Seattle Schools Community Forum

At Tuesday night's turbulent Board meeting, President Liza Rankin called for a recess so that she and the Superintendent could speak after her teary outburst about closures after listening to public testimony. The meeting was in recess nearly 20 minutes. He was scheduled to give a closure and consolidation update at the end of the meeting but here's what he said when they came back.  He stated he was going to give his "planned update." He said when the discussion began on a system of well-resourced schools, the Board gave him direction on what they wanted to see in a set of recommendations. He said: It is now clear that direction is shifting and I am considering withdrawing my preliminary recommendation. I will need to give it more consideration as to when it would come back, if it does.  I will need time to clarify the process as driven by policy.  President Rankin did not look at him and said, "Thank you, Dr. Jones." Superintendent Jones issued this update...

The first is whether any SPS schools will be closed tomorrow ; the district closed 14 today. It looks like several regional districts like Renton will be closed another day. I see nothing at the SPS website but I would guess parents are contacted personally. Boy those photos in the Times are jaw-dropping.  The second item is a story in the Seattle Times that I have seen elsewhere. Namely, Lincoln High School does not have a practice field. The district kind of set themselves up for problems because they knew that both Lincoln High and Hamilton International Middle School needed practice space. I understand they have been going to Woodland Park which is relatively nearby but still problematic. To note, the park at Wallingford is NOT big and any rejiggering of it would take away the main swath of park space from regular users.   The Times reports there is a community meeting tonight. From the Times: It’s a case of competing needs and perspectives in a growing part of Seat...

 Update: I see that the WSSDA (Washington State School Directors Association) is having its annual conference starting tomorrow. This should be interesting for President Rankin as I'm sure her colleague will have heard about the recall process. She on the WSSDA board. My favorite session? Creating a Coherent District. End of update   I see that 14 SPS schools, mostly in the NE, are closed today, because of the storm shutting down electricity. Updates as I see them. From the Seattle Times: All schools are closed in Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Carbonado, Eatonville, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Granite Falls, Highline, Issaquah, Kent, Lake Stevens, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Renton, Riverview, Shoreline, Snohomish, Snoqualmie Valley, Stanwood-Camano, Tahoma, Tukwila and White River school districts.   First thing - I have not watched this  meeting but boy, did I hear from people.  Apparently, there were moving stories and tears and now....confusion...

In thinking about closing schools, we can see that large districts across the nation are talking about closing schools.  Boston's district dropped from 56,000 about 8 years ago to 49,000 today; they are talking about closing nearly half (!) their schools. In Rochester, NY, they are closing 11 out of 45 schools.  In El Paso, Texas we see a very dramatic drop in their district's population, from 61K ten years ago to just 49K today.  Comparing birth rates, while El Paso's has dropped 21%, they are still at a high of 5.9% compared with Seattle which has the lowest birth rate in the country at 2.6%. Seattle's rate has been dropping since 2016. So beyond smaller districts - which means fewer schools - what does it all mean? From Politico: The reason why curtailing immigration would send such large shockwaves through the American economy isn’t simply because the nation would be deprived of the economic benefits of immigration. It’s because the effect would be amplified by a...

Update: You just can't make this stuff up - here's the end game from the guy that Trump wants to head the Pentagon. From People for the American Way: When Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as Secretary of Defense, concerns were raised immediately about Hegseth's undisguised Christian nationalism .  During the discussion about Hegseth's book " Battle For The American Mind ," Hegseth said that he is working to create a system of "classical Christian schools" to provide the recruits for an underground army that will eventually launch an "educational insurgency" to take over the nation.  "I think we need to be thinking in terms of these classical Christian schools are boot camps for winning back America," said Sumpter.  "That's what the crop of these classical Christian schools are gonna do in a generation," Hegseth agreed. "Policy answers like school cho...

Via a parent HCC page at Facebook: The principals at Cascadia Elementary & Decatur Elementary have been informed by the district that students with HC (Highly Capable) designations will still be allowed to transfer into the two schools next year. (You can look on the district website to find your zoned HCC option school.) Currently, Cascadia and Decatur house the "Highly Capable Cohorts" for grades 2-5. I do not know if grade 2 will be included next year or if grade 2 will go away as previously announced. Not sure about what happens at Thurgood Marshall.

Update: A reader provided a link to the summary of the Sacajawea meeting as posted by their PTA.  Reading through it is quite similar to reading the account by the West Seattle Blog of the Sanislo meeting.  You see this in the minutes - " Despite the district’s stated intention to address questions openly, many attendees felt frustrated by vague, unsubstantiated, or incomplete responses, with many questions left unanswered altogether." They listed some key players in the district which is helpful to me because I didn't know who was heading Enrollment these days. Well-Resourced Schools Officer: Dr. Marni Campbell Director of Enrollment Planning & Services: Faauu Manu Chief Operations Officer: Fred Podesta Regional Executive Director of Schools, Northeast: Dr. Mike McCarthy Facilitator: Jerome Hunter (ran the Q&A portion) The West Seattle Blog refers to a moderator but doesn't name who it is. At the Sacajawea meeting, it's a guy named Jerome Hunter. He i...