Seattle Schools Community Forum

So far, an interesting person.  Here's a link to a YouTube video when Anaheim was named District of the Year by a math company MIND (that uses visual learning tools).  Other items to note: He was a finalist to be the in Broad Superintendent Academy in 2010 but either didn't go or didn't get selected. 24 schools in Anaheim (now the 10th largest city in California and home of Disneyland), 15 of them been modernized or newly constructed.  He's been through capital bond/levy measures. It appears that some of their schools are year-round schools. Results from the 2011 California Standards Test (CST) showed that overall student performance in the district made significant gains, translating into large increases on the Academic Performance Index (API). The overall District API is 773, just 27 points shy of the state’s benchmark of 800. Several schools individually met that mark including Clara Barton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Benito Juarez an...

Mr. Banda will be in Seattle on April 23-24, Mr. Enoch on April 24-25 and Dr. Husk on April 25-26.  The public can offer feedback to the School Board at schoolboard@seattleschools.org.  Jose L. Banda Last four years as super for Anaheim City School district with 20k students.  From the media release: Mr. Banda also developed strong relationships with the business community, city government and service organizations, as evidenced by an innovative math partnership with the MIND Institute and the successful passage of a $170 million construction bond in 2010.  Mr. Banda spent 13 years as a secondary administrator, including eight years as a high school principal before becoming the Superintendent of the Planada School District from 2002-2005. Before Anaheim, Mr. Banda was the Deputy Superintendent at Oceanside Unified School District. He has also served as a high school counselor, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and board member for Salid...

This just got released from SPS - I have not done any research yet on theses candidates. The Seattle School Board on Thursday announced three finalists for Superintendent: José L. Banda , Steven W. Enoch and Sandra L. Husk (please see the attached announcement for more information, bios and photos).

According to the OSPI web page , the superintendent of public instruction: "is the primary agency charged with overseeing K-12 public education in Washington state. Led by State School Superintendent Randy Dorn, OSPI works with the state’s 295 school districts to administer basic education programs and implement education reform on behalf of more than one million public school students." Yeah. But what does he do? What tasks are required by the duty to oversee K-12 public education in Washington State? What basic education programs does the OSPI administer? What education reform does the OSPI implement? Honestly, I've been through the list of stuff that the OSPI is supposed to do and I'd say that about half of it looks redundant and useless and the other half looks mechanical. It looks like a bureaucracy that runs itself for little purpose other than to run itself. I doubt that the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, has much actual work to do ...

The wave of stories about bullying since the beginning of the school year in this country shows no signs of stopping.  One of the latest stories pulls back the curtain on a settlement between the district and the family of a boy who was paralyzed by a punch to the abdomen by a known bully.   (The hit to the abdomen was so severe it caused a blood clot in a major artery to his spine that left him paralyzed.) The Ramsey Board of Education in New Jersey settled with the family for $4.2M.  The district says the settlement was "the decision" of the insurance company and that they did nothing wrong. What? No, the district was told how bad the evidence was against them, was counseled by the insurance company to pay out and now wants to say, we're paying but we deny we did anything wrong.

That's the question. I was talking with another education advocate recently and her take was that people (read: legislators) are tired of throwing money at public education and seeing the same results. And, that's why we need to support ed reform because legislators want to see something done differently in our schools. Okay, I can understand not wanting schools and districts doing the same thing over and over and hoping for better results. However: We don't fund full-day K. We don't fund summer school for struggling students. We don't fund college and career counselors. Washington State does not fully fund education and hasn't for decades. Look it up - Washington State, depending on how you look at it, is 45th, 46th and 47th in the nation for funding (thank goodness for Alabama and Mississippi). So we aren't even funding at the average rate. I have to wonder about this argument because it makes it very easy for legislators to pan schools w...

 From the City of Seattle: As you know, Youth Commission applications closed last Friday; in order to get better geographic and high school representation, though, we’re extending the application period through the end of this week. If you know anyone who wanted to apply but wasn’t able to, please ask them to get their application in by this Friday, April 20 th . Because this week is Spring Break, it’s OK for new applicants to submit their references by the end of the day next Tuesday, April 24 th .  We’re especially looking for more applicants from Franklin and Rainier Beach, so if you know any students at either school, please encourage them to apply. All application materials can be found online at http://seattle.gov/syc/apply. htm ; thanks for getting the word out already, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer now! What's on your mind?