Seattle Schools Community Forum

I wasn't able to attend the Executive Committee meeting this morning but Board staff were kind enough to give me the handouts (thanks Lily and Teresa). As a heads up, a couple of things from the Legislative agenda (aka School Board agenda). - November 20th.  The Growth Boundaries discussion/vote is the fifth Action item on the agenda.  Two items ahead of it will likely go quickly but the Special Ed item and possible closure of Pinehurst are likely to have some amount of discussion (and, with any luck, Pinehurst will be pulled off the agenda).  Altogether the Boar has 13 Action items to vote on (whew!) plus three Intro items.  One of those is acceptance of RTTT money for the three IB programs. I let you know this simply if you are trying to time your arrival (unless you want to come for Public Testimony but by then, it will all be over but the shouting).  If I had to call it, I'd say the Growth Boundaries discussion and vote will not start before 6:30 p.m. ...

Parents do the work to defend their schools and Pinehurst is challenging the per student figure for Pinehurst students versus other students. As usual, parents step up with extensive research.  Pinehurst is no exception and here is a letter to Superintendent Banda asking for an explanation of the costs announced to the Board per student at Pinehurst versus other K-8s.

 Board Amendment Work Session Wed. November 13th, 5:30 pm John Stanford Center for Excellent Education at 3rd and Lander in SoDo This will be the first preview of proposed, first-draft Board Director Amendments.  Note that whatever is presented today may not see daylight in the end.  The Seattle Council PTSA hosted a meeting last night with district staff.  Here is what one person heard: "It is clear that there is going to be pain involved for almost every school in the district. It was like an opera of issues.   The schools that were the happiest were those that got to meet with the district and work out solutions they could live with.

"The Mann thing has had a clear affect on you.  That comment, in which you hinted about the identify of an anonymous commenter, is something a couple of years ago, you came on someone else about.  It was a wrong turn." Those are the words Charlie wrote to me and he is right.  The sadness and frustration I feel over the Mann situation should not have colored my judgment.  It's not an excuse but an explanation.  I apologize for any discomfort I caused.  I regret my statement and it won't happen again. (I will say that I did reach out to a number of groups that support closing the achievement gap for African-American students to ask about their support of the Mann group and did not ask just one group.)

KIRO ran the second part of their series last night.   This part was around the part of the district audit used by their team that dealt with use of district vehicles and gasoline.  I was interviewed and make a statement about being disappointed that the oversight isn't better.  This part is as sobering as the first one.  (I know that there are a variety of opinions on this series but that the district staff doesn't disagree with many of their findings is telling.) Here is their written version of the story (but it is truncated so not verbatim).  The audit link is embedded in their written version along with a graph about employee overtime. I still believe we have the potential to be a truly great district if we could get operations in hand.  (I hope the new financial superintendent gets this in hand.)  It is vital to get operations under control because (1) that allows real focus on teaching and learning and that's where the district should...

The superintendent declared the State of the District to be fabulous, despite failing to meet 22 of 23 statistical goals for academics. The District remains focused on closing the academic achievement gap, but still refuses to develop a plan to achieve the goal. The Superintendent claims some progress and attributes it to improved instructional quality resulting from the new teacher evaluation system.

I print  that title because I just read the Parent Map editorial about the School Board races. It's a race that should be viewed as  a bellwether for the future of the national debate about public education. That's a big statement but the editorial goes on to note the concern over: big money in a school board campaign negative campaigning Dale Estey, who claimed not to be aware of or in control of some of her campaign P.R. machinery, also admitted to me on Election Night that such tactics are a calculated risk. She said experts had told her that the gains from negative publicity far outstrip the losses. This blind faith in "experts" contradicts the image Dale Estey sought to portray, that of a homegrown girl in touch with the concerns of Seattle families. Had she listened to  the people whose doorbells she rang,  instead of experts, and followed her own instincts, she might have understood early on that negativity was a problem, especially when n...