Seattle Schools Community Forum

This story was put out sometime on Wednesday . (partial) To improve K-12 students’ academic access and achievement, the Seattle Education Association (SEA) and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) agreed to add 20 minutes of core instructional time to the school day starting in the 2017-18 school year. This action also brings our instructional hours into alignment with other districts in the region. In addition, SEA and SPS agreed to add teacher collaboration time into the work day to support common planning time and improved student outcomes. Your input and feedback is valued.

Over at the Soup for Teachers Facebook page there was some unhappiness over what info is available at the SPS website around the Growth Boundaries.   Apparently some parents received an email about them but it had no link to the webpage (which means you would have had to search for it yourself.)  And here is the link.

Today is the Operations committee meeting where they will be discussing proposed boundary changes. The Committee will then take a vote on whether to move them forward to the full Board for approval. Agenda .

The Seattle Times is reporting that the decision from the City on the use of $1M of a transportation fund set aside for low-income citizens will be used to pay for ORCA cards for all middle and high school students in Seattle students (no matter where they live from their school.) This decision came largely because of the unwaivering efforts of the Rainier Beach students who made it a front and center issue from last summer on.

This from a survey done by Seattle Greenways 

Update (11/17) Today, I spoke with staff at the office of the sponsor of this measure, Councilman Mike O'Brien .

Update:   from the Start School Later Seattle group, they are urging a "yes" vote on the current bell times plan.

I attended this meeting yesterday, along with at least 60 parents (plus School Board candidate Leslie Harris).  Director Peters did a superlative job in handling the crowd. There were two topics; bell times and the QAE issue.

This Wednesday's School Board meeting sees the Superintendent's introduction to change bell times .  What has happened is that a large number of schools - primarily elementary schools - have shifted to Tier Two, leaving about 13 schools in Tier One (I think there are eight elementaries).  What appears -to me- to be happening is that the Super and staff are trying to get the "We want two tiers" out of people's minds.  Staff doesn't really want to have to suss out the real costs and present them to parents. (Do I think it is truly $8M for two tiers? No.) So how to divert parents off that idea? Whittle down the Third Tier to a handful of schools and let other parents attack Tier Three parents for being "selfish" to not think of the greater good.  Brilliant on the part of staff and not-so-lucky for the Tier Three people.  But I think so much time has gone by, that it's likely a done deal if only because people are probably now tired ...

I'm a bit late on this one but the the taskforce on bell times released its report to the Board on Wednesday.  The upshot is that they voted that high schools should start an hour later with most elementaries starting 90 minutes later.  There were three minority reports. As I previously reported, Bellevue and Mercer Island are working together on this issues as well as Northshore and Lake Washington.  All these districts and Seattle School District are faced with the financial and logistic challenges that a change would bring. Recommendation: SCORE: [3.45] Modified Flip option             17 votes No Change                              2 votes Extended High School Day     0 votes (Non-voting task force members: 3) 

Good coverage by Publicola over the Mayor's huge Transportation levy and safe walk/bike routes for students.  The group ( Seattle Greenways ) believes that upgrading walk sheds around the city’s 97 schools with bike and ped safety amenities will transform Seattle into a  perambulatory paradise—not just for kids, but, by planning for kids’ safety, the strategy would simultaneously benefit everyone. Disappointed in the plan’s $7 million line item for Safe Routes to School, they called for $40 million. Mayor Ed Murray spokesman Jason Kelly tells me that despite the $7 million line item listed in the presentation to council, the mayor’s plan actually spends $47 million on Safe Routes to School programs. Kelly says there’s $7 million in the levy, plus $33 million from school zone cameras and $7 million in grants that would complete one Safe Routes to School project at every Seattle public school. Greenways director Cathy Tuttle says she’s well aware of the ...

Seen the new district website ?  I haven't used it yet but I think it looks much better.  (I do think their Facebook/Twitter/Instagram section is too big and too prominent.  Also,  the district calendar is way too hard to find. And again, why do they call Enrollment "Admissions?") Monday, June 1 Community Meeting with Director McLaren from 6-7 pm at the Southwest branch Library. Tuesday, June 2nd BTA IV Capital Levy Community Meeting from 6:30-8:30 pm at the JSCEE. This is likely the ONLY community meeting until the fall so try to make it if you want to give input.  I suspect that after the meeting we will know the preliminary ideas for this levy.  My stand will be if more than one-third is for technology, I'm not supporting it.  You will likely be asked - after their draft plan is presented - to weigh in via e-mail.  I'll get that info for you later this week. Wednesday, June 3 Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm at the JSCEE.  (T...

