November School Board Meeting Notes
Edmonds SD
The district is studying selling, leasing and adjusting their real estate holdings. They are also adjusting attendance boundaries and they are changing from a 2.5 day a week kindergarten to a half-day program.
Federal Way SD
New Middle School Design Team, single gender schools, discussing scheduling plans if the new middle school doesn't open on time August 2005, Ed Novak is still working with capital projects and energy (I took over for Ed when he retired as Lakeland principal ten years ago, 1994), discussing "promtion" from 5th and 8th grades,
What does this mean? "adopt a resolution to re-certify the 2005 Debt Service Levy and to reduce the funds from $12,200,000 to $9,875,000."
Lake Washington SD
Shared background information about School Learning Plans and the Board accepted the school plans, adopted new instructional materials and monitored Instructional Program policies.
Northshore SD
The Board met at Bonefish restaurant to discuss Board governance. This meeting may have happened at the WASSA Conference but all the members couldn't attend. This shows that all Board meetings need to be communicated and involve all members.
The NPEF fundraiser was a success raising $78K which was $28K over projections. Mostly routine district business items.
Shoreline SD
The Board immediately went into Executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues. Did they advertise the session before the meeting so people didn't have to wait 30 minutes? Mostly a routine district business meeting. Reports on District Instructional Materials and the August end-of-year financial report.
The Shoreline Foundation has decided to support a single district-wide program, improving secondary reading. They gave $30K and expect two more installments. No details.
Seattle SD
The Board meeting started at 6:15 and ended at 11:15! That is one long, long meeting and is very different from other districts.
Seattle SD is very, very busy. A Powerpoint of the Dec. 2nd Board Work Session is posted as the lead article on the web site. It is a top story in the Seattle Times. There are 4 December work sessions: Big Picture, Budget Development: Initiatives, Assignment/Facilities, Budget Development.
The district has an excellent 5 year chart estimating Resources needs, gap, SEA contract, initiatives, reserves and total funding needed. It is all out on the table. They are in a pickle because no reserves are left, grants are unstable and many cuts have already been made. They need to look at the hard cuts such as closing schools and limiting transportation costs which directly affects school choice programs. Student population is predicted to be flat or in slight decline over the next 10 years. 75-79% of students in Seattle attend public schools over the last 25 years. Is this true? The district only uses about 70% of its existing space.
This report gives outstanding information. For instance the SEA contract has K-3 class size limits of 26 and they actually have 22 in a class, 4-5 classes at 28 students and 23 in a class, middle and high school class size at 30 and there are 26 in a class. By increasing class sizes, they could make up much of the budget difference. This is an option. There are troubling demographic trends such as 1st grade class smaller than kindergarten for the first time in a decade. Declining enrollment or one time?
The district expects a cost savings of $390,000 per year from elementary closures, $928,000 from junior high closures and $1,300,000 from high school closures. The district is looking for elementaries at about 400 students, middle schools of 800 and high schools of 1200. THEY ARE ALSO LOOKING AT INCREASING CLASS SIZES TO CLOSER TOT HE SEA AGREEMENT!
The district has a Proposed School Closure timeline. A timeline means that it is going to happen. And it is going to happen this year. The Superintendent will make a final recommendation May 18th and the Board will act June 15th.
They summarize the history of closing schools in Seattle and give examples of other urban districts that have closed schools in CA, Pittsburg, Detroit and Minneapolis.
What is the Cleveland Memorial Forest?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dang! Seattle is taking everything on at once. They have four Attendance Boundary options on line that completely changes the schools that many, many students would attend. They have great maps but I suspect that the devil is in the details. How do they really know? Is the data reliable? Imagine the problems if the data isn't correct!
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/consolidation/index.dxml
---------------------------------------------------------------
At the Board meeting, the Board agreed to continue the Student Assignment Plan next year. (despite making long range plans to change the system) They voted down Waitlists, didn't consider suspending Integration, did not approve direct assignments, did not approve sibling tiebreakers and much more...the Board is voting on many, many issues regarding student assignments, item by item. Why aren't they coming up with a single plan and voting on the entire plan?
