Seattle Schools Community Forum

Good coverage by Publicola over the Mayor's huge Transportation levy and safe walk/bike routes for students.  The group ( Seattle Greenways ) believes that upgrading walk sheds around the city’s 97 schools with bike and ped safety amenities will transform Seattle into a  perambulatory paradise—not just for kids, but, by planning for kids’ safety, the strategy would simultaneously benefit everyone. Disappointed in the plan’s $7 million line item for Safe Routes to School, they called for $40 million. Mayor Ed Murray spokesman Jason Kelly tells me that despite the $7 million line item listed in the presentation to council, the mayor’s plan actually spends $47 million on Safe Routes to School programs. Kelly says there’s $7 million in the levy, plus $33 million from school zone cameras and $7 million in grants that would complete one Safe Routes to School project at every Seattle public school. Greenways director Cathy Tuttle says she’s well aware of the ...

From the SPS School Beat : Applicants Needed: The Instructional Services science staff is planning for an anticipated adoption process for high school physical science, physics and chemistry instructional materials . The process will start in late spring 2010 and end in spring 2011. Applications to become a member of this Instructional Materials Adoption Committee will be accepted from March 16 to April 16. The time commitment for each Instructional Materials Adoption Committee member is approximately: • one meeting in late spring 2010, approximately three hours • five six-hour days, approximately one per month in the first seven months of the school year • three after-school meetings, approximately three hours each District educators and community members are encouraged to apply. Seattle Public Schools teachers will be provided with substitute release or extra hours for their time. Community members will participate on a volunteer basis. Please look for the announcement a...

If you are on Facebook, please remind friends and relatives that school starts tomorrow. Everyone needs to drive safely with more kids out there. And, don't go speeding through a school zone or you will get a ticket.  From the Seattle Department of Transportation: Before & After (and a note about heading back to school):   SDOT crews recently installed speed cushions, more marked crosswalks, signs, new street paint, and paint-and-post curb bulbs on 3rd Ave NW between NW 83rd St and NW 67th St.   This project was led by our Safe Routes to School program, which has built dozens of improvements around Seattle to make it easier to walk, roll, and ride bikes to school. Seattle's school children walk and bike to school at nearly 3x the national average.   With school starting on September 4th, we wanted to highlight some of the projects that we've completed for Safe Routes to School - and share how you can get involved.   We built speed cushions and speed humps ...

A drive-by "spraying" near Arbor Heights Elementary School on November 28th as reported by the West Seattle Blog is deeply troubling. The principal at AHES, Alana Haider, sent out this info (partial) to parents: Shortly after school was dismissed this afternoon, you or your student may have noticed the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Seattle Fire Department on our campus while they responded to a threatening incident. An unknown adult in a car sprayed a substance that SPD believes may have been pepper spray toward several students and their families while they were walking on the sidewalk. The unknown adult immediately drove west on 105th and was not seen again as we dealt with this situation. A teacher on duty immediately alerted the school office and called 911. The SPD and paramedic teams appeared about five minutes later. They tended to the individuals who had been sprayed or who were nearby. I am thankful to say that the students and families who were involved in t...

Update : a link to a Soup for Teachers Facebook page with a school-specific petition (you take their wording and put in your specifics so Super/Board know what will happen at YOUR school). end of update With all this discussion, I thought I'd throw up a few pieces of information. Fun Facts In 2004-2005, the most recent year for which statistics are complied, 55.3% of the over 45M children enrolled in public K-12 schools were bused to school at public expense. The United States spends $17.5 billion per year on school bus transportation at an average cost of $692 per student transported.1 The percentage of children bused has been declining steadily since the mid-1980s, when slightly more than 60% of children were bused. At that time, the average expenditure per student transported was under $300.2 In FY2009, approximately $180 million in federal Safe Routes to School funding will be made available to each state’s Department of Transportation to help school ...

Update This item is up for intro/action at tonight's school board meeting. Key info from the BAR (Board Action Report) showed two contracts at $39.5M EACH and I just about had a heart attack.  But reading further in the BAR we see: While for maximum flexibility each contract authorizes the district to assign up to 100% of the required routes to a single provider, the goal of the district during the 2022-23 school year is to allocate routes approximately evenly between the two contracts authorized in this action. As each vendor will be providing approximately 50% of the required services, the expected actual expenditures under each contract will be significantly less than the fully authorized amount. If the service is evenly split between the two contracts, the fiscal impact to this action will be approximately $45,200,000. This amount is higher than the value of the individual contracts because receiving service from multiple vendors leads to the district being billed at the higher...

