Sue Peters Community Meeting
I attended this meeting yesterday, along with at least 60 parents (plus School Board candidate Leslie Harris). Director Peters did a superlative job in handling the crowd.
There were two topics; bell times and the QAE issue.
Bell Times
- There is still mistrust over the idea that there can't be just two tiers. I think the district not providing real data on the costs fuels this suspicion. It's just not enough to say, "trust us" (which appears to be exactly what some on the Board are doing).
- One Magnolia parent said that, for an isolated region like theirs, having their two elementaries in different tiers that will make it very hard for after-school activities. She said she had checked with some orgs like Arena Sports and they will gear their offerings to earlier released schools.
- It was stated that the Taskforce asked that clusters be aligned.
- Director Peters said that last year she had fought to keep the latest bell time at 9:30 am but it got upped to 9:40 am and it's not clear to her why that happened. She did praise staff for getting the number of schools in Tier Three down to 13.
- It was stated that the principal at John Hay Elementary is new this year and didn't even know this change was coming.
- Many in the crowd thought Nyland's released announcement felt insulting.
- One parent said that some middle school students at Blaine get dropped off at a nearby Starbucks to hang out because their parents have to get to work and can't leave them at the school.
QAE
- One person said that he had sent in a message to his Executive Director with Seattle Schools Community Forum: Sue Peters Community Meeting: