Seattle Schools Community Forum

Excellent story from KUOW's Ann Dornfeld about recess in Seattle Public Schools.  It  should come as no surprise to anyone that schools that are largely white have more recess time in the day than schools that have largely Black students.

What is considered " polite and respectful" behavior by students in a classroom? I saw this question asked in the context of it appearing on the Danielson Framework model and someone asked, "Who decides?"

Update:   Roosevelt High's Nevin Harrison is in the news - from NBC Sports: Nevin Harrison, a 17-year-old from Seattle, became the first American to earn a world championships medal in a sprint canoe event, and it happened to be gold, surprising herself in the 200m in Szeged, Hungary, on Saturday. Harrison joined Greg Barton as the only Americans to win an individual world title in sprint canoe or kayak. No U.S. woman has earned Olympic gold in any kayak event. Women’s canoe debuts at the Tokyo Games. If Harrison can repeat the feat in Tokyo next year, she will become the youngest woman to earn Olympic canoe or kayak gold, breaking the record of legendary German Birgit Fischer-Schmidt, whom some consider the greatest female Olympian in history across all sports with 12 medals and eight golds. Via Twitter from Dick's: Don’t forget #RoundUP for charity August 26-29th at our Wallingford location! Bring your friends and your family and "round up" the bill. A...

I'll just put a couple of things out there. 1)  I think the Board should call off the last forum and just vote this week so when school starts, D7 has representation and the Board did their job. 2) This process of picking a new rep for D7 is going south.   For people who say this is "their" decision, they Board certainly seems like they are following someone else's lead. And that there are those in D7 that are still complaining should tell you something.  They were never going to be satisfied.

 Update2: I am being told that the question posed to Lisa Rivera Smith and Emijah Smith was not top three priorities but " what are the top three things you want to accomplish in your time on the Board. "   end of update Update: I found my notes for the Youth Forum for questioning for D7 (only Emijah Smith as she was the only candidate invited and Lisa Rivera Smith who is the only candidate for Rick Burke's position in D2). My notes only reflect the answers to a single question (I believe that was all as they needed to move onto Port Commissioners).  The question was - What will be your three priorities as a Board director? 

Update from the Seattle Times reporter Dahlia Bazzaz (who possibly has the best name in the world) via Twitter:

I love Betty Patu for so many things.  Her strength, her tell-it-like it is talk, her ask-the-obvious-elephant-in-the-room questions, and her abiding love of kids. But Betty wasn't a perfect director (and I haven't quite met one yet but there are a couple of people on the current Board who think come close).  Betty chose to focus almost entirely on her own district.  Her frame was District 7 and what policies/initiatives/boundaries would mean to it. Many people don't know/don't want to believe it but there are regions in the district but they don't mean directors solely represent only that part of the school district.  Legally, directors have responsibility for the entire district, not just one area.