Seattle Schools Community Forum

It seems like a shorter agenda than usual for the upcoming School Board meeting on Wednesday, the 19th at 6:00 p.m. They will be having an Executive Session before the meeting on Collective Bargaining and Professional Negotiations. This is likely to be in advance of upcoming negotiations for both the teachers' contract and principals' contract . These negotiations will be interesting this year as the district has no money to offer and so it becomes all about what the school work day will look like for teachers and principals. I have to wonder how Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's lack of experience with unions may play into these negotiations. I know the district has already hired a professional negotiator. As for the agenda itself, there are these items: action on the renaming of Brighton Elementary to Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary action on acceleration of BTA III for the new SAP - This one is a bit weird to me because it is highlighted as "amended motion". ...

Core 24 is a proposal from the State Board of Education to set a new minimum for high school graduation requirements for every student in the state. If adopted, CORE 24 would require all students to earn 24 high school credits in these categories: 4.0 Language Arts 3.0 Math (Algebra, Geometry, and either Algebra 2 or an approved substitute) 3.0 Science (2 labs minimum) 3.0 Social Studies 2.0 Arts 1.5 Fitness (may be waived) 0.5 Health 3.0 Career and Technical Education (once called voc ed or occ ed) 4.0 Elective (2.0 world language and 1.0 math recommended for college-readiness) This differs from the current state-mandated graduation requirements by having an additional year of language arts, an additional year of a laboratory science, an additional semester of social studies, an additional year of art, and two additional years of CTE. That's 5.5 additional credits of required courses. The electives, however, are reduced by 1.5 credits, for a net increase of 4.0 credits. Getting ...

Open thread for any thing but here's a start. It's bright, it's sunny and assignment letters seem to be in mailboxes. Have you received yours? (Also, on this topic of Open Thread. I would gently ask that please, unless it is breaking news or urgent, don't hijack a thread with a non-related, off-topic subject . I find that this happens and then the original point gets lost somehow. All the writers here put in labels on threads so that folks visiting the blog and looking for specific topics can find those threads. I can imagine it is annoying to read some and find out that the thread isn't on the topic it is labeled. I will try to have at least one Open Thread a week so that any topic or news item you have read can be posted. Thanks!)

On Monday, May 17, the Board's Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee will meet from 4:30 to 6:00. Here's the agenda : a. Graduation Requirements - When/how to bring to committee of the whole b. Update on STEM at Cleveland - Alternative Learning Experience process c. Performance management/Waiver Process - Establish guiding principles - Set timeline for work between now & September d. Alternative Schools Evaluation/Review - Who/when e. Policy E 04.00 - Community Schools There's something here for almost everyone. Graduation Requirements Will the District move towards CORE24? How smart is that? How are we going to get kids to earn 24 credits when we can't get 30% of them to earn 20 credits? How can we provide students with the classes needed for them to get 24 credits? Is it even a good idea for every high school graduate to have the credits needed to gain entry to a four-year university? Why is that seen as the only legitimate goal? Will the District stand...

This Saturday finds 3 directors having community meetings. Sherry Carr - 8:30-10 am, Greenwood Neighborhood Service Center, 8515 Greenwood Ave N. Harium Martin-Morris - 9:30-11:30 am, Diva Espresso, 8014 Lake City Way NE Peter Maier - 10:30 - noon, Bethany Community Church, 1156 N. 80th, Auditorium Any burning questions to ask them? Also a reminder that the longer Superintendent survey is still live. ( Please note - if you have already taken the survey, the link won't work again. It is live for those who haven't. I did recheck it.) It is a great companion survey to the fine one done by CPPS (results from that one soon). The Board really needs to hear from parents and community about how they are feeling about Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson and her efforts in our district. Please pass the word along; there have been about 140 taken so far.

First off, I really like West Seattle. I'm not a native so let me know if I have this wrong but what I always heard is that SW Seattle is considered "West Seattle". So that area has two high schools, two middle schools and a number of elementaries that serve their area. And, since West Seattle is a somewhat isolated area, most families stay in that area for school. Second, I really like the West Seattle Blog . They do such a great job of covering that whole area like a little mini-city. There seems to be such a sense of community over there. They also getsome pretty interesting reader comments on their stories. I was checking out what was being said about the departure of Bruce Bivens, the current principal at WSHS. Just as you would expect there are differing thoughts about his departure but then some tension crept in over the differences between Chief Sealth High School and West Seattle High School. Here's what one commenter had to say: Currently have s...

Like a mystery? Good, so help me out here. The District has hired an outside consulting firm, Koya Consulting, to find an elementary principal for a "transformation" school. So mystery one, what school is this? Hawthorne or West Seattle? Mystery two, where does the district have money to hire an outside consultant? I would guess this is an important vacancy to get filled correctly but the district's own HR couldn't do this? Mystery three, this consulting firm is using... Craigslist ? I'm sure they are putting ads in education sites/magazines but really, if you have the qualifications they are looking for, you wouldn't be looking at Craigslist. Weird. Thanks to Mary S and her alert eyes for this info.