Where we are today? There have been two of the district's four School Bell Times Community discussion events.  (Anyone go to New Holly on Tuesday night or Garfield on Thursday night?)  I reported back on what I saw and heard at Hamilton. The district has chosen to NOT go with the Taskforce's top picks, citing the Taskforce's agreement with the district on transportation costs.  I would like anyone on the Taskforce who might be reading this to contact me (sss.westbrook@gmail.com) and let me know if this is completely accurate.  This is only what I heard from the district. The last discussion event is on Tuesday, May 12th at Chief Sealth at 7:00 pm  I'll just state a couple of things that I believe.

Update from the School Board meeting tonight:

I'm confused.  What part of kids and a crosswalk do drivers not understand? Last night at about 6:30 pm, a 7-year-old girl was hit, not once but by two different cars and both cars left the scene.  Apparently she was with a group of people (kids?) and she got hit.  This is both near a park and a Boys&Girls Club.  She was (naturally) severely injured.  From Publicola: Since 2007, SBB reports, at least 32 major collisions involving a pedestrian or cyclist occurred within 10 blocks of that intersection since 2007, including one in which the victim was killed. MLK only escapes being considered the most dangerous street in Seattle because Rainier Ave., a few blocks to the west, takes that dubious honor; just a few weeks ago, a driver plowed through a hair salon and Greek restaurant at the north end of Columbia City, injuring numerous people. Last week, I was driving right by Roosevelt High School. There were two teen girls crossing 15th NE to get to t...

Why? 1) We should not be cutting back on public transportation.  It's just ridiculous when so many people count on it especially to get to work. 2) The Times says you should vote no.  That pretty much should be your tip-off to vote Yes.   From The Slog : Their reasoning? Metro should cut more costs before asking for money, and Prop 1, which includes raising car-tab fees and hiking the sales tax by 0.1 percent, is a regressive tax on the poor. 3) Again, from the Slog: We admit it isn't perfect. But as our endorsement points out, we're in this mess thanks to a conservative anti-tax crusade in the 1990s that cut a progressive form of taxation based on the value of vehicles. Since then, Metro has already made millions of dollars in cuts and efficiencies. But we still need to help pay for it. And while we detest regressive taxes—and endorsed the income tax on the wealthy (ahem)— cutting transit for the working-class and poor would be more regressive than any...

Update: from the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio, an article about the costs of busing charter school students costs 44% more than regular district students. In part, the extra cost comes from having to bus charter school students longer distances, sometimes with fewer students on the route, the journalists found. Around the state, school buses traveled an extra 15,600 miles every day in 2012 to accommodate charter school students, which adds up to about an additional $85,000 every day. That extra cost is largely footed by the urban districts in which most charters operate, said the report.  “Transportation is probably the second or third largest issue for all public schools,” said Ron Adler, president of the Ohio Coalition For Quality Education, a school choice and charter advocate. “It’s a problem not only for charters but it’s a problem for districts. In our view, whatever it is today, it’s going to be worse next year because of the cost of fuel, because of the sta...

Monday, March 31st The final Strategic Plan Community Meeting from 6:30-8:30 pm in West Seattle at Roxhill Elementary. Tuesday, April 1st Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council meeting at 6:30 p.m. , JSCEE, Room 2700 Wednesday, April 2nd School Board meeting starting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda .

Monday, March 24th Seattle Special Education PTSA Meeting , at 7 pm, Rm 2700, JSCEE Topic is Secondary Transition and plans in SPS to to bring the District into compliance with IDEA on secondary transition.  Wednesday, March 26th Oversight Work Session on Athletics/Transportation from 4-6 p.m.  I'm assuming from the length of it that these are two sessions in one.  Agenda . Athletic (sic) Presentation - among the "strengths" - It is interesting to try to read between the lines.  It almost sounds like this department wants to run more effectively and smoothly but needs help with technology and a clear direction on how to proceed from the top - among the "weaknesses" - transportation, difficulties in communications and "inability to attract, recruit and maintain quality athletic coaches."   - "threats/risks" (an unfortunate column name) - " increasing responsibilities for adm...

I knew when the charter school initiative was being debated that charter schools were not supposed to get as much money for transportation as real public schools.  In fact, one of the main questions in the application was about transport. So now it turns out that in the recently passed Budget bill there was a section to cut down the transportation funding.  (This comes to us via the Washington Policy Center.) Section 505(2)(b) of the House Budget Amendment to the Senate Budget bill, SB 6002 , would have required transportation funding for charter school students to be calculated based on “total number of students in the district.” The voter-approved charter school law, however, requires that, “Allocations for pupil transportation must be calculated on a per student basis based on the allocation for the previous school year to the school district in which the charter school is located” (RCW 28A.710.220(3)).  If you know our charter law, every charter school i...