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Slide presentation:
Audio downloads: The meeting Thursday night at Roxhill Elementary School was inspiring and informative. I would guess that 80+ people (maybe a lot more?) sat in the giant circle in the Roxhill cafeteria, and many took turns speaking. The event began with students telling about how they cherish their school and also telling of their hopes and wishes. Pegi McEvoy, Assistant Superintendent for Operations, was there as well; she was able to offer detailed responses to many queries. The Roxhill community is stepping up to advocate for respect and equitable status in the school district and the broader community. A range of people from outside the Roxhill community was present to witness this, including several West Seattle school principals; we also heard about the extraordinary, stellar quality of Roxhill Elementary as an educational institution and a community. The West Seattle Blog posted a detailed description of the meeting: Roxhill Elementary meeting touts ‘magical place’ that needs ‘worthy’ building Also, the West Seattle Herald followed up the meeting with a tour of the school on Friday, and there is a detailed story about the school and the meeting: I've since learned that many parents who didn't speak up on Thursday feel very positive about the convenient location of the present Roxhill building, and do not favor moving the school, even to a building in better condition. My regular May community meeting falls on this Wednesday, May 9, from 12:30 to 2:30 at the Southwest Library. I hope people will be inspired to carry on the conversation and the problem-solving/brainstorming which was barely begun on Thursday. I will be sure to invite those parents who were silent on Thursday to express their opinions via email or through school staff contacts as the conversation proceeds. Other news: As you've probably heard, the School Board voted unanimously on Wednesday to ask José Banda to become our new Superintendent. I am extremely pleased that Mr. Banda is enthusiastic about serving in Seattle. Here is a link to a story in today's Seattle Times: Banda is calm voice for a turbulent district Finally, I want to acknowledge the outpouring of concern about the Seattle School District's consideration of a money saving proposal to change our transportation plan in a way that will result in earlier bus pickup times for middle and high schoolers. I can only assure you that these decisions are not yet final, and they will not be finalized lightly. Details: School District reviewing transportation options Hope to see you Wednesday.
Arbor Heights principal Christy Collins (left) and Roxhill principal Carmela Dellino (right) at a parent meeting at Arbor Heights, April 3 Tuesday meeting: We talked about BEX IV (the proposed Building Excellence IV levy), over- and under-capacity issues in West Seattle schools (while elementary schools are bursting at the seams, Madison MS and West Seattle HS are currently under capacity, despite their excellent programs), the urgency of replacing the Arbor Heights building, the Roxhill/Arbor Heights merger idea (which has been removed from the latest draft of the BEX IV proposal), and the importance of West Seattleites coming together to craft a unified vision for the BEX IV levy and future program placement.
We agreed that it would be ideal to join the Roxhill Parent Community meeting scheduled May 3rd to talk about this. Roxhill meeting, May 3rd: Ideally, we will have at least one or two members of each of West Seattle's 18 school communities present; I will send this invitation to each school and/or parent group, in the hope that we can have a representative turnout. Ms. Dellino and I estimate that we would spend the first 20 to 30 minutes hearing from the Roxhill families, and that the remaining time could be devoted to discussing how all of our West Seattle schools might be affected by the BEX IV levy. We hope to do some successful brainstorming -- identifying needs, priorities, and important ideas, then planning next steps so that we can speak as a unified community to the School District. This is an opportunity for us to help shape the characteristics of all of our West Seattle schools in the future. Another chance to weigh in: Also, please invite your friends who are associated with other West Seattle Schools for the May 3rd meeting, so that we can have someone in attendance from each school community. More later, We had a good meeting at Neighborhood House on Friday; the Cambodian and Somali language speakers there were very appreciative that Neighborhood House arranged for translators to help out; so was I! I hope many of you can come to my upcoming meetings to weigh in on the BEX IV draft levy proposal and also to extend the conversation: what else do we envision for our students in West Seattle (and throughout the district)? Tuesday, April 24, 1:00 - 2:30 PM Sunday, April 29, 1:15 - 3:00 PM Also, here's something interesting that Rod Clark sent: You might have seen this already (it's posted on the K-5 STEM Yahoo group). Margaret Chodos-Irvine wrote an article about a school art program started in 2006 by Kathleen Allen, who used to be the district's Arts Liaison but now works for the Youth Symphony.
