Seattle Schools This Week
Tuesday, August 6th
Primary election including Mayor and School Board. I hate this "dead of summer" primary so every vote truly does count. I especially urge voters in District IV and District V to get in their votes for the School Board rep. I think this will be quite the interesting General Election and I will have some thoughts when the Primary is over.
Wednesday, August 7th
BEX IV meeting from 7-8:30 pm about Arbor Heights Elementary renovation at AH, 3701 SW 104th Street.
Note: I had been looking at the September calendar when I stated last week that there would be a Board meeting this week. There is no School Board meeting this week; the next one is Wednesday, August 21st
Primary election including Mayor and School Board. I hate this "dead of summer" primary so every vote truly does count. I especially urge voters in District IV and District V to get in their votes for the School Board rep. I think this will be quite the interesting General Election and I will have some thoughts when the Primary is over.
Wednesday, August 7th
BEX IV meeting from 7-8:30 pm about Arbor Heights Elementary renovation at AH, 3701 SW 104th Street.
Note: I had been looking at the September calendar when I stated last week that there would be a Board meeting this week. There is no School Board meeting this week; the next one is Wednesday, August 21st
What is the process?
If you had an idea and community support for a new school program, what would you do?The new program placement policy, 2200, for all its inadequacies, does make some things clear. It defines the terms school, program, service, and curricular focus and delineates the authority for each of them. The schools have authority to determine their curricular focus. That's why any school can decide to offer
YESTERDAY
Boundary Talk with Marty McLaren
I attended the Growth Boundaries meeting hosted by Director McLaren this morning and two themes stood out. One came from the District and the other from the community.The District's theme was mystery. There is simply no telling who would make the decisions about schools and buildings, no clue about how they would make these decisions, no sense of what data or criteria would be the basis for the de
Alliance for Education Continues Drive to Shape the Seattle School Board
The Alliance recently had an press "event" during a national urban school board directors convention held here in Seattle in late July. The theme of the convention was "Building Educational Communities to Close the Achievement Gap" but that was not what this event was about at all.I had hoped this would be a press conference but no, it was really a dog-and-pony show to somehow drive home this poi
Seattle Council PTSA Clarifies Fundraising Issue
Not completely (more on that at the end) but better. (Notes in red are mine.)From SCPTSA;Why the sudden change in policy of the new 10% fee for fundraising on school grounds by the district?It not really a new policy, but more accurately a policy the district should have been following but was not. In a workshop sponsored by WASBO (Washington Association of School Business Officials) the district
AUG 02
Seattle Schools Wants Parents/Students for Hiring for Coaches
After the abysmal issues at Ballard and Roosevelt, this is good news (from Mirmac 1):"...we now have new guidelines for hiring athletic coaches. We are now required to have a parent and student on the interview committee when we interview coaches. If you would like to participate on an interview committee please fill out the following form and submit it. We will be hiring a Girls Soccer and Ultima
What is the Seattle Times Trying to Do?
The Times (finally) wrote a story about the misleading flyer put out by supporters of Suzanne Estey. That, in fact, it was the Chamber of Commerce PAC (CASE) plus a couple of wealthy guys, Don Larson and Matt Griffin )who have created their own PAC in support of Estey called Great Seattle Schools) who paid for it. (Griffin and Larson have also given the full $1800 each that they are legally able
West Seattle K-5 STEM Debate Goes On
Over at the West Seattle Blog, they have a story about the K-5 STEM location debate, complete with links to two "viable" proposals. More good reading on this subject.
Uncle Miltie
Many conservatives have spent this week celebrating the birthday of Milton Friedman (which was July 31). He was economic adviser to Reagan and couldn't say enough about a free market economic system. His contribution to public education (from Wikipedia): (bold mine)In his 1955 article "The Role of Government in Education" Friedman proposed supplementing publicly operated schools with privately
Where is the Legislature with the McCleary Mandate?
Good wrap-up from John Stang over at Crosscut. Pieces of that question include: What's "steady progress"? What does a 2018 deadline really mean? If you measure progress on a make-believe linear graph, where does Washington stand? How does the lack of a cost-of-living raise for teachers factor in? "Did they define 'steady progress?' " asked Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia. "They did not define 'ste
Friday Open Thread
First weekend in August and it's starting out cool (but I'm not complaining as I know we have more great weather to come).Report from KING-5 on the upcoming Board races. I spent awhile talking with the reporter and yet a lot of it didn't make it here. I also want to say that this statement I made in the story:The difference in achievement between different ethnic groups is another tough issue f
AUG 01
PTA Fundraising Changes
I did speak with Teresa Wippel, SPS Communications. Our conversation helped clear up some issues but my reading of the RCWs cited now muddies it. I will follow up with Teresa and the SCPTSA President to try to get more clarification but here is what I was told. (Also, I hope the SCPTA president sends out a detailed explanation of what school PTAs can and cannot do with these types of funds and h
Melissa and I are flattered
The Seattle Times has an interesting job posting. One-Year Community Engagement EditorHere's the job description:The community engagement editor for the Seattle Times-Solutions Journalism Project will bring a startup mentality and passion and tenacity for seeking solutions to the big questions facing education. In this one-year position, the editor will develop and manage a blog for the project th
Will Florida Head Of Schools Resign over Charter Cheating in Indiana?
