Grand openings for schools in Issaquah and Bellevue

Sep 12 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Here’s what’s happening this week across EEN’s school districts.

Bellevue School District

Enatai Elementary School will hold its Grand Opening Ceremony on TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 6:00 p.m. The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at 7:20 p.m.; self-guided tours are available from 6:00-7:00 p.m. School address: 10700 SE 25th St, Bellevue.

Issaquah School District

Gibson Ek Innovative High School will hold its Dedication Ceremony on TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13, 5:00 p.m. School address: 379 1st PL SE, Issaquah (formerly Issaquah Middle School).
The School Board will hold its regular meeting on Wednesday September 14, 6:00 p.m. at the Issaquah School District Administrative Center 565 NW Holly Street, Issaquah. The meeting agenda is here.

Northshore School District

The School Board will hold its Regular Meeting and Study Session on TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 13 at the Dr. G.E. Ricketts Board Room in Northshore’s Administrative Center, 3330 Monte Villa Parkway, Bothell. Board meeting begins at 4:00 p.m. (agenda is here) and Study Session begins at 5:00 p.m. (agenda is here).
The School Board will hold a Special Meeting on WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 14, 9:00 a.m. at the Dr. G.E. Ricketts Board Room in Northshore’s Administrative Center, 3330 Monte Villa Parkway, Bothell. The meeting agenda is here (observation of SEPA hearing).

Riverview School District

The School Board will hold its Regular Meeting, TUESDAY SEPTEMER 13, 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Riverview School District Educational Service Center, 5510 1st Ave NE, Duvall. Agenda is here.

Snoqualmie Valley School District

The School Board will hold its Regular Meeting, Thursday, September 15, 6:30 p.m., at the City of Snoqualmie Council Chambers, 38624 SE River Street, Snoqualmie.

Be sure to check back each week for updates on meetings and events in EEN’s school districts. We can promote your school or district-wide event in this space, too. Just contact us here, include location/date/time details about your event, and we’ll get back to you.

In Bellevue, a school board perspective on local control of local dollars

Sep 9 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Steve McConnell, Bellevue School Board

Over the summer, State Schools Chief Randy Dorn filed a lawsuit against seven school districts – including Bellevue School District – claiming that these districts were using locally-raised dollars from levies to pay for teacher salaries and other basic education services for students in violation of state law.

This past week, the State Supreme Court held a hearing to consider whether contempt sanctions should be lifted against the state in the McCleary education funding case. The Court wants more specifics on how the legislature plans to pay the full cost of teacher salaries.

Right now, districts like Bellevue pay teachers beyond what the state allocates in order to attract and retain staff in higher cost-of-living areas. According to Dorn, these supplemental wages can make up for as much as 46 percent of teacher pay. The lawsuit alleges that additional pay for teachers like that in Bellevue and other districts is illegal and must end.

Dorn has stated he sees his legal action as a way to force the state legislature to pay for the bulk of teacher salaries. But that’s a complicated task because the way we pay teachers and how much we pay them involves multiple factors and touches on politically-charged issues, such as control over collective bargaining as well as local property taxes.

Steve McConnell currently serves on the Bellevue School District School Board. He shares his thoughts on Superintendent Dorn’s lawsuit, and why he feels our current system of school funding isn’t working.

Question: What are your thoughts about Superintendent Dorn’s lawsuit? Will it achieve the desired results? Why or why not?

Answer: I thought Randy Dorn did a generally good job as Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), and he is certainly passionate about education in Washington state. But this lawsuit is not well considered. This is a continuation of the brain dead reasoning that has been operating in Olympia for almost 30 years that goes like this: “If we deprive local districts of the ability to raise money for education locally, it will force the state to raise money at the state level.”

The way that logic has actually worked is that it hasn’t forced the state to do anything. Meanwhile it has been very effective at depriving districts of raising the funds they need to fully support their students locally.

Question: Bellevue voters are generous in their support of local schools. How do you feel about caps on locally raised dollars, or limitations on their use?

Answer: I believe it is morally reprehensible for our state to put restrictions on the degree to which a local community funds the education of its children. What kind of society makes it illegal to support children to the fullest extent possible?

The original rationale 30 years ago was that lawmakers did not want relatively more affluent districts such as Bellevue and Mercer Island attracting all the best teachers by paying higher salaries. So they put caps on the amount of money that districts were allowed to raise.

The unintended consequence of those caps turned out to be that districts in high cost of living areas like Bellevue and Mercer Island could not raise enough money to offer teachers the same standard of living they could have in lower cost of living areas like Puyallup, Wenatchee, or Spokane. This makes it very difficult for some of our districts to attract teachers, and even more difficult to retain them.

