Two Wallingford families have put out a “Call To Action” asking folks to join them in a protest/sit-in on the John Stanford Center grounds (not the school but Seattle Public Schools’ downtown administrative offices, 2445 3rd Ave S ) on Thursday, August 8 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. The protest is in response to their incoming Kindergartners being denied assignment to their older siblings’ school, John Stanford International School (JSIS).
In a letter to the community, Parnel Lettunich writes:
Both the Lettunich and Cisero families submitted registration paperwork in a timely manner during Open Enrollment which would have secured their sibling priority for their choice school, John Stanford International School. The Enrollment Office lost the forms and now Nico and Isabella are assigned to a different school than their older siblings,which offers no language immersion. They will be the only children not acknowledged as siblings and offered admission to JSIS in the school’s history.
The families, who live just outside the boundary for immediate enrollment, claim the families followed the Open Enrollment instructions and submitted on time. When their younger children were assigned to another school, they followed the appeals process, and contacted the District Ombudsman, who, Lettunich writes, “did not listen to our story in full and said there was nothing he could do for us.” She also adds that “although the appeals process states that resolution with your Principal is the first step of the process, her letter was not acknowledged. We have endured misinformation given to us by upper Enrollment management. Repeatedly.” Former Principal of JSIS, Jesely Alvarez, even wrote a letter on their behalf, stating that the likelihood of these families not submitting on time is very low.
Despite the SPS policy of keeping siblings together “whenever possible” Lettunich writes, “we do not feel that the actions taken by the Enrollment Office are in line with this claim, nor are they in keeping the Superintendent’s promise to do what is best for families. We have sought help from every source available to us as parents and have gotten no assistance or resolution.”
An email to KIRO News from Teresa Wippel at Seattle Public Schools states, “Our records show that the applications were not received on time for either family. When the families appealed, we investigated and determined that the appropriate process was followed.”
Interestiing and frustrating.. Does “in a timely manner”.. mean on time, before a deadline? Was a copy of the forms kept with submission date?
How did the Enrollment Office lose the forms.. if the forms are now being referred to? Did the E O actually misplace the forms during a critical time?
What is wrong with McDonald which also has an Immersion program?
Some details are not completely clear in this report.
This is why John Stanford needs to be an option school.
Making the school an option school may be the right choice, but it wouldn’t have solved this issue. In fact, it might make it worse since to get in to an option school (and not your reference school) you have to submit a request during open enrollment period…meaning that not just out of boundary siblings but anyone entering kindergarten would need to go through this process and could potentially be lost.
I remember when my daughter entered school that I called to confirm receipt of the application and it took them a long time to figure out that they had received it. I don’t know why they can’t send a receipt confirming receipt.
Well, if it was an option school, siblings get priority, so there wouldn’t be this problem. That doesn’t, however, cement the argument in favor of option school. Of course, siblings should attend the same school, but the arguments in favor of neighborhood school for walkability are still very valid.
I know several families this year and last year that were out of the boundaries and had their siblings admitted. Since these two are the only siblings so far that have not been admitted that tells me like the district is doing a good job honoring families. The school is busting at the seams and they still found a spot for all the siblings so far, which is great. I know the district has a lot of issues, and this NSAP is a major fiasco, but I think it is a little off the wall to accuse them that they are not doing enough to keep siblings together.
This seems like a clerical mishap (and a very unfortunate one for those families).
Often the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so I hope these families are successful in getting their children into JSIS. Good luck! Having kids at different elementary schools sucks! I’ve been in that situation and feel for you.
@ Donna – My understanding is that siblings only get priority if they submit a request and it is received on time (and not lost). If you don’t get your paperwork in during open enrollment I think that you are out of luck for that year. At the time of the lottery, I think that they fill the classes so they wouldn’t have space for siblings who weren’t part of the original lottery. In other words, being a sibling gives you priority in the lottery, but it is not a guarantee.