Regards, This is an overview of a few of the events and activities I've been involved in over the last three weeks.
Also, for those who have seen me and wondered – yes, I had a self-inflicted (accidental!) black eye – it is healing nicely. Upcoming meetings; please come and discuss your thoughts on the BEX IV draft proposal, and other questions and topics of interest:
I plan to attend a community meeting at Roxhill Elementary on May 3rd. Details later. Regards, 
The draft of the BEX IV levy proposal has just been published. It shows a lot of focus on West Seattle's overcrowded elementary schools, and some of our deteriorating buildings. Slides:
Audio download: You already might have heard that in the three scenarios, some of the possibilities are: re-opening Fairmount Park, building a new Schmitz Park at the Genesee Hill site, re-opening the Hughes building (where Westside School is now situated - there is surely some concern about this idea), a new addition to West Seattle Elementary, and a new idea - merging Arbor Heights and Roxhill in a new building on the Arbor Heights site, to open in 2017. I do wish that community members as well as instructional staff at the two schools had been able to consider this last concept earlier. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have put in uncounted hours on the Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee, as well as those who have tirelessly advocated for years so that our urgent issues became visible to the community as well as the school district. You know who you are, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude. Arbor Heights and Roxhill? I first heard of this concept just 3 weeks ago. I was immediately intrigued because it solved several issues at once - both buildings are in deplorable condition, and, although they're only 1.4 miles apart, the program needs in each building are extremely uneven. I've learned that both principals believe that there may be many advantages to merging. Apparently there are already several very successful elementary schools of similar size (over 550 students) in nearby districts. Because the BEX IV rollout was imminent when this suggestion emerged, there was no time to gather input about the concept from the community. Just last Friday, I learned that both Facilities and Finance staff in the School District see this as a viable and desirable option, because it would address the extreme deterioration of both buildings, and because merging the schools would reduce operating costs significantly. Although there hasn't been an opportunity yet for instructional staff at the two schools to weigh in on the idea, or for community conversation, there will be several chances for community dialogue in April. We will have five community meetings in West Seattle to talk about BEX IV, with its three draft proposals for the whole city - first will be the initial presentation by district staff on April 5th, and then I have four more meetings scheduled. The four additional community meetings will allow time for in-depth dialogue about all the possibilities suggested, and whether any of them or some hybrid or new view of the three scenarios will be a good option for West Seattle. I'm looking forward to a robust conversation in the West Seattle community. The upcoming meetings are:
Community meetings with Marty McLaren:
If any of you has other suggestions for successful outreach to the broader parent community, for participation in this important conversation, please let me know. I hope to see you at one or more of our meetings. Regards, April 4: Noted that Marty will be at a Board meeting at the time of the Denny meeting. The K-5 STEM at Boren design team held its second meeting on Wednesday, March 28. Aurora Lora opened the discussion, and many of the participants then spoke about their priorities for the school, but this discussion wasn't yet a decision making meeting. That will start with the next, lengthier, meeting on April 7, when Principal McKinney is expected to be present and at which the design team will decide the school's curriculum.
