Seattle Schools Community Forum

The story about the man who shot up a street near Lake City and killed two innocent people was bad enough.  But to learn that, Deborah Judd,  a second-grade teacher at Laurelhurst was one of his other victims - shot three times while driving her car - was shocking.  What is truly sad is that she said she had thought that might happen in her school.  Her thoughts were not far from her students:

Update from Ronald Boy, Legal at SPS: I had another phone meeting with the Department of Education this afternoon and received information that conflicts with the previous guidance received.  In light of this, and recognizing the important feedback from our community, we are informing the three schools currently using the Check Yourself screener that its use must be put on hold until direct parent/guardian notification occurs regardless of the type of use (i.e. singular use and universal). The notification will:

The City Council's committee on Education met today to discuss the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy (FEPP).  On hand were Chair Lorena Gonzalez and member Rob Johnson.  Neither Vice-Chair Teresa Mosqueda or Alternate Debora Juarez were there. They were discussing issues with City staff about the Implementation and Evaluation Plan that is required under the levy.  I read the Plan and certainly found many issues so I went down and testified. Here's what I told/asked the Committee:

This is an email I sent to the Board earlier this week:

Instructional Materials Update (Science Adoption)  Head of Science, Mary Margaret Welch, said she wanted to frame the discussion around "gratitudes" to the three committees of 90 people who had given their time to this effort.  She said there would be five BARs - Chemistry, Physics, Elementary, Middle and High School - for the sciences. She said there was an FAQ on this work but the link appears to be dead.

From Lowell Elementary PTA :

There were many areas of teaching and learning covered but I won't be covering all items on the agenda .  I neglected to request all the documentation for this meeting - as they require anyone to do because for some reason they refuse to attach it to the agenda - so I will request it. There were many areas of good discussion but I found the Science adoption discussion and the discussion about Policy 3232, Parent and Student Rights in Administration of Surveys, Analysis or Evaluations.  (Editor's note: I'm going to pull out both for a separate thread as I may have new information soon.) I will also note a curious statement from Kyle Kinoshita because it occurred when speaking of Honors for All (where it didn't fit).  He said that elementary math in SPS is only 40% aligned to standards and that decision "predated him."  What?