Seattle Schools Community Forum

I attended the Budget Work Session on Wednesday.  It was pretty sobering.  Key facts: There is a projected deficit of $18.4M .  I would love to explain it all to you (and I will try to at least get the PowerPoint up by tomorrow) but frankly, I look down at the paper version and I don't know what half of it is.  Imagine my happiness (and surprise) to hear Board Directors say, "Now, what is this?" because they don't know either.  I don't know if it is the Budget office trying to use smoke and mirrors or just too much jargon but if the people who will make the final decisions don't know what you are talking about, you're doing something wrong. By April 10th, we will have the Governor's budget, the House budget and the Senate budget.  We were told that is when "the rubber meets the road."  The Governor released his budget today and it seems quite favorable to K-12 ed (if not quite the amount everyone would want).  He seems to be finding the m...

If you missed it, Superintendent Banda ordered the administration at Garfield to give the MAP today.  I don't know if that means administrators will give it or if they in turn will order the teachers (and see what the outcome is) but it may mean some high drama at Garfield.  I do know that many students are going to walk. What's happening in SPS this week: Wednesday School Board meeting at 4:15 p.m.  Agenda.    Among the items: - recognition to LEV for South Shore K-8.  I wonder if Chris Larson, who funds LEV for South Shore, will be there. - update from school counselors - vote on Creative Approach Waivers for Cleveland, Nova, Queen Anne, World School and Thornton Creek - vote on Transportation Service Standards.  I really apologize for letting this one fall through the cracks.  I did mention it briefly when there was a Work Session that included this topic.  There are time changes coming but I suspect that the whole thing may chang...

Very busy week. Monday, December 10th Curriculum & Instruction Policy Committee Meeting from 4-6 p.m.  Agenda Some interesting issues but there is not enough detail to know what they are specifically going to cover.  Work Session on Weighted Staffing Standards from 6-7:30 p.m.  Agenda Tuesday, December 11th  Work Session on Creative Approach Schools from 5-6:30 p.m.  Agenda Special Ed Advocacy & Advisory Council Meeting from 6:30-9:00 p.m., Room 2700 (2nd floor), JSCEE Community Meeting on Capacity and BEX IV from 7-8:30 p.m. pm at JSCEE. Wednesday, December 12th Executive Committee Meeting from 8-10 am.  No agenda available. School Board meeting at 4:30 p.m.  Agenda Of note: - Native American Education update - election of new President, Vice-President and Member-at-Large for the Board (nominations to be posted on Monday).  I suspect the president will either be Smith-Blum, Martin-Morris, Carr or Patu as they h...

I will say at the outset that there has to be something the Board can do to make Work Sessions work better.  Staff takes took much time explaining their lengthy presentations. President DeBell said at the beginning the Board should only ask clarifying questions during the presentation and leave big questions for the discussion at the end. As usual, though,  they ran out of time as the staff couldn't get to thru the presentation in the time allotted.   9I know staff wants to explain but they waste time at the beginning going over what the Board already knows.  It's fine to have a longer written presentation but that doesn't mean going over every page during the presentation.)  There was also this document, Service Area Analysis. The community meeting next week on BEX/Capacity Management on Tuesday the 11th was noted.  We were told there would be some way to listen to the meeting via computer but I'll have to get details on how that will work.

Here are the recommendations from the blue-ribbon committee put together to serve as a Transportation Task Force for Seattle Public Schools. Here's the short version:

The School Board had its retreat on Saturday, June 2nd.  I attended most of it.  I have to say it was a bit annoying for them to choose a downtown hotel to meet in as 1)who paid for that? and 2)it means that you have to pay for parking.  Not so encouraging for the public. They had a couple of facilitators who were low-key and kept things on track.  There were several members of the public, one Alliance person and Brian Rosenthal from the Times.  All the Board members were in attendance along with Superintendent to-be Banda.  DeBell was seated next to Banda which is where DeBell usually sits (next to the superintendent).  I'm thinking President DeBell will have a very different relationship from the one he enjoyed with Enfield.  They were quite close. The facilitator had the Board fill out index cards with their "hopes and fears" for the retreat.  (I hate this kind of facilitation but apparently it helps draw people out.)  What seemed...

