Gov. Gregoire’s proposed budget includes cuts of more than
$1 billion in early learning, K-12 and higher education funding.

What does a $1 billion cut in education mean for children and families?  Here’s a peek.

• Larger class sizes: As many as 1,400 teachers across the state could lose their jobs. The budget proposes a $178 million cut to Initiative 728, which schools use to lower class sizes by hiring more teachers.

• Support for community partnerships cancelled: Library funding, reading and tutoring programs, after school programs, hands-on science and math opportunities, and numerous other K-12 enhancements are no longer funded; others are reduced to save $48 million.

• Lost wages for teachers: State funded pay increases for educators under Initiative 732 would be suspended to save $350 million.

None of these budget cuts are set in stone yet; the Washington State Legislature convened January 12, 2009 and will be in session for 105 days to pass the next state budget.  Washington State already underfunds our schools – we are 45th in the nation in spending per student, and 46th in the nation in class size.  Contact your state representatives and senator today — know that we cannot afford cuts to an already underfunded public education system.  If you don’t know your legislators’ names you can easily find them on http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx.

ADD RIGOR TO OUR SCHOOLS.  Two pending bills, House bill HB 1410 and Senate bill SB 5444, would greatly improve our public schools by reforming the way public education is funded in our state and redefining “basic education” as a moderate college prep course load that would prepare kids for technical or community college and help them meet requirements of most universities. They would require a six-period day and more teachers for advanced math, science and language.  In 2006-07, only 17% of Seattle Public Schools graduates met entrance requirements for four-year college, in part because most, maybe all, four year universities require applicants to have taken six academic classes per day, but our state only funds five classes per day.  You can learn more about HB 1410 at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1410&year=2009, and more about SB5444 at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5444&year=2009.  In addition to information about the bills, these websites will tell you which legislators are sponsoring the bills; by following the links to a legislator you can email them directly and let them know your support these bills.

MODIFY OR ELIMINATE UNFUNDED STATE MANDATES.  There are dozens of education mandates that the state requires, and in the bill SB 5890 the state Senate education committee is looking at modifying or cutting some of these requirements – this would give schools some flexibility in how to spend the (limited) money that they get.  One of the topics the committee discussed last week was cutting the requirement for PE classes, which will have a direct impact on the schedule changes that Eckstein is discussing.  Learn more about bill SB 5890/let legislators know your thoughts at http://dlr.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/default.aspx?Bill=5890&year=2009

Discussion of Schedules: Feedback and questions raised via email and conversations are included below.

A/B +C SCHEDULE

Feedback:

• • Need for more concrete information on what activity looks like
  • Missing one A or B day is like missing double classes
  • Kids do need HR; maybe it could be shorter
  • Make sure that literacy is taught across the board
  • Activity could rotate within teams
  • Homeroom was important for 6^th grade
  • Math and Science could be teamed in a A/B schedule
  • Boredom in longer class periods
  • Not as routine as seeing students every day; could be difficult for students
  • Longer classes could mitigate a need for HR
  • Professional development needed for teachers for longer periods
  • Strong support for PE waivers
  • Look for creative ways to fulfill the PE requirement

Questions Raised:

• • How will Activity classes be accountable so that they are meaningful and effective?
  • How do students choose Activity?
  • How will all students get an Activity that they want?
  • How or is Spectrum affected in this schedule?
  • If we lose HR, will we notice the loss of it more than we think?
  • How would non-standard week schedules be handled?
  • How do endorsements of certificated staff affect this schedule?
  • Could the Activity time rotate quarterly?

Social Studies/PE Semester Schedule

Feedback:

• • Multiple stakeholders noted that this required least amount of change
  • Concern that Social Studies is not being valued as a school
  • Parent feedback more focused on need for full-year Music and World Language
  • Strong support for PE waivers
  • Would not be good to lose the alignment work between SS and LA

Questions Raised:

• • If you have a PE waiver, could you take an additional half year of SS?
  • How can we incorporate World Geography curriculum into other classes?
  • How clearly do people understand that SS is a placeholder in that schedule? How realistic is it to interchange SS with another subject?
  • Was the familiarity of this schedule an appeal versus making larger scale change?
  • Is simpler better? Is routine better?

7 Period Schedule

Feedback:

• • 45 minute classes seem too short
  • Strong support for PE waivers
  • Too many transitions in the school day
  • Could be better suited to the mindset of student attention span
  • Routine and repetition could be helpful
  • Loss of HR for 6^th grade would be difficult
  • Loss of prep time could be tough for teachers (5 minutes per day)

Questions Raised:

• • Number of preps? Minutes? For a teaching day

General Thoughts (italics show comments from last week)

Information we need to continue on all schedules:
·       How will the staffing be affected in each schedule? Will we need more staff? Less staff? Different staffing assignments?

1 What data should be used to make this decision?
2 What set of principles will be used to guide this schedule?
3 What percentage of staff need to vote to agree to necessary waivers?
4       What preparation/communication is needed for parents/guardians, teachers, and students in order to make the transition to a new schedule?

5 How many TAs are there in every current class period? Is there enough room in the schedule to eliminate the option of having TAs?

Constraints that may affect schedule decision:
·       Budget
1 Staffing
2 School enrollment
Eckstein Policy for P.E. waivers for the 2009-2010 school-year:
·       P.E. waivers will be available at 7^th/8^th grade (religious, health, or directed physical activity) if students are taking 2 of the year-long electives listed below

1       Year-long electives are: Band, Orchestra, Choir, World Language, Art
2       A year-long TA position does not allow a student to get a PE waiver
3       Specific information will follow in terms of how students can obtain this paperwork

To gather input from parents and teachers about factors that might affect the schedule surveys were sent out.  The initial results are described below.  If you’d like to take the parent survey it can be found here: survey.

Parent Results (pdf)

Teacher Results(pdf)

There were many excellent comments in the surveys.  Some of the themes to emerge include:

• A later start time is desired by many parents.
• PE Waivers (not requiring students to take PE if they can demonstrate participation in an outside physical activity) are highly desired.
• There are concerns about whether PE as currently taught is a good use of time.
• Many calls to keep the Music program.
• Foreign language instruction is important to many parents.
• Homeroom for 6th graders is more important to parents than is homeroom for 7th and 8th graders.