Friday Memo

September 25, 2015 This memo includes 4 attachments

Dear Board members,

Board Action: A few highlights from the board actions on Wednesday:

Salary increase for district level “non-represented” staff. This group has received 1.4%

increase over the past eight years (compared to 16.5% for teachers). The board approved

the pass through of the 3% state COLA for this group. In addition, the district is doing a

comparative salary study to see how these positions compare with other similar major

urban school districts.

Elementary Suspensions: The board approved a moratorium on elementary suspensions

… for subjective offenses. Students can still be suspended for violence or bullying. This

action will help address the disproportionate suspension of students of color. The board

approved plan also includes several supports for this transition: expansion of RULER;

PBIS training; intervention supports in the highest impacted schools; and on-call

assistance for schools with fewer suspensions. District-wide last year there were 200

elementary suspensions in this subjective category: 20 schools had NO suspensions; 30

had 1-3 suspensions; and a few schools had higher levels. In other work with principals

our focus has been on: asking schools to set goals and review quarterly; adopting

programs like RULER that grow socio-emotional skills; and positive adult to student

relationships. We will also be looking at positive outliers (the schools with no

suspensions) to learn more from them. Directors thanked Pat Sanders, Shauna Heath,

Michael Tolley and Bernardo Ruiz for thinking outside the box to find a way to address

this important part of closing opportunity gaps for students.

Board of Distinction: Each year WSSDA, Washington State School Directors'

Association, invites board members to do a self-evaluation around the state standards for

effective school boards. Seattle’s work over the past year compares well with the list of

effective board criteria. Each year WSSDA recognizes about two dozen districts that best

meet the standards for effective school boards. Those standards include:

o Governance … including SPS extensive use of board committees to review

pending actions

o High expectations … as indicated by the board adopted goals in support of the

strategic plan

o Safety and security … as part of our BTA work on seismic safety of our buildings

o Measuring academic progress … which is part of quarterly review of student

progress

o Engaging community … with each board member holding monthly listening

sessions

Board Comments included:

Betty Patu recognized a Franklin student who called out in a very positive way a private

school student who was making racist comments on Facebook.

Harium Martin-Morris commented on Ken Gotsch’s presentation on budgeting at the

Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) conference

Stephan Blanford commented on how important the discipline suspensions were in

interrupting the school to prison pipeline and urged supports that will make this transition

most effective.

Marty McLaren highlighted the family engagement work that is expanding through the

district and gave her support to the McCleary resolution aimed at full state funding for

schools.

Sue Peters commented on the strike and how our ability to negotiate fair salaries is a

function of the legislature. She also commented on several parts of the agreement:

recess, assessment, and case-loads.

Sharon Peaslee clarified many of the issues raised in the emails from parents regarding

the contract and strike. She also called out the board action on the testing resolution in

July calling for better balance in assessments.

Sherry Carr reminded us of the Paramount Duty and the desperate need to fix our

broken education system at the state level. She also thanked Ron English for his past

service to the district.

Current Updates

School started on Thursday, September 17th

. Two of our new preschools opened on September

21st – at Van Asselt and Original Van Asselt schools. I have been to seven of our schools

where teachers and students are all excited about the start of school. A few highlights below

…with more details on page six:

- Whitman Middle School was highly intentional and focused around learning … and

took time out in the middle of Day of Caring, Volunteer Orientation, and a visiting

delegation from Japan … to showcase student learning.

- Ballard was VERY intentional about welcoming students to school with evidence of

student names and student work everywhere: from “stars” with student’s names, to name

placards in every class.

- At Franklin I met their intervention team that each work with 30-40 students helping

them stay on track.

- Thurgood Marshall was welcoming students by taking them on a tour of the school;

teaching them about manners, the buddy-bench, reporting in to the office when late, four-

square rules and more.

Lots of positive energy and focused learning underway.

We have nearly 53,000 students according to enrollment counts – up from last year and down a

bit from projections. We added nearly 100 teachers this year, partly for student growth and

partly for class size reduction. 15 schools did not have enough classroom space for the extra

teachers and are using those teachers to provide interventions and support for students. Beacon

Hill International is an open concept school where several pods designed for three classes are

serving four classes. Thurgood Marshall has opened a new classroom in a smaller space by

limiting enrollment.

Regarding the strike, I’d like to thank our two bargaining teams for the many, many late nights

that went into reaching an agreement early on Tuesday morning. We are glad to be back in

school and eager to work with SEA on the many joint initiatives that we agreed to in the

contract.

Many thanks to the City of Seattle for their support for our families during the strike. I’d like to

thank:

Barb Graff, the City’s Director of Emergency Management

Debbie Goetz, the Community Planning Coordinator, who activated and coordinated the

response plan.

Lori Chisholm, Seattle Parks and Recreation, who coordinated all the city’s “drop in”

centers.

Jill Watson and the City’s Human Services Department in coordinating the feeding plan

with Parks and Recreation and other city departments.

Holly Miller, from the Department of Education and Early Learning for her coordination

efforts.

This coordinated response extended beyond city agencies and included many of our

school based child care centers as well as other community based organizations such as

the Boys and Girls club and the YMCA. Also, our City Year volunteers who were

invaluable to supporting this effort.

And finally, thank you to our SPS Nutrition Services department who made the lunches

and snacks for our students and the SPS Department of Early Learning who helped

coordinate our school-based child care resources for families.

Erin Okuno with Southeast Seattle Education Coalition (SESEC) who pulled together

churches and community volunteers to help support parents with child care options.

Numerous community volunteers who helped with translations of messages for our ELL

families.

Bargaining--Regarding the tentative agreement with the SEA, some of the highlights are:

Compensation: 14.3% (including COLA) over three years (6% in the first year; 3.8% in

year two; 4.5% in year three)

Equity: Partnership Committee to include SEA, SPS and Community members to

oversee expansion of equity teams and professional development on disproportionate

discipline

Recess: All students in K-5 will receive 30 minutes of recess during the school day

Instructional Day will be extended by 20 minutes in 2017-18; teacher day remains 7.5

hours

Evaluation: District determined student growth ratings are eliminated for the term of

this contract. SEA and SPS will collaboratively develop and implement a Peer

Assistance and Review Program aimed at elevating and supporting teacher practice

Assessment: Joint SEA and SPS Assessment Committee will review and make

recommendations to the Superintendent regarding impact of testing and solutions to

creating a balanced assessment calendar

Special Education preschool ratios lowered to 10:1:2; Distinct at 7:1:2; Access is same

at the elementary school and for middle/high will be 13:1:3. ESA Caseloads Case-loads

established: Physical Therapists at 35; Occupational Therapists at 40 (15-16) and 36 by

2016-2017; Psychologists are 1:1050; Audiologists are at 1:15,000

CTE Advisors: New stipends for CTE Advisors who lead OSPI and SPS Leadership

Programs (3 per building)

Career Ladder: New Career Ladder position: Content Demonstration Teacher

(Mathematics, Science, P.E. Arts etc.)

SEA has ratified the agreement. The board will vote on the agreement at the October 7th

board

meeting when we have a red-line version of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the salary

schedule and the updated calendar. In order to fund the agreement, we have suspended the K-5

literacy curriculum review/adoption scheduled for this year.

Calendar

Below please find the dates that the union has agreed to use as makeup days:

October 9

January 29

February 17, 18, 19 (people are at this point at least somewhat used to a shorter

midwinter break, and the spring break tends to be when schools and families take trips)

June 24 (school would end on a Friday rather than go into the next week)

o Some graduations will likely have to move later into June.

The school board will approve these dates on October 7th

.

Smarter Balanced Assessments:

Smarter Balanced scores will come to parents within the next week; through mail or home with

students.

