2 new Amendments

There are two new amendment/resolutions for the upcoming Board Meeting related to pathways: 

https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=32846293

Amendment 4:  (West Seattle Area)

Allow current 7th grade highly capable students from West Seattle attending Washington Middle School to enroll in Garfield as rising 9th graders in 2019-20. Approval of this item would allow current 7th grade highly capable students from West Seattle attending Washington Middle School to enroll in Garfield as rising 9th graders in 2019-20.


Substitute Resolution for 18-10

Substitute Resolution No. 2017/18-10 to affirm the vision for equitable access to advanced coursework in all high schools and develop the detailed plan for implementation by 2021-22. 

Approval of this item would replace Resolution No. 2017/18-10 as introduced on January 17 with a substitute version that affirms the vision for equitable access to advanced coursework, calls for more equitable identification practices for advanced learning and highly capable services, and requests a report that will detail the comprehensive plan for increasing advanced learning in all high schools following a collaborative planning process.


18-10 was the horribly flawed resolution that would just dissolve the pathways. The replacement one here offered by Mack, Patu and Pinkham is vastly superior.


Some quick predictions: given 3 board members have sponsored this one and you only need 4 to pass this version will likely pass as will the general interim plan to have the Pathways be Lincoln/Garfield/W. Seattle for the next few years.


Scenario F4.3: The official boundaries going forward. With the ammendments

• The Language Immersion Pathway will also be at Lincoln.
• You will be able to attend your area pathway high school if you are qualified regardless of what middle school you attended.
• Grandfathering was given to the W. Seattle students at Washington Middle School to attend Garfield.
• Language seems to be intact that if you're in a HC pathway High School in 2018-19 you will also be grandfathered.

1/17 Board Meeting

This is a thread to discuss the latest board meeting and high school boundary developments.

Seattle Public Media Stream of the meeting:

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?pageId=15690

Agenda: https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=31634754

I have not had time yet to view this or parse anything but I hope to make some updates to this post once I have.

Capacity Scenario Visualizations

Courtsey of Evan Mclain:

Official maps and data can be foundhttps://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=30514191

2017-2018 Cohort Demographics

I finally have a complete picture of what happened this year across the cohort. Hopefully this will help inform the discussion.

First there is an overall backdrop of cohort growth.  The 9th grade cohort is beginning of the bubble with the number of kids jumping  30% in a single year.  This can make individual increases at a school look a little deceptive. Numbers were up everywhere except Ingraham which is capped because the pool increased so much.

[Note: the data below has only IHS / Garfield #s in 9-12]

[2016-2017 cohort size data]

So where do the kids originate from now?

Things vary a bit year to year but the largest two draw zones  are Roosevelt and Ballard which are more than half of the entire cohort by themselves.   The north end of  Seattle actually has half the city's population anyway but if you add it up it makes up 68% of the kids in HC cohort.  This is key: if the north end stopped feeding Garfield entirely you'd be left with a pool of around 100-140 kids per year (depending on W. Seattle). This would be a shrinkage from recent years. [I need to find the historical numbers but I think within the last 10 the program was once about this size.]

So what's happening at each school:

First oddly the number of kids actually rose in the total cohort since last year's report. There is no evidence of private school flight.

As you can see Roosevelt had a dramatic shift +43, Ballard +13 but Garfield still was up +62.  This is the root of the alarm at the district level. Although the north end is pulling more kids than initially projected this is still not a sustainable level at Garfield.

Secondly: looking at 9th grade as a whole about  22% went to Ingraham 43% to Garfield and the rest stayed in their neighborhood. The pathways as a whole remained the majority choice. In the north end in specific, the retention rate rose to about 50% which is a new trend versus the previous years.

Director Burke withdraws his amendment to delay the split of Cascadia

Dear Cascadia Staff and Families,

 

At the Dec 7^h School Board meeting, I introduced a potential amendment to the Student Assignment Plan directing district staff to remove the geo-split to Decatur and maintain the Cascadia cohort intact at the new site, located on the Wilson Pacific Campus.  The core values behind this amendment are steadfast for me – fiscal responsibility, long-term planning for the HCC program, and cohort stability, all within a commitment to student learning.

 

Since the posting of this potential amendment, I have received a wide range of feedback from families and educators.  Respondents have highlighted academic, scheduling, and safety challenges related to the current over-enrollment, concerns about students in portables, and also worries about starting up the Decatur site quickly with a high level of services, while addressing the looming potential budget deficit.  Ultimately, families and educators both share concerns about the educational experience of their students.  Feedback from stakeholders on the "best" district-wide action regarding Cascadia has been varied with no consensus.

 

My role as a School Board Director is to listen closely to the community, our staff, and make the best decision possible for our students and district.  At this time based on the data I have received and engagement with the community and staff, I believe the least disruptive path is to proceed with opening an additional HCC site at the Decatur building.  This will relieve pressure at the new Cascadia building and address many of the concerns I have heard from families and educators.  I am requesting that Amendment 3 to the Student Assignment Plan (SAP) be withdrawn.

 

I want to offer my heartfelt thanks for those who offered their feedback and time, e-mailed, and visited my community meeting.  We have a shared responsibility to nurture strong and positive learning communities and candid, respectful discourse is a critical component of that.  We have a lot more work to do at the district level, and within our buildings to minimize disruption and maximize learning for students.  I look forward to further conversations, even the difficult ones, along that journey.

 

Wishing you all a relaxing and enjoyable holiday,

 

Rick Burke

11/15 Cascadia PTSA Meeting on the potential Split

The new Cascadia Elementary building layout. Note: as built even with flex spaces there are 29 rooms because of the Kindergarten wing.

Overall last night was very interesting. A lot of the staff took time to be present including Stephen Martin from Advanced Learning, Ashley Davies from Enrollment planning, someone from operations whose name I didn't catch, Jon Hafaker the Executive Director for the region and Rick Burke from the school board. Also, the format with the PTSA asking a series of pre-selected questions covered a lot of ground in an hour which I think was a wise use of time.

What follows are my notes (pardon the lack of organization)

• The PTSA will follow Cascadia if a split occurs and a new one will have to be formed. Any reserves left will probably be split in a pro-rated fashion based off the school sizes.
• On that note, the current drive is 100,000 behind target. So if you're able to, please give if you haven't already. 
• The top choice off the surveys was to geosplit by between 40-60% between the 2 versions.
• The district's decision remains unchanged and it will recommend the split at the operations meeting. This will come up for a Jan 4th vote.
• Why rush?  Ashley didn't add any new color to the question but did add this was a typical timeframe (6 mo) for starting a new school up.
• The staff are using the survey results to partly justify the choice now as well.
• There was no desire from either community to merge with Thornton Creek and run both buildings as a single unit so that is off the table for now.
• There was no data on the relative costs of portables vs. running the Decatur building.
• If the levy cliff occurs the district will be in a 71 million dollar deficit and that limits the budgetary planning here i.e.  don't expect mitigation funds and rather look forward to staff cuts.
• There was a promise to involve parents in any principal selection which would probably occur right in January. Based on the timelines I assume this would be a fairly rapid process.
• The feeling from the staff was that the logistical challenges on the Wilson Pacific site with as many as 2000 kids were greater than 900 on the Thornton Creek one.  Different starting times was mentioned as one obvious adjustment.
• The split will be done by middle school attendance area. All of the Eckstein feeder schools which makes about 240-260 kids would go to Decatur.
• Dir. Peters has introduced an amendment to alter this and make the new site an option. Although its hard to predict all the implications of such a change.  This would allow a cap on enrollment but also make planning more unknown  and potentially lead to under enrollment or unbalanced enrollment per grade.  
• The staff considers the Decatur site a permanent rather than temporary solution unlike the portables. Of course, everything is subject to change if enough growth continues to occur.
• The teachers split would be governed by the collective bargaining agreement. Essentially, the teachers get to volunteer first and then its done by seniority and category.
• There is no answer on money for the initial gym and library although the staff wants to provide that due to equity. 
• The physical plant is currently being seismically upgraded and will recieve new paint and carpeting. In addition, the plan is to tear down the annex and develop a new playground there. This like all the other question depends on available money.
•  Several rumors were mentioned (black mold, condemned building) and  called out as false.

The bottom line is that while there are more details here we're still on the same path. Budgetary and space constraints really limit the choices. The staff wants to do the split. The board sounds like its considering holding off a year. And if we do kick the can down the road there is still some risk that even the Decatur site will be spoken for by that time.

Cascadia Split Briefing Paper

The Friday memo from last week contained the most official explanation of what the staff is thinking about the split.

http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/School%20Board/Friday%20Memos/2016-17/Oct%2014/20161014_FridayMemo_CascadiaSplit_BriefingPaper.pdf

[As an aside: I was really glad to see this published. This represents a significant step forward in terms of transparency  for the central staff]

You can read the whole paper which is interesting but I wanted to dig into a few key parts. First
a look at the enrollment information.

• As can be seen in 2012-13 when the planning process occurred the number were not too out of whack for a 650 capacity building and it wasn't until last year that tipping point occurred.
• Enrollment stayed basically steady this year BUT the largest grade is 3rd. There are small drops in 1st and 2nd as well as 5th.   5th grade doesn't matter much for future projections. The key question is how many more kids will join below 3rd?  Are the 3rd and 4th grades anomalies or will the cohorts behind them end up as large?
• Note: also uncertainty as to the program location and overcrowding may depress numbers. On the other hand, a split may also affect numbers in either direction depending on how attractive it looks to prospective families.

District Wide Enrollment Data for comparison.  Cohort sizes continue to increase :

Also interesting from this data is the current teacher/student ratios and the class size reduction targets which are supposed to be fully implemented in 2018.  To put this in context Cascadia has always had the highest ratios in the district i.e. the most crowded classrooms. 

1st  - 3 homerooms 21:1     vs. WA state target 17 

2rd - 6 homerooms 21:1     vs. WA state target  17

3rd - 8 homerooms 24:1     vs. WA state target  17

4rd - 7 homerooms 27:1     vs. WA state target  25

5rd - 6 homerooms 28:1     vs. WA state target  25

Capacity (details to be confirmed):

• Current plans show 27 homerooms in the Cascadia building. So we start with a deficit of 3. 
• According to the document the maximum portables on the site is only 4 a reduction from the previous number reported (What happened to the other 2?). 

Official Analysis of the site:

None of the stated reasons is completely compelling.

• The MUP is not binding. The district routinely exceeds them in other buildings and the capacity is changed as portables are added.
• The gym situation is no worse than the current one at Lincoln and probably a bit better.
• The long term capacity issue doesn't mandate immediate action. Is this an emergency next year?
• Fully utilizing buildings like Decatur seems neither here nor there.

However, the two biggest problems remain unanswered:

• The core space is only for 660. With 4 portables would the school fit all the students for even 1 year?  We won't completely know the true enrollment numbers until this spring.
• Are there any portables available given the other needs in the district and can the district afford them? Its quite possible there are cost savings to the split.  You balance the extra staff  needed vs. the portable costs and the additional state funds for lower class sizes that the split would earn.

And finally even if the we could wedge all the kids in next year if they won't fit within 1-2 years more should the district be proactive now or delay? The biggest risk of delaying is that the options may be much worse by then. There are alternate proposals for all the buildings being discussed. Its entirely imaginable they could all be claimed.

Cascadia Capacity Scenarios

I'm going to try to assemble all the data, pros and cons of the various scenarios here. I'll add on whatever we find out. There are lots of hard choices to be made here unfortunately and some of them affect other groups in the district.

Official SPS Link http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=13505264

"Seattle Public Schools is excited to open three schools at the Wilson-Pacific site in 2017-18, Cascadia Elementary, Robert Eagle Staff Middle School, and Licton Springs K-8. Cascadia is temporarily located in the former Lincoln High School building with Licton Springs K-8 and serves students in the Highly Capable Cohort.

Cascadia’s new building is planned to have a capacity of approximately 660 seats, which is not sufficient to serve all of the students currently at Cascadia given the growth the school has experienced.

The district is reviewing potential options for serving all of the current and future students who will attend Cascadia. Representatives from Capital, Enrollment Planning, School Operations, Advanced Learning, and School Supports have met to discuss potential options given available building space across the district and the capacity challenges across the district.

The District’s Capacity Management Task Force will be discussing this topic at its next meeting on September 14, 2016, 12-1:30 p.m. and there will be additional community meetings to review and share possible options for meeting the needs of the current and future Highly Capable identified students and their families.

Decisions on an additional site to accommodate all of the students at Cascadia will be made prior to Open Enrollment, which begins in mid-February 2017. The district currently anticipates the following timeline for Board review on this decision.

Board Timeline:

November 17, 2016: Board Action Report presented at Operations Committee. 

December 7, 2016: Board Action Report presented to Board for Introduction.

January 4, 2016: Board Action Report presented to Board for Action."

Currently Cascadia has an enrollment of 750 (30 homerooms) and its projected to grow into the 800's.

Growth: 5 year growth projections
Heat Map: Eligible Map, Enrolled Map  (About 120 are eligible but not enrolled in the NE)

Status Quo

Cascadia was built with a capacity of 660 under the old classroom size standards and 550 under the new ones. It has space for 6 portables. The current cohorts are largest in 3rd grade (8 home rooms). If this continues there will need to be at least 2-4 more classrooms even at current student/teacher ratios.

Total Seats (assuming 25/portable):  810 or 700. This assumes no portables are needed for the other programs on the site.

Cons:  Strain on core facilities including child care spaces, bathrooms, lunch room, playground similar to at Lincoln but in a much smaller building.  Also if a split occurs, the classroom sizes at Cascadia will be smaller and some of the special-ed flex spaces will be used as intended rather than as classrooms. This may be a significant improvement in the educational experience for many students especially 2e ones.

Blue prints: http://bex.seattleschools.org/assets/Uploads/documents/131028-WPEMS-SDAT-08.pdf
(look towards the end of the slide deck)
Note: Rina has said there are 27 homerooms currently designed in the new building.


Most of my thinking is predicated around the assumption that the number of students will totally overrun this site and a split will happen no matter what so we need to find the most orderly least-worst alternative.

That said, starting a new program in a building is hard and requires a lot of parent effort to create all the supports that exist in the current ones, like after school programs, a PTA, muscial instrument instruction etc.  For reference our smallest HCC site at Fairmount Park has about 164 students but the recommended cohorts size is 2 classes per grade.

Cohousing has its own separate issues with integrating populations and sharing resources.

Decatur Building

This is the official staff preferred alternative. Originally the proposal was to move 150 students over

to the site.

History:  http://www.historylink.org/File/10497   "Stephen Decatur Elementary School opened in September 1961 with a K-5 enrollment of 326."  Note despite rumors it appears to not have been built as a K-2. 

Location:

Homerooms: 13-15 Its unclear if the 15 includes the library or not. Bear in mind at least 2 rooms need to be used for PCP (art/music) and a special ed resource room.
Condition: 2014 Assessment (See page: 716)   There are a set of improvements like replacing windows/door/sprinkler systems that are recommended. I can't find any evidence of it ever being condemned but given that money has continually been invested that's probably a moot point.

Capacity:  At 20-25 per room somewhere around the 200's.

Staffing: At this size:   .5 secretary. .5 librarian, .2 nurse etc.  (see: WSS formulas on page 30) 

Principal: Could this be run by John Miner (principal of Thornton Creek) jointly? That would raise the school size and allow pooling of resources like the nurse or library.
Neighborhood Opposition: I'd expect a fair amount given the previous resistance to building the new Thornton Creek building and how this would drive traffic and students on the site up even higher.
Limited Expansion: I have to confirm this but I doubt any portables can be added to the site.

Cedar Park/Olympic Hills

Either of these two buildings have been floated as possibilities in the past. Last June I asked if they were still on the table and was told no. As currently configured the extra space exists at the Olympic Hills site. This could easily be shifted to Cedar Park depending on how you draw the attendance zones. 

Note: The NNE community is concerned about the current Cedar Park catchment zone since it draws a mostly FRL population and are pushing for the district to reconsider it.

Capacity: 300 seats are unused. Cedar Park has space for around 340 officially but  that requires 8 portables. It appears to have about 12 homerooms from the blue prints. 

Busing: Either building is in the far NE corner of the city and less centrally located.  This somewhat mitigated by pulling students only from the Eckstein or JAMS reference area.
Facilities: Cedar Park is a landmarked building and is being renovated without a dedicated library: http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/cedar-park/.  Olympic Hills is bigger and more full featured. Either one is going to be in better condition than the Decatur building.
Long Term Viability: This would likely not be a stable scenario at Olympic Hills given rising school age populations in the reference zone. There's a good chance of another migration within a few years. Cedar Park probably has more viability.

Thurgood Marshall

I've heard scenarios floated with Queen Anne and Magnolia being switched to Thurgood Marshall.

Capacity: May 2016 enrollment: 516.    Official SPS Capacity: 534   

So this is realistically only possible if you added portables on the site or shifted students. The building is essentially full.

Madrona

This is the back to the future alternative since the program was housed there from the 1970's through 1997.

Capacity:   Enrollment May 2016 (294)  Official SPS Capacity: 352. This cap limit one seems off based on historical population at the school which has been around 450 without portables.

Cons:  Any move of the north end population will likely depress enrollment based on how the program grew when moved closer.  Not even on the official table.

Other Capacity Adjustments to decrease population size:

• Serve only 3-5 in self-contained classrooms.
• Tighten requirements. This usually tends to cut against efforts to increase diversity.
• Provide a compelling alternative on site in the reference area schools like what Spectrum  provided.  Some quick practical considerations: the district just worked hard to dismantle self contained Spectrum classrooms so this would represent a huge reversal. That doesn't make it impossible but all the institutional pressure against is still there. Secondly, I'm not sure if  space exists given the rising enrollments to exactly recreate the old system. Its also unlikely families would transfer back in such cases vs. less families joining initially.  So it would take longer to alleviate the immediate Cascadia issues.

Cascadia PTSA Round Table with Flip Herndon and Rick Burke

I'm just back from the general PTSA meeting tonight at Lincoln. Very generously, school board member Rick Burke and Flip Herndon the assistant Superintendent in charge of facilities and capacity came out to answer questions and hold a community round table after the general business was completed. For those hoping for new information about all of the impending capacity issues, the short answer is that not much has shifted since the last time I saw Flip in person.  All the key decisions, geo-splits, boundary zones etc. are still up in the air and won't be resolved until next Fall at the earliest.

However, there were a few interesting points raised. During  the principal talk, Rina announced next year's confirmed enrollment for Cascadia is currently at 732 which is actually down from this year although the window to join is still open.  We talked again after it was over and she made a special plea for those families who haven't officially committed to enroll as soon as possible. This will make the staffing and budgeting process easier for the staff.  She also mentioned that she is involved in the K-5 English/Language Arts curriculum adoption process. I hope to look into the materials further at some point and post about it.

I had mentioned here that Flip had three children enrolled in the district. He added on tonight that one of his kids was involved in the HCC qualification process this year. If its any comfort to those of you who also went through the process, the senior staff share your pain: Flip mentioned missed screening deadlines and late status notifications.

On the subject of whether Cascadia will split, there was little new information but his tone made it seem likely.

• Apparently the district is trying hard to avoid portables on the new site. This was stressed.
• The new K-3 teacher student ratios have further reduced the capacity of the building absorbing all the flex spaces that were planned.
• The 660 capacity numbers are the "right size" for the building.
• If there is a split, the district will try to identify a cohort of  around 150 students. Note: for comparison Fairmount Park has about 164 HCC students.
• The only possible site that came up by name in his talk was the Decatur Building. 

There was a brief mention also of the Hamilton Capacity issues for next year. The district is still trying to get permission from the city Landmark Commission for a one year placement of 2 double wide portables on the blacktop. This will be decided hopefully by mid May.

High Schools were talked about as well. Flip mentioned Garfield is projected to reach 2400 students in a few years without adjustments being made. He also said conversations were being had about whether to make Ingraham the default High School placement for the north end rather than an option despite this year's enrollment issues.

Finally, in a brief comment Rick Burke mentioned that the district is 11 curriculum adoptions behind and doesn't have the budget to get those done as quickly as he would like. So any HCC specific materials are very unlikely and that instead the adoptions are being done with an eye towards textbooks that will serve both the gen-ed and advanced learning communities.

One editorial note: If you're planning ahead its best to make peace with the lack of certainty and assume that you will be geo-split. The capacity  and budgetary constraints are only getting more severe.

Hamilton Capacity Issues 2016-2017

We were already discussing  Hamilton on the the http://discussapp.blogspot.com/2016/03/52-hcs-advisory-meeting.html thread. As indicated there the principal Tipton Blish was still looking for ways to deal with next year. Events have moved forward and the following update was in the most recent HIMS newsletter.

Update on Hamilton Capacity Planning for 2016-2017
As previously discussed in our newsletter, Hamilton will be pushing to upwards of 1,200 kids this fall. Although it’s not much consolation in the near-term, the numbers will decrease the following year with the opening of Robert Eagle Staff Middle School.
To handle the overload, Seattle Public Schools is looking at two options:

Putting portables on the outside playtop. 

Adding a Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) to one of the North Seattle middle schools, like Whitman, as a precursor to the opening of Eagle Staff. Seattle Public Schools has stated that this option is unlikely given the expense of setting up an HCC cohort

Update for Hamilton Highly Capable Cohort (HCC) Students
For the 2017-18 school year, Seattle Public Schools has indicated that HCC students who live in the Robert Eagle Staff and Whitman service areas will move to Robert Eagle Staff when it opens in the fall of 2017. Grandfathering for students may be possible subject to space availability at the middle schools they are attending, however, there will probably be no room at Hamilton.

District Info on Capacity:

Hamilton capacity on page 8: http://bta.seattleschools.org/assets/Uploads/documents/20150701-2016LeviesReport.pdf

110% rule on page 6:
http://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/Migration/Departments/Capital%20Projects%20and%20Planning/itcmfaq10242011.pdf

City Permitting Status:

http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/Project.aspx?id=6147629

This does seem to confirm the final occupancy inspection never was finished.  Following up with the city I've been told.

• The record shows a gymnasium with an allowable occupant load of 1149, a commons/dining hall of 957 and a fitness center or 56. These are the only areas which carry a limit.

I still have a followup question to see if there are any other fire safety related limits.  Interestingly I seem to have triggered an inquiry in the planning department. The inspector said he would be contacting the district and would email back any more info.

Cohort Size

According to  district estimates this year's 5th grade cohort is approximately 189 students at Cascadia. The 6th grade cohort is ~325 at HIMS and JAMS together. That shows how the cohort roughly doubles in size going into middle school as HC students join from neighborhood schools.  A rough estimate for the number of REMS 6th graders for next year would be in the 180 student ballpark.

Flip Herndon talk at Ballard High School on Capacity Issues

Another evening, another adventure in a Seattle Public Schools building I haven't been inside yet. I found myself tonight in the packed library at Ballard High School.  At first the evening started with a normal PTSA meeting. There were minutes to be approved and budget items to discuss. You could sense the anticipation in the room through all of this. The principal Keven Wynkoop even joked that while usually his speech was the highlight of the night, he knew the everyone was really waiting for Flip Herndon to speak, While Flip, the assistant superintendent in charge of facilities  was being introduced, the PTSA officer mentioned that Flip's own children attend Ingraham which I hadn't realized. It always makes me feel a bit better to find out the central staff are also parents.

His talk started with a brief mention of the general capacity issues and how all the high schools are full with the exception of Rainier Beach. For those in the SE Quadrant, he also gave a shout out to the IB program there and its successes which one could interpret as an official sign of administration support.

Onto the real meat of the talk:

• Assuming the current BTA and Operations levies pass, we will build the 500 seat addition to Ingraham High School.
• Lincoln will have an additional 1600 seats which when completed in combination with the above space will just meet the immediate needs in the next few years for the north end.
• The district actually still needs one more comprehensive high school which they really want to place near Queen Anne. The current first choice is to build on the Memorial Stadium site in the Seattle Center. However, this is governed by a covenant with the city that will have to be renegotiated. (And the city really wants the land back)
• There are no decisions yet on the boundaries or a rolling start vs. an immediate geo-split. This was probably the most emotional topic for the crowd since many were worried about having to move their kids potentially even in the Senior year to the new high school.  The district wants to have these decision made 18 months prior to opening and will start planning this 10-11 months from now.
• Interestingly Flip has gone back to the 1970's boundary maps as a starting point back when the district still had 12 high schools and ~75000 students vs. our current ~54000.
• The total cost of the renovation of the Lincoln building is now around 75 million dollars.
• In the meantime all the overcrowded schools including Ballard, HIMS, Garfield are just going to have deal with being overcrowded. There's no interim plans to help out at least for now.
• There was also a discussion about the fields spaces. The district is renegotiating its master agreement with the park department. That includes discussion on the use of lower Woodland Park for Lincoln High School. For those worried about crumb rubber fields the district has heard parent concerns but is apparently waiting on more definitive research, They also have not put out bids yet for the work on various sites and so may still change their ultimate decision. Unfortunately, I didn't find out if that included the Wilson Pacific site.
• Flip gave the first official confirmation that I've heard that Cascadia may be split due it being too large to fit on the new site. This decision will be made sometime this Spring and there is no idea about what other sites could be used (mostly because everywhere is full).
• I also asked at the very end about the Decatur Building. Currently there is no plan yet for how it is to be used.

On a lighter side before the meeting started I was able to see some video from the recent Ballard High School production of Carmina Burana. It was very impressive.  I definitely encourage you to take a look at:  https://vimeo.com/149092851


Note: The capacity crunch tend to produce the most heated discussions. Please keep the conversation constructive. 

10/6 HCS Advisory Meeting

I attended the advisory committee meeting tonight so I could publish some notes for the wider community. There were maybe 20 odd folks in attendance in the library at WMS.

Agenda

1. A talk from Stephen Martin head of Advanced Learning which touched on enrollment, the new testing procedure for screening this year and the West Seattle Pathway focus group.

2. The beginning of the planning process for the report to the superintendent for this year.

3. A call for unfilled positions on the committee.

Links

Note from Advanced Learning on the Saturday Testing (look on the  middle of the page)

Key Takeaways

1. Garfield may max out of capacity next year and there are some early meetings going on at JSIS about this.  Note: none of the decision making on pathways etc. is controlled by advanced learning.

2.  Spectrum is going to be renamed to the more straight forward Advanced Learning over time. This is solely a nomenclature issue. Note single domain Advanced Learner qualification is starting this year.

3. Prior to the WAC requirements the district didn't even track how many HCC students there were past Middle School. They are now doing so.

4. Screening for qualification is being moved to Thurgood Marshall and Cascadia because of difficulties booking the space in JSIS. They expect to screen 650 kids a day over a series of Saturdays. It is possible to arrange special arrangements if that schedule is not possible. For the younger children the screen process will be used to keep the testing time around hour and there will be  a callback for the rest of the test if  the screen is passed. Interestingly AL is directly consulting with the CogAt test author (David Bowman?) on the proper use of the instrument.  The result percentiles will probably be normed to either regional or national standards and not local ones which are considered too high.

5. Advanced Learning is moving forward on setting up West Seattle High School pathway. "Eventually this will not be a choice." There is no timeline associated with this effort yet.  Its possible an equivalent to Ingraham's program will be established at Sealth as well. This as I mentioned before sounds like its still in the early discussion phase.

6. Staff at Ingraham are contemplating changes in the 2020 class timeframe or later to the IBx program. Essentially based on the current cohorts feedback they want to delay entry into IB until junior and senior year and have the cohort do a tracked set of classes in ninth together and then in tenth take pre-IB and honors classes  This was motivated by the feeling that an extra year of maturity leads to better outcomes and among other things this would solve the difficulties in creating a workable senior year. There was talk at the meeting about letting students accelerate on an individual basis. This is also still in the discussion phase.

7. If you're interested in volunteering on the committee there are open positions for Secretary, Washington MS rep and Diversity rep. 

Capacity Planning (peering into the tea leaves)

Since its come up again let's talk about capacity in its own thread.

Background

There has not been much official change in the plans for HCC on the north side. Construction has started on the Wilson Pacific site and the school board recently chose names for the buildings

http://www.seattleschools.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=627&pageId=438255


Here's the project status page with the latest excerpt:
http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/wilson-pacific-elementary-building-and-middle-school-building/

May 2015

The City issued the Master Use Permit, the demolition permit and the grading permit. The notice to proceed was issued to Lydig, the contractor, regarding the early work bids for abatement, demolition, earthwork and murals relocation. The site has been completely fenced and abatement has begun in the gym and cafeteria buildings. Work continued on other construction documents and the easement application for 92nd Street on the west side of the site. Advertisements were made for the structural bid package. Lydig is prepping for the bidding process for mechanical, electrical and plumbing work.

And for completeness here's the Lincoln Building  schedule:
http://bex.seattleschools.org/bex-iv/lincoln-building/
Note: construction is still slated for June 2018

As you can see the current Cascadia building has less total capacity (660) already than next year's estimated student body size per Rina (800)