Interim Superintendent Susan Enfield sent out an email today with a link to the school bell times for next year . Here is her message:

Dear Seattle Public Schools families, I am writing to provide you with an update on changes to transportation for the 2012-13 school year, and also to apologize for the concern and confusion transportation issues have caused in the past couple of weeks. After several years of budget shortfalls, we have been working hard to develop a balanced budget for the 2012-13 school year, with a goal of keeping budget cuts away from the classroom. As part of this effort, the School Board recently requested an analysis of options that could generate more savings from transportation. We responded to this request with an option that would have saved approximately $1 million. In response to this option, we heard from many families who were concerned about the potential impacts and the lack of time to provide community engagement. We know that transportation changes, which in turn affect when school starts each day, may be unpopular. We also know that we did not have enough time to thoughtfully...

Very nice explanation (with video) from the Superintendent in Bellingham on how they arrived at their system. Good reading. Thank you to reader, Kelly. (Readers, I LOVE when you send me info and updates. There is just no way Charlie and I can find all this data and information and I appreciate it. If you do send me info, please let me know if it is okay to use your name (first or first/last) or just "a Reader". I want to give credit where it is due but I know some of you would prefer not to be named. As well, if the info you send is about a sensitive school problem, please know I will never disclose it without it becoming public first. I am happy to let the Times scoop those stories as I know how hard it is to read about issues at your own school all over the media.)

So over at the Times' comment section on their transportation story, well it turns out a lot of you are lazy, whiny parents.  Or so many commenters think.  I would like to ask Enrollment a couple of questions.  What percentage of SPS enrollment goes to neighborhood schools? What percentage of SPS enrollment stays in their region? What percentage of SPS Special Ed has to be bused out of their region for services? What percentage of Option School students are from the region the school sits in? As the only all-city draw, where do the students at Cleveland come from?  Are they all on Metro? I'm being lazy because I suspect this is info somewhere at the district website but don't feel like looking. Are we really running that many kids all over town? Now some questions to you (I am NOT advocating these; I'm playing devil's advocate): Should busing be a core district function? Should parents at Option schools be responsible for their child's transport...

I got some information on the Transportation Task Force and it is worse than I had imagined.

Seattle Public Schools is planning to radically revise transportation plans and school start and end times for the 2012-2013 school year after the Open Enrollment. They have told the Board that their plans are set and little, if any, variation is possible at this late date. This "late date" is four months before school begins. Despite their total unwillingness to make any changes in their plans, the District regrets their complete refusal to offer any kind of community engagement whatsoever. So they are now trying to remedy that failure by soliciting public input on the transportation plans. They have a web page about the planned changes to transportation.

Finally at this discussion at 9:15 p.m. Basically, there is one proposal plus two alternatives. I haven't seen alts but staff doesn't seem enthused. Staff says there were 21 start times and this would get it down to 8. As well, this current proposal would be "temporary" in service to later/better bell times in 1-2 years. That sounds great but what happens when we get there and whoops? Can't change those times then?   I would want a guarantee that any changes for 2012-2013 are TEMPORARY with a set endtime. Update:  Dorothy Neville says that Transportation said the EXACT same thing three years ago when the NSAP was rolled out.  Meaning, "this is temporary, we'll save money, better service, will have a taskforce."  No taskforce ever came about and they say there is one now.  There are "civil twilight" issues which I can't speak to but it is a legal issue around children being out in the dark during certain hours and at certa...

