Seattle Schools Community Forum: Kids Not Cuts Updates

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Kids Not Cuts Updates:

Kids Not Cuts Updates

The Board has now smushed today's Executive Committee of the Whole together with the Work Session.  Agenda here. 

Kids Not Cuts is planning to listen in, hoping the Board may talk about the current staffing issues.  The meeting starts at 4:30 pm so be there by 4:15 pm if you want to sit with the group.  

To the meeting topics:

- Preschool - there is some delusion out there that City's pre-K program is both going to expand in SPS as well as trump before-after school program space.  Given the two classrooms that are City-enrolled and way under capacity, I find it hard to understand how the district could choose to take on more. 

- Alliance for Education.  This should be interesting, given how bad the relationship has been for the past year. 

I observe that the Alliance's own "Beliefs" page says nothing about being a partner with SPS.  Their last blog entry is from June 2015. Haven't heard about the "Our Schools Coalition" in probably a year or more.  Here's the first entry - with their own URL - that comes up if you Google them:

A corporate based front dedicated to fostering higher academic achievement by all children in the Seattle Public Schools. Offers information about programs, ... 

- Work Session is about Board Governance Priorities, Superintendent SMART goals, and the "Superintendent Evaluation Instrument."  I tell you that the Board and senior management love to talk these items into the ground because if you go back and review various Board meetings, you'll see these topics, over and over.  I don't get it.

I hope the Board, while reviewing the Superintendent's performance, does NOT give the slightest thought to giving him a bonus or raise.  

To note, at some point during the Work Session, the Board will go into Executive Session to "evaluate the performance of a public employee" (presumably the Super).

And, in "One of the Good Guys" category, the ever-polite Ken Gotsch sent a prompt reply to my queries about the staffing issues.  I will make no comments, but readers, do chime in with yours.

Gotsch: In response to your request for information,

Me: In Jan of 2014 you said this:

Gotsch: The WSS committee which includes both Central Office and school staff, examined the WSS formula, which makes up 53% of school funding. We looked at deciding on the best revisions to WSS if we have to make school-based reductions ranging between $3 million, $6 million and $9 million this year. 

Gotsch: NOTE: In early 2014, the Business & Finance Office worked in collaboration with SEA reps to recognize and use annual district unspent funds to close the projected budget gap and not make the dramatic reductions to WSS budget allocation.

Also note that budget staff reported in the March 29, 2015 Board Budget Work Session, District contributions to the school WSS formula has grown:

Fiscal YR…..Amount…Per Student Headcount

2011-12…..$290.8 M…..$5,996

2012-13…..$305.9 M…..$6,135

2013-14…..$329.8 M…..$6,465

2014-15…..$356.0 M…..$6,848

2015-16…..$378.3 M…..$7,111  (As of March 19, 2015) $s up 6.3%, Per HC up 3.8%)

2015-16…..$380.2 M…..>$7,111 (As of today.)

Me: What is the current WSS formula being used?  I tried to search for it at the SPS website but cannot find it. 

The WSS formula is in the “Gold Book” or FY15-16 Budget Development Instructions on the web. Users can navigate to the Budget department web page, or follow the link below.

http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/Budget/Budget%20Development%20Instructions%20For%20Schools%20Single%20Document%202016.pdf

The WSS model starts on page 11.

Me: 2) I note that Superintendent Nyland said at the Board meeting that hiring and trips are to be curtailed at headquarters.  Could you be more specific about what that looks like -  are trips being cancelled or just not scheduled, does that apply to STR, the Board, the Superintendent and senior staff?  What kind of money will that save?

Gotsch: Asst Supt for HR, Brent Jones and I are in the process of preparing personnel and non-personnel cost curtailing recommendations for Supt Nyland.  We will be first targeting reducing the district’s share of the $4.3 million lost revenue due to drop in school enrollment and then looking for ways to close the current year (FY 2015-16) $3.3 million budget gap due to the new teacher’s contract. 

Me: 3) And clearly, hiring will continue (I see there are still jobs today at the SPS website) so what does "curtailing" hiring look like?

Gotsch: As mentioned above, we’re in the process of determining recommendations for Supt Nyland.

Me: 4) What the less-than-anticipated enrollment will actually cost (not just the lost revenue; but the net after not providing for those students)?

Gotsch: This is an excellent question.  Budget staff have not calculated this yet.

Me: 5) What are the implementation costs to the cuts - having fewer teachers for lunch/playground supervision, loss of instructional time, kid anxiety over classroom switches, decreasing resources for high-need kids.  How is that all being calculated? 

Gotsch: I think it’s important to note that these are not cuts, but staff transfers /moves between schools. There are no budgetary costs to teacher re-assignments.

Me: 6) Parents understand that because of the under enrollment of about 589 students, the district is not getting money it anticipated.  What they don't understand is how the cuts can be made (to save money) and yet the teachers/staff are retained and placed elsewhere (which is continued spending). 

Gotsch: We have less enrollment, less revenue, so less staff to assign.  Transferring teachers saves the District money:

-          From under enrolled to schools with enrollment above projections:  District does not have to hire the additional new teachers

-          From under enrolled schools to permanent substitute teachers:  District does not have to hire/pay additional substitute teachers.Seattle Schools Community Forum: Kids Not Cuts Updates:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dems and CNN avoided hot-button ed issues

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dems and CNN avoided hot-button ed issues:

Dems and CNN avoided hot-button ed issues

From her tweet this morning, one might surmise that Randi doesn't think education is one of those issues. CNN anchors didn't ask the candidates a single question about education.

Blogger Steven Singer wonders if CNN would have felt more pressure to ask even a single token education question, "if the largest national teachers unions hadn’t already endorsed Clinton"?

Both the American Federation of Teachers representing 1.5 million members and the National Education Association representing 3 million members have backed Clinton minus any real debate involving rank-and-file teachers.

So without any union pressure of the candidates, Sanders and Clinton were able to skate by last night with only a few general references to schools when asked about other issues.

I think the real problem Dems have on the education front is that they can't speak to issues like testing, Common Core, the expansion of privately-run charter schools, etc… without directly confronting the policies and practices of the Obama administration and Arne Duncan's D.O.E.

I guess they are willing to leave those hot-button issues issues to Trump, Bush and Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dems and CNN avoided hot-button ed issues:

LAUSD Board rejects public forums with superintendent finalists | 89.3 KPCC

LAUSD Board rejects public forums with superintendent finalists | 89.3 KPCC:

LAUSD Board rejects public forums with superintendent finalists 

The Los Angeles Unified school board on Tuesday voted against allowing the finalists for the district superintendent post to attend public forums.

In a 4 to 3 vote, the board rejected a motion by member Monica Ratliff calling for the finalists to be introduced at the events where the public could have a chance to interact with the candidates.

But the board heard from Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, the firm that is helping members search for the next leader of the second largest school district in the country.

“There are pros and cons to a public interview of the finalists,” said Hank Gmitro, the firm's president.

He said a confidential search would likely lead to a stronger candidate pool. The advantage of a public process that reveals the names is that it lets the public connect with the candidates, he said.

One of the newest members of the school board, charter school administrator Ref Rodriguez, backed a confidential search.

“We are interested in the most qualified candidate that will achieve the ambitious goals that we have for all kids graduating from this district: zero dropouts, A through G for all, reading by nine,” he said, referring to the A to G courses that help get students college-ready.

The public can still voice their opinions about the kind of superintendent they wantat forums to begin next week (see schedule below). The school board also agreed to pick civic leaders to take part in focus group meetings that the district would schedule.

The school board has yet to tell its search firm how many finalist names it wants or its deadline to hand over those names.

Outside the school board meeting, several dozen LAUSD teachers, and leaders of their union, United Teachers Los Angeles, marched on the sidewalk, chanted, and staged some street theater to protest what they contend is philanthropist Eli Broad's effort to influence the superintendent search process.

"Parents have insights, students have insights, educators, and employees have insights in what we need to lead this school district. So absolutely this should be a transparent process where the public should be engaged," said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl.

Teachers are upset about a recently unveiled draft proposal circulated by the Broad Foundation that calls for 130,000 additional charter school seats over eight years. LAUSD Board rejects public forums with superintendent finalists | 89.3 KPCC:

More on Arne Duncan’s Legacy | janresseger

More on Arne Duncan’s Legacy | janresseger:

More on Arne Duncan’s Legacy

In her new book about Newark, New Jersey and the school reform paid for by Facebook CEO-philanthropist Mark Zuckerberg, Dale Russakoff captures the language of what we can call “corporatized” school reform.  Newark school reform was paid for by Zuckerberg’s $100 million grant, but the style couldn’t have happened without the movement promoted by Arne Duncan through I3 “innovation” money, School Improvement Grants and Race to the Top grants—a movement that has filled the public schools with consultants, many of them from the business schools and Eli Broad’s academy for superintendents, not from schools of education.  (This blog also posted an earlier piece on Arne Duncan’s legacy.)

Here is how Russakoff describes Cami Anderson’s “corporate reform,” leadership training sessions for school principals: “‘Every good and high performing coach and CEO has a game plan—a lean, focused, clear plan,’ she said… As part of this process, she said, principals should articulate something she called a BHAG (‘Bee-hag’). When no one appeared familiar with the term, Anderson explained that it stood for a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  This, she said, was a clear and seemingly impossible objective around which everyone in a school could organize to achieve previously unthinkable progress. She credited the term to best-selling business author Jim Collins,whose many analyses of successful companies were treated as scripture across the school reform movement.  Several staff members said they felt that the district had been overtaken by a cadre of technocrats, most of them white and commuting from New York, whose vocabulary was rich in education reform buzz-words.  Besides ‘transformational’—never incremental—change, they also made it a priority to ‘move the needle,’ which meant to More on Arne Duncan’s Legacy | janresseger:

CURMUDGUCATION: Not Even a Bridesmaid

CURMUDGUCATION: Not Even a Bridesmaid:

Not Even a Bridesmaid

I have nothing to say about the Democratic debate, really. Neither does any other education blogger, though Steven Singer covers it as well as it needs to be covered. "Near silence" indeed.



So this is how it's going to be. The GOP is going to have a cartoon discussion about education, focusing on how to use charters to dismantle public ed and on how to find wacky ways to pretend that we're not havin' that Common Core stuff. And the Democratic line on public ed? The Clinton campaign locked in on their line months ago-- stick to the safe-and-easy topics of universal pre-K and accessible, cheaper-somehow college education.



That mantra is comfortable and easy. Plain folks can listen to it and hear, "Aww, more pre-school for those precious cute little kids, and a chance for young Americans to make something of themselves," while corporate backers, thirsty hedge funders, and ambitious reformsters can hear, "Expanding markets! Ka-ching!!"



The $64.50 question is, "Would education be on the front burner if Clinton had not already locked up the AFT and NEA endorsements?" Because as it is, we aren't on the front burner, the back burner, the bunsen burner, or anywhere near the stove. Well, hey-- Lily Eskelsen-Garcia suggested that once we were all in with the campaign, Clinton would be more inclined to hear our message and pay attention to it. What did Eskelsen-Garcia have to say about the debate last night?CURMUDGUCATION: Not Even a Bridesmaid:

Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in? — PS connect

Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in? — PS connect:

Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in?

LAUSD was making a clean break from a past that included the iPad scandal (still under federal  investigation) and the “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” resignation of John Deasy. Board President Steve Zimmer launched LAUSD’s community engagement campaign for the superintendent search last week.

“The public will be involved in helping to shape the conversation...Your voice as a stakeholder is very important to the Board of Education,” Zimmer wrote. This is a welcome change, considering Deasy was Eli Broad’s handpicked superintendent for the public schools, and is now his private superintendent at the unaccredited Broad Academy.

Input will be gathered at community outreach sessions. The LAUSD community is accustomed to such meetings, facilitated by a team of experts who have built trusting relationships with parents, faculty and neighbors, in sometimes difficult circumstances. We know them by name: Lorena, Fortunato, Holly, Judy and others.

However, rather than a Human or Community Relations facilitator, the person at the center of the outreach for the supe search is a lobbyist who has spent her career advancing an agenda closely aligned with Eli Broad’s.

Before joining LAUSD’s lobbying department, Beth Doctor Gibbons sharpened her chops for nearly three years at Michelle Rhee’s lobbying group, StudentsFirst, one of the leading organizations that champions Broad-style reforms.

Biography of a Zealot
Gibbons’ entire resume reads like the biography of a Broad zealot. To familiarize yourself with the organizations in Broad’s favor (or who you should not let bring free cookies into the teachers lounge), read on.

Let's start at the beginning.

Gibbons is an alumni of Teach For America (TFA), or Temps for America, as critics call it. TFA places elite college graduates in two-year teaching internships after five weeks of training. The departure of most of them after two years, when they move onto careers in other fields--sometimes to positions shaping public policy--destabilizes schools and undermines the teaching profession. Education policy scholar Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig of Cal State Sacramento has researched TFA extensively. He recently called for a policy debate about TFA when public outcries led two Southern California school districts to reject contracts with the organization. TFA is a foundational element of Broad’s plan.

After her two years was up, Gibbons spent a few months teaching at Harlem Success Academy, one of the schools in Eva Moskowitz’s New York charter chain. The chain is so closely aligned with Eli Broad's goals that he donated $5 million to help it expand from 20 to 100 schools. Sound familiar? Diane Ravitch's blog has the most complete log of the numerous published reports of the shenanigans of Success Academy charters Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in? — PS connect:

Rejected cyber charter tries a workaround

Rejected cyber charter tries a workaround:

Rejected cyber charter tries a workaround

A proposed cyber charter school that was rejected three times by the state Department of Education has turned to the courts in its bid to open.

Insight PA Cyber Charter School, which has partnered with for-profit K12 Inc., has filed a petition in Commonwealth Court challenging the Charter Appeal Board's decision to deny its appeal.

The board on Aug. 31 upheld the Education Department's finding that K12 would be effectively running the school rather than Insight's nonprofit board.

Alan C. Kessler, Insight's lead attorney, declined to comment Tuesday. But in the Commonwealth Court filing, Insight challenged the appeals board's findings, contending it had "capriciously disregarded the department's arbitrary treatment" of Insight's prior applications.

Insight also alleged that the Education Department had engaged in an "effective moratorium" on the approval of new cybers since 2012.

The department has turned down all new cyber applications in the last three years, in part because most of the 14 cybers are among the lowest performing schools in the state. Cybers enroll more than 35,000 students in Pennsylvania.

Although state law permits cyber schools to contract with for-profit companies to provide management, curriculum, and technology services, cybers must be overseen by independent trustees.

The appeals board said Insight's organizational chart showed that only the school's chief executive officer and chief financial officer would report to the nonprofit board.

All other administrators would be K12 employees and would report to K12's executive director. Insight's teachers and counselors would be hired by K12 and report to K12

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20151014_Rejected_cyber_charter_tries_a_workaround.html#gJ32fYhXCufRVgrC.99

‘Half-baked sale’ protest over Seattle teacher reassignments | The Seattle Times

‘Half-baked sale’ protest over Seattle teacher reassignments | The Seattle Times:

‘Half-baked sale’ protest over Seattle teacher reassignments

Seattle students, teachers and parents held events to protest the district’s plan to reassign two dozen teachers.

Though the official list of Seattle schools who may lose — or gain — teachers in a budget-related shuffle hasn’t been released, parents and lawmakers are asking the school district to halt plans to move anyone.

Students, teachers and parents held a “half-baked sale” and staged a protest Tuesday outside Seattle Public Schools headquarters to bring attention to the planned reassignments of about two dozen teachers, which the district said last week is largely tied to lower-than-projected enrollment.

“Parents were already unhappy (from the strike),” Alki Elementary parent Amy King said. “This pushed us over the edge. This made us angry.”

Earlier Tuesday, a newly formed group called Teacher Retention Advocate Parents — T.R.A.P — held a “half-baked sale” on the lawn of Seattle Public Schools headquarters to protest the reassignments. Parents sold items like “packed-class pralines” from a table with a sign that read “How many cookies do we need to sell to raise $90,000?”

