Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: Director Liza Rankin explains her amendment at her director Facebook page and says this: I start by giving some historical background into the tiers and how we are where we are now, and provide a brief explanation on my proposed amendment to decouple Transportation Service Standards and bell times so that ridership eligibility and start times and tiers are evaluated and approved as separate items instead of smushed together, which currently forces the board to either accept a tacked-on bell times appendix or reject an entire service standards document annually. Here's what her amendment says: Confirms the Board’s delegation of authority to the Superintendent or their designee to identify annual exceptions for transportation, and to set bus arrival and departure times and school start and end times; and Huh? So she wants to give TOTAL authority to the Superintendent over start times and bus times; that's what the above paragraph says. And yet she claims on Facebook, tha...

Two stories of interest. There is an updated notice  at the SPS website about who will be principal at Ballard High School and it appears that Kevin Wynkoop is out. We are beginning the process of identifying the next principal for Ballard High School. The other story is about Lincoln High School students walking out in support of victims of sexual assault at their school. Story from The Stranger : On Friday afternoon, hundreds of students gathered at Wallingford Playfield to support victims of sexual violence and call on the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) District to take action to do the same. During the sixth class period, a handful of student speakers, one after another, came up to a small podium surrounded by Lincoln High School (LHS) students to accuse SPS of “hand-waving,” “gaslighting,” and overall “failing” survivors of sexual assault. This because: A group of high school students known as Lincoln Against Sexual Assault organized the rally in response to what they descr...

 Hey, will you look at that? The Times actually has a real story on Seattle Schools, this one about the transportation issues. Sadly, some things get missed like the fact that while there are large numbers of eligible riders, not all ride the bus. Those numbers should be taken off the stats and then the district would get a clearer picture of who DOES ride the bus. “We are bringing this forward because we have a problem with our ability to be able to offer consistent and predictable transportation to our families,” Ashley Davies, executive director of operations, said   during an  April 21 committee meeting . Now, that's funny because you can change to three-tiers or stay with two but SPS will STILL have problems with "consistent and predictable" transportation. Changing start times will allow Seattle Schools to cut 70 of its 364 buses and will save the district at least $5 million, Davies said. Currently, the district spends  $3,306 per student on transportat...

I have written many posts where I express to readers my utter frustration, dismay, shock and anger over actions by various assemblages of the Seattle School Board and various superintendents over my decade+ of being a public education blogger. You'd think I'd be used to it.  In my defense, nothing really surprises me anymore so there's that. But the sheer hubris of what comes out of the mouths of the directors and superintendent and senior staff is sometimes breathtaking. But this post is really about giving you a heads up. As you may recall, the district seems bound and determined to change transportation from two-tiers to three-tiers ALL because of money. That would be bad enough. (I note that  the petition against the change has over 800 signatures in 3 days.) However, the Board had a Budget Work Session yesterday that was very disturbing. Details below but here's my big takeaway hunch: The district is on a very steady downward enrollment trend, losing hundreds and...

 In the category of "no one is surprised," yesterday a terse ruling was put forth by King County Superior Court: 1) Neither the decision of the District set forth in the outcome letter dated August 19, 2021 nor the action of the Seattle School Board at the September 9, 2021 meeting with respect to Director Hampson constitute arbitrary and capricious action subject to reversal by this Court; and  2) This appeal is dismissed.  It is SO ORDERED. (caps theirs) And yet, Director Hampson has chosen to drag this on and she is seeking review by the Court of Appeals. That case was entered yesterday. She has cost the district money because of HER demand for an investigation stemming from the letter of complaint filed by the two senior staffers. She has cost the district money by filing her original case against the district's use of a Board policy in the investigation. That now has been dismissed. She is continuing to cost the district money by appealing this case.  Know what ...

Update: a parent at a Magnolia/Queen Anne/Ballard Facebook page created this doc on bus routes. He says: We have 42 routes over 27 schools. The missing routes are heavily clustered. Only Cascadia and Salmon Bay have more than 2 routes missing. (They are missing 6 and 4 routes respectively). Most of the missing routes are in District 2 and 4. In essence, this means that the bell time change is attempting to service the needs of 27 schools, and really mostly Cascadia and Salmon Bay. I don't think this is obvious. Furthermore, I don't think anyone has even asked the folks on these 42 routes (or others in the 27 schools) if they would prefer to continue with whatever workarounds they've had this year or if they'd prefer a bell-time change (and implicitly drag the whole city + supporting industries + teacher/staff families) along with it. There is also a   Change.org petition. end of update Seattle Public Schools has never gotten transportation right. It's like watchin...

T here are three good articles at The NY Times about teen mental health. One is a 14-minute video , one is an article and one is an informational article . If you have a teen, I urge you to read and listen to all of them. As well, there is a moving article at The New Yorker. I urge you to forward this post to your PTA and ask that it be put up on the PTA page. NY Times article American adolescence is undergoing a drastic change. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy and smoking. These have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring rates of mental health disorders. In 2019, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode , a 60 percent increase from 2007 . Emergency room visits by children and adolescents in that period also rose sharply for anxiety, mood disorders and self-harm. And for people ages 10 to 24, suicide rates, stab...