Seattle Schools Community Forum

Crosscut has a story on the new Strategic Plan (I was interviewed for the story).  Remember how this district says everything will be viewed thru the Racial Equity tool?  Apparently the new plan wasn't.  Director Geary, who is all things equity, says the committee overlooked using it.  (There are several times when reading BARs before the Board that it isn't used.  Hard to understand when the district will or will not use it but it seems to be ... at will.)

I have been reporting on the issue of the middle school mental health screener, Check Yourself, being used in some SPS middle schools as well as middle school throughout King County.  It comes to districts via King County's levy, Best Starts for Kids, and involves screening students for issues and then referring them, via a practice called SBIRT ( Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) to treatment.   The screener, which longer than almost any other of its type, is also not been validated.  My earlier stories are here and here . There are new developments.

From the Office of Representative Pramila Jayapal:

We have one person now running for Seattle school board in November - it's Rebeca Muniz and she's running (I believe) in Jill Geary's seat.  (Geary is stepping down and I believe this will be the most competitive seat unless the other incumbents also choose to leave.)

Update -At the Curriculum & Instruction meeting this afternoon at JSCEE from 4:30 to 6:30, this may happen: Staff is proposing to strike an entire paragraph from 2020 that requires district staff to evaluate the efficacy of current materials in use, including those used via waiver, in preparation for a curriculum adoption process. That means that the Science office would not need to produce data on the past 1-2 year de facto pilot of Amplify science. What's the point of of all these waivers if not to get precisely that kind of data? 

This was the second Work Session that came after the Budget Work Session.  Both were held at Garfield High School.

From Washington's Paramount Duty: The Balance Our Tax Code coalition, which includes Washington's Paramount Duty, has collected information on the legislature's upcoming town hall meetings. Please click here to find the date, time, and location of the town hall meeting for your district -- and make a commitment to attend!