The purpose of the sale was to “highlight the absurdity of funding basic education with carwashes and bake sales,” said Carolyn Leith, whose two children attend Olympic View Elementary School and Jane Addams Middle, both of which are slated to lose staff. Although the district has yet to announce which teachers will move where, a number of schools have already announced they expect one or more of their teachers to be transferred.

Outside the district’s headquarters in Sodo, parents and other supporters talked about the division that occurs when some schools raise more money than others. Some schools are trying to raise the $90,000 it would take to keep a teacher, but don’t expect to reach that level. So far, Alki Elementary, with the help of a donation of $70,000 from a Ballard parent, is the only school known to have reached that goal.

The need for fundraising puts pressure on all schools, said Erin Murphy, who will find out later this week if her first-grader, who attends Concord International Elementary School, will remain in a first-grade class, or ‘Half-baked sale’ protest over Seattle teacher reassignments | The Seattle Times:

Kids Not Cuts Picks Up Speed

 The Seattle Times has two stories on the staff cuts at more than 25 Seattle Schools. One is Danny Westneat's column whose headline made me smile, "Outraged Seattle Public Schools parents, pace yourselves."  Sigh. He's right.  (BUT I do believe we ARE hitting a tipping point and it is to the parent side. Sadly, there will be more pain before healing but I believe the day of reckoning is

by Melissa Westbrook / 19min 

YESTERDAY

Kids Not Cuts Gets Political

Update 2: Word is that not all members of the School Board even saw the letter (no less signed-off on it) before it was sent.  I think that an appalling lack of respect.  This continues a theme on the Board as Board members were not told that Principal Chappelle was leaving for a city job in education.   I have to wonder about Director McLaren out on the campaign trail, denigrating the previous Bo

7 by Melissa Westbrook / 15h 

And How Many Cookies to Save Teachers at 25+ Schools?

by Melissa Westbrook / 15h 

Tuesday Open Thread

Update:From City of Seattle:"...We still have trees in need of good homes! If you, a friend, neighbor, or family member have room in the yard for a beautiful Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), grand fir (Abies grandis), or willow oak (Quercus pehllos), please let me know. The yard tree application is still open and we're still accepting applications for these lovely yard trees. Send your f

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 23h 

OCT 12

Alki Gets Money to Retain Staff (from a complete stranger)

Update: Kids Not Cuts leader, Chandra Hampson, had an interview on KIRO radio this morning.  (It's brief and starts at about minute 23:00.  But, the reporter said that the district said "nothing is final."  So I'm hoping that is true.  More to come.end of updateFrom the West Seattle blog:The West Seattle school that was crowdfunding to try to save a teacher from being cut has apparently

by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

Seattle Schools Central Administration Spending

From Reader 47:From the 2015/16 Budget book (pg44)CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION Actual 2013/14 Adopted 2014/15 Recommended 2015/16 Board of Directors $4,377,610 $2,603,840 $4,270,653 Superintendent's Office $5,263,869 $5,515,745 $6,418,660 Business Office $5,790,899 $6,207,175 $6,980,623 Human Resources $4,685,999 $4,705,558 $5,283,638 Public Information $490,227 $500,189 $623,449 Superv. of Instruction

13 by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

Hit the Pause Button on October Staff Cuts

Sent to the Board this morning:Dear Directors,You have an Executive Ctm Meeting of the Whole on Wednesday.  I am asking you to please consider 10 minutes to discuss hitting the pause button on the extensive cuts that affect schools in every single region that the Board covers.  You have it within your power - having an advertised public meeting of the whole - to ask the Superintendent to not make

4 by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

Letter to Ken Gotsch, CFO

Dear Ken,I am working with the parent leaders from various schools over the staffing cuts announced last week.  I know you have given of your time to several parents in order to explain the situation.  But it continues to be murky and honestly, this is not good.  Parents are losing faith in what they hear from senior staff.  To that end, I'm asking for clarification on some issues.  1) In Jan of 2

