A copy of their message is below (slightly edited for formatting and clarity):
As we get close to the end of this school year and start to think about writing our committee's final report to the district, we would like to hear your thoughts about how things are going.
Please drop us an email and consider the following:All communications will be kept confidential within the committee [and] will inform the issues we write about this year and address for next year. Thanks for your time and support.
- Are things different now than they were at the beginning of the year?
- What's working, what's good?
- What's not working, what needs addressing?
- What are your concerns for next year?
- How can our committee do what we do better?
- What was most helpful/important to you that the APP AC did this year?
(e.g. hold monthly meetings, send monthly meeting minutes, send email updates, host middle school transition meeting, send out school announcements like tour dates/etc., forward emails from other groups/gifted ed/legislative info, support 2E meetings, respond to individual email questions, advocate behind the scenes on issues, work with district/building staff, generally keep the community informed?)
Send your email to all or your school rep listed below [and] mention [which schools] your kids attend:
Chair, Stephanie Bower, stbower@comcast.net
Secretary, Ann Owens, ann@owensavage.com
Diversity Rep, Roberto Jourdan, Ahero@rocketmail.com
At-large Rep, Val Morris-Lent, valmorrislent@gmail.com
Communications Rep, Robert Njegovan, robertnappac@gmail.com
Lowell Parent Rep, Geeta Teredesai, geetaat@comcast.net
Lowell Staff Rep, Theresa Roth, trroth@seattleschools.org
Thurgood Marshall Parent Rep, Rachel Miller, rmiller_seattle@hotmail.com
Thurgood Marshall Staff Rep, Cathy Villanueva, cavillanueva@seattleschools.org
Washington Parent Rep, Shannon Wheeler, shannonw@msn.com
Washington Staff Rep, Amy Hallet Noji, aahallett@seattleschools.org
Hamilton Parent Rep, Kathy Tanaka, kathy.tanaka@att.net
Hamilton Staff Rep, Marcelyn Shadow, mhshadow@seattleschools.org
Garfield Parent Rep, Hildy Ko, hko@kcts9.org
Garfield Staff Rep, Ken Courtney, kcourtney@seattleschools.org
4 comments:
Looks like they need a few parent reps as well at Lowell, TM and GHS.
Is there an official description of what the APP AC is supposed to do? A charter or goals or something? It would be easier to provide feedback on how they have done if I had a clear understanding of what they were supposed to have done.
Hi, Anonymous. I'm not sure what they say their goals are, but there has been some debate in the past about what the APP AC should be doing to help APP.
You can see some of that debate in these past threads, "What do parents want in APP leadership?" and "Do you want a new APP Advocacy group?"
This year was the first year of the split elementary and middle school programs.
The program splits came with risks. The District made specific promises about how they would address some of those risks.
They promised an aligned, written, taught and tested curriculum that would be fully implemented on the first day of school in fall 2009. They did not fulfill that promise.
They promised that the elementary programs would be comparable in size. The program at Lowell is nearly 50% bigger than the program at Thurgood Marshall. They did not fullfil that promise.
They promised that they would take steps to avoid a repeat of the problems experienced at Madrona when APP was co-housed with a general education program population that was academically and demographically different from APP's population. It's unclear if any of those steps were taken or if they were successful.
It is worth noting that co-housing part of elementary APP with general education students at Thurgood Marshall was specifically recommended AGAINST by the APP Review. The District did it anyway. At one time a response to the APP Review was a project of the Strategic Plan. It appears to have been dropped from the Strategic Plan and there has been no response to the APP Review. That's another promise that wasn't kept.
So where's the accountability?
If the district isn't going to apply any accountability, then what is the appropriate response from the community?
Post a Comment