Update: And so he did resign, saying an old ed reform canard, Florida "doesn't have time to waste." He also said (and again, another old tactic): “The most important thing we have to do is educate children,” Bennett said. “Maybe what we ought to do is debate how the best way to do that is without being personal and assigning motives to it.”From Indiana Public Media:Bennett’s successor will be
JUL 31
Roosevelt Teacher Named Finalist for National Language Teacher of the Year
Taeko Tashibu of Roosevelt High School in Seattle, who is a Japanese language teacher. Congrats to Ms. Tashibu! From Ed Week:According to the ACTFL, the Language Teacher of the Year takes on the role of spokesperson for the language-teaching profession, promoting the importance of teaching foreign languages and cultures. The current LTY is Noah Geisel, a Spanish teacher at East High School in De
Seattle Council PTSA News
Want a job with the SCPTA interfacing with SPS staff? Here you go. (I would actually be swell at this job but they would never hire me.)They need folks to represent most areas of the city.Do you have an interest in issues that go beyond your local school and affect children throughout the district? If so, we need you! Transportation, capacity, family engagement and district policies are just a f
Quarterly Program Placement report due today
Today is July 31st, the due date for the quarterly program placement report.I was recently reminded of an email I sent to the Board at the end of January in which I asked about the status of the program placement process and the equitable access framework - both of which were overdue then. I was reminded of that email because I just saw it among the documents sent to Linda Shaw of the Seattle Time
Common Core Roundup
The fight is still on in many states over Common Core. New wrinkles have emerged like all kinds of products "aligned" to Common Core and being pushed to states.First (and thanks to Dan Dempsy) is a YouTube video from Ben Swann on the issues around Common Core. This is the best, most distilled down information on CC I have ever heard. Recommended.Think CC isn't linked to DOE money? I'll let Di
JUL 30
Smile of the Day
I received an e-mail that Peter Maier is promoting Estey and Blanford for School Board. And that's fine.What's funny is how he describes them (and given what he writes, I'm pretty sure he DID write it):EsteySuzanne Dale Estey is running to fill the District IV position vacated by retiring Seattle School Board Member Michael DeBell, who has endorsed her. From our work together on the School Board
Thoughts for STEM and APP in West Seattle
K-5 STEM at Boren needs a permanent home. The District is currently thinking of using the Schmitz Park building, but the school is already too big for that building. Are we spending tens of millions of BEX IV money to take kids out of portables at Schmitz Park just to put a lot of other kids into portables at Schmitz Park? That doesn't make any sense. E C Hughes is another possible location, but i
Tuesday Open Thread
Kind of an interesting story from Indie Reader to tell your art-inspired kids - the story of the first cover of The Great Gatsby and the ones that came after. Remember kindergarten? I do and it wasn't like this (from Boston.com).Yet there is a growing disconnect between what the research says is best for children -- a classroom free of pressure -- and what’s actually going on in schools.Take the
JUL 29
You Can't Make This Stuff Up
So continuing on the parade that charters are better, more innovative and, above all, allow more accountability, we have Exhibit 1. That would be former Indiana and now current head of schools in Florida, Tony Bennett. I'll let the Fort Wayne Journal tell you what "Mr. Accountable" did (bold mine)(graphic by Jersey Jazzman):But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent R
JUL 28
Seattle Schools This Week
Tuesday, July 30thCharter Commission Meeting, 10 am - 5 pm in Tacoma. Tacoma Public Schools, Central Administration Building, 601 South 8th Street, Tacoma. Agenda not yet available but I do know a couple of things:- Public Hearing on proposed rules: Tuesday, July 30 from 10:15am to 11:15am. Written comments can also be submitted to RaShelle Davis by mail or email before Monday August 19, 2013 t
What is the Mission of Public Education?
Reader Syd said this in a comment to Charlie's thread on Equitable School Funding:Poverty is a real societal problem, and realistically the best place you can serve impoverished children is in a place they are mandated by law to attend. We should feed them, clothe them, doctor them, nurse them (it is different), and mentor them using schools as the center. That's not the schools mission you say? C
From the Washington State PTA
WAPTA will no longer have a lobbyist at the Legislature. Expect to be asked to send someone from your school/region to the Legislature to testify; it will become more important than ever. Dear WSPTA Members: As you may have heard, WSPTA took action this week to align our staffing and expenditures with our mission. In particular, WSPTA eliminated three positions on our staff, and made other spe
Worthy Reading from Warren Buffet's Son
And you'd think he would know as he explains in this op-ed. He doesn't just take on philanthropic giving and investing - he takes on capitalism. (Bold mine)Early on in our philanthropic journey, my wife and I became aware of something I started to call Philanthropic Colonialism. I noticed that a donor had the urge to “save the day” in some fashion. People (including me) who had very little knowl