Seattle Schools Community Forum

 Anybody get a call from the Gates Foundation survey folks?  My household did. According to my son, they asked some general questions and then got very specific.  What did he think of the efforts of the Gates Foundation in public education?  What did he think about the Gates Foundation's efforts around Common Core? They really need a poll to figure out what they are doing wrong?  I am assuming the Gates Foundation is doing the poll because 1) they fund everything and 2) who else would fund a poll on them? From SPS Legal about Title IX (bold mine): At this point the staff commitment is to create the very best Title IX program we can, complete with notices, training, and effective responses to incidents. This requires a clear chain of responsibility. Our first step was to create a Title IX web page, designating the key individuals. We are updating it frequently. We've recently provided sexual harassment prevention and response training to every school a...

A very busy week. Tuesday, Oct. 21st SPS College Application event at Garfield High School from 2:30 pm-5:30 pm College Application Events provide one-on-one support for high school seniors navigating the college application process. At these events, students receive help researching colleges, filling out applications, and drafting personal statements. Volunteers, including local college admissions officers, are on site to provide support with college applications and answer questions. Note: there will be several more of these events in the coming weeks at high schools thruout SPS.

In an editorial published on Friday, " Starting with Beacon Hill, school officials must stop cheating before it spreads ", the Seattle Times editorial board demands that district officials aggressively investigate and crack down hard on whoever altered test booklets at Beacon Hill International Elementary School. Funny how the Seattle Times wants district officials to come down hard on anyone found to have cheated on the MSP but they aren't concerned about all of the other rule-breaking in Seattle Public Schools. They aren't concerned about violations of IDEA. They aren't concerned about how the District can't comply with the federal laws regarding Native American education. They aren't concerned about violations of the chaperone rules. They aren't concerned about violations of the field trip rules. They aren't concerned about violations of Title IX. They aren't concerned about violations of the sexual harassment policy or procedures. They aren...

A heads up from a reader (and I have to wonder if this is poor planning/estimation or maybe someone wants the district to look inept): Pro-sleep Mom said... I went to the boundary/transportation committee of the whole meeting on Thursday. A potential bombshell was in the last few minutes of the meeting. This is the October FTE adjustment- where staff is moved from under-enrolled to over-enrolled schools. Gatewood was on the early side of this; there are three rounds and this is the final round. (Tolley did comment that principals would know their counts and the implications, and so would not be blindsided; personally, I think the parents are another story and that this will be really disruptive for a lot kids.) Up to 19 schools could be impacted- 7 adds and 12 FTE pulls. Principals will get notice on Friday 10/17; they have a week to raise the money/ pull carried over funds or whatever by 10/24. ​This is per the CBA process- not sure what CBA is- but the time...

This issue of posting documents at the blog has given rise to a couple of issues that I hope to resolve now. It is fine to either link to documents from their source and/or if you scan them in and link to a source like Scribd if they are publicly available documents.  Do not link documents that are not within the public domain.  You can send them to either Charlie or me but please do not put them up here.  Do NOT put up any document that reveals the name or face of a minor if it is a sensitive matter.  It does not matter your opinion about the need to post; don't do it.  Do NOT put up any document that reveals personal data like the address of any Seattle Schools' employee or members of the Board.  It does not matter your opinion about the need to post; don't do it.  If you see that a document has been redacted but the redaction is not complete (meaning, they missed something), do NOT post it here.  It does not matter your opinion ...

  Summary : About the Gates Foundation grant for a preschool at Bailey-Gatzert.   Several on the Board want a more careful explanation about who is in charge of what (like curriculum, alignment, costs) while a few on the Board want to grab this opportunity.  There seems to be confusion over what early learning is in SPS.  The Board will not be voting on this grant until November 19th, well after the election vote on the preschool props, 1A and 1B. About the downtown school .  Some on the Board pressed for costs around finding room at other schools and the actual numbers for space for students in Central/downtown.  It is unclear what will actually happen but one thing that I believe is firmly settled is that the Board is not going to vote in to take on more debt to renovate the Federal Reserve building.  So unless some generous donor(s) come forward, it seems unlikely that the district will be given the Federal Reserve building.  However, the ...

Update:  I viewed the footage this morning.  Beyond fascinating. Here's what I take away from what was said: - For whatever reason, there were only two Board members who even seemed concerned around the central issue for the district to consider (at this point, I'll let Charlie take over): The District wasn't sued for a rape, but for the utter failure of the chaperones, the utter failure of the field trip approval, and the utter failure of the District's response to the report. That's all the Board should have been considering and that's all that would have been in the court case.  The girl's lawyers might gone to court contending there was an assault but it would have been predicated on the belief that it would not have happened (or been far, far less likely to have happened) if the district had done its job. Sherry Carr came the closest when she said they should not ever be talking about whether two students had or didn't have consensual...