Seattle Schools Community Forum

You ask, the mayor answers during a live broadcast of Ask the Mayor , 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22 , from Seattle City Hall, 600 Fourth Ave. Ask the Mayor’s format features a live audience and a topic of focus during the second half of the hour-long program. During the first half of the show, Mayor Ed Murray will join host Brian Callanan to discuss a range of city issues. Murray will answer questions posed by a live audience as well as viewer inquiries submitted via e-mail and social media.  In the second half of the program, Callanan and Mayor Murray will discuss his 2015-2016 budget proposal. Mayor Murray submitted a 2015-2016 budget that expands funding for priorities in education , worker protections, public safety and support for the homeless. The mayor is also proposing to bring new transparency to the city budget, including increased accountability for program outcomes and improved access to information on city finances. The City Council has begun their re...

  I first heard from Issa George, who is the VP of the Garfield High Black Student Union.   He says: On Wednesday October 22nd, 2014 we are hosting a march from Garfield High School to the East Precinct of the Seattle Police Department on 12th and Pine.  We plan on beginning our march at Garfield High School at 3:30pm , then we plan to walk up 23rd until we reach Union st. where we will make a left and march up Union until we hit 12th, then we will proceed to the police department. We are using this march to call attention to the mass amounts of police brutality that happen in our country every day. We have prepared a statement to address the Seattle Police Department. Our march is completely student run, and adult supported. We are advertising this as a place for young people of color to express their feelings about the police. Attached is our statement. We are only affiliated with Garfield High School, and this is a Black Student Union lead march....

Yawn.  Yet ANOTHER Times push for takeover of Seattle Public Schools.  I have said this elsewhere but I'll say it again: I believe there are forces, both within and without, trying to create a situation to take over the district. I believe there are some people in SPS who are either working with outsiders or working to drag their feet on some issues so the district will look worse. Back to the Times op-ed. I always find it interesting that people at the top of the food chain think that they will be able to force top-down edicts.  It's not going to work but it will be a very interesting exercise to see who lines up where.  Who stands up for local, elected control of our district by people elected to oversee the district (and nothing else).  The Seattle Times has its stable of ready mouthpieces for its public education view.  Honestly, Google and see how many times LEV's Chris Korsmo has had an op-ed.  Charters Lisa Macfarlane.  TFA's Chris Ei...

There was an incident at Lincoln where a 20-year Special Ed student was thought to have a knife.  That triggered a shelter-in-place for about 15 minutes.  It turns out it was a plastic toy knife.  SPD responded and spoke to the student. SPD were called to the Rainier Beach area around 2:30 pm with a call of shots fired in the air by a guy who took off on foot.  This was at 50 Ave S and South Rose.  SPS put Dunlap, RBHS, South Shore Pk-8, Bailey Gatzert and South Lake on shelter-in-place while police checked out the scene.  (Bailey Gatzert was on shelter-in-place simply because an SPD officer happened to be visiting the school, heard the call and asked for it to be enacted until he/she had more info.)   This shelter-in-place was about 20 minutes and was not associated with any SPS student or staff member. 

From reader Data Hungry (bold mine), letter from Dr. Nyland to principals about staffing changes. Dear principals, I am pleased to report that nearly 52,000 students are attending Seattle Public Schools this year, according to our official October headcount. That is an increase of 978 students over last year and is within 1 percent of our enrollment forecast. Now that we have the official October enrollment counts for each school, as we do every year, we are moving forward with annual staffing adjustments – up and down – based on each school’s enrollment. Some schools have additional enrollment and require additional staff. Some schools have lower enrollments than projected and require staff reductions. We also consider equity factors, such as special education, English Language Learners, free and reduced price lunch qualifications and grade and program configurations. This year our school board has highlighted resource stewardship as a board priority, refocusing th...

The deadline for input on the Advanced Learning draft updates has been extended until Wednesday, Oct. 22nd.   The draft policy and procedures are available through the link in the right hand column on www.seattleschools.org/advlearning . The Oct. 22 public comment deadline will provide time for the Advanced Learning Office to edit the documents if necessary before they are introduced to the full school board at the Nov. 5 board meeting. A vote is expected at the December 3 meeting. Community members who would like to submit a comment should email it to advlearn@seattleschools.org and be sure to include POLICY – in all caps – in the subject line. The district is also looking for input on the "revised Special Education policy related to Commencement Exercises and Certificate of Attendance." Deadline for comment is Oct. 31, 2014. The draft policy will introduced to the Seattle School Board at its Nov. 5 meeting. The draft policy is posted on the district’s Speci...

I am urging voters to consider voting no to the first question on the preschool ballot measures in Seattle. Here's why. Preschool, especially for disadvantaged children, is a good idea. No one is arguing that point. But if the City and the unions truly wanted voters to say yes, there would have been ONE proposition. They had the opportunity to work together but choose to walk away from the table. That should give you pause about both sides. What the City and the unions have given us with these two propositions is confusion and division when what we need is clarity and unity. It's not like the City doesn’t already invest in preschool - 26% of the Families & Education levy (about $61M ) is dedicated to it. Seattle Schools has over 35 federal and state funded preschool classrooms right now. Also, as to this "we have to do this now, " well just like every other levy, it can be brought back very quickly to the ballot.  It is not that the issue isn...