Seattle Schools Community Forum

I'm at the School Board meeting and am impressed by the picketing and demonstration effort by the food service employees who are protesting the proposed change to middle and high school food service. Here's the revised Start Time proposal that will be presented and voted on tonight: The proposed changes would specify two start/dismissal times to maximize operational efficiency, provide more consistency and reduce transportation costs. The proposed changes being presented tonight are different from the original board motion, and reflect input from community and staff. The proposed changes are: Middle schools, high schools and most K-8 schools (Alternative School No. 1, Catharine Blaine, Broadview-Thomson, Jane Addams, Madrona, Orca, Pathfinder, and South Shore): 8:15 a.m. start, 2:45 p.m. dismissal Elementary schools, plus K-8 schools that currently have bus routes that run 60 minutes or longer (e.g. Salmon Bay and TOPS ): 9:30 a.m. start, 3:40 p.m. dismissal Moving the start...

At a Board work session today from 4-5:30 pm, the revised assignment plan framework is being discussed. And, based on what I see in the presentation , the details are definitely beginning to be fleshed out. **************** 4:30 pm I'm at the Board work session now. I'm impressed by both the types of questions the Board members are asking and the respectful way they are asking them. They're not getting any answers yet...it's more like Dr. G-J is presenting info and collecting questions, but not really attempting to answer them. There is a Recorder who is taking notes of everything. 4:45 pm Tracy Libros talking about tie-breakers now. (slides 23, 24, 25) Amusingly, she started to answer a Board members' question and then stopped herself saying "Oh, I'm not supposed to answer now." So I guess that's the official plan for this session. 4:50 pm Open to general Board questions. DeBell says "there needs to be a linkage between the assignment plan an...

The Times published an article today about the changing bell times. What I had thought before about sensing trouble between the Board and the Superintendent is growing after reading this article. Again, we hear from parents: "Many complain Goodloe-Johnson didn't give parents much voice in the matter. "That really raises people's concerns about whether she considers parents to be partners," said Lisa Fitzhugh, a parent at TOPS, one of the K-8 schools." The Transportation chief explains that K-8 elementary kids wouldn't have to get on the bus an hour earlier because the new start time would trim ride time. "Bishop said many students in the K-8 schools wouldn't have to arrive at their bus stops an hour earlier than they do now, even though their schools would start an hour earlier. Greater efficiency of uniform start times would shorten their rides by about 15 to 20 minutes, he said." Really? You promise,now. So back to the Board. "Sc...

In 2007 the U.S. recorded its highest birth rate ever (this in an article in the Times). On the one hand for us Baby Boomers, good news. We'll have a large enough generation to support us in our old age. (This is a line I like to use on teens when encouraging them to do well in school; I tell them I need them for my Social Security.) On the other hand, 40% of the births are out-of-wedlock. (More than 3/4 of these women are over 20.) This is not good for public education. I'm not talking morality - people have to live with the choices they make. However, children from single parent homes do worse in school and present with more issues than kids from two-parent households. And the teen birth rate is up for the second year in a row. Will it last? It doesn't seem so. "But it's not clear the boomlet will last long. Some experts think birth rates are already declining because of the economic recession that began in late 2007. "I expect they'll go bac...

Those of you who might be wondering what our former Superintendent, Raj Manhas, is doing these days might want to check out this story from The Olympian: 5 to view for top N. Thurston post . It appears that he is now the former executive director of Seeds of Compassion and is up for the job of Superintendent of North Thurston Public Schools. I don't know why his gig with Seeds of Compassion was so brief, but anyone interested in a professional, unbiased review of his work can read the CACIEE report to learn about his total failure to fulfill any of the executive duties or provide any leadership as Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools.

The new start time proposal that will be presented at the School Board meeting tomorrow night not only returns to the 8:00 am middle school/high school/K-8 start time and the 9:15 am elementary school start time, but it also includes a return to some very vague language about which schools are impacted. The proposal says: Designated Elementary and K-8 Schools 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM Middle Schools 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM Elementary Schools 9:15 AM to 3:25 PM (With individual exceptions to accommodate shared school bus service) So does that mean that Lowell and Thurgood Marshall are back on the early start time list? Or are some other unsuspecting elementary schools going to be added? And which K-8 schools had enough influence with Ruth Medsker to get off the early start time list? And how about this interesting tidbit: "Individual schools may request a waiver from these times provided that the requesting school funds any additional transportation cost." So if your PTSA can rai...

It's weird. No matter how many times the District breaks its commitments - and they break nearly all of them - I periodically drift into a sort of amnesia or Pollyanna optimism in which I actually give their promises some credibility, only to be brought crashing back to Earth with a thud. If I ever - EVER - believe a District official who makes a commitment, if I ever - EVER - suggest that they will follow through on any promise, please someone slap me and remind me of their astonishing record of faithlessness. We are approaching another round of Community Update meetings on the Strategic Plan so I started writing to the project managers asking them for the basic documents of their initiatives and asking them when they intend to comply with the Engagement Protocols. In response, I got a snippy email from Bridgett Chandler essentially telling me to stop writing and asking for information and suggesting that I only have a right to know what they deign to share. Here is the text of he...