SPS has outperformed the state in every grade level in both reading and mathematics (see

slide)

The SBAC field test showed very low rates of passage … with scores in the 30s.

Predicted scores for Seattle were under 50%

Actual SBA results were better than expected … in the 60s except for opt outs and 11th

grade.

SBA scores were slightly below the previous MSP scores (which measured a lower

standard)

Kudos to teachers, principals and T&L for great work in preparing for the higher standards.

FERPA:

FERPA – Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act – requires detailed privacy

sign-offs from parents.

Opting out is easy for parents and for us … but then excludes students from things like

yearbooks.

Opting in gets complicated when we have many categories … and must keep those

records for many years.

We’re working on a solution that will work for everyone without mounds of more

paperwork.

School Messenger: FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has banned the use of auto-

dial calls except for emergencies. Schools REALLY miss this tool. It is the ONLY way to

communicate well with our ELL families. Making 100 phone calls in Spanish or sending letters

either by mail or kid mail is just not the same. Due to the FCC ruling, at this time, the district is

limiting the use of SchoolMessenger auto-dial calls to emergencies, and utilizing the email

function for non-emergencies. We have tried many ways to make this work but continue to run

into federal road blocks. Sending 53,000 forms out, getting them filled out, returned and keyed

into the data base seems overly time consuming. We are working on potential options, while we

join other districts to express our concerns to the FCC.

Listening Opportunities:

Senate Education Committee McCleary tour:

The Senate Education Committee scheduled seven (7) public hearings statewide to gain

input from the public

The Puget Sound ESD will host the Committee on October 19 in Renton, at 5:00 PM

Local stakeholders will be asked to respond to questions surrounding:

o Localization Factor: Should the State fund a localization factor in a new

compensation system? How can the State create a varied salary system that lessens

the reliance on local levy revenue?

o Supplemental Contracts: How can the State enable school districts to use

supplemental contracts in an equitable way and without creating an unconstitutional

reliance on local levies?

o Local Levies: Should the structure of local levies be changed? How can the State

ensure that local levy funds are not being used for basic education?

o Transitioning to the new Policies: How long should the transition

be? Immediately, 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, more? How should oversight and course

corrections be provided?

Legislation and McCleary

Each fall the board sets a “legislative agenda” for our work with the Legislature.

We will be bringing that work to the board on October 7th

.

We will be addressing the critical issues of salary and levies; two of the McCleary issues

that the Legislature has yet to address.

And we will bring forward – for a fourth year in a row – a resolution saying that it is well

past time for the Legislature to meet the terms of McCleary and fully and completely

fund K-12 public education.

Upcoming Levies 2016 Community Meetings

The district is hosting five (5) community meetings in the weeks ahead to share

information about our upcoming Maintenance & Operations Levy and our Buildings,

Technology, Academics/Athletics IV Capital Levy. This goes to the Board for approval

in late October and to voters in February.

M & O Levy renews every three years and funds 25% of our operating budget. The

current recommendation from staff is a levy amount of just over $750 million over the

three year period.

The BTA IV Capital Levy renews every six years.

Considering capacity issues and increased tech needs along with remodeling for safety

and security.

Informational Meetings on Boundary Changes and Student Assignment Plan Updates for

2016-17

In 2013, the Board approved boundary changes and promised to have informational

meetings each year.

These sessions are for changes for 2016-17 – not for the current school year.

The boundary changes next year are all in West Seattle near Arbor Heights Elementary,

which will open in a new building in fall 2016. Boundary and geo-zone changes for the

other schools opening in 2016 have already been adjusted.

Also at these meetings we’ll be discussing proposed minor revisions to the Student

Assignment Plan.

Revisions include elimination of the distance tiebreaker and other conflicting statements.

Once adopted, this will be the final implementation of the Student Assignment Plan.

Bell Times

We’re holding a final round of community meetings on the Modified Flip/Cost Neutral

Draft Recommendation.