It's quite the mash-up of topics for this week's Board Work Session on Wednesday the 24th from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Early Learning/Seattle Preschool Program 4:30 pm- 6 pm SMART Goal #4 - Early Hiring 6 pm - 6:45 pm SMART Goal #6 - Customer Service 6:45 - 7:30 pm Each of the presentations is quite different. Early Learning starts on page 3 of the agenda.  Staff claims that there are 60 students in the three SPS-located City Pre-K.  But they also claim that there is space available at all three locations.  Which naturally begs the question - what is the stated class size limit for these classrooms? (Answer: 20 students per class so I'm unclear how there is still space available.  (The graph shows 20 students in each location.)  They also don't say that it has taken months for the two City-enrolled SPS classrooms - Original Van Asselt and Van Asselt - to get to this level.   Then, there are pages of "data" that I'm not sure adds much to the...

Thank you to reader Gail for this portion of the Mayor's State of the City speech yesterday.   I have put in red those items that I wanted to call out. Press Release Today, Mayor Mike McGinn gave his fourth State of the City speech. Education and our schools were a major priority. There is no probably no stronger foundation for opportunity, and long term economic success, than ensuring that our children are educated. Click here to view the speech. Early Learning Early learning is a critical place where we can make an even bigger difference. The achievement gap need not be permanent. Kids shouldn't have to go to their first day of kindergarten starting off two laps behind the other kids. If we focus on early learning, every kid can start on that path together. This fall, the City Office for Education will launch an Early Learning Academy to provide high quality, evidence-based early learning training for preschool providers in Seattle. This initiative wil...

OSPI announces Walk and Bike to School Day on Wednesday, the 9th.  (I think the International Day is today but the U.S. day is Wednesday.)  Details can be found by checking your local school/district or community partners such as health departments, police departments, city leaders, and non-profit organizations. A Web site, www.walkbiketoschool.org , has been established to register schools and to check which schools have posted their events. Also, In partnership with Washington Department of Transportation, Feet First, and the Washington Bicycle Alliance, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction will be accepting grant applications in November. The grants will support 10 school districts to implement Safe Routes to School Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Education programs in middle school physical education classes in the 2013-2014 school year. The grant application will be posted to the Safe Routes to School Website at: http://www.k12.wa.us/healthfitn...

Couple of quick Olympia updates.

Several items have come across my desk recently about school closures.  First, there's "special" Board meeting this week on Wednesday, the 11th which a bit of everything.  The agenda reflects a Work Session on what this board wants to put forth at the annual Washington State Directors' Association General Assembly. This is the professional group for school board members throughout the state. It's 20 minutes but only President Liza Rankin is likely to speak so I doubt the other Board members will have much to say. There is an executive session "to review the performance of a public employee." I venture to guess that is about the Superintendent's contract as Jones is still operating under his previous contract which expired on July 1. I'm sure the Board has had many back and forths about it (in the form of these executive sessions) and I'll bet the issue is "how can we pay him more when we say we have to close schools?"  Then ...

Pick any or all but do let them hear from you. Also, Marty McLaren is having a meeting tomorrow.   If you can go, let her hear from you. 12:30-2:00 on Wednesday May 9 th at the Southwest Library, 9010 35 th Ave SW school playgrounds not sufficiently lit  issues with adults (teachers or staff) being there to supervise No Public Engagement: The District introduced the new transportation plan at the School Board meeting on Wednesday, May 2 to be voted on at the next meeting, May 16. Staff admitted there was no public engagement prior to introduction of the plan. Furthermore, the proposal acknowledges that 5-6 additional schools will need to be moved to Tier One, but staff won’t disclose which schools will be affected. That robs those who will be affected of the opportunity to evaluate the impact to their school communities and provide feedback. After Open Enrollment: The Transportation Service Standards, adopted by the School Board on February 1, 2012,...

I plan on writing a thread this weekend that is an overview of how I see the Seattle School Board today.  There are certainly some interesting things being said by directors and frankly, I'm not sure I see them working as a unified body (but not the same people who usually get called out for having special interests).   I listened to the Board comments and more and more, I find them quite telling. - Update: forgot this one piece of info.  You may have heard that some school districts around the country have accepted various "items" from the Armed Forces.  One in San Diego accepted a tank.  Seriously.  I had a chance to ask Ass't Superintendent Pegi McEvoy this question yesterday.  She said the only things that SPS accepted from the military were blankets, cots and MREs.  Sounds good to me. - the district appears to have solved its website problems.  However, apparently the 46th Dems were to have an Endorsement meeting last night at ...

From the City of Seattle: Simply THE most important road safety meetings you can attend this year @ SeattleDOT School Road Safety. Why? Starting in 2015, the School Road Safety Plan will prioritize millions in safety improvements every year around our schools. ** Tuesday, May 20 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM SW Southwest Branch Seattle Public Library, 901 0 35th Ave SW ** Tuesday, May 27 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Northeast Branch Seattle Public Library, 6801 35th Ave NE ** Thursday, May 29 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) invites you to a design workshop where we’ll examine how to improve traffic safety near Seattle schools. The workshops will include a presentation and discussion on road design treatments and a “walk about” intended to provide examples of traffic barriers and potential opportunities. These workshops are part of an effort to improve safety near schools through a combination of street im...