Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Student Assignment Plan BAR on the Board meeting agenda has changed again. I have just spent about 20 minutes comparing this document to the real SAP (see next paragraph).  I have tried to understand what they are saying and you know what?  I don't believe ANYONE should have to be a detective to figure this out. This has gone too far and frankly, it's a mess.  The Board needs to say no. First, the document that staff is using is NOT the Student Assignment Plan .  It's the 2014 Annual Transition plan. To explain, the Board passed a Student Assignment Plan in 2009.  But there have been Transition plans for the school years since because of the growth of the district and the reopening of schools.  Each of these plans had specific items (like grandfathering - who got it and for how long) and were documents to work towards - I thought - a finalization of the use of the SAP which would now be based on address. The Oct 21, 2015 BAR said this: S...

Monday, December 17th Capacity Management meeting for the NE area from 6:30-8 p.m. at Olympic Hills cafeteria, 13018 20th Avenue Tuesday, December 18th Audit&Finance Quarterly Audit Meeting from 4-7 p.m.  Agenda .  Much of this is the higher-level work of this committee - internal audit, external audit, risk management.  The last hour of this committee is just for committee members to discuss labor negotiations. Superintendent Meeting with Pacific Islander Community from 6-8 p.m. at RBHS Wednesday, December 19th Enrollment Services close at noon. Board Work Session on International Education/Wallace Grant update from 4-5:30 p.m.  (The Wallace Grant is an arts grant that the district worked very hard to get.  I believe it's in its second year.  I'll check but I think it was a planning grant and not an implemented one.)  Here's what we had at the blog in April 2012 when this grant was first announced: Seattle Public Schools was recen...

Monday, December 3rd Community Meeting with Director McLaren from 6-8 p.m. at High Point Center, 6400 Sylvan Way SW Wednesday, December 5th Board Work Session On Capacity Management and NSAP/Transition from 4:00 -5:30 p.m.  No agenda yet available. I will note a few items related to these issues that may come up at the Work  Session that were discussed at the Operations Ctm meeting on November 15th. Tracy Libros noted that there may be potential impacts from "scheduled/approved sunsetting of transportation if students return to attendance area schools.   There are about 1800 students this could affect.  Hard to know if this would be a major impact as many parents might not choose to change schools for their student once they are established.  However, with the capacity crunch the district has, almost any number in the wrong place could be a problem.  One key spot is West Seattle Elementary where 109 students at other schools could possibly chose ...

Wednesday, Jan. 4th Second part of a Work Session around Board policy Series 6000 from 4-5:30 p.m.  This series is about operations including budgeting, revenues, purchasing, etc. School Board Meeting - 6-9 p.m.  Among items on the agenda:

Looking at the School Board agenda for tonight's meeting, there are many changes. (One thing that hasn't changed is that there is no information what the Superintendent's update, CAO update or COO update will be about tonight.) One big change is that Kay Smith-Blum has withdrawn her amendment . Her statement seems to reflect having listened to her constituents and finding their reasoning plausible. First, I have withdrawn my amendment from tonight's agenda. I greatly appreciate your input and sincerely apologize for any anxiety caused. My amendment would NOT have reassigned any student, but I appreciate neighbors who would like to see their children continue to be assigned to the same school and greatly appreciate the upheaval the NSAP/TT Minor closure has had on the neighborhood. The numbers the board received LAST NIGHT from Tracy Libros show that Steven's enrollment will be up from the already 111% capacity, and do not include siblings of current Stev...

Update: found the listings for elementary tours. Very convoluted to find. Most elementaries do not have tours until late January and most go into late Feb./March. However, Bailey Gatzert has two this week (on the 11th and 13th) and Madrona has an evening tour on the 13th. I have to say that with very few elementary schools having a tour during Early Enrollment (ending Jan. 31), it might make it hard for parents to decide "do I enroll now or do I want to want for Open Enrollment?" Elementary school tours are organized by service area: Aki Kurose Service Area Denny Service Area Eckstein Service Area Hamilton Service Area Madison Service Area McClure Service Area Mercer Service Area Washington Service Area Whitman Service Area The district has put out some info on enrollment . if you are continuing at your school (or are a new student who completes Early Enrollment by Jan. 31), you should receive a confirmation letter by mid-March . Assignment letters will con...