Final Draft Recommendations will be posted next week.

Community meetings begin next week. Recommendation goes to the board for

introduction on October 21.

Traffic Disruptions

School bus and parent transportation impacts were minimal across the district related to

the President of China’s visit.

School bus delays due to Thursday’s tragedy on the Aurora Bridge were lessened by fast

communication to schools and parents. Only six of our 352 busses reported delays or

schedule impacts due to the accident.

Good News Rotary I met with the Rotary Education Committee last week. This is a high energy group that raises

funds to give “Winners for Life” scholarships to students who might not otherwise be able to go

to college. They asked great questions. I was pleased to share with them our Smarter Balanced

scores and other successes.

Equity Race Advisory Committee Award Recognition Ceremony

ERAC leaders recognized three groups of people who are moving the work stated in the

Educational and Racial Equity Policy No. 0030 in powerful way:

Rainier Beach International Baccalaureate Community Partnerships. The Rainier

Beach Community partnership is a group of families, community members as well as

Rainier Beach and District staff who worked collaboratively to bring a rigorous academic

program to Rainier Beach High School. They co-developed and co-designed the program

that would serve the students of Rainier Beach High School because they believed in the

potential of kids of color who attended that school. They’ve seen a dramatic increase in

graduation rates and participation of students of color in IB courses.

Indigenous People’s Day Working Group. The Indigenous People’s Day Working

Group was celebrated for their contributions in supporting the Indigenous People’s Day

School Board Resolution which honors the contributions of our indigenous peoples in

Washington State and all over the world. This resolution honors the native community

through a focused effort on celebrating indigenous culture, practices and art. This

celebration honors the historical and contemporary contributions of our indigenous

peoples in our city, state, country and the world. Recognized were: Gail Morris, Ronald

Boy, Theresa Hale and Bernardo Ruiz.

Senator John McCoy. Over the past ten years, Senator McCoy has championed Native

American curriculum. Working with indigenous nations, the state Office of the

Superintendent of Public Instruction developed a curriculum, “Since Time Immemorial:

Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State,” which is available at no cost to school districts.

However only 30 percent of school districts in Washington State had adopted the

curriculum.

The “Since Time Immemorial” curriculum seeks to improve student knowledge of

indigenous history and culture; foster cross-cultural respect and understanding; and

bolster cultural sensitivity in all students. It also seeks to give more balance to history

instruction, which has often ignored the state’s indigenous history and the sovereignty of

tribes in the Northwest.

Metro Classic provided two days of wall to wall football at Memorial Stadium over the

September 11-12 weekend. Kudos to Eric McCurdy, district athletic director, the sponsors,

coaches and teams for a great weekend. A special thank you to Marie Guzzardo in Accounting

who “flew to the ball” to make sure a critical contract did not fall through the cracks potentially

disrupting Memorial Stadium’s concessionaire availability. Thank you, Marie, for going the

extra mile.

Community Recognition: Mount Zion Baptist Church recognized many community

organizations and leaders during their Sunday Service last week – from: Education; Social

Services; Public Safety; Social Justice; and Civic Government.

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. –

Martin Luther King, Jr. If that is the case, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what

you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. –

Rev. Aaron Williams

They honored Betty Patu, Board Director, and Seattle Public Schools for helping build a beloved

community … built on reconciliation … goodwill … gladness … and love. Rev. Aaron

Williams urged community leaders to: do justice; love mercy; walk with God.

School Visits:

Franklin High School principal Jenny Wiley is wildly enthusiastic about Franklin’s staff and

students and success. She starts by advocating for moving the wait list to allow Franklin to grow

... enough to sustain a viable cohort of ninth grade students. Balancing enrollments in the SE

becomes problematic unless we balance each grade level to assure adequate continuity of

staffing from year to year.

