Elect Kay Smith-Blum | Seattle School District Position 5

Sign up for twitter from Seattle schools as a parent or community member to be notified what topics are coming up in board WORK sessions LONG before the VOTING meeting. Parents could choose to serve on advisory committees on certain issues as an additional level of thought for the board’s consideration. Existing organizations, such as CPPS, could be the filter for feedback, group the top dozen responses to issues in ranking order of importance and be the agent of being sure that the concerns are heard. The point is DIRECT line of communication that is SOLICITED aggressively, not passively, to get parental feedback. The scenario we just went thru with the Math texts should not happen again.

We have identified 42 organizations within our district that could be pivotal in providing support for our central area schools. But we are not organized to create this synergy currently at the Seattle School District. We need a distinct strategy within our strategic plan to address the utilization of these resources. In doing so, we can be incredibly proficient and in sync with other organizations offering the same services and skill sets we currently offer in many of our after school programs.

The district has 120-140 parcels of land it owns. We need to ask now, is there a moratorium on leases and selling? The SSD could tag onto the Mayor’s Innovative Housing initiative, partner with the city, and create in-city residences for teachers, firefighters and policeman. Imagine the hiring power for great teachers, if we could also offer affordable housing close to where they would work. All such public service professionals would bring much needed mentors and volunteers in to our schools if they lived within our city boundaries as opposed to commuting from outside our district.

Currently we have 3 schools with an International Baccalaureate regimen, Ingraham, Sealth and a pilot program at Denny. This regimen creates a rigorous liberal arts college prep curriculum, which we sorely need to offer district wide.

Additionally, district mentions in the strategic plan, that 12 schools should be repurposed to International Education in the next 5 years, with 2 elementary to middle school to high school (4 schools) in each quadrant of the city. This “home grown” program currently exists at John Stanford, Beacon Hill and Hamilton Middle School, with waiting list at all schools because of program success and popularity. Currently, they are moving forward one school at a time.

My goal would be 20 International (language immersion) schools in the next five years, with either Spanish or Chinese taught from Pre-K on in EVERY school within the next 3 years. Language instruction hires leads to an abundance of high quality teachers. The cost of an International K-5 school is about $200,000 more per year than the average elementary school budget. (Start up expenses include: professional development, bilingual library and teaching and world culture materials.) BUT the “extra” expenses phase out when the entire staff is retrained and program fully developed. Our Stretch Goal = 8 IB high school strands in 5 years, and 40 language immersion models in next 8 years.

We can pay for start up expenses through outside grants and repurposing of certain funds in the general fund possibly from the city or School & Family Levy expansion.

All middle and high schools could supply food service partially with a student program for training in culinary arts. Slow food, greenhouse horticultural programs, local farms, and restaurants could “adopt a school” and partner with district employees to provide fresh food options at lunch and snack times. Food service becomes a learning experience in real time, and ALL kids should be required to take cooking classes. Studies show cooking reinforces math skills.

Assign each incoming 9th grader a coach (faculty member or outside mentor) who is fully responsible for making sure that student is doing what he/she needs to do to graduate and move into the next phase of education. This is in addition to high school counselors (who have an average of 300 kids to steer each year). Grants from foundations could be used to support outside mentors (see Best Practices link to South Atlanta coaching program).