Okay now, you have until Monday, January 10th to try to persuade Board members for any amendment you feel is needed for the Transition Plan (to be voted on January 19th at the School Board meeting). You can comment anytime up to the Board meeting but the Board members will be writing any amendments and submitting them by Monday at 5 p.m. From the district: Community comments on New Student Assignment Transition Plan welcome at any time; Deadline for School Board member amendments extended to 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10 Please note that the Jan. 10 deadline applies only to amendments that board members are submitting, and does not apply to public comments. School board members welcome comments from the community on the transition plan at any time via email or letter, or via public testimony at the board meeting on Jan. 19. The reason for the Jan. 10 amendment deadline is to give school board members an opportunity to fully understand the impact of any proposed amendments be...

I just attended the Transition Plan press conference. Lots of good info that I will post later today. I did want to get one thing out now because it is a change. It was stated by Michael DeBell to the SCPTSA that the Board would be accepting amendments to the Transition Plan until Monday, January 10th. Steve Sundquist changed that (last night? yesterday sometime) so amendments to the Transition Plan will only be accepted thru FRIDAY, JAN. 7th. So if you have an amendment you want to plead to any member of the Board, get it to them/that person no later than tomorrow, January 7th. I understand the rationale of being able to see amendments far enough in advance to vet them, talk to other Board members,etc. However, giving parents the weekend (given the vote isn't until Nov. 19th), would have seemed more fair. I don't know why Steve changed this but please let other parents know about it.

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 Wednesday Work Session is to be about the Strategic Plan and not Integrated Planning (which would include the NSAP Transition Plan). I cannot urge you strongly enough that if you, your friends or your school have specific concerns or issues about the Transition Plan and how it may affect your neighborhood/school community, let the Board know by the end of this week. Go to the Wednesday drop-in session with Tracy Libros and let her know. No one will be working or paying attention to this huge issue over the holiday break. The Board will be seeing the staff's plan on January 5th and that will leave only 2 weeks until the next Board meeting where they will vote on it. The Board doesn't like to back-load staff recommendations with amendments so really, the time is now .

(Update on Wednesday Work Session: Spoke to Joan in the Board office. The Work Session is to be about the Strategic plan as it had been previously bumped by the Integrated planning work. This is a quarterly update on the SP.) Monday afternoon is the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee meeting from 4-6:30 p.m. in the Board conference room. The agenda reflects the following topics: alternative schools with Thornton Creek principal John Miner presenting professional development waiver/parent/teacher conference waiver - I believe this is about not making up the days missed due to snow Board policy on school attendance schools of innovation (Susan Enfield) textual materials adoption update course of study discussion newly enrolled students school assignment's (sic) The previously canceled NW Regional meeting on Student Assignment is tomorrow night, Monday, Dec. 13th at Ingraham High from 6:30-8:00 p.m. Tuesday , December 14th is last informal drop-in session on the Tra...

First up this week, if you want to speak at Wednesday's Board meeting, sign ups are taken starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning (Monday the 6th). Also tomorrow (night) is the NW School Reports meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. at Whitman Middle School. Again, all the principals from schools in that region will be there along with central staff. Tuesday afternoon is the Audit and Finance Committee meeting with the focus on Audit. This is a longer meeting, from 4-7:00 p.m. which leads me to think something big is being covered (or they need so much time because our district has so many issues to cover from the audit). Tuesday, the 7th is the Central School Reports meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. at Washington Middle School. Wednesday is the School Board meeting starting at 6 p.m. One highlight will be the election of new Board officers with Steve Sundquist expected to be the new Board President. If you don't want to attend a Board meeting, LEV is having an event discussing The Pa...

Part 1 ( this part is not as fascinating as Part 2 but may have info you might be interested in. I'll bold key words so you can skip to what you care about.) Charlie was right (I lost count how many times I have written that this year but his streak continues). The Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday morning was very, very good. I was the only member of the public there which I think might have somewhat influenced what was said (or how forcefully it was said). I'm not sure it was me personally but that there was a John Q. Public in the room. Michael DeBell is the head of the Committee and Kay Smith-Blum and Steve Sundquist are the other members. The cast of staff coming in and out was quite amazing. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson was there for most of it as was Holly Ferguson, head of policy and government (I always forget her exact title) and Noel Treat, the new head of Legal. The first thing I learned is that this is where you get an advance look at upcoming Board meeting age...