Per the assignment plan: Option schools do not have attendance boundaries or feeder patterns. Assignment is by application only, based on set tiebreakers.
While i actually support the option school idea, this would be a mark in the negative column for me, particularly if there isn’t a better system to confirm application receipt.
If it was an option school, siblings would get preference over other applicants. I have no worries about my son’s siblings getting into our option school at this point. The problem is that it is a neighborhood school, and never should have been. McDonald and JSIS should both be option schools. It is ridiculous. Make them option schools and open another neighborhood school to accommodate Wallingford children.
That said, if the administrative staff lost the application, that is a whole ther issue! I that case, the school district should go out of their way to accommodate these families, as it is their fault the application was lost!
I should say I have 2 children (twins) that were at different elementary schools this past year, and it was do-able. They will be at different schools this year too (one kid gets IEP services) and we are just sucking it up for now. It isn’t THAT bad if the schools are in the same neighborhood.
Wallingford should have a walkable neighborhood school.
Perhaps they should’ve sent them in via registered mail or hand-delivered them if it was so important to them. Now it’s simply their word versus the school’s records without offering any evidence.
“Former Principal of JSIS, Jesely Alvarez, even wrote a letter on their behalf, stating that the likelihood of these families not submitting on time is very low.”
Huh? Based on? That’s really a ridiculous sentence.
Evon, based on the fact that those families actively campaigned for early kindergarten enrollment in the neighborhood. The full letter is posted on KIRO.
I’m sorry, but for something that important, where you know the consequence of not meeting the deadline, you send it registered mail or deliver it in person and get a receipt. (And yes, I did that for my kids’ enrollment)
And sorry, any sympathy I may have had for their plea against splitting up their sibs was gone when their statement ended with “…which offers no language immersion”.
This isn’t about sibs, its about dibs.
They went to KIRO because they turned in their paperwork “in a timely manner” instead of on time before the deadline with a return receipt!!!!! Strange thing.. the district has copie sof the paperwork with a missed deadline.
This sadly sounds like elitist drama over an oversight.
I would love to see this turn into a respectful discussion that elementary kids could model, and in the process give the SPS District a very careful evaluation of policies, board, etc. Both are needed and being mean gets no one anywhere.
Why does SPS need to evaluate their policy over this? Deadlines exist for a reason. That’s the only part of the policy that changing would help these families. The only other thing that they could evaluate would be turning JSIS into the Option School it should be.
Careful evaluation of policies, etc. takes time and resources that could maybe be spent on more important issues.
Given that JSIS is full, which already accepted student is being proposed to be kicked out of the school to accommodate the one at issue here?
Lots of negativity here about the situation.The letter from the principal states that they were participating in an effort to assure that people sent in their enrollment materials. How likely is it that not just 1 but 2 families who were working on enrollment issues in the neighborhood and were involved in an effort to help people in the neighborhood send their paperwork in early would forget to send their own? These families did submit on time, but can’t prove it because they don’t have a receipt – SPS doesn’t send them. Parents need to take the initiative to make sure that their paperwork is received. While registered mail and walking it in would work, it seems like there are simpler options.
Do people really think that it would be that hard or costly for SPS to send a confirmation receipt? Every other program I have signed my children up for (summer camps, swimming lessons, after school programs, etc.) sends a receipt – regardless of size.
How do you know they sent it in on time? All their literature use the euphism “in a timely manner” which is nOT on time but rather ‘soon’.
It would be costly for SPS to send out confirmations to all families.. not only postage for all 1000 or 2000 or more but also the labor. Bringing in the paper before the deadline in person was a solution.
From above nothing is said that these families wer participating to help people in thei rneighborhood send theirs in early. Rather a quote form the principal about their sendign it in lat e”not likely”.
No one will really know what happened is my guess. Maybe they sent it in very close to the deadline and it sat in a mailbox over a weekend! Regardless goign to KIRO is a bit much!
