How does the 5 year plan intend to resolve the geographical divide?

 

It appears that the recent proposals to close schools and limit choice seem to reinforce the disparities between north and south Seattle schools. From my vantage point, the district is supporting north Seattle schools at the expense of South seattle schools. This is not on track with the stated 5 year plan goals.

 

I've asked this question before, but I have yet to receive a meaningful response.  In developing the new assignment policy, what is the distrct's definition of an alternative school? Why is TOPS considered alternative but not John Stanford International, which offers immersion programs in Japanese and Spanish--isn't that about as alternative as a school can be?  Before making any crucial...

Did even a single idea from this discussion board appear in any revision of the Five Year Plan? I don't think so.

 

I feel like the district is giving people more opportunity to speak, and the people are saying more, but the district isn't listening any more than they were before.

 

Many of us have the sense that all of the decisions have already been made before we get to chime...

I was mildly shocked to see the incessant focus on race throughout the five-year plan.  I would hope that our schools would focus more on increasing student achievement, readiness for careers, preparedness for college, and a welcoming environment for all students, not just those who happen to come from particular races.  How much could we achieve, both in relation to our economic costs and...

The two proposals I have seen for the new assignment plan show each student assigned directly to their neighborhood school or given the choice of a couple schools if the students from that neighborhood choose not to attend. Exceptions are made for "Students with special needs that cannot be met in the neighborhood school, will be assigned to a school that meets those needs. These include,...

Yet another example of the Board saying one thing and doing another.  Moss Adams made it clear that the District cannot keep doing the same things over and over.  And yet, the Board is allowing the District to overspend again on BEX II when they already overspent BEX I.  You'd think after the mess that prompted the Moss Adams report we would never make the same mistakes.  And now,...

Looking at the Five-Year Plan we see under its Main Goals #10 to increase the number of minority students taking advanced classes in high school.  That would be super except that some high schools don't have any AP (Cleveland) and some are moving to get rid of AP and separate Honors classes entirely (Nathan Hale) while others, in their course descriptions are downright hostile to advanced classes...

What is the district's vision for its deaf/hh program? I didn't see anything mentioned in the plan. As the parent of an almost preschooler I would really like to know what direction this program will take in the next few years.
Thanks.

Goal 1, Focus Area 2

 

It appears that the  "culturally responsive" part of this focus area is missing from the strategies. Strategies 1 and 2 should include some reference to culturally responsive instructional practices and professional development to help teachers learn to provide culturally responsive, anti-racist teaching.

 

Goal 1, Focus Area 4

 

Many schools...

Could we have examples of the racist incidents in schools and the statistics on how many teachers are "racially insensitive,"and how many are not ? (along with the research methods used) Also, statistics on the positive or negative effects of such "training," plus the costs, qualification and validity of "trainers" on the subject? How does the  cost spent...

When you developed your mission statement you left out an important part of our student population, those students with special needs.  "Our dream is that we graduate every student regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and disability

We strongly agree that the vision statement should contain language referring to students with special needs and disabilities. 

According to the timeline for the Five Year Plan, there was supposed to be Board review and approval of the draft plan by early September. Did that happen? I don't remember it.

 

That was to be followed by community input during September and October. Was that input supposed to be on the draft plan that the Board approved? Where is that Board-approved draft plan?

 

The draft plan...

Now that was interesting. I'm not sure that everyone got to see how the Forum Moderator replied to this post. The reply appeared in the bottom section that usually only says "Approved" Here is the Moderator's reply for those of you who weren't looking for anything in that section:

 

Approved
The Five-Year Plan was discussed with the Board on November 4th.  The current schedule...