Seattle Schools Community Forum

Your invite to the community meetings on "well-resourced" schools, I mean.  I'm posting the entire invite at the end of this post but let's examine it. We are excited to create a united vision for well-resourced schools. You are invited to join us in a community conversation. Your feedback will inform future district planning . Well, those "well-resourced schools" are coming at the expense of CLOSING other schools. But at an Ad Hoc Committee meeting, it was made clear they are NOT going to explain/talk about school closures at these meetings. Parents, I urge you to bring it up. How the Board and the Superintendent can think they can pat parents on the head and say, "It's all for the best, don't worry" is hard to fathom. We will be hosting five regional in-person meetings in SPS schools Aug. 8–15. There will also be an online meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 5:30 p.m. Well, that's more detail than before except at WHICH schools on WHICH d...

If you read their latest "reporting, " versus their endorsement picks, you just might think so. This story - Budget cuts, school closures top issues in Seattle School Board Election - is all over the place. Let's chart its issues: - Starting with that headline - who says those are the top issues? Nothing that followed in the article indicated that in a big way. Not including safety issues in that headline is strange. - In District 1, they put a photo of the editorial board's pick, Debbie Carlsen. Why not thumbnail photos of all the candidates in this is reporting?  - In writing about Carlsen, there is some odd wording.  Carlsen works as a nonprofit consultant and says she’s been a preschool teacher, interim policy director at the National Alliance on Mental Illness and former executive director of LGBTQ Allyship.   " says she's been?" If the Times has doubts about her statements, go do some investigative reporting. Otherwise, it should read, "and a...

I don't think these will come as any surprise to regular readers of this blog. District 1 - DEBBIE CARLSEN My endorsement goes to Debbie Carlsen . She's bright, is making community connections and engagement a hallmark of her campaign and, given how the City's pre-k program is growing within Seattle Schools, she brings that important experience to the table. She's running on more transparency and accountability which are two items sorely needed in this district. Her LGBTQ background brings an added voice to the board (along with student board member, Luna Crone-Baron). What can I say about Liza Rankin that you haven't already heard and seen? Totally on-board with the Student Focused Outcome Governance (and the spending of nearly $25,000 for two SOFG conferences and she went to both of them). This new governance hands much more power to the superintendent from the Board AND makes individual Board members have less input than the board president. So if your board memb...

Vaguely written in the recent Times' story on the rescue of the Washington Middle School Jazz Band program was the notation that a foundation, the Nesholm Foundation, was really, overall, the savior of this program. (Props of course to Quincy Jones for his generosity.)  Either the Times Editorial Board read this blog or read their own story and thought, "That doesn't sound exactly clear" but they wrote this editorial, It Shouldn't Take a Celebrity to Save Jazz in Seattle Schools." Though Seattle Public Schools has not yet named the total price, the Nesholm Family Foundation committed to funding the entire salary and benefits for one of two jazz teachers at Washington Middle School, saving the program this year. The family will also kick in two-thirds of that cost in 2024-25, and another third in 2025-26, to help keep jazz going. So this explains a lot of how the money situation will be handled to save WMS jazz. So if the Nesholm Foundation is paying for the f...

  Readers, you may not know but through the generosity of the Seattle taxpayers (and King County taxpayers), every single high school has a teen health center. There are also six middle school centers and and seven of them at elementary schools. This is a VERY good thing because: it makes it possible for students to have access to healthcare they might not otherwise receive it makes it possible for students at access birth control  it makes it possible for students to get sports physicals right at school (saves time for both student and parents) it makes it possible for students to keep up-to-date on vaccinations Gender issues and gender affirming care are big national stories that are certainly rile some people up. Recently, SPS came into the national view because someone told a news source (I'm still trying to figure out where this was first reported) about two SPS teen health centers that offer gender affirming care. From KOMO tv:  (bold mine) The Nova Welln...

Alas and alack, I managed to overwrite my post on the Seattle Student Union endorsements on my Stranger post.  Basically, flawed thinking, not rational in some points and The Stranger forgot about some key events (like the murder at Ingraham High School).  They endorsed both incumbents - Liza Rankin  in D1 and Lisa Rivera Smith in D2 as well as Evan Briggs in D3 and Gina Topp in D6.  Liza Rankin Oddly, The Stranger didn't mention that Rankin is using endorsements from 2019 at her webpage (including The Stranger's). She even has one from MLK Labor (who endorsed her last time) when her opponent, Debbie Carlsen, is the sole endorsement for MLK Labor THIS time. Devious tactics. On declining enrollment - If housing and birthrates are the only reason for this issue, then there is nothing she can do besides complaining to the City Council and going to PTA meetings and urging members to make more babies. What's hilarious is she brought an iPad to show them graphs and such A...

 Readers, somehow I overwrote the Seattle Student Union endorsements post onto The Stranger endorsements blog post. My apologies; I'll fix that as soon as I can.