Thank goodness for our readers.   I try to go through the Board agendas with a fine-tooth comb but I usually miss something.   The miss this time is the introduction of Revisions to Transportation Service Standards for 2012013 item. The issue is the district trying to reduce costs and this plan says it would save a little over $1M per year. The Operations Committee of the Whole approved this measure.  However, Individual Board members have requested that the district consider later bell times for secondary schools. Board members have asked staff to review the current bell times and any relevant research and propose any necessary changes to the Board. The Superintendent will review the staff’s recommendation(s) and report back to the Board prior to October 2012. Background Info: District transportation expenses have exceeded budget for each of the past three years. The trend has continued for the current (2011 – 2012) school year. On December 15, 2011,...

There will be a board meeting this week and it's gonna be a doozy. Check out this incredibly long agenda . Good thing they cut twenty minutes from public testimony. Those twenty minutes were the whole problem that created long meetings. Now the Board meetings will be over in a flash.

So much to talk about and so little time to get to all of it.  But coming up: - School Board meeting - nothing like very small children singing "Help!" and saying, "when I was younger so much younger than today".  You mean like when you were a baby?  Adorable kids from West Woodland. Then there were the Nova kids who gave moving testimony about their trans-gendered struggles and but yet again, they find compassion and a home at Nova.  After that, it got quite interesting with a new parent group announcing itself (with one single issue), TFA and assorted other issues. - BEX - this is coming fast and there is a lot to cover - future permanent homes for Nova, SBOC and Lowell at Lincoln ; any thoughts? - a big uh, oh from Transportation (hint, we didn't save any money on the neighborhood plan) - one update - turns out, according to Publicola, that because of redistricting, that DeBell now lives in the 43rd and not the 36th.  They seem to think that b...

The Times had a story about the district's transportation issues.  As with any change, there are growing pains. Calls to the district's transportation complaint hotline increased by 16 percent — from 9,500 to 11,000 — in the first two weeks of the school year, Bishop said. The percent of district students using the bus service decreased by half a percent this year, according to an analysis of numbers recently released by the district. It's just one of those things," School Board member Peter Maier said. "If I have a choice between putting money into the classroom and putting money into transportation, I would prefer to put money into the classroom, because they're not learning on the bus." But Duggan Harman, the district's executive director of finance, said he is concerned that the projected $4 million in savings may not be reached. His office is analyzing the issue, with a report expected next month. Remember when I said the di...

The Seattle Times is reporting that Governor Gregoire is considering cutting K-12 bus transportation.  But any squeamishness over student-transportation cuts isn't enough to keep that $220 million idea off her list of ways to potentially deal with budget shortfalls, the latest a $2 billion one. Washington would be the first to completely eliminate state dollars for bus service because of the recent recession, said Bob Riley, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. He noted that a few other states, including California and Colorado, have cut school-transportation dollars in previous years. Debra Carnes, who was waiting for the bus with her fourth-grader, called the idea horrible — but better than cutting money going to the classroom. She wondered what impact it would have on the attendance of low-income students and those new to the U.S.   "Our family, we'll figure it out. But there's a lot...

In advance of National Walk-to-School day, SPS put out this news : Thirteen elementary schools will celebrate International Walk-to-School Month in October, more than twice as many as last year, with activities ranging from scavenger hunts and “walking school buses” to a visit from Mayor Mike McGinn. Feet First, a local non-profit organization that develops Safe Routes to Schools programs, will provide assistance at several of the events. Schools participating include Daniel Bagley, Lafayette, Laurelhurst, West Woodland, and Green Lake, West Seattle, View Ridge, Van Asselt, Sacajawea, Leschi, Graham Hill, Concord and Coe.   It would be great - since we went to neighborhood schools under the NSAP - if there were more schools involved.  I walked to school until my sophomore year in high school.  Both ways and uphill (but being Arizona, no snow).    Also, in late breaking news, Alki Elementary principal, Clover Codd, has been named TIF Director and another p...

The Insight Network at KUOW is interested in your first day bus stories .