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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

UPDATE The Board Evaluation Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Superintendent Says No to Half-Days/Waivers

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State Superintendent Says No to Half-Days/Waivers:


The Board Evaluation

The evaluation was requested by the Board itself.  It was done by the Mercer Island Group and they apparently did interviews with the Board and Cabinet (with an additional online survey of the Board) but it is unclear to me what questions they asked or if they just used an attribute list for the respondents to vote on and then, asked for their comments.  (Also, Appendix Four isn't quite clear as to who made the statements in this section.)

(The cabinet consists of Jose Banda, Bob Boesche, Ron English, Michael Tolley, Duggan Harman, Pegi McEvoy and Paul Apostle.  I have to wonder what the Board might have said about how the Cabinet works but that was not part of this evaluation.)

I'll let you read the whole thing and be the judge.  But here are some thoughts (followed by what was said at the meeting):

my biggest surprise was not the comments but the ratings the Board gave itself.  They were pretty low.  


Washington State Superintendent Says No to Half-Days/Waivers

State Superintendent Randy Dorn throws down on half-days/waivers for school districts, according to a reportfrom KING-5 tv.

Washington State’s school superintendent says he opposes the expansion of half-days on school calendars and wants lawmakers to act next year to give his office the authority to curb them.
“Just because the adults have the problem of not having enough money does not mean we should take away kids' instructional time,” Randy Dorn told KING 5.


“So they moved to this partial-day thing,” said Dorn. “I think it’s a burden on parents, working parents that have 

Tuesday Open Thread

Hearing about a phone survey about School Board candidates.  Anyone received a phone call?  If so, let us know what you were asked and if you were told who was sponsoring it.  (Gotta say, it's quite early for this kind of thing and for School Board races?  Someone out there must be quite serious about who gets on the Board to spend that kind of money before the primary.)

What's on your mind?