Seattle Schools Community Forum

Tonight's Board meeting is the last for this particular make-up of the Board.  They certainly are leaving with major issues that will be decided tonight. Items of note for tonight's meeting:

This meeting turned out to be more interesting than I thought but that was mostly due to parents who asked some fairly pointed questions about the waitlist.  Ashley Davies, the director of Enrollment, was the lead for the evening.  (Flip Herndon was at a Work Session and it will be interesting to see if he handles any of the other community meetings.) There were about 50 parents who came to Ingraham for the meeting.  There was an issue right from the start because Ms. Davies had brought copies of the Board-approved 2009 SAP and the 2013-2014 Transition Plan which are the documents the district is attempting to combine AND streamline.  The issue was there was no current document available and Ms. Davies did not convey that point to parents.  She did not say when it would be (but the board was told "before Friday.")

I almost - almost - didn't go to the Curriculum&Instruction Committee meeting and then the COW of the Operations (Committee of the Whole - that acronym is a scream).  But I did and I am glad I did. To the biggest news - did you hear about the University of Missouri president who resigned under protest from students about lack of sensitivity/action on racism issues?  How did that happen? Big, steady, continuing pressure. And so it goes for the Student Assignment plan.   Staff has rolled back what they are doing in a major way AND the Board is pretty clear that this is what they want.  I cannot tell you how the support of the Seattle Council PTSA has mattered in this case.  I am so proud of that group and their graceful (and seemingly fearless) leader, Cassandra Johnston.  I truly believe that their support on this issue for transparency and clarity on this issue - along with many of you - have carried the day. What was said at the COW tonight: ...

I had an interview with KPLU's Kyle Stokes about the redlined student assignment plan.  He then went to the district who provided him with their accounting of the changes to the  SAP .  Apparently I'm Chicken Little. According to the district (and they put this in their document three times): There are only two proposed policy changes:  Waitlists will now be dissolved on May 31, instead of September 30.  The distance tiebreaker has been removed, in keeping with the Student Assignment Plan that was approved in 2009. This document is not at the district webpage (even as the Board will be voting on it this Wednesday.) Additionally:

From SPS Communications: If you submitted one of the 5,300 choice applications we received during the Open Enrollment period, you can now view the results. The Assignment and Waitlist link has been updated for the 2015-16 school year. Use the link to see your student’s 2015-16 assignment and any wait list placements. You will need your student’s identification number and birthdate.  If you did not request a different assignment during Open Enrollment and have not submitted at change to your home address, your student’s assignment hasn't changed. Printed assignment letters will be mailed to home addresses the week of April 27.   Second applications for choice enrollment will be accepted beginning May 1, 2015. The choice forms remain posted on the Admissions main page.  If you have questions about school assignments for the 2015-16 school year, please call the Service Center at (206) 252-0760. But not until Monday.

 Update:   Here's the district waitlist .  The high school waitlists are long for 9th grade - Franklin, 88, Garfield, 80, Hale, 68, Roosevelt 87. JSIS, Pathfinder, Queen Anne, Lafayette, McDonald,  and K-5 STEM at Boren have a big list for K.  Mercer has 36 for 6th grade (the publicity around their success is getting around) and Salmon Bay has a long waitlist  in nearly every grade and yet the projections have their enrollment down.  TOPS has a waitlist in every grade.  Again, what's up with South Shore - its building is nowhere near full and yet they have a waitlist in almost every single grade.  Something's not right here. End of update. Here are the district's enrollment projections for next year. Highlights :

This week starts the community meetings about the Strategic Plan.  I also received this info from a reader: Open Enrollment processing will be completed and information on next year's assigned students downloaded on Friday, April 12th. Information on assignments and waitlist status will be available to families beginning at Noon on Monday, April 15th.  You will be able to access this information on-line or by calling the automated phone line, 206-252-0212. Individualized letters will be mailed the week of April 22nd to anyone who submitted an Open Enrollment application. Monday, April 1st Strategic Plan community meeting at Eckstein Middle School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Amharic and Tigrigna) Tuesday, April 2nd Strategic Plan community meeting at Chief Sealth International High School from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Amharic) Wednesday, April ...

Tracy Libros was kind enough to send this link along. She said she doesn't have a report on waitlisted non-attendeance area K sibs. There is also a link to checking a student's waitlist status. Both these links, along with other info, are at the Enrollment Information page .

The waitlist numbers for SPS schools is out and it makes for a lot of head-scratching and wonderment about what will happen. (They charmingly call it the ' Waiting list .') Sadly, it's alphabetical so you can't quickly compare high schools, middle schools, K-8s and elementaries. (Also sadly, I can't figure out how to attached the PDF yet but as soon as I figure it out, I'll put it up.) Elementaries (these are incoming K numbers only) The largest waitlist appears to be at Kimball at 31.  There are lots in the '20s - West Woodland, Loyal Heights, Laurelhurst, Lafayette, Gatewood, Dunlap, Muir, and Maple. Elementaries with a focus Beacon Hill has 58 on its list with JSIS at 46. Graham Hill's pre-school Montessori has 35 while Bagley has 19 for its Montessori.  Thornton Creek is at 33. Middle Schools (these are incoming 6th graders only for General Ed) Mercer is the highest with 65. Washington follows closely behind with 62.  Hamilton is at 2...

There was a question about waitlists as some parents are hoping they will move and that their younger child can join an older sib at the older sib's school. I asked Tracy Libros, head of Enrollment, about them. "We are handling them centrally. We are constantly reviewing data and identifying where we can move waiting lists and then calling families. It doesn’t happen instantly – but it happens pretty quickly! (For instance, I worked Labor Day weekend to get as many calls as possible made before school started.) " So that's your answer for now. I would counsel patience because people do move around but it may not be until October. How many might move is anyone's guess. I honestly believe Tracy except for one thing (and this goes for the overenrollment and any other issues that will come up in the next 2-3 years with the NSAP). That one thing is that they really don't know for sure how it will all play out. You can't ascribe past attrition patterns ...

Thanks to StepJ who let us know the district had posted a document about the kindergarten sibling waitlists . There are 148 siblings on the waiting lists for schools that are not their attendance area school. There is a fairly even city-wide distribution of siblings who didn't get their sibling assignment with the largest for Kimball at 19 and John Hay at 18. Here's the document summary : "The following chart shows results for non-attendance area K siblings who applied for their sibling’s attendance area school during Open Enrollment. In summary: • 556 non-attendance area K students applied for their older sibling’s school.2 • 73% of these applicants (408 students) were assigned to their sibling’s school. • 27% of these applicants (148 students) are on waiting lists for their sibling’s school. These results are in addition to: • Students assigned to their attendance area school their older sibling attends. • 132 K siblings assigned to the Option School their older si...