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Title : Seattle School Board Meeting, January 17, 2018
link : Seattle School Board Meeting, January 17, 2018
Seattle School Board Meeting, January 17, 2018
I had an earlier thread about the increasing length of Board meetings and my suggestions for trimming them down. Democracy should not be about who can stay awake the longest. I note tha Director Burke left at about hour three to catch a plane. AgendaThe meeting opened with the Robert Eagle Staff MS orchestra giving a two-piece concert. It was quite good and afterwards, they handed the mic to the kids. Now normally, they ask the students to give their names and their grade but this time it was name and how long they had been playing. It was quite telling as some kids had been playing five months and some for five years. (I'll have a separate thread about this issue but I was reminded of the concert as I participated in a very tense discussion over at the Soup for Teachers Facebook page.)
Then there were the Superintendent remarks, most of which I didn't notate but there was one of interest. It seems the district asked parents about receiving information by text and a large number of parents expressed interest. Superintendent Nyland said 100% of the ELL parents who responded said yes.
In early Board comments, Director Burke noted what seems to be the new meme for the district - "the north star." Work that is very important is "the north star." I counted no fewer than five members of staff using this throughout the evening.
Public Testimony
The majority of speakers were talking about high school boundaries and/or HCC pathways. There were again some amazing student speakers including Hayden Wagar, a 6th grader at Blaine K-8, Kira Blumhagen, who I believe is a junior at Ballard, and Campbell McVicars, another Blaine student.
As usual, district watcher Chris Jackins asked some pointed questions. For example, on the district buying land for use as a warehouse for their buses, he pointed out that the district says they will save $680K a year but that doesn't address lost interest from the money being in BEX IV, there are no costs noted for the building of the warehouse and relocation costs.
Many people really do not like the idea of long bus rides. It seems quite clear that most teens get to school under their own power - walking, walking/bus, biking - and parents want it to stay that way. Parent Michelle Wainstein said, "The past three weeks on this discussion feels like a hot potato being thrown around; please don't throw us under - or on - the bus."
Parent Rishi Mirchandani asked if the Board/staff had fully vetted possible unintended consequences. His wife, Nicole, also had a good comment about asking what principals had to say about these boundaries. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know if they have been asked as a group to weigh in.
Another parent, Andrea Toll, spoke movingly about her son with an IEP at Ballard and that the community he is in, especially teachers and counselors, means the world to him and is key for his life balance.
Another parent, who is also a teacher in SPS, said she had taught HCC students for five years and never had professional development on it.
Parent David Shepard said his group HAD talked to principals and there hasn't been outreach to them. He said Principal Howard shared lessons with them. I also note I haven't seen any report from Executive Directors about what their principals think which you might believe would be within their job responsibilities.
Parent Eric Blumhagen weighed in with three issues. One, that every high school student, if they want it, deserves an opportunity for a full schedule of classes. Two, it should be flexible so students don't repeat a class to fill a slot. Three, if the district can't do the first two, they need to rethink their HCC plans.
Parent Lisa Melenyzer pointed out that the HCC resolution was vague and an "invitation to make a plan."
There was an interesting trio that came to the mic - Principal Jeff Clark from Denny MS, Principal Paula Montgomery and SEA head Phyllis Campano. Montgomery said something about the superintendent search (I could not understand what she said) and then Clark said there was an imperative to provide HC service but didn't understand why RBHS and Chief Sealth HS were not included on the list since they have IB programs.
Board Comments
There was a defense by Jill Geary of her co-sponsored resolution on HC. She said the resolution "makes us focus on a plan." Kind of weird because the work of reforming HCC would need to happen, resolution or not. She then repeated what she had said at the last Board meeting about how her son was in the first group of students in the IBX program at Ingraham. And, despite "no plan" he did well.
She keeps saying things like "we will do everything we can during this transition" but really those are empty words that she cannot back up. Staff isn't making that promise and they are the ones to create the plan and any transition work.
Burke chimed in that he didn't think that the resolution would impact the racial imbalance in HCC. He said he believed it was "about identification and services earlier in the year." He's likely right about that except that the resolution is NOT addressing the central problem in HCC which is the racial imbalance. Because you can certainly return all the HCC students to their neighborhood high school and hope that there will be more rigor to address their needs AND get more students in higher level classes but that's really a hope.
It's not Field of Dreams - build it and they will come. Students who haven't chosen more rigorous classes are not just going to wake up and sign up. The district needs to do more than that if their goal is more students taking higher level classes. Of course, if those students haven't tested in HCC, if they are students of color, that won't get reflected in HCC numbers.
Action Items (partial)
- acceptance of grant from the John Hay PTA for a new playground. Hey, the PTA finally got public thanks. It was noted that the same company that has done the survey of SPS facilities - Meng - is doing one for school playgrounds. President Harris asked about keeping up playgrounds and head of Facilities, Flip Herndon, said they could do that on BEX V. I would submit that the district has just as great a responsibility to keep up playgrounds as athletic fields. You get a whole wallop of inequity from not doing this as PTAs with funding prowess can fundraise to get a new playground and lower-income schools can't. And, it takes something off the district's maintenance backlog.
I have a hard time taking seriously this issue of equity when kids across the district don't have access to the same quality of playgrounds.
- Naviance software purchase.
Harris said she had received a lot of feedback on this issue. Caleb Perkins, head of College/Career Readiness, said that it "has a lot of support and equitable access." She said that she had received an email from a high school counselor - "a rabid data person" - who highly recommended using it. But Harris also noted the issue of what happens to data if the company is sold as sometimes the data is sold as an asset. She said it "would not be happening with this contract."
Well, that's great but the district DID have a contract with another software company who DID get sold and the data WAS sold and the district had to fight to get it back.
Mack pressed hard on making sure it was clear that parents could opt their students out of using it and that data not be shared with third parties (or at least parents know who they are). Pinkham also thought that it might be better for an opt-in because then we ask parents. It was noted with language difficulties that it is harder to opt-in than opt-out for those parents. Mack continued that parents need to know about the software and what options they have as well as correcting any information that is wrong about their student.
Patu asked if it were a new contract. (It is.) Harris asked about community engagement, "when and who pays?"
- Contract for Sped student
I noted this contract in another thread because of the leap in the contract amount from about $94K to $391K. Turns out that OSPI funds some of the costs and, according to Budget's JoLynn Berge, if they do agree, it's anything above $30K.
Introduction Items (partial)
Resolution on HC high school pathways
There was some confusion over whether this item had passed thru from the Curriculum and Instruction committee as "for approval" or "for consideration." DeWolf said for approval.
Ashley Davies of Enrollment said that each year a larger number of HCC students are staying at schools "and with those numbers, services come." Really? Has there been an uptick of higher-level classes at any high school that has seen more HCC students from that region? News to me.
DeWolf said "I'm really excited about this" and then turned to the crowd and asked if staff were. (I was watching from home so it was not possible to see if anyone jumped up.) He noted the "experience of Native boarding schools."
He stated:
- "How do I tell or justify that we are paying a large amount of money for an inequitable program?" He didn't mention that the service (it's not a program according to the district) was a state mandate and therefore, it has to exist in some fashion nor did he offer solutions for making it more equitable.
This resolution, for all the Sturm und Drang, is not really going to change much in terms of this program and certainly not the racial inequity in the program for the majority of students.
He also talked about "labels" and "inclusive educational environments."
Then he came to the Times' article about the lack of progress for closing the opportunity gap in SPS over the decades (I'll have a separate thread on that one). He said he was frustrated that he had not received a single email from a parent about it. Not one parent saying, "What are you going to do about that?"
Then, referencing the HCC parents who had either emailed him about HCC or gave testimony (it wasn't clear which) he said he was "grateful for enthusiastic parents" but that if they read the paper and did nothing, "but you email us about a program for 90% white students?"
Oh my.
Why would he single out one group of parents to decry over their lack of action? I mean, he did say he didn't receive a single email on the topic so shouldn't he be wondering out loud why other non-HCC parents aren't interested enough to even send their Board director an email?
This is a very sticky wicket and probably the biggest issue - why aren't parents rising up - en masse - to loudly complain about the opportunity gap?
Again, I cannot fault parents for supporting their child and their child's school. I wish more parents would look at the bigger picture of this district but with so much coming at you as parents - boundaries, bell times, high school schedules, curriculum changes - it's not easy to be as involved.
But it's a big issue and one that is getting louder all the time. It would be great if PTAs took the lead on this and showed parents at every school that it does matter.
Director Pinkham asked about space and Communications Carri Campbell talked about equal access. Pinkham pushed back on her methodology and she agreed. He said, "If there aren't enough students for orchestra classes, can they go somewhere else?" Wyeth Jesse, head of Student Services, agreed that there was not consistency in classes at schools.
Mack pointed out the fundamental believe that Advanced Learning should be available for every student at every school. (And that's exactly what ALOs were supposed to do but did not and were not available in every school.) She also asked about what if students are advanced in one area.
I'll interject here that there was a complaint that the thread about the changes in science curriculum were around HC students. But, per Mack's statement, there are students who excel in one subject and having good advanced classes in math, science, social studies and LA allows single subject excellers to have access to what they are good at/want to pursue.
Then it got a bit sticky as Jesse had to follow up on the lack of consistency which, in part, is about "site-based management" e.g. principals. He spoke of "different curricular choices."
Again, if you don't have principals on-board with these changes, how do you know they will follow thru?
Mack pressed him about Calculus B/C and the need for a critical mass for those classes. Jesse said that some colleges have shifted what they accept and not just AP.
Well, that has always been true but much of what they accept is VERY dependent on what school it is. Colleges and universities know Lakeside and Bush but what happens from SPS high school to SPS high school is quite another thing.
Both Harris and Mack pointed out that the resolution does nothing for the segregation in our school. Herndon said the answer was excellent schools everywhere. (Yes, but then does segregation matter or not? I'm confused.)
Harris stated that she had great respect for staff but that the district does not always execute plans "with fidelity." She said for West Seattle HS, in her region, that she had faith in Principal Brian Vance and the idea of students staying in their region and "getting people off the bridge."
But she said "we don't fully fund IB. When I make a promise to my community, I want to know - for sure - we can execute." She mentioned "brainpower, money and tools."
Boundaries Discussion (Hour Six)
Mack asked on the amendment, why there was no SE pathway for dual language? Davies said that the majority of the students in the dual language program were in the Lincoln area.
Geary asked about populations coming into Lincoln, pulling dual language into Lincoln and would that push more to Ballard and then, north Ballard back up to Ingraham? Davies said, "Not really." Harris talked about getting buy-in from staff on a SE dual pathway. Michael Tolley agreed that there is work to be done.
Analysis
I had thought that the HC pathways resolution was a done deal but now, I'm not so sure. That it looks as flimsy as the sheet of paper it's written on, I think that has given some directors pause.
At this point, I think smart directors want to make a REAL difference in changing the look of who is in HCC and expansion of higher-level classes in high school for all students.
As for the boundaries, it will be as it always is - some will be happy and others will not be. But, it's interesting how kids adapt. Maybe that's youth but it's a good thing. Lastly, kids get their vibes from parents so if you think it's the end of the world, so will they. A word from an old parent.
thus Article Seattle School Board Meeting, January 17, 2018
that is all articles Seattle School Board Meeting, January 17, 2018 This time, hopefully can provide benefits to all of you. Okay, see you in another article posting.
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