Franklin competes for students against Cleveland (options STEM campus); Rainier Beach

(priority IB school) and Garfield (longstanding tradition of quality) – without many of the extra

supports that other schools get.

Jenny talked about Franklin’s work with Performance Fact and their intentional faculty wide

focus on a few key levers to improve student learning: focus on standards; engage students and

measure results (one to 1.5 years of growth per year per student). She showed me their ELL

scores … where they serve more students than most other schools … AND far outperform the

state and district.

Franklin is also attempting to be highly strategic in using their staff. Two admins will take on

most of the evaluations … in order to free up others to work on: a) climate and a sense of

belonging for all students; b) operations and systems that enable everyone else to focus on

learning. I met many of the intervention team: Jolene McCann, JR Hasty, Lee Adams and CJ

Jackson. They each have about 30-40 students in their case loads and lock onto those students to

help insure their success. The school has developed protocols to help coordinate between the

work of teachers and the work of interventionists so they can be actively supporting one

another. The interventionists meet at least once a week in their grade levels and twice a month

with outside agencies to insure that the outside agencies have a clear scope of work and

measurable outcomes. Goal setting with individual kids – and progress monitoring – is a big part

of their shared work.

At Beacon Hill International Elementary I am met by the principal Andra Maughan outside on

a glorious day. She introduces me to Chris Hopper their building engineer that keeps the

building running. Beacon Hill is a low profile school built on the open concept with timber

supports and low ceilings. Many of the pods, intended for three classrooms, are now serving

four classrooms. They have grown from 280 to 480 students over the recent years. I sign in and

greet the office staff: Diana Furuta and Cheryl Nitta. I also meet Mariah Rosdahl, nurse and

Natalie Long, family support worker.

We are joined by Karen Harris, AP, for the building tour. Beacon Hill International serves

neighborhood schools in dual language immersion programs: one in Spanish and one in

Mandarin. Students get literacy in their native language in the early grades … and math / science

in their non-native language. Spanish classes are over capacity at 28; English classes are at 25;

Mandarin classes are at 20. Maintaining the appropriate balance is a challenge, especially as

students move through the grades and suffer some attrition. They have interns from China,

Spain, and Latin America that help create that sense of immersion for students.

As part of their growth, their lunch room has been divided into three classroom sized spaces; one

serves as art room and the other two serve as really small lunch areas. This requires double

supervision and leaves no space for assemblies.

Librarian Mary Thompson is working with Mary Howard on school lesson plans, incorporating

International Skills for the 21st Century with classroom units, library work, and hands on

projects. In recent years they have focused on human rights and composting. Students take the

lead in researching project based work. Students have adopted the nearby Lewis Park and have a

5th

grade green team that helps with composting. I also meet Virginia, an 82 year old volunteer

that has been volunteering for 25 years – 17 of those years at Beacon Hill.

As we visit classrooms:

Kelly Toland’s first grade class is working with math manipulatives.

The 4th

-5th

grade team has common planning time. I meet Ashley Duncan, Kyle Okada

and Andy Pickard. Kyle has been at Beacon Hill for 19 years; Andy for 17 years. Why

would we ever leave? One offers.

Senora Guzman’s Spanish speaking class is engaged in their Spanish based lesson. The

principal greets them, Buenos Dias, and then asks in Spanish and English how she would

introduce me. One of the students offers the proper format and I am introduced.

Andra tells me again about the strong staff and how they have all come together to support her

and Karen (AP) both new to the school this year. Much of the staff have been at the school for

many years. It is a tight knit and diverse neighborhood community. Parents and grandparents

walk students to school each morning. Only one student rides the bus to school.

Thurgood Marshall is named for our nation’s first African American Supreme Court

Justice. As I walk in from the parking lot, I notice five stately columns, in bright vibrant

colors. The plaque tells me about Thurgood Marshall and the values of truth, bravery, equality

and honesty. None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We

got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down

and helped us pick up our boots. – Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall is a newer school built just adjacent to the I-90 Freeway lid which affords

them a generously large playground. As I enter the school there is a group of students seated in

the entry before an easel. The counselor Meghan Kaloper, is telling them about REAL values at

TM: Resilient; Empathetic; Accountable; Life Long Learners … and how TM students get off

the buses in the morning, look out for younger kids and exhibit good manners.