Apparently the staff is integrating budget and capacity management. (Which is fine.) However, they didn't make that clear to the Board at yesterday's Work Session and I wanted to let anyone know who was planning to come to today's Work Session. It will NOT be just about capacity management but will include the budget. I attended the Board Executive Committee meeting this morning and a couple of the Board members let it be known that they had not expected this to happen without some notice. From the Board webpage: Note to Public: The board and district leadership are taking an Integrated Planning approach to the 2011-12 student assignment plan transition, long-range capacity management, program placement for 2011-12, and budget development for 2011-12. Upcoming work sessions and workshops may focus on one or two areas per workshop but may have information on all topics. This calendar will be updated as the work moves forward. Those work sessions are: Tuesday, Novemb...

A Roundup of Meetings and Activities: School Report Community meetings , co-sponsored with the SCPTSA, start this week. The first one is on Monday, Nov. 29th at Roosevelt High School from 7-8:30 p.m. (These are going by region so this is the NE region meeting. You can, of course, attend any of them but your region's school won't be represented by your principal or regional director.) There's also an APP Advisory Council meeting : * Monday, November 29,* *at Garfield High School (in the commons)* *6:30-8:30pm* This will be an opportunity for the APP community to learn about Garfield capacity issues and possible solutions, the proposed APP high school path to Ingraham, and to express all your questions, concerns, and hopes. The next School Report Community meeting is the SE Region on Tuesday, Nov. 30th at South Lake High School from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 30th is the Board Work Session on the Budget from 4-8:00 p.m. Director Maier has a communit...

Or the Audit Committee meeting yesterday afternoon?

So we have a lot of talk from West Seattle about how the NSAP has really confused/upended/frustrated/angered many people. And now we are having regional meetings about the transition plan and boundary tweaks to the NSAP. My impression is that Steve Sundquist either didn't listen/didn't get what West Seattle parents tried to tell him during the planning of the NSAP. (My intel about this situation is that Steve apparently realized there were grave issues in West Seattle and did get some tweaks in the boundaries but that there wasn't enough time left before the vote to approve to do much else. And that points to how often there's this "gotta get it done" mentality in the district and the question is why? Things get put off and put off but when staff says go, the Board says how fast?) You know the issues in West Seattle far, far better than me. I don't know for sure what the feeling is in West Seattle is about Steve's leadership. I know he's a ...

Want to meet all Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's supporters? Go to her 'State of the District' event at Mercer Middle School on November 9th from 6-7 p.m. I'm sure you'll see all the usual suspects there to back her up. The news release about this event had this gem: "The plan, which included input from more than 3,000 stakeholders, was developed to ensure that all of our students graduate ready for college and careers. " Voice from the back: Okay if that's true why do we have so many teacher coaches (100+) and not enough student coaches? Why did we get rid of the Career Counselors whose job it was to help students "graduate ready for college and careers"? Why did we get rid of some of our elementary counselors? Just asking. Also, from the Seattle Times (because of course it was nowhere to be found at the SPS website): One of Seattle School District’s meetings to provide information and hear comments on the Student As...

I attended the first drop-in session for the NSAP and the Transition Plan. It was headed by Tracy Libros. About 7 people attended but I wouldn't have expected more given the lack of outreach by staff to let people know about it. I didn't come away with much info as Tracy and her team are still working on data analysis from this fall's enrollment patterns. (The Annual Enrollment Report will do analysis on Oct. 1 enrollment versus last year's, school choice trends, enrollment by attendance, option and service schools, siblings, by grade level, new schools, Spectrum/APP, International schools, K-8, demographics, where students live versus their school, kindergarten and projections.) So we just went over the some of the Powerpoint given at the Work Session and discussed our issues. Tracy handed out the Powerpoint and a US Census timetable for information which goes from Feb. 2010 - June 2013. It looks like the most basic info will come out in May-June 2011. (I could...

I received a link to the robocall that the Superintendent sent out about the levy. I don't particularly have a problem except that it's not the Operations Levy; we had that in February. This is a supplemental operations levy. There is a difference but the Superintendent is hoping you won't notice. She also talked about the upcoming meetings about the NSAP. She said info has gone out to schools and PTAs. Did anyone receive anything from either source on Friday? Was it posted in your school? Website? Kid mail? (I did a quick spot check and found one high school - Center - had it on its webpage. Only Hamilton had it (and they didn't mention the NSAP so it wasn't clear what it was about). For K-8, I found South Shore had a complete listing with explanation. I couldn't find one elementary that had the info. So I am hoping it went home in kid mail or is hanging up at school. (Eckstein and Wedgwood already have their 2011 tour dates up - fast work.) Bu...