What department or whom is in charge of Seattle Public Schools? To whom do the superintendent, the administration and the board answer? I really don’t know the answer unless it is voted-for funding when it hits the ballot. I asked that question when promises were made by the then superintendent regarding the ultimate renovation of Hamilton-at-Hamilton and District Facilities Department and never understood at the time or now.
If the school district knew it was right, it would say something like this, “We date stamp all incoming applications. The date stamp on these applications was after the deadline for receipt. We have no reason to believe that the date stamps were applied erroneously.”
But then, that presumes they do such simple things on such important administrative matters. My dealings with the Seattle School District suggest they possess no such competence. Therefore, it’s their word against the parents. And guess who wins that one?
When we mailed in our daughter’s application, I put a reminder in my calendar to call if we had not got our assignment information by the application deadline, and I had cleared time in my calendar to take the papers in person and have them date stamped at the counter. It was not necessary but I strongly suggest similar methods to parents in the future. When dealing with the Seattle School District, trust but verify.
And I don’t want to hear about expenses, etc. Every time the district goes before the taxpayers for money, we give it to them. Despite a lackluster record for return on that investment, as we see here.
To NancyM, the word “accountable” is not one I would associate with the School District or Board. The Board is more consumed by petty infighting and bureaucratic procedure than getting results. You can read it in the papers or go to one of the public meetings.
Well, the parents did NOT state they turned theirs in ON time. And the school district might date stamp but didn’t say so specifically.
In a timely manner = timely = on time. I don’t understand the confusion or need to battle on semantics.
Likme Huber, I also didn’t trust the school district and enrolled in person & wouldn’t leave without a receipt, although the clerk said I was good unless I wanted “to wait around”. It was instinct. I hate to see other families punished for being naive and/or trusting about the process.
When I registered my daughter, I took the forms in person to the John Stanford Center and took a picture of the person/clerk as proof! Crazy things happen with our school district.
I should also report that, like the two families involved here, when my wife and I would ask what we thought were reasonable questions of the enrollment staff, we were brusquely told they didn’t know the answers and no, they couldn’t refer us to anyone who might.
By way of contrast, we recently downgraded our cable service and were treated with respect on multiple service and technical calls related to the incident by Xfinity. When you’re getting better service from the cable company than the school district, it’s time to start asking questions.
But going back to NancyM’s comment: I have asked on several occasions at various forums who should be held responsible for the debacle that is the district’s managing of Wallingford’s school zones for the last few years,and never got an answer. These two parents might have asked the same thing… in the absence of proof, like a date stamp, that they turned in their paperwork late, who do we hold responsible for the screwup? The picture is clear: working for the school district is as close as you can come in this day and age to having a job with no responsibility for results. Must be nice.
I know it’s a “shoulda” type response….. but for those out there that will enroll next year, drop the applications off at the school board in south Seattle- you get a receipt that they were registered. We read on several blogs about doing it in person.
In the end we never got in to McDonald- we feel your pain.
Our daughter is now enrolled in a a private french school North Seattle French School and they have room!
Anybody else think a lot of this clamoring to get into JSIS and McDonald is less due to desire for language immersion, and more due to BF Day’s lackluster reputation in the past? Not that language learning isn’t important but REALLY? That many people are dying for their kids to be taught Kindergarten in Japanese?! What is funny is that BF Day is really an improving school-someday neighborhood families may be fighting to get their kids in THERE. Schools improve by communities and families being involved, right?
My guess is that it is not against BF Day, this time. It is parents who wanted their children in the same school, which is also somewhat elitist because of its language immersion program.
One possible solution the parents might consider is having their older child put into the same school as the incoming kindergarten child is assigned. This would keep kids in same school, thus cutting transportation and reducing the organization of keeping track of 2 schools and their meetings, events and requirements.
Can someone please clarify for me, what is “elitist” about wanting your children in the same school? It is not so easy to just “put the older child into the same school as the incoming kindergarten child” if they are thriving in their current school environment. Children have different temperaments and the older they get the more disruptive it is to change their school and have them start all over making new friends and learning a new environment and expectations….some kids might do fine with it and others might not. In my mind, that is a decision of the parents and I think it is incredibly unjust to label it as being elitist.
I think people have lost sight of the issue here which is that, if the parents are to be believed (and I think that they are), the school district has lost the papework and there is no recourse. Apparently, from the comments above and the multiple suggestions people have read to “walk it in” and get a proof of receipt, this is not an uncommon occurrence with SPS. I personally think that they can do better and don’t think that the “cost of postage” is an adequate excuse.
I think why people are clamoring to get into JSIS and McDonald is because they have houses down the street and want their children to be able to walk to school and meet (and play with and become friends with) other children in the neighborhood.
I have a child as JSIS and while I like that it is a language school, I love that it is a neighborhood school. Given the choice I would rather see it remain a neighborhood school and lose the language program than keep the language program and force students living across the street to enter a lottery to enter.
elitist in that it has a language immersion program..
Walking in papers or getting return receipt is always a good diea dealing with important personal needs or exchanges- my suggestion around that was NOT because things have been lost from SSD. I have to send in plenty of papers to them.
The fact is that SPS should improve their processes to include confirmation of applications received–especially for forms submitted online or by email. At the very least they should warn parents on the application materials that some methods of registering are superior to others, and that you won’t have any recourse if you don’t go to the offices in person and get a stamp on a piece of paper…
SPS enrollment system is broken and two families who followed all the rules are being treated unfairly.
I think there is some debate as to whether the families followed all the rules:
“An email to KIRO News from Teresa Wippel at Seattle Public Schools states, “Our records show that the applications were not received on time for either family. When the families appealed, we investigated and determined that the appropriate process was followed.””
If the families can get a copy of a dated form that has a date prior to the deadline, then they were treated unfairly. If they cannot, and the district can produce a copy of their forms with a date stamp after the cutoff date, then allowing them access to the school (at the expense of other students) would be unfair.
That form (with it’s datestamp) is the smoking gun.
Not sure how you can show a timestamp on lost paperwork… And it sounds like they provided a second submission, which of course was late, and is likely the paperwork SPS is referencing. So I don’t find the SPS comment helpful or explanatory.
As much as I feel that our School District has its proverbial head up its butt, it would be difficult to fault the District for refusing to overturn a school assignment based only on the claims of the parents. Sorry.
Opening the door to any parent to simply say, without proof, that papers were turned in on time and according to rules is begging for the assignment system to collapse into an even worse state.
Something as important as school assignment added to the potential decrepitude of Murphy’s Law kicking in equals get a receipt, send it in extra early and follow-up, or send it registered mail. Twenty-twenty hindsight is easy.
My sympathies to the families affected. On the bright side, many families deal with split schools and ultimately find the opportunity to participate in two school cohorts to be rewarding.
I found BF Day to be a wonderful experience. It is the families and parents that make a school community thrive, and BF Day has very engaged families and lots of activities to join. Volunteer at your school and watch it improve even more!
Many parents foresaw the problems inherent with a fixed boundary, guaranteed assignment plan. Crushed expectations, gaming the system, and exceeded capacity seemed obvious.
For all its critics, School Choice was a pretty good system, primarily because it allowed schools to fill to capacity using fairly simple rules and tiebreakers. The District did not need to move the boundary around so that guaranteed families would get their home school, but not exceed capacity. Transportation costs could have been managed simply by not guaranteeing bus service outside a certain distance from the school.
Well, there is another solution.. removing the older children from JSIS to have them at the second assignment school so both kids in each family are at the same school. Stretching parental responsibilities and events calendars as well as school expectations between 2 schools whne not necessary is extra work.
Having a sit-in and getting tv news involved however, seem ways to allienate the district from trying to put folks on a waitlist ofr cut them any breaks.
I echo the sentiments of a few here already when it is suggested that parents facing this split sibling situation pull the older child out of one school to be with the younger. Until you are faced with this situation being a real possibility and your only feasible choice, this may seem like a credible option. However, such a solution just does not speak to the reality in so many of our parenting/family lives. We families with children in grades K-5 are really at the very heart of a process of establishing our roots and meaningful connections within a community of other families in our neighborhood and at our local public school. Time and money invested by all the family members are dear and precious and for many represent a deep commitment well beyond the next few years, and directly tie into our values, dreams and desires we have for our kids as they grow up. I never had to question the issue of walking to my elementary school, or going to school alongside my older brother – this was the default for myself and my childhood community. When I think of how those items alone were core and central to my childhood development, it breaks my heart to have families facing this issue in my own backyard.
To criticize a family as “elitist” because their neighborhood school has language immersion, or scoff at them because these families are feeling treated unfairly and are doing their best to right what they see as a wrong in the larger system – is truly disrespectful. Please try to keep an open mind as you express your opinions here – these are real people with real lives and the decisions they make will affect their family in significant ways.
With regard to the expressed opinions here about whether or not this should be a news item focused on by local media – and whether or not the family has made a good decision by using the media as vehicle to express their concern, I think many of you are missing the point here. Did you not read in the documents that the appeals review board that denied these two families’ appeals included as a member the same employee who was initially responsible for providing erroneous and misleading information to one of the parents and then abruptly switched her story? To say conflict of interest here is an understatement. That alone should require a second review. Did you also miss reading in the documents or hearing on the news that both these families also took their appeal to their district school board representative, Sherry Carr, as well as to the School District Ombudsman, but got very little aid for taking this appeal farther down the road of protest. Where is the support or advocacy from these two arenas? With an entity as insulated as the SPS is currently from the main stakeholders it is supposed to serve, what other avenue of recourse is there to aid a family who is not getting satisfactory representation? Would it acceptable, just or fair in any other public situation to have a review board made up of those involved in the appeal? With no avenue for actual arbitration or to voice grievance, and the appeals process of denial offered as the “final word” by the very department involved, where, other than the media, are parents supposed to gain traction for issues directly affecting their families? Sadly, the SPS’ history of communicating and partnering with families is a bleak one, leaving many key stakeholders feeling disenfranchised over the years. At the very least, any appeal should be viewed by an independent 3rd party.
Finally, underneath all of the topical “sound bite” issues of school choice, sibling priority, language immersion, etc, isn’t the real issue here more about the obvious need for SPS to have in place a viable “check and balance” system to ensure both parties will have equal representation? Perhaps having a truly equitable AND effective avenue for families to illuminate broken processes or unjust actions of the SPS would lend itself toward SPS working harder to be a valued, trustworthy partner with their main customers and the fear of losing control over their administrative fiefdoms of policy and procedure will be a thing of the past.
These families obviously do not live close enough to the school to be guaranteed admittance. Perhaps they should move their older child to their attendance area school so that both kids can make great neighbor friends in the area that that they reside. It is elitist to think that you should be entitled entry to any school except your neighborhood attendance area school for any reason. If SPS makes an exception for these families, they will have to do it for everyone. I don’t believe they should or could let that happen. Sibling guarantee was grandfathered for one year beyond the NSAP, after that we all knew there would be families not getting their younger kids in. Those families DID know about this possibility and are demanding entry into a school that IS NOT their neighborhood school. Even if they did submit everything on time and in an orderly fashion, SPS is not obligated to assign their younger kids to JSIS. Period. It is an elitist attitude to assume that you will get what you want and then raise a ruckus when you don’t.
Their papers were late.
There was nothing about some of the finer aspects which jennifercool has mentioned for us to read.
The papers were not copied to prove a signed/dated copy or sent with return receipt.