Principal, Katie May, explains that they are doing a Rodeo today, learning about the procedures

and practices at TM Elementary. The brainchild of AP, Audrey Kovacs-Storlie, students go

from station to station to learn the TM expectations. As an AP school they have a fair share of

new students each year and decided that they would be proactive in teaching school practices to

all of the students to start off the year. Next stop is the office where students are learning what to

do if they arrive late or need help in the office. On the playground, students are learning about

the “buddy bench” – the idea of the school counselor – a place they can go if they are lonely, sad,

or need a friend. And I hear that the questions from each group / grade are different. Who knew,

there are now several pages of rules around four-square.

In the hallway I meet Molly Chin, the school nurse. She is reporting on a student that just broke

an arm but is now cared for and in a cast. She is back on her rounds checking diabetic

students. I look in on Room 114, an overflow classroom, created to accommodate the growth

and added class size teacher. It is an inside room and on the smallish side. They will mitigate by

having only 20 students in this classroom and insuring that the students get some of the

coursework elsewhere during the day in larger classrooms. Yet another in our complex trade-

offs in the quest to find adequate spaces for students.

Robert Long’s classroom has desks arranged in fan shape I haven’t seen before. Jarvis was the

designated greeter for the day. He explained that students are up front working on their class

charter expectations. In order to be strong and smart … our class will need to … pay attention,

concentrate, listen, practice.

Mr. Yarr, the orchestra teacher is in his office, made smaller by the half dozen cellos he has

stored in his office. With 140 students in his orchestra the audience is noticeably smaller when

they are up front playing.

I see a quote in the hallway from Harriet Tubman … “Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for

the stars to change the world.” … and ask one of my favorite questions … how do you celebrate /

recognize who your namesake, Thurgood Marshall, is. They celebrate Thurgood Marshall Day

and recognize the good work he did and having classroom presentations on what his work means

to us. Judges come for an assembly and stay for lunch with the older students.

I meet Marcie VonBeck, Career Ladder teacher, that helps support Balanced Literacy at

Thurgood Marshall. This year they were able to send 12 teachers to Teacher’s College and buy

new units for their work. Last year they also worked on the standards, shared assessments, scope

and sequence and supplemental materials on conventions.

Thurgood Marshall has been working on Growth Mindset. I see signs posted with I can’t cross

out and I can’t yet written below. Last year they read Carol Dweck’s book together. This year

they are reading Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People with the local author coming to meet

the faculty. Their RULER work has been launched this year by a team that includes the

counselor, special education, and a first grade teacher. They have been doing positive discipline

with Jody McVittie and are now adding RULER to their socio-emotional work with students.

Ms. Miller’s class is doing independent reading, while the teacher is explaining to students how

they can check out books from the classroom library. Students are also completing a “reading

inventory” that asks about how many books they own, have read this year, and their favorite

kinds of books.

In the SM4 class they are working on behavior and academics. I meet Vivian Clark, a new IA in

the program. We end the day in the developmental preschool where they have eight students …

six returning from last year. It is time to clean up, one young lady rings the “clean up bell”

enthusiastically and the rest of the student burst into song … and get busy cleaning up.

Larry

Associate Superintendent for Facilities & Operations Update: Attached please find Associate

Superintendent for Facilities & Operations Flip Herndon’s update for this week.

Associate Superintendent for Teaching & Learning Update: Attached please find Associate

Superintendent for Teaching & Learning Michael Tolley’s update for this week.

Assistant Superintendent for Operations Update: Attached please find Assistant

Superintendent for Operations Pegi McEvoy's update for this week.