Friday, December 2, 2011

APP school reports, no issues except at Hamilton?

The Nov 1 APP AC meeting minutes give the impression that most APP schools are going perfectly:
Garfield: ... no issues ... all is going well with enrollment ... a smooth start ...

Ingraham: ... all is going well thus far ... doing well ... all has gone well ...

Thurgood Marshall: ... all continues to go well ...

Lowell at Lincoln: ... things are going smoothly now ... things running smoothly ... all is going well ... everyone is working well together ...
At Hamilton, there was "concern about curriculum adherence and classroom management [while] ... Ms. Shadow is still out on medical leave" and "many are still concerned about capacity for APP at HIMS next year ... [and] professional development of staff and ability to teach APP students." As for Washington, very little was said.

Does this jibe with your impressions of the situation at your school? Please discuss.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

It jibes for me. I am especially impressed after we had our parent/teacher conference. My son's teacher is very invested and sounds like he receives great support from Rina.
After reading this blog and Save our Seattle Schools blog, we were expecting the worst from the public school system. I am happy to say so far, so good.

Mercermom said...

Our kids are having good years at WMS 8th grade and TM fourth.

Anonymous said...

HIMS:

There was a meeting for 7th grade APP parents with Principal Carter attended by Dr Vaughn and the education director that I would have thought would have been mentioned in the minutes.

Anonymous said...

It jibes for me at TM. Julie B and her teachers and staff are doing all kinds of great things both in APP and throughout the school.

TM Mom

Anonymous said...

The 7th grade meeting wasn't set, yet, at the time of the AC meeting.

hims mom

Anonymous said...

I believe somebody posted (under the very long thread about Hamilton) that they had attended the last APP-AC mtg and there was about an hour spent discussing the Hamilton teacher issues. Yet on the recent APP-AC minutes, this was only mentioned in passing. Can anybody elaborate on the discussion re Hamilton teachers/issues at the recent APP-AC mtg? Thank You.

Anonymous said...

There was some discussion about how to provide a forum for parents to come together and discuss issues informally. Many parents from Hamilton were in attendance.

What is the appropriate forum for parents when they have concerns that are shared by many parents? Can the PTA organize a meeting? The APP-AC? There was some general discussion about the role of the APP-AC.

The conversations and responses were varied, so the meeting minutes reflect the most politic summary.

At Lowell and at Lincoln there are monthly principal chats that provide parents a means of discussing issues - it's a good way to meet other parents and hear other parents' concerns, without the formality of meeting minutes or scheduled meetings with the principal. Could this be done at Hamilton?

Anonymous said...

I think many 5th grade parents would be interested in a Hamilton meeting as well. I know I have heard scary stories about two 6th grade teachers from parents of 6th graders. I don't want my kid to have a terrible 6th grade year and would like to remedy the problems now.

Nervous future Hamilton parent

Anonymous said...

As a current 7th grade HIMS parent, and former WMS parent, I would be very interested in monthly meetings with Mr. Carter - who would advocate for this? The HIMS APP rep?

- parent

Anonymous said...

In Lowell at Capitol Hill last year the APP population was the majority and here at Lincoln is 100%.
Big change at Hamilton, we are only one third!
I heard this year a couple of times that fellow APP parents asked Mr Carter about a monthly/ bimonthly/ once in every semester (or any meeting actually) with the APP parents, he never agreed so far. So good luck!

Anonymous said...

Lowell's Principal chat was for the entire school building, not just the APP program, and I would expect Hamilton's to be the same (this year's split configuration of Lowell changed that).

Anonymous said...

I am wondering what happened at the APP AC meeting last week? Is Hamilton still the most problematic school?