Question: Five of the school districts named as defendants – including Bellevue – have asked the court to dismiss the complaint, on the grounds that the lawsuit’s issues will necessarily be resolved by the McCleary case. How do you feel about the merits of Dorn’s lawsuit – should it continue?

Answer: The McCleary decision requires Washington state to “amply fund” basic education in every district across the state. Much of the current thinking in Olympia seems to not fully understand what “ample funding” statewide really implies. When the state is in full compliance with McCleary, every single student will be covered at the “ample” level. No district will really need to go beyond that, but if a local community wants to support its children beyond the “basic education” level, I believe they should be allowed to do that.

Bridging the gap between parents and school boards

Sep 8 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Brian Deagle, former Issaquah School Board Director

Brian Deagle served for nine years as a Director on the Issaquah School District (ISD) School Board. During his time in office he worked collaboratively with his board colleagues, two superintendents and many cabinet members to focus the ISD on key performance indicators of success to help increase education opportunities for all students. Below are his answers to our questions about why school boards matter and what parents need to know about them.

Question: Why is it important for parents to follow the work of their local school board?

Answer: It is perfectly fine for a parent to focus solely on their child and the child’s classroom experience, which can be done without involvement in board activities. I believe that if you can do more, then following board work is important because a high performing board is essential to a high performing school district.

The first step in holding your board accountable for high performance is learning and understanding what they do. The work of the board tells you the district priorities, helps you identify areas where you would like to influence, and allows you to discern those issues that do not receive attention which you believe should. Following the Board is a way to help positively impact the education experience of many children now and for the future.

Question: For parents who want to get involved and learn more about what the School Board does, what is the best way for them to do that?

Answer: All school board business is conducted in public, with few exceptions. Districts publish meeting notices with full agendas which allows you to see the board’s planned work in detail. The ISD publishes extensive background information for each topic, written minutes, and podcasts of each meeting. You can also attend meetings in person, which is important if you’re advocating for a specific board action (more on that below). Many districts have email distribution lists where much of this information is pushed out to the community.

I expect that regardless of where you live, your district publishes abundant information about board work. To help you make sense of that information, I recommend that you reach out to one more of your board directors and ask them about their priorities, what they hope to accomplish during their board term, and how that is reflected in the board’s agenda. Remember that school board directors are elected officials and have an interest in maintaining a solid link to the community, and I expect that they will embrace the opportunity to speak with you.

Question: What is the biggest misconception parents and the community generally have about the role and function of a school board in a school district?

Answer: Thinking the board makes all the decisions in a school district. Not all issues make the board’s agenda. Personnel decisions almost never rise to the board level, with the exception of the Superintendent. The board hires and manages the Superintendent. Another misconception is that an individual director can make any decision. The school board functions as a group, with majority rule, and all decisions must be made in a meeting open to the public.

Question: How can school boards best connect with their community at large beyond monthly meetings?

Answer: I admit that this challenging. There is an adage in education that a parent won’t get involved with district matters until something directly impacts her child. This was true for me, and I can trace my path to the school board to a teachers’ strike and proposed school boundary change.

As a board we held countless community meetings that had little attendance beyond the board meeting “regulars.” My experience is that the most well attended, engaging, and effective meetings focused on a specific topic of interest to people. General “meet the board” sessions didn’t work out well. Finally, holding these meetings in the evening, after the usual work hours, is imperative.

Question: What is your advice for a parent who wants to advocate for change, large or small, in their school district?

Answer: Well done! Every community needs passionate involved parents that want to improve the quality of education in their community. The first step is to understand where in the district the issue resides and where decisions to change would be made. Is your issue a board decision, district policy, subject to administrative discretion, or mandated by law? You can learn this by seeking to understand why the current state exists. Seeking to understand why the situation exists in its current form helps you craft better solutions and build credibility with the district persons that you will need to make the change. Start with those persons closest to the issue and press your ideas for change. If you experience resistance, seek to understand their perspective and then move up the chain with a simple “may I speak with your supervisor?”. It may go without saying, but throughout the process maintain a calm demeanor and polite and respective attitude. I know that that may be challenging when children are impacted, but you will always be more effective if you are professional and courteous.

When advocating for a board decision, I found it effective to personally attend board meetings and speak during either during public comment or when your item comes upon the agenda. It is also effective to communicate to the board via email and in person. Numbers matter, as does surfacing each person’s unique voices. Over the years I saw many letter writing campaigns. I did not find that the same message sent verbatim by many persons persuasive. To me, a short personal note on the issue is more impactful.

I’ll offer two examples where I believe the community effectively advocated to the ISD Board. The first was the Liberty High School community’s reaction to the Superintendent’s decision to change the class schedule. The entire Liberty community reacted to the proposal, current students, parents, alumni and staff. I listened to hours of testimony and read scores of emails with personal stories. It persuaded me to propose altering the then current policies to require board approval for class schedule changes, which ultimately put the proposal to the board for a decision.

The second example involves school bell times. Before and during my board tenure, the ISD board looked several times at what could be done to start secondary schools later. The expanse of the district and limited funds vexed potential solutions. When a group of passionate advocates for later start times started attending board meetings, my personal reaction was that the issue was settled; there was no viable solution. Through the persistence of these parents, the start time issue was put back on the table, and the district proposed later times last year. While that effort didn’t result in a change, the district committed to revising the issue again this year. Later start times would not have been a topic on the agenda but for the diligence and persistence of these parents.

Want to help your school? Join PTA

Sep 6 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Judy East, Wash State PTA

Somewhere in all the emails and packets sent home with students during the first week of school is a request to join PTA. Becoming a member of PTA is a simple yet sometimes overlooked way to get involved and make a difference in the education of your child and every child. We asked Judy East, Family and Community Engagement Director for the Washington State PTA, and past president of the Lake Washington PTSA Council, to share her perspective on the importance of PTAs in our schools.

Question: What do you say to a parent who is unsure about whether to join PTA, or just hasn’t considered it? Why should a parent join their local PTA?

Answer: The hardworking PTAs in Washington work tirelessly to benefit the students and families in our schools. Most PTAs are involved in nearly every corner of the school. I’d make sure that the parent was aware of how all the PTA activities benefited their child on a daily basis, and let them know that just by joining the PTA, they are helping the group continue their work. PTA is a membership organization so members count — the more PTA members in their community, the stronger the organization and the stronger the PTA voice if a need arises to advocate to the principal or the district about issues surrounding the children at the school.

Question: What can PTAs do to help ensure their work and, by extension, their membership, reflects the diversity of their community?

Answer: The greater the personal connection a PTA has with their families, the more likely they will be able to meet their community’s needs. Taking time to get to know families and staff in their school communities will help a PTA understand the different perspectives present. I also believe each of us needs to be aware that there are many different perspectives. Every family has their own story and we need to be open to listening and understanding those stories if we want to be able to best support each family. The best place to start is making sure you have the same welcoming smile for everyone you see at school. This sounds cliché, but it’s true.

Question: What’s the biggest misconception parents have about joining PTA?

Answer: Many people believe that being a member is synonymous with volunteering, and they may not want to commit time to a volunteer organization. Actually, if you think of PTA as a corporation with stockholders and employees, being a member is like being a stockholder and volunteering is like being an employee. So while some employees are also stockholders, most stockholders just invest in the company because they believe in its mission and the work it does, even if they never set foot in the building.

Question: If you could tell parents one thing about the important work PTAs do in their communities, what would it be?

Answer: A good PTA joyfully mobilizes families, teachers and staff to help meet the needs of the children and the community.

Odle Middle School grand opening set for this week in Bellevue

Sep 5 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Here’s what’s happening this week across EEN’s school districts.

Bellevue School District

The school board will hold its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 4:00 p.m. at the WISC Rainier Room, 12241 Main St., Bellevue. The meeting agenda includes updates on the superintendent search and the parent satisfaction survey. You can find the agenda and meeting packet here.
The Odle Middle School Grand Opening will be held on Thursday, Sept. 8 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 502 143rd Ave NE, Bellevue. Self-guided tours begin at 7:00 p.m., and the ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for 7:20 p.m.

Mercer Island School District – The school board will hold its regular meeting on Thursday, Sept 8 at 6 p.m. at City Hall Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St., Mercer Island. The meeting agenda is here and includes updates on the 2014 bond and reporting on district restraint/seclusion policy.

Bellevue, Mercer Island and Riverview school boards to meet this week

Aug 28 by Beth Sigall Leave a Comment

Here’s what’s happening this week across EEN’s school districts.

Bellevue School Board will hold its regular meeting on TUESDAY AUGUST 30 at 4:00 p.m. at the WISC Rainier Room, 12241 Main Street, Bellevue. The meeting agenda includes discussion of the SY 2016-17 budget and superintendent evaluation. You can find the board meeting packet here.
Mercer Island School Board will hold its regular meeting on MONDAY AUGUST 29 at 7:00 p.m. at the City Hall Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St, Mercer Island. The meeting agenda includes discussion of the SY 2016-17 budget. You can find the agenda, including attachments, here.
Riverview School Board will hold a brief “Special Meeting” on TUESDAY AUGUST 30 at 8:00 a.m. at the Education Service Center Board Room, 15510 1st Ave. NE, Duvall. The meeting agenda includes approval of the 2016-2019 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Riverview School District and the Riverview Education Association. You can find the meeting agenda here.

Help for community college students in Washington

Jul 29 by Beth Sigall Leave a Comment

Browse the course catalog of any community college and you’ll find classes in everything from accounting to biology to computer science. All those choices can make developing a pathway towards a career overwhelming for many students. But help is on the way in the form of a $2.5 million grant.

Katherine Long of The Seattle Times writes that five Washington community colleges (Everett Community College, South Seattle College, Pierce College, Peninsula College in Port Angeles and South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia) won $2.5 million in grant money from the non-profit College Spark Washington “to change the way they advise college students.” Proceeds from the grant will go towards developing “guided pathways” to outline the specific courses a student must take to help them land a job in a particular field. The grant money will also help these colleges re-design curriculum to match it to the skills employers need in the workplace. Finally, grant proceeds will be directed towards developing “meta majors” so that students can explore several options under one umbrella field of study, such as a “healthcare” major that could translate into any number of medical professions.

Learn more about the College Spark grants, including plans for future awards, here.

The coming school land crunch

Jul 27 by Eastside Education Network Leave a Comment

Rep. Chad Magendanz (R-Issaquah)

School districts increasingly find themselves boxed in by land-use regulations as they look to acquire properties to relieve overcrowding. In Pierce County, frustrated school districts have responded with a lawsuit against the county. The Bethel, Eatonville, Franklin Pierce, Sumner and Tacoma school districts all claim the county is effectively prohibiting expansion to build more schools, or remodel and expand current ones. They also contend that hyper-technical rural-versus-urban classifications interfere with their ability to educate all students residing in their respective districts.

Prior to his time in the legislature, Rep. Chad Magendanz (R-Issaquah), served as president of the Issaquah School Board. In that capacity he helped oversee the construction of new schools to relieve overcrowding there. In this Q&A, Rep. Magendanz shares his insights about the Pierce County lawsuit, its potential implications for Eastside school districts, and what the state legislature could do to help.

Question: You observed this about the Pierce County ordinances: “These new restrictions are sharply driving up the costs of land acquisition for school districts, and significantly contributed to this year’s Issaquah school bond costing OVER DOUBLE the one that we passed when I was school board president in 2012.” How do these new restrictions drive up costs? Is it a substantial increase?

Answer: These new school siting policies prevent schools outside the urban growth boundary from serving students within the urban growth area. Even if current sites on the boundary are ultimately grandfathered, properties already purchased for future growth would need to be abandoned in order to find urban sites, which will likely require acquiring the property via eminent domain and condemning homes. This drives costs up by roughly five times, and virtually guarantees an opposition campaign for the school construction bonds.

I co-chaired the recent Legislative Task Force on School Siting that met last year to consider this issue. The staff presentation and final report are good background on all aspects of the problem that we considered.

Unfortunately, neither of the two bills that came out of this task force (HB 2377 and HB 2586) were scheduled for hearing by the chair of the House Local Government committee, Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo). Similar bills from past sessions, such as HB 1848 which I authored and Rep. Larry Springer (D-Kirkland) prime sponsored, have also been obstructed, including scheduling a second committee hearing so that King County Executive Dow Constantine could personally testify against the bill and stare down the nine Democratic co-sponsors. This is really unprecedented, and has left affected school districts little option but to challenge the issue in court.

Question: What about King County? Are there similar restrictions there impacting districts, especially ones that have seen significant growth such as Lake Washington, Issaquah, Bellevue or Northshore? Should we expect another lawsuit?

Answer: Yes, the same issues exist in King County. In June 2012, as president of the Issaquah School Board, I testified to the King County Growth Management Planning Council when they were considering these new school siting restrictions. Unfortunately, mine was the only testimony in opposition, and the new policies were unanimously referred to the King County Council for adoption.

In Issaquah, flexible redevelopment options for existing school sites, such as Endeavor Elementary School, Pacific Cascade Middle School, Apollo Elementary School, and Maple Hills Elementary, were proposed. Under normal land use policies, existing sites would be converted to nonconforming uses and limited to a one-time expansion of 10 percent in building square footage, building height, and impervious surface. The King County Executive’s Office agreed to work with the Puget Sound School Coalition and our district to assure flexibility for redevelopment options as a part of the proposed new policy language, but that effort still hasn’t born any fruit.

Question: What justifications are offered by Counties or similar agencies to support these restrictions? Are there any alternative proposals that might help balance the needs of school districts versus the concerns of county government?

Answer: The justification for this restriction is that it’s necessary to prevent suburban sprawl as part of the Growth Management Act (GMA), which was adopted by the Legislature in 1990.

However, it’s worth noting that there’s already a provision in the GMA to make exceptions for “essential public facilities” which includes “facilities that are typically difficult to site, such as airports, state education facilities, and state or regional transportation facilities, regional transit authority facilities, state and local correctional facilities, solid waste handling facilities, and inpatient facilities including substance abuse facilities, mental health facilities, group homes, and secure community transition facilities.”

All we want to do is broaden “state education facilities” to include those belonging to school districts. This seems pretty logical and consistent to me.

Question: What do parents need to know about this issue? Is there anything the legislature can do to resolve it?

Answer: Parents need to know that this is a symptom of a much broader set of issues related to growth management on the Eastside, and they should be working with their elected officials to call for an evaluation of the program to determine how effective we’ve been in achieving the GMA’s stated goals. Providing some flexibility in school siting seems like a common-sense change that’s a simple technical fix to the policy, especially considering that the already existing exceptions allowed for state education facilities like junior colleges and skills centers. But growth management purists have been obstructing school districts even while assisting regional transit authorities to site their facilities in the same areas.

I would encourage Eastside parents to ask their school board members how this is affecting their land acquisition costs and ability to pass future bond measures. Ask why Seattle legislators are obstructing bills that primarily affect suburban school districts which straddle the urban growth boundaries. And ask why we’re once again forced to legislate through the courts.

*****

You can read more about the school districts’ lawsuit against Pierce County at KOMO News here, and at The News Tribune here.

At Lake Wash Institute of Technology, pathways to paying jobs

Jul 8 by Beth Sigall Leave a Comment

We hear a lot of discussion these days about the need to bring back shop class. What this really means is that more students need and deserve options beyond the traditional, four-year university degree. Specifically, they want practical, hands-on training programs that translate into jobs in high-demand industries, without the crushing debt that typically accompanies graduation from a four-year college.

At the Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland, “shop class” is alive and well in a multitude of programs designed to give students real-life training for today’s technology-based economy.

Background – From the website: “The Lake Washington Institute of Technology (LWTech) was founded in 1949, and is the only public institute of technology in the state of Washington. LWTech offers three bachelor’s degrees, more than 40 associate degrees and more than 80 professional certificates in 40 areas of study, including STEM-focused programs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.”

Unmet demand – The Lens, a new journalism resource on Washington state policy, has written about LWTech in the context of the state’s pressing need to find, train and hire more skilled tech workers. Here’s what they discovered:

In Washington, the technology sector is adding about 3,500 new jobs each year that require a computer science degree, but only graduating about 500 students with a degree that matches that need
In the Seattle-Tacoma area, jobs in professional, scientific, and technical services pay on average over $30,000 more than the average wage for all other jobs

Two years to a solid wage job – The Lens profiled two recent graduates who have now started careers in video game design and automotive technology, respectively. Both students earned their degrees in two years, and now work at high-paying jobs they love that have the potential for advancement. The Lens reports that employers see huge value in hiring LWTech students because they are ready to work on day one of the job, and typically don’t require significant additional training.

Learn more about how LWTech students are gaining the skills needed to land good wage jobs, and how employers increasingly are turning to LWTech to fill their workplace vacancies, here.

Issaquah to condemn old property for new schools

Jul 7 by Beth Sigall Leave a Comment

Rapidly expanding school districts on the Eastside typically face two problems: finding the money to build new schools, and finding the land to build them on.

Issaquah checked the first of these tasks off its to-do list this past spring, with passage of a $535.5 million bond, the proceeds of which will go to build more schools to accommodate significant growth in its student population. Now the school district is looking to acquire property to house some of its new schools.

According to The Issaquah Press, at its next meeting on July 13, the Board of Directors will vote on whether to authorize condemnation of the 40-acre Providence Heights College campus on 228th Avenue Southeast. Under state law, school boards can use the power of eminent domain to seize private property for public use. The property would eventually serve as home for a new elementary school and a new high school.

There is some controversy surrounding this acquisition. The property’s current owner (The City Church of Kirkland) claims it already has a purchase agreement with a Bellevue developer to sell the parcel, while a preservationist group is advocating to keep some of the campus buildings intact.

Learn more about next steps for Issaquah to acquire the Providence Heights campus property, which could include resolution by a King County Superior Court judge, here.