SEA Rally at Eckstein Middle School
From the SEA rally outside of Eckstein Middle School this afternoon. It was about 60 teachers and kids. Spoke with SEA head, Jonathan Knapp, who had no new information but said their issues were a "package deal" and "doable." He also said the teachers could strike but they also could just go to work on September 4th under their old contract and continue negotiations. I spoke with a couple of tea
District Drops One of Contract Sticking Points
Publicola talked with Clover Codd and is reporting that the district has backed off on the issue of eliminating the weekly paid hour of collaborative planning for teachers. Codd told PubliCola this morning: "We actually withdrew that proposal. The hour of collaboration time pay. We’re leaving that in the contract. And they still get the 2.6 percent compensation for that."Re: teacher pay, She adde
Washington State Charter Applications
The Washington State Charter Commission has released the application form/information for applying to be a charter school. I am mostly happy because there are items in there that I believe are of great importance and I applaud the Commission for listening and including them in. My hope was that no school community or district gets caught by surprise by any charter coming into their district (or
Odds and Ends
Good wrap-up of the current teacher contract negotiations by Josh Feit over at Publicola. I got a little more clarity on the issue of elementary school teachers and the added unpaid half-hour of work.Calling one sticking point "a longer day for less pay," Knapp said teachers objected to a district proposal to contractually increase the length of the school day for elementary school teachers from
Charter Schools and Positive Discipline
Here is a story, from the New York Daily News, about the discipline practices at a group of charter schools in New York that are operated by Success Academy. The Success Academy schools have extraordinarily high suspension rates and extraordinarily high test scores.This would appear to provide evidence that suspensions improve education rather than worsen it. That's contrary to the story told by L
Seattle Schools: Not Open for Business September 4th?
The district sent out this e-mail to families:The Seattle Education Association (SEA), which represents teachers, rejected the district’s latest contract proposal. They plan to meet again on September 3 to vote on whatever the proposal is at that time. With the start of school on September 4, we are encouraging families to develop back=up plans should Seattle Public Schools not open on time. We re
8-27-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Pinehurst: Up in the AirFrom the Superintendent to Pinehurst families:Seattle Public Schools is considering the possibility of closing Pinehurst K-8 School after the 2013-14 school year. No decision has been made at this time. The schedule of events shown below has been created in order to determine whether the school is to be closed. The Superintendent will make a