Seattle Schools Community Forum

I know that I've mentioned this as a comment on a couple of other threads, but I really want to bring it out for attention.

It has come to my attention that some recent links to documents from readers have contained personal information about SPS staff.   By that I mean things like addresses, personal numbers, etc.  It is fine to provide links including items you may have received by public disclosure.  But the entities you receive them from don't always redact carefully.  It is up to you , as the posting person, to make sure there is nothing there about that person that is personal information.  (And I think we know the difference between saying where a person went to school and where a person lives as personal information.)  I don't always read all links (sorry).  I try to but it's not always possible.  If you read a link and see a red flag, please let us know right away and we will take it out.  We may have some disagreements with various staff but we are going to try to be respectful of others' personal lives and information.  Please help us with ...

So sorry, it slipped my mind. Now what could be on your mind?  Any predictions perhaps? There is a party at Rosita's by Green Lake from 7-9 p.m. for the challengers and all are welcome to come.

The agendas for the Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday morning and the Audit& Finance Committee meeting (Audit) on Thursday afternoon have been posted. Executive Committee Agenda -  There is an item for Government Relations (no details), Community Engagement (no details, no surprise), and then Discussion. Under Discussion there is: Ethics Policy - I believe Mr. Barnett from the City may be giving this update. Update on Public Survey from Director DeBell (not sure what this is referencing) Board retreat follow-up Intermediate Capacity Management Plan - status and legislative calendar IT Strategic Plan Parents Bill of Rights  Program Placement Policy Board calendar/workplan Communications/community partnerships That's a lot to cover in two hours. Audit & Finance Committee (Audit) agenda - Audit response, Department of Internal Audit work plan,  Series 5000 Phase II policies.   There is one vague item - Special Attention Items (no de...

I attended the arraignment this morning.  Always interesting to see how these things work. I had never seen the two co-conspirators before - Lorrie Sorenson and David A. Johnson - both appeared and both put in a plea of "not guilty."   Both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Sorenson were to be fingerprinted and processed and then released without bail. The lawyers for Johnson and Sorenson said that they needed to work together on discovery items.  Additionally, since Ms. Sorenson lives in Nevada and had to fly in for the arraignment, her lawyer asked for two months so she could make arrangements in her life before coming back for the trial. The trial date was not set (from what I could hear) because of the non-appearance of Potter.   Given the request by the lawyer for Sorenson, I would assume it would not start for a couple of months. They called Potter's name and he did not appear.   The prosecutor said they had attempted multiple times to contact Potter....

From The Stranger Slog via the Washington Secretary of State: We have become aware that about 21,000 voters/potential voters who used the Department of Licensing website may not have received ballots at their updated address or may not have been registered online. Anyone who has not received a ballot and believes himself or herself to be properly registered should go to the county elections office or voting center and will be allowed to vote a provisional ballot before close of business on Tuesday. I wonder what this might mean to the elections.   If you had a close race, you might have to go to the State and King County and ask what proportion of ballots were for your race.  In School Board elections, every vote truly counts. 

The NY Times has been doing a series on today's principals.   Today's profile was of a woman, well, I'll let them tell you: When she first arrived to work at this imposing brick building in March 1963, John F. Kennedy was president, ZIP codes were not yet in use, and the nearby Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was still under construction.  She has outlasted more than a dozen schools chancellors, who made what she described as “little changes here and there,” and watched a student body dominated by the children of Italian immigrants transform into one that is 45 percent Asian-American and 18 percent Hispanic.  Madeleine P. Brennan has been principal at Dyker Heights Intermediate School 201 in Brooklyn for 48 years.  Experts believe she may be the longest serving principal in the country.