Seattle Schools Community Forum

The Times had an article this week on TFA recruits coming to the Puget Sound area. This might be a tougher area to crack than they had anticipated. According to the article, they will try to bring in 35 with one sole commitment (from Federal Way) of only 4-10 teachers. (Of course, even though SPS's contract is said to only allow interviews to happen, I'm pretty sure SPS will be hosting many of them.) From the article: Tuesday's announcement was made on the same day Teach For America sent out its third round of acceptances for the 2011-12 school year. Twelve people learned that they will be placed in the Seattle area, Ortega said, and she expects to add another 23 later. The program placed 100 percent of its recruits last year, and expects to be able to do the same this year. That's a lot of confidence given they only have a guarantee for 4 from Federal Way. Hmm, makes you wonder if the fix is in. What is also a big question mark is this (bold mine): This fall, ...

Look, I know it was NOT McDonald Elementary's decision to have foreign language immersion. That the district reopened several new schools and now finds them underenrolled is their fault. I get that putting in foreign language helps shore up McDonald and will likely help fill it (drawing students out of more crowded schools). But that doesn't change the fact that McDonald and JSIS are relatively close to each other (although I think B.F. Day is closest to JSIS) and so that region doesn't even get the benefit of spreading this programming out. Now, McDonald PTA is having a survey about which languages they should have (it's closed now). I'm trying to remember if they did this for Beacon Hill or Concord and I don't think so. The choices were Spanish and Japanese (as JSIS has) or Chinese. I have to say that if McDonald takes on a different language route than JSIS, then Hamilton will then have to add on a third language to their curriculum.

I started this in Charlie's thread's comment section but it got too long. So, to add to the discussion, here are my notes (I left as Charlie arrived). From my notes: -the Board office has two new hires so both Joan Dingfield and Pam Oakes are gone. I'll miss them; they are nice people. One new thing; the addition of the first 5+ people on the waitlist to the agenda so you can get an idea of where you might be on the waitlist -Lots of energy from TOPS parents who very calmly and clearly explained their issue about transportation. Over 50% of their students will lose their transportation, mostly from the southend. They are asking for a community stop model for buses so their students can continue on. Their hope is for the district to fulfill this request for 3 years. (This time request has something to do with a promise the district made, I believe.) - it was pointed out that a member of the BEX Oversight Committee is doing business with the district and this has not...

The Board meeting of January 19, 2011 ran from 6:00 until after 11:00pm. I was there until the end. The meeting was busy and awkward. After the public testimony was a very brief update from the superintendent on audit. Uncharacteristically, the superintendent responded to some testimony by saying that she would meet with members of the Rainier Beach High School community about the IB program that the District is starting there. There had been no communication with the community before that decision was made. Both Dr. Enfield and Mr. Kennedy were out of town so they didn't appear. That was followed by each Director reading their annual disclosure of financial interests and potential conflicts. Those recitations were long, boring, and kinda awkward. The superintendent disclosed her seats on the Board of the Alliance for Education and the Council of Great City Schools which she had not disclosed in prior years. Then came some Board remarks including an update on audit response f...

So much to talk about but I did want to put up some interesting highlights from last week's Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Jan. 13th. There was some discussion of how to get Director Patu up to speed (as she is new to the Committee and, seemingly, finance). Enrollment: district is up by 188 kindergarteners and over 900 9th graders. Wow. There was some discussion about the various ways that BEX and BTA dollars were being spent as well as the bond sale late last year to get even more capital money for the reopened schools. I tell ya, the money just gets moved around and around. So those who were waiting on the item about the Audit Response to AE3.1 conflict of interest issue. It was reported that: this was about NWEA which the Superintendent did not disclose that she was on their Board. What was said at the meeting is that the district noted that this was a specific item and not just "you did not fully disclose all the boards you sit on". the wording on audit re...

Looking at the School Board agenda for tonight's meeting, there are many changes. (One thing that hasn't changed is that there is no information what the Superintendent's update, CAO update or COO update will be about tonight.) One big change is that Kay Smith-Blum has withdrawn her amendment . Her statement seems to reflect having listened to her constituents and finding their reasoning plausible. First, I have withdrawn my amendment from tonight's agenda. I greatly appreciate your input and sincerely apologize for any anxiety caused. My amendment would NOT have reassigned any student, but I appreciate neighbors who would like to see their children continue to be assigned to the same school and greatly appreciate the upheaval the NSAP/TT Minor closure has had on the neighborhood. The numbers the board received LAST NIGHT from Tracy Libros show that Steven's enrollment will be up from the already 111% capacity, and do not include siblings of current Stev...

I received an e-mail from LEV touting the upcoming visit of TFA head, Wendy Kopp. She's doing a talk AND a book signing (good way to combine pushing your book AND TFA). So there was link to the LEV website with an article about the visit. I get they are pro-ed reform but this was over the top for me. “Bringing Teach for America (TFA) to the Puget Sound is a real breakthrough in our focus on the achievement gap,” said LEV’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Korsmo. “Their commitment to the kids and schools that struggle the most is extraordinary. It’s long overdue – we’ve been exporting talent to other TFA sites and it’s high time we tapped into that resource and kept these talented individuals in the Puget Sound area.” First of all, I just don't think TFA will make even a dent our the achievement gap in our district. It's interesting because in the press release they tout research on how "highly effective" TFA recruits are but nothing about closing any scho...