The district is studying selling, leasing and adjusting their real estate holdings. They are also adjusting attendance boundaries and they are changing from a 2.5 day a week kindergarten to a half-day program.
Federal Way SD
New Middle School Design Team, single gender schools, discussing scheduling plans if the new middle school doesn't open on time August 2005, Ed Novak is still working with capital projects and energy (I took over for Ed when he retired as Lakeland principal ten years ago, 1994), discussing "promtion" from 5th and 8th grades,
What does this mean? "adopt a resolution to re-certify the 2005 Debt Service Levy and to reduce the funds from $12,200,000 to $9,875,000."
Lake Washington SD
Shared background information about School Learning Plans and the Board accepted the school plans, adopted new instructional materials and monitored Instructional Program policies.
Northshore SD
The Board met at Bonefish restaurant to discuss Board governance. This meeting may have happened at the WASSA Conference but all the members couldn't attend. This shows that all Board meetings need to be communicated and involve all members.
The NPEF fundraiser was a success raising $78K which was $28K over projections. Mostly routine district business items.
Shoreline SD
The Board immediately went into Executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues. Did they advertise the session before the meeting so people didn't have to wait 30 minutes? Mostly a routine district business meeting. Reports on District Instructional Materials and the August end-of-year financial report.
The Shoreline Foundation has decided to support a single district-wide program, improving secondary reading. They gave $30K and expect two more installments. No details.
Seattle SD
The Board meeting started at 6:15 and ended at 11:15! That is one long, long meeting and is very different from other districts.
Seattle SD is very, very busy. A Powerpoint of the Dec. 2nd Board Work Session is posted as the lead article on the web site. It is a top story in the Seattle Times. There are 4 December work sessions: Big Picture, Budget Development: Initiatives, Assignment/Facilities, Budget Development.
The district has an excellent 5 year chart estimating Resources needs, gap, SEA contract, initiatives, reserves and total funding needed. It is all out on the table. They are in a pickle because no reserves are left, grants are unstable and many cuts have already been made. They need to look at the hard cuts such as closing schools and limiting transportation costs which directly affects school choice programs. Student population is predicted to be flat or in slight decline over the next 10 years. 75-79% of students in Seattle attend public schools over the last 25 years. Is this true? The district only uses about 70% of its existing space.
This report gives outstanding information. For instance the SEA contract has K-3 class size limits of 26 and they actually have 22 in a class, 4-5 classes at 28 students and 23 in a class, middle and high school class size at 30 and there are 26 in a class. By increasing class sizes, they could make up much of the budget difference. This is an option. There are troubling demographic trends such as 1st grade class smaller than kindergarten for the first time in a decade. Declining enrollment or one time?
The district expects a cost savings of $390,000 per year from elementary closures, $928,000 from junior high closures and $1,300,000 from high school closures. The district is looking for elementaries at about 400 students, middle schools of 800 and high schools of 1200. THEY ARE ALSO LOOKING AT INCREASING CLASS SIZES TO CLOSER TOT HE SEA AGREEMENT!
The district has a Proposed School Closure timeline. A timeline means that it is going to happen. And it is going to happen this year. The Superintendent will make a final recommendation May 18th and the Board will act June 15th.
They summarize the history of closing schools in Seattle and give examples of other urban districts that have closed schools in CA, Pittsburg, Detroit and Minneapolis.
What is the Cleveland Memorial Forest?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dang! Seattle is taking everything on at once. They have four Attendance Boundary options on line that completely changes the schools that many, many students would attend. They have great maps but I suspect that the devil is in the details. How do they really know? Is the data reliable? Imagine the problems if the data isn't correct!
http://www.seattleschools.org/area/consolidation/index.dxml
---------------------------------------------------------------
At the Board meeting, the Board agreed to continue the Student Assignment Plan next year. (despite making long range plans to change the system) They voted down Waitlists, didn't consider suspending Integration, did not approve direct assignments, did not approve sibling tiebreakers and much more...the Board is voting on many, many issues regarding student assignments, item by item. Why aren't they coming up with a single plan and voting on the entire plan?
posted by Mike at 5:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home