Touch devices.    There were 50 applications.   The winning proposals came from: iPod: Denny Middle School Sand Point Elementary Alki Elementary iPad: North Beach Elementary Pathfinder K-8 Orca K-8 Lowell Element...

Two thing prompted me to want to write this thread.  One was from the thread "This or That" about what readers think are important in the budget.  Here's what "Joanie" had to say (and I believe this person is a teacher): Sorry I didn't say it all in one post. Teachers' plates are getting fuller and fuller. I watch the board meetings fairly often and the teachers and parents who appear seem to be ignored most of the time. I agree with much of what I hear. Now Dr. Enfield is creating another way for teachers to communicate with parents: turning the school website into a potential blog site that will be monitored by teachers. Good Lord! That's not what we need. How much money has been spent on IT in the Distrist already. Put it at middle and high schools where kids can make more of it. Elementary schools do not need more IT. More bandaids for appearances. They need to change the paradigm. And, with all the money that has gone in...

Good 2010 education news roundup at The Washington Post blog, The Answer Sheet. I suspect many of you have read most of these articles but it is good to have them all in one place. (Thanks to Dorothy Neville for this link.) From the NY Times, an article about the popularity of buying iPads for use in schools. Fad or not? If this is of great use, wouldn't a smart phone do the same thing but more cheaply? As part of a pilot program, Roslyn High School on Long Island handed out 47 iPads on Dec. 20 to the students and teachers in two humanities classes. The school district hopes to provide iPads eventually to all 1,100 of its students. The iPads cost $750 apiece, and they are to be used in class and at home during the school year to replace textbooks , allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios. Pro and Con: “There is very little evidence that kids lea...

Director Maier has a community meeting tomorrow morning (the 19th) from 10-11:30 a.m at Lake City Public Library. It seems he may be jockeying with Director Sundquist for president of the School Board. Ask him why he thinks he should be president. (Also, if anyone knows of any good candidates for District 1 - Mr. Maier's seat, please let me know at sss.westbrook@gmail.com. It is always good for every incumbent to have a challenger if only to have a more well-rounded race.) Before the Board meeting there will be a Work Session on "Test Scores." Sounds interesting especially in light of our discussion over MAP scores. They might also discuss Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's interesting comment that maybe some schools might only need to take MAP twice a year or only certain groups of students might need to take MAP 3 times a year. The meeting is from 4-5:30 p.m. Board meeting on Wednesday night so sign up now if you want to be on the Speakers list. (They have, in t...

Just to note, the district is taking a Community Input on Student Use of Information Technology survey. It asks about your child's usage at school and how much you know about it. Outside of knowing that my kids learned keyboarding and PowerPoint at school as well as some research skills, I have no idea what they have been taught. This is particularly true of ethical issues (which they ask about). Also, the last School Board meeting for this school year is next Wednesday, the 7th . They will vote on adopting the new budgets. As well the Board will be voting for the supplementary levy measure for $48.2M in November. The so-called "community engagement" process for this levy was a complete sham. They did not let parents and community know about this in any real way. But the Board doesn't care so I guess it really doesn't matter. I just wish they wouldn't even bother putting it on the motion. As well there will be votes on a the renewal ...