Seattle Schools Community Forum

 From SPS Communications regarding the Strategic Plan, SE Region and Hiring/Spending Freeze: Strategic Plan Seattle Public Schools will host five community meetings to share information and ask for public comments about updating the District’s current Strategic Plan, Excellence for All.  The updated plan will guide academic and operational priorities for the next three to five years and include ongoing benchmarking to measure the District’s performance. The community meetings will be held: · Monday, April 1, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Eckstein Middle School auditorium, 3003 N.E. 75th St. (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Amharic and Tigrigna) · Tuesday, April 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at Chief Sealth International High School auditorium, 2600 S.W. Thistle (Interpreters available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, Chinese, Tagalog, Amharic) · Saturday, April 6, 10 a.m.-noon, at Garfield High School commons, 400-23rd Ave.(Interpreters...

He said that on KUOW earlier this week.  I did finally listen to the interview because I had been told he talked a lot about Seattle public education.  I found his remarks kind of all over the place and frankly, I'm glad he's not running.  His main theme seemed to be that mayors should bring change.  And, for Seattle, that would be in public education.  When the host pushed back saying that a mayor like that would hear from the Superintendent and School Board, he said "mayors lead and organize."   Some of what he said: he gave a shout-out to Garfield teachers for standing up against MAP.   he said (repeatedly) that all schools should be "international" schools and we should have a K-12 system of them.  Now, did he define what that meant (and did the host ask)?  No.  I believe, based on his remarks, that he meant all students should learn a second language.  Great Ron, with what money?  I mean we can all talk...

Or, let's not.  From the AP: Port of Seattle commissioners voted Tuesday for a sevenfold pay raise to $42,000 a year, about the same as a Washington state legislator. Port spokesman Jason Kelly says Commission President Tom Albro proposed the pay hike to make the job more attractive to applicants. The vote ties commission salaries to the pay of state lawmakers. The raise won't take effect until after the next election. Albro has said he'll decline his, if he is re-elected. Current commissioners earn $6,000 a year. They also can take $104 per diem for each day of commission work up to $12,500 a year. The five-member port oversees Sea-Tac Airport and port cruise ship and cargo terminal operations. And yet we don't pay School Board directors even $6K a year. The powers that be in Seattle bemoan the "quality" of who runs for School Board and yet, no one wants to pay people to do this important work of overseeing the education of Seattle children. ...

From the NY Times, a story about a quiet young man who, single-handedly, came up with the idea that will now drive the Boston School District enrollment plan.  Quite a feat.  While school officials and parents here were debating how to assign students to Boston’s public schools, a lanky young man was quietly observing their public proceedings.  He quickly saw the Rubik’s Cube-like puzzle: How could the school system design a plan that would send children to a good school, close to their homes — in a city that had too few good schools?* And could that plan also ensure that students from poor neighborhoods had the same chance of attending good schools as those from more affluent neighborhoods?   *Note, I don't actually believe we have "too few" good schools in our district but in the name of fairness, this would really close that gap. Over the last year, a 27-member advisory committee pored over its options and weighed competing proposals, but b...

Do you hear that Superintendent Banda and members of the School Board?  Enough well-meaning talk.  I myself have been through this now, with two children, and I truly despair (and that's the right word) that this district will ever get it right.  What's most distressing is that there has been a lot of talk and hand-wringing and paper shuffling and yet, the program is confusing, uneven and frankly, something of a joke. First, the director of the program, Bob Vaughan, has got to go.   I rarely advocate for anyone to go but honestly, this has gotten to the point of being ridiculous.    He is not sustaining this program in any real way and consistently passes the buck or obfuscates over the stagnation of the program.   The program has made some progress but overall, does not well-serve the majority of students in it. Let's start with the Curriculum & Instruction meeting yesterday where, ostensibly, they were discussing Policy 2190 which outli...

The District last adopted a policy about Advanced Learning in September of 1993. That policy, D12.00, Highly Capable Student Programs , is not in force. It is still the Board policy, but it was suspended on January 29, 2009. In the same motion in which the Board voted to suspend the policy they also voted to direct the superintendent to review it and recommend revisions. She did not do that. This failure to follow a direction given to her with by a majority vote of the board was, by itself, grounds for dismissal. The Board was aware of the situation and refused to act. The interim superintendent who followed also failed to follow the Board's direction. Again, the Board was aware of the situation and refused to act. When the Board scheduled their policy review they gave this policy no special urgency despite the January 29, 2009 Board vote. This is simply further evidence of the utter purposeless of Board policies and how the District's culture of lawlessness is directly attri...

Zakiyyah McWilliams has been selected by Superintendent Banda as the Executive Director of Special Education. From the announcement: Ms. McWilliams brings to Seattle more than 30 years of experience in education, with a strong emphasis on students with special needs. In her role, she will oversee all aspects of our Special Education department and will communicate and collaborate with families, staff and administrative staff. Ms. McWilliams comes to us from the Compton Unified School District, where she started in 2007 as Special Education Program Administrator and since 2011, has been the Administrator of the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) Support and Compliance. She is currently Compton’s lead for disproportionality and focused on developing a district-wide plan to reduce the over-representation of students in Special Education. She started her career as a special education teacher, then served as principal in the Pasadena Unified School District...