Audio files: (Because the BEX IV meeting downstairs ran late, these audio segments don't include the first part of the meeting about the Boren building walkthrough, or the public comments.) For more about all of this, see the K-5 STEM at Boren discussion group. At last night's Seattle School Board meeting, Betty Patu, Sharon Peaslee, and I all voted to terminate the Teach for America contract with Seattle Public Schools. Below is my statement of the reasoning behind my vote. With all due respect and appreciation to those Teach For America corps members who are teaching or supporting TFA in Seattle, I strongly believe that TFA's model is flawed, and that the national organization is not focused on supporting Seattle's students. We don't need more data: There's plenty of data on TFA, and it says that a district like Seattle, with a competent teaching corps, can serve its students best without TFA Corps Members. TFA in Seattle is diverting us from our core mission. It is unconscionable for us to have given in to the hype about young and enthusiastic college graduates being able to work miracles, with full teaching responsibility in classrooms with our most challenged students. There is too much work to do in Seattle to be spending a nanosecond thinking about TFA or supporting this national organization with an agenda which has nothing to do with the careful, specific, highly successful educational advancement that has begun to happen in Seattle. There are many other reasons to terminate this contract: 1. It is far from best practice to put novice, essentially untrained teachers in classrooms with our neediest students. The overwhelming majority of TFA corps members, with some summer training, are simply not prepared to teach well, particularly with our most challenged students. In a competitive hiring process, only six Corps Members were hired across the whole district -- these people are the exceptions that prove the rule: One of the six was previously certificated, and at least two already had extensive experience as volunteers in the buildings where they were hired. 2. This points to the flaw in the TFA model: If TFA is sincere, it must offer Corps Members substantive training, ideally in an intern or classroom assistant position over an entire school year. Further, volunteers should commit to teach for at least three additional years. And, if Teach for America were truly dedicated to enhancing educational opportunity, it would focus away from its one size fits all curricula and materials -- instead, TFA in Seattle would commit to working with the district to support Corps Members in learning, supporting, and mastering the way we do things in our most successful Seattle Schools. 3. And finally: the TFA contract has alienated our teacher corps.The Seattle teachers who have found time to examine it have stated clearly that they recognize this contract as an affront. Our teachers are the heart of our district, and they are the people who are making the needed changes in our schools. We need to honor and support their work and commitment, and terminate this contract. Last night, March 13th, it was a pleasure to meet the principal of our new K-5 STEM program, which will open at the interim Boren site this fall. Below is a link to audio recordings of her remarks to the gathering. The website for the STEM program will be updated regularly on Fridays. You're invited to join me at the High Point Library, Saturday, March 17th, 11:15 AM to 1:15 PM to discuss your opinions, questions, and concerns relating to Seattle Public Schools. Feel free to email your questions to me ahead of time. Marty McLaren
Audio download / (stream): Responses to some audience questions: Tuesday, March 13, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM at Madison Middle School - meet Shannon McKinney, principal of the new K-5 STEM program, sited at the Boren Building (interim site, pending longer range planning). There is a monitored inbox: k5stem@seattleschools.org Community Meeting: I will host a community meeting at the High Point Library on Saturday, March 17th from 11:15 AM to 1:15 PM. I hope to see you there. If you can email me your questions ahead of time, it will allow time to find out answers I don't already have. Two other West Seattle schools events (these are two which came to my attention; I know much more has been happening): The School District is collaborating with West Seattle community organizations in some very positive ways: Through our Self Help program, the Facilities Division collaborated with the County and with a Delridge neighbor to enable 25 community volunteers to work together recently reclaiming the wetland adjacent to Sanislo Elementary, clearing invasive blackberries and planting native species. Because of that project, a naturalist from Camp Long is conferring with the District about making Sanislo Wetland a destination showcase for environmental education tours (in addition to Camp Long and Roxhill Bog). This work is helping to filter storm water and create healthy salmon habitat. It's a model of how the district can work with local neighborhoods to reduce pollution of our waterways, and save taxpayer funds for getting rid of alien plant species. On February 28th, I attended a program at Concord International School supporting healthy eating in the South Park neighborhood. There were three very moving videotaped stories from Concord parents and neighbors about how the community has come together to make locally grown, healthy foods available in South Park. There were lots of parents and community members present, as well as Principal Zavala, and Wendy Weyer, Director of Nutritional Services. Speaking of nutrition: Many thanks to alternative rock band Death Cab for Cutie, which recently donated more than $4,300 to Seattle Public Schools Nutrition Services to help pay for lunches for students whose families had difficulty making payments. The money came from $1 donations on tickets sold through the band's fan club for all shows played in 2012. Board retreat: All seven of us School Board members came together in a day-long retreat on Saturday, March 4th. Together, we refined Board Superintendent Procedure 1620, which outlines the working relationship between the Board and the Superintendent: Our new Board finally had a chance to focus together on this important project. We worked very well, collaborating on tightening up and clarifying the language; I came away with great admiration and appreciation for my fellow School Board Directors. We will vote on this Procedure on March 21st. Hope to see you at one or both meetings this week. Marty McLaren |
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| Marty McLaren - Seattle School Board | |