The family lives out of the regular boundary.
At some point you lose. Period.
Media, school board.. and now a sit-in tomorrow! What will be next? Law breaking to prove a point?
How about accepting a frustratign situation and setting an example for children..” this did not turn out how we hope dit would. We will keep our names on a waiting list.. but in the meantime we shall prepare fo rthe school year with children at 2 different schools or one. Period. Move ahead. This family is nto the only family that SSD or UW Hospital or the Public Library or Molly Moon ever made or was part of a disappointing mistake. Sometimes we lose. Then the true integrity of a person is how he/she handles moving ahead in life.
I’m so disappointed in how harsh some of these comments are. When would a person ever stand up and disagree with an injustice, perceived or real, in some of these opinions? Because apparently, speaking up is the equivalent of being an elitist or a poor example for your children. What the HECK!?!?
I know these people, and in fact you may too. They are volunteers at JSIS and in the community. They are kind and respectful and have followed all the steps presented to them to try to resolve what seems to be an unfairly punishing situation.
Did you know that of the 19 out-of-bounds siblings who should have been on the waitlist, 5 or 6 siblings were accidentally granted access to JSIS during regular open-enrollment? That might explain why SPS was so willing to bump all of the 2013 siblings in, well in advance of the normal late summer wait-list notification process. So why 17 siblings instead of 19? To make a grand statement about lost paperwork? SPS makes one-off decisions all the time, so why not with these two kids?
I think SPS has a chance here to grant the 2 spaces without taking space from any other attendance area kids, as the enrollment of all other siblings already shows. That would keep these families fully engaged in one school and community, rather than split over two. And if SPS ultimately refuses to do this, I hope these families stand proud with their children for trying everything they could. I know they’ve impressed me and I’m thrilled to have them in the neighborhood.
I didn’t post already, but I’ll answer Sport’s question–
I would not go to a sit-in for two families who may or may not have turned in their paperwork on time and didn’t get their choice for school
I would participate in a sit-in to resolve a general injustice–a really bad law or policy that affects an entire group of people. There is no real injustice here. At worst, there is some bureaucratic bungling. Or, there may have been some delay in submitting paperwork. No overarching systemic injustice here.
I do not blame school board member Sherry Carr for doing nothing about this. I’m sure she hears all the time from parents unhappy with their particular assignment. The job of the school board is to address general SPS policy. A school board member could advocate for an individual is there seemed to be a gross violation of district policy, but that does not seem to be the case here. Much the same could be said for the Ombudsman. If there is no policy violation, or even any provable bureaucratic bungling, why should they help with an “appeal”? There are too many students and too little time.
Can SPS conceivably just fit two more kids into Sanford? Probably not. If it’s fully enrolled, then all classes are at the maximum capacity per teacher, and adding two more students would mean adding another teacher–in what classroom, and with what money?
Is this the best behaviour to model for children? Whine until you get your way?
I’m inclined to agree with the sentiment of Fruitbat and Marley’s Ghost… Is this protest about changing the system and holding SPS accountable to improve its policies? Or is it about two families getting their way? Imagine how the two 5-year-old kids at the center of all this drama are feeling right now…
well, stay tuned.. there is information that SSD is trying to add 2 kids per class this year because of increasing enrollments and limited capacity!!!
however, after the big sit-in.. presence inthe Superintendent’s Office and then .. beginning with the City.. maybe Dept of Neighborhoods.. about the school boundaries?
Thank you, Sport, for your wise and balanced words. Nice to read a more upbeat message here! And to Fruitbat, it is certainly your choice to perceive that speaking out about an injustice you feel needs to be set right is simply “whining to get your way” especially when it might not be something YOU personally experience as an injustice. But isn’t it funny how things change? Why, back during the whole initial transition of SPS student assignment plan – from the choice system to neighborhood schools – your moniker was very visible on the “Save Seattle Schools” blog. In fact, in response to an article written by Charlie Mas when he was asked why he tirelessly keeps protesting SPS policy and bureaucracy issues, when it seems as if nothing ever gets changed (link:
http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/2010/11/surrender-dorothy.html ) you responded quite differently, and I have copied and pasted here:
fruitbat said…
We are the seawall against an ocean of idiocy.
