Not that a word salad is anything new in SPS but this Wednesday's Seattle School Board meeting includes a huge one. Here's the agenda. One item on the agenda concerns a contract for "applied behavior analysis therapy" for some students per their IEPs. When the district signed the contract with Crissey Behavior Consulting in August 2023, it appears it was just under $1M. But the Board is being asked to okay an additional $655K due to more students needing these services. To note: The revenue source for this motion is state special education funding including Safety Net for extraordinary high-co ..read more

It appears there two versions of the most recent Garfield High School rape story by KUOW.  Via email I learned that KUOW changed/updated the story but their website does NOT reflect any statement about that. The date on the story is April 30, 2024 at 11:34 am. Despite the changes, there is no notation of an update and you would at least see that in the timestamp. The timestamp has never changed. As I have said many, many times, I am not a trained journalist but a citizen reporter. But even I know you don't print one story, change a material piece of it, and then not acknowledge the change ..read more

 Update: you'll note below that I quoted the KUOW story on a connection between one staffer and Director Michelle Sarju. But when I went back to the KUOW website, those sentences were pulled without explanation.  I will do my best to try to figure it all out but it's odd that a newstory would change without some kind of notation. end of update Remember this post I wrote a few months back, Garfield High School Scandal Revealed By Girl Assaulted by Two Different Coaches? Here's the story via KUOW: Two former coaches from Garfield High School in Seattle have been accused of sexually as ..read more

 There's a petition out about the Highly Capable program: The recommendation is for SPS to retain the current HCC program for now, while doubling down on its efforts to make the highly capable identification process more equitable.  The Op Ed lays out the case that moving to a local advanced learning/HC delivery model - where no such model exists and no funding is proposed - will serve no one and hurt everyone.   All signatures collected before EOD Friday, May 3, 2024, will be shared with Superintendent Brent Jones and the SPS Board of Directors as endorsing ..read more

 KUOW's Week in Review had a very short discussion about the ending of the HCC program in Seattle Schools. The panel included Insider's Katherine Long, GeekWire's Mike Lewis and political/public affairs consultant Sandeep Kaushik along with host Bill Radke.  Radke, Lewis and Kaushik all somewhat sheepishly said they had been in gifted programs and Kaushik has a senior who has been in the program. Long said she was in favor of the change and "it is a long time coming." She said there is little evidence that such programs boost test scores. That's an interesting take because education ..read more

A story from PBS about improving middle schools made me smile: In classrooms off the hallway, clusters of kids from grades six to eight worked on wood carvings, scrapbooks, paintings and podcasts, while their teachers stood by to answer questions or offer suggestions. For two hours, the students roamed freely among rooms named for their purpose — the maker space, the study, the hub — pausing for a 15-minute “brain break” at the midway point of the session. Welcome to Community Lab School, a tiny public charter that is trying to transform the way middle schoolers are taught in the Albemarle Sch ..read more

Reading thru the Seattle Schools Board meeting agenda, I see an irony given today's heated debate over the Israel/Gaza war.  SPS has scheduled a high school graduation on a Muslim holiday and people are unhappy and want it changed. (Spoiler alert; that would be hard to do now.) I recall several years back when Jewish parents were upset because kindergarten started on a Jewish holiday and they were unhappy and wanted it changed.  Given the diversity, in SPS, my understanding is SPS tries to be aware of religious holidays but cannot always accommodate all of them. Something of a rock a ..read more

One is an opt-out letter to refuse for your child to do state testing. Parents may have many reasons to opt their student out and it is allowed by law in Washington State to do so. The other item is a webinar from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy; Join us on Monday, May 6 at 8 PM ET; 7 PM CT; 6PM MT. Find out how you can ensure your children's personal data including their test scores are NOT sold by the College Board or ACT. Here's a registration link ..read more

 The Seattle School Board will have their regularly schedule Board meeting tonight, starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda Public Testimony It appears the majority of comments will be coming from Muslim students who are unhappy that Cleveland High School's graduation is scheduled on a Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha. I'm a little surprised that staff didn't check this. The only available date to switch would be with Ballard HS which is the only graduation scheduled before June 17th.  There are several speakers on ELL and equity. One is City of SeaTac Councilmember, James W. Lovell. There are 1 ..read more

 From a reader comment: Desperate parent here trying to connect with others in the same boat.   Is no one going to talk about the school choice waitlist for next year?   Why is this school admin a joke? I'm thinking this reader meant the district administration but waitlists are a continuing issue for many parents.  It appears that it never seems clear to parents how they work, do schools have any autonomy over them (I suspect they do) and why it has to be so byzantine?    A comment on Facebook: The language on the website is changed to now suggest that if y ..read more