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

Indigenous Peoples Day 2015 in Seattle

2 by Melissa Westbrook / 1d 

OCT 11

Seattle Public Education This Week

Monday, Oct. 12thBoard Curriculum&Instruction meeting from 4:30-630 pm at JSCEE.  AgendaHighlights:- there's a Race to the Top grant for the Seattle Teacher Residency.  The Board should reject this.  Why?  Because the relationship with one partner for the STR, the Alliance for Education, is tenuous and the district may be left holding the bag for this project.  I think that the district had th

6 by Melissa Westbrook / 2d hide  //  save

Parents Rising - Dear Directors

Dear Directors,I write to you with both a heavy and joyful heart.  Heavy because there is so much frustration and sadness in our district this early in the school year.  Not because of the teachers strike but because of the staff cuts at a large number of schools.  I am joyful because enough parents are now ready and willing.  I am joyful because, unbidden by me or anyone else, they have risen up

100+ by Melissa Westbrook / 2d 

Transparency - That's All It Takes

From a teacher reader;The problem with opacity with teacher pulls:  we don't know if they are legitimate or punitive.   The problem when no one speaks up for a school that is under attack is that it gives permission to launch attacks against other schools in the future!  Hence, Schmitz Park today!If they do this to JAMS, they will do it to Meany, Eagle Staff and Lincoln High School.    From Kellie

2 by Melissa Westbrook / 2d 

If SPS Thinks All Parents are Good for is Fundraising...

Join Teacher Retention Advocate Parents for a "bake sale" to highlight the inadequacy of local parent groups to fund raise for major staffing cuts. We will call on SPS to make alternate budget cuts and our state legislature to fully fund McCleary.Tuesday, October 13th from 11 am - 1pm at JSCEE  We will have a table with various treats and goodies such as:  - Bum Deal Brownies- Choppi

19 by Melissa Westbrook / 3d 

Where kindergartners can be suspended for calling out an answer in class - The Washington Post

Where kindergartners can be suspended for calling out an answer in class - The Washington Post:

Where kindergartners can be suspended for calling out an answer in class

Most of the 3 million or so students who get out-of-school suspensions are in high school. But increasingly kids in preschool and kindergarten are getting sent home as punishment, and for reasons that you might not expect.

In this PBS NewsHour video, John Merrow reports about suspensions in the  Success charter school network in New York City, which began in 2006 with one school and now has 34, most of them elementary. The Success network is a prime example of the “no excuses”  model of schooling, which essentially means that teachers are responsible for student achievement and that there are no excuses — not hunger or sickness or violent home lives — for students not doing well. Joan Goodman, a professor in the Graduate School of Education University of Pennsylvania and director of the school’s Teach For America program, recently described them this way:

“These schools start with the belief that there’s no reason for the large academic gaps that exist between poor minority students and more privileged children. They argue that if we just used better methods, demanded more, had higher expectations, enforced these higher expectations through very rigorous and uniform teaching methods and a very uniform and scripted curriculum geared to being successful on high-stakes tests, we can minimize or even eradicate these large gaps, high rates of drop outs and the academic failures of these children. To reach these objectives, these schools have developed very elaborate behavioral regimes that they insist all children follow, starting in kindergarten. Submission, obedience, and self-control are very large values. They want kids to submit. You can’t really do this kind of instruction if you don’t have very submissive children who are capable of high levels of inhibition and do whatever they’re told.”

[Why no-excuses charter schools mold ‘very submissive’ students — starting in kindergarten]

That provides background for Merrow’s video on the Success Academy Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, which is housed in the same building as P.S. 138 in Brooklyn, a traditional public school that doesn’t suspend its students. The contrast in philosophy is striking.

At Success Academy Prospect Heights, students are required to avoid committing any one of 65 infractions that take six pages to explain. The code of conduct, Merrow says, labels as infractions everything from “bullying and gambling to littering and failing to be in a ready-for-success position.” Getting out of a seat without permission or calling out an answer are infractions as well, and it doesn’t take many to get suspended.

Merrow said that at Success Academy Prospect Heights, which enrolled 203 kindergartners and first graders last year, Principal Monica Komery issued 44 suspensions — all to 11 students. One child, Merrow said, was suspended 12 Where kindergartners can be suspended for calling out an answer in class - The Washington Post: