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Title : Mayor Durkan to Announce Her Education Plan Today
link : Mayor Durkan to Announce Her Education Plan Today
Mayor Durkan to Announce Her Education Plan Today
I attended the Levy Oversight Committee meeting yesterday for the City's Families and Education Levy where there was a sneak peek at the Mayor's Education Plan. The Mayor is planning an to discuss the "contours of the levy" today at 11:35(?) am at the Miller Community Center; it should be airing on Seattle Channel as well.I was the only member of the media at the meeting and there was just one other member of the public. Director Geary was filling in for Director Burke and Superintendent Nyland - a member of the committee - did not attend. In fact, it was a sparse committee as compared to the numbers of SPS and City staff.
Here's what was said.
- It appears the Mayor wants to shift to more services for K-12 than academics.
This could be good news because much of how the City assessed how the levy was doing was based mostly on academic scores. The Mayor's spokesperson at the meeting (I did not get his full name) "Education is a social science where it is hard to draw a line from intervention to outcomes" with so many variables like who leads the school, where kids live, etc.
- the Mayor doesn't think the "current strategies" are closing the opportunity gap fast enough. What I didn't hear - and maybe this will come out today - is how the City would coordinate its efforts with what the district is already do in order to unite for better outcomes.
- They will be rolling the Pre-K levy into the F&E levy and the levy will be on the November 2018 ballot. Despite having mentioned in previous meeting minutes that they might come in at about $700M, there was no mention of money. If you add in the current amount for the F&E levy at $235M and the Pre-K levy at about $58M, you get to roughly $300M. Coming in at the $700M range would be a huge bump (but then again, read the list of what they want to do).
- From their community meetings on the levy, they heard five basic wishes:
- closing opportunity gaps - focus on underserved, disadvantaged and/or students of color across all age groups
- early learning
- expanded learning opportunities for out of school time with transportation
- systems coordination - preparation for post-secondary life with college, career and pathways to get there, aligning systems and resources
- wraparound services - mental health, social emotional supports, health care, family supports and outreach, family engagement.
On the good side, the Mayor seems to get the need for family supports but I suspect rather than in-school ones like Family Support Workers, that the City will turn to outside CBOs.
- Plus they want to do something about increasing teacher diversity. While supportive, Director Geary was somewhat skeptical, given the Board's knowledge of the issues around attracting new teachers to a very expensive city especially for those who have heavy college debt.
It does not appear that the City will be working with the district's already established (and successful) Seattle Teacher Residency program.
- They want to continue to fund the health centers in all the comprehensive high schools plus a couple of middle schools. They want to add on one new high school center (presumably Lincoln) plus two more middle school ones (also unnamed).
- The plan also talked about "readiness academies" to help seniors navigate the college application process, support on campus and funds for low-income students for transportation, books and fees.
I'll note there are several good groups that already provide college application services for low-income students.
Discussion
- One levy committee member said that it was great to help kids get into college but if they are not prepared for the work, it might be difficult. Meaning, getting them ready with more rigorous courses in middle and high school.
Head of DEEL, Dwayne Chappelle, said the City would be working with middle and high school principals.
- Another question was asked about tracking the numbers of students who go onto a 4-year university.
- The City is having regular meetings with SPS staff - Michael Tolley was named - about coordinating all the public ed levies coming up.
- It was noted that the City Council is having two community meetings in late May/early June to ask what the community thinks about what's on the levy. At first, those meetings were called a "touchpoint" for the council but then it was stated that the Council might use comments to shape some thinking.
- Another question was about support for birth-3 and the answer was those efforts will come from the sweetened drinks tax money.
- Member Greg Wong asked about the committee's role in shaping the levy. That seems to be something that neither DEEL nor the Mayor's office considered. Mr. Chappelle said they wanted to "leverage" the support of the committee's knowledge with their support of the levy and "provide insights" but none was asked for at this meeting. It almost seems like the City and/or the Council think the committee will just rubber-stamp whatever they come out with. Curious.
- When asked for the Mayor's definition of "opportunity gap", the spokesman said there was probably a "technical one" but he didn't know and then laughed.
Director Geary said that there is a different between an opportunity gap and an achievement gap (which is measured thru academics). However, DEEL's K-12 person, Veronica Gallardo, formerly of SPS, said with the opportunity gap you can measure the number of students taking and passing courses. A bit confusing there.
- I asked Mr. Chappelle about two things.
1. I have heard him and other DEEL reps says that all Seattle high school grads would be eligible for the Promise Program. Other times, SPS grads. If it were ALL grads, that would include charter schools and private schools. He said that will be ironed out but he thinks it is SPS grads.
2. To that end, I asked if the F&E levy will include money for charter schools and he said they are just working at the high level and that hasn't been decided. So I guess that's on the table.
There are upcoming meetings of the Council's own Select Committee on the levy.
Monday, April 23rd, Monday, May 14th, Monday, May 21st, Monday, June 11th and Monday, June 18th.
The levy is to be finalized around June 25th.
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