Seattle Schools Community Forum

Continuing the pattern of Highline and Bellevue, the Olympia School district is having community meetings with its superintendent finalists this week.   I wish our School Board would take note. Great new summer camp offering through the UW Computer Science & Engineering: How do computers work?  What does it take to write a computer program?  How can computing help address challenges in healthcare, water management, education and more?  What jobs are available to people with computing skills? This summer, UW Computer Science & Engineering will answer these questions through a series of 1-week day camps in partnership with Women in Science and Engineering and the Society of Women Engineers.  Participants will get hands-on experience in computing and participate in creative projects.  Two sessions (July 16 - 20 or July 23 - 27) will be offered for students starting 7th, 8th or 9th grade in fall 2012.  One session (August 13-17)...

I filed an Ethics complaint against Director DeBell for his participation in the discussion of the MOU with the Alliance for Education despite the fact that he sits on the Alliance board. The District's Ethics Officer, Mr. Wayne Barnett, dismissed the complaint because Mr. DeBell's service on the board of the Alliance is ex officio . That is, he isn't there as himself but as the president of the school board and therefore there is no conflict of interest because in both capacities his duty of loyalty is to the District. Mr. Barnett also cited analogous decisions by the federal Department of Justice. This is, it would appear, well-traveled ground in the Ethics business and it has been determined that situations like this are not conflicts of interest. In short, exceptions are made when the person's ties to the other institution is a direct consequence of their work for the District. Case closed.

Monday, March 19th Another community meeting the City is putting on about Arts Education .  This one is at South Shore K-8 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21st Board Work Session on HR from 4-5:30 p.m.  No agenda posted yet. School Board Meeting from 6-9 p.m.  Agenda .  As Charlie pointed out elsewhere, a big agenda with many property issues but a couple of major votes.  One is about continuing the contract with TFA and the other is over the governance policy, 1620BP.  Because of TFA, I'm sure this meeting will be full, both in the attendance and on the speakers list.  I feel fairly certain that the contract will be retained by a 4-3 vote.  I think there are some Board members that believe if more TFA aren't hired and/or a donor found for the TFA fees, that the contract will just peter out in a couple of years. Maybe but there are two items to consider.  One, the powers that want TFA in SPS will open their wallets and pay...

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.

A new Gates Foundation report (with Scholastic) has just come out called Primary Sources: 2012 - America's Teachers on the Teaching Profession. They surveyed about 10,000 teachers via e-mail and in person about schools, their classrooms, student and teacher performance and assessment, tenure, family involvement, job satisfaction and digital content.  It was not revealed to the teachers who was sponsoring the survey.  One chart that jumped out at me is on page 12 called "I mpact that various effects would have on improving academic achievement". Will you look at that - Family involvement and support was picked to be "very strong" or "strong" by 98% of the teachers.   High expectations was second at 96%.  Principals was the third choice at 91%.  And coming in fourth (Earth to Bill) - lower class sizes at 90%. Interestingly, lower class size was more important to teachers of older students.  What came in low on the scale for teachers?  A longe...

 Reader Mr. White said this in another thread: When people complain about Seattle process with too many meddling parents asking questions and too many groups seeking answers, oh my, who wants to come here? they're serving as a distraction from the facts. Ab-so-lu-te-ly.  I have written frequently and in varied places about the issues in this charter bill.  I am talking here about the descriptions within the bill about how charters would be carried out in our state, not my opinion.  In no place - not LEV, not the Times, not here, not anywhere - has a single person said "No, you read the bill wrong."  "You have this fact wrong." Not on a single point in a single place. That means that every charter support that has read the Times comments or read LEV's posts or even the posts here supports every single thing in the bill?  Interesting. Now maybe these people don't see what I pointed out as flaws and everyone is entitled to their own opinion...

I was notified by Lesley Rodgers, head of SPS Communications, that there was an error in the figure being circulated on the number of applications SPS received for superintendent.  While there were over 100 inquires, there are 36 applications.   I appreciate the update as I had received the figure from the Board office and the Crosscut article also reflected the same high figure. On the subject of the Focus Group Committee , I have to point out that BOTH the ed reformers and the progressives (not "traditionalists") are seemingly unhappy.  Hey, will you take a look at that? We all have something in common. Even as yet another school district hones in on its choice for a new Superintendent, Seattle is sorting through its search “process.” Originally limiting “stakeholders” to the PTSA and school district employees, the School Board has decided that they will allow for broader community perspective after all. But only at the last minute.  To meet with the th...