We may not be able to turn the tide, but what floods of horrible choices would have happened if we weren’t here? You never know what plans didn’t see daylight because someone was afraid of the pushback. I’m sure this work makes a difference.
“i’ll spend my time explaining
how the things that they complain about
Are things they could be changing
hoping someone’s gonna hear
…
cause I can’t believe that no one wants to know”
11/13/10, 8:39 PM
Well, Jennifer, It was not proven an injustice! it is pretty clear that both families neglected to use return/receipt manner of delivery or in person asking for a time stamp or even trusting mail but keeping a copy of material with initial submission date on it.. all normal tactics, methods used by prudent people when it is important to them. None of this was done.. just after the fact accusations of SSd’s negligence.
Today there is a sit-in. I wonder how many meetings, normal appointments and appropriate business tasks will be interruptted in JSCenter due to this overdone willful group. How many parents of incoming students or applicants coming for job interviews will be unable to find parking in a highly visited place due to the encroachment of this disturbed and entitled group because they didn’t take normal precautionary measures fo rtheir paperwork?
SPS does not state anything on their enrollment site about securing a receipt. All they list are the three options for enrollment (mail, in person, email). Nor do they note that mailing your forms is wrought with danger and to be avoided at all costs, or any less-reliable than the other methods. These families didn’t “neglect” any part of the process. You have a situation with no physical proof on either side, but you have character and circumstantial evidence, as noted by the principal, that the families were very unlikely to have missed the deadline. And you have an obvious benefit to letting the kids in. And you have space to let them in. And you have an enrollment process that is not infallible.
I will be protesting at the sit-in today because:
-I believe there is a huge problem with how the SPS Enrollment Office operates – with their haphazard communications about rules, and their inconsistent knowledge within that department when there are questions, and their lack of accountability when any mistakes are made.
-In this case of incoming K students Nico and Bella, paperwork lost with neither side being able to PROVE 100% a mistake was made and by whom, the SPS response to the families’ appeals has illuminated again the good old hot-button “sibling policy” issue, which is taking the focus of of the reason for appeal.
-I believe that SPS is mistakenly viewing this appeal as a demand by these parents to seek “special treatment” they are not entitled to in order to “get ahead of everyone else in line.” Yes, sibling policy comes into play as a result of the denied appeal, but the appeal itself is that these two girls’ families are attempting to back-up their claim of registering during Open Enrollment because they cannot present the SPS with a concrete/date-stamped confirmation of submission that proves this.
-I want the SPS Enrollment Office to take on the onus of showing equal proof and back-up documentation/support that they would NOT likely have lost the forms. I believe a new, more partial appeal review process is necessary.
-I believe the SPS can do a whole lot better on behalf of these two girls and their families in providing their stakeholders fair and equitable treatment, as they have promised in their recent 5 Year Plan.
-I want a more transparent process for this appeal and any denials issued, a subsequent review and ratification by the Superintendent, and the commitment to creating a more equitable route to appeal, especially one that does not include on the review board an employee involved in the claim.
-I want to be voice of reason and focus toward the initial appeal, and will be calling for SPS to do the same in a situation that maybe has no precedent yet, but is cluttered with lots of gray area and several hot-button topics that distract from the true reason for appeal. SPS admitting error about these 2 forms would not be making an exception about letting out of boundary siblings in because they are “protesting the sibling policy and just want to get their way.” It is not setting a precedent to families that “it’s okay to turn something in late and we will still consider it.”
-Bella and Nico’s families have followed the only path available to them for appeals, including going to the Ombudsman to try to get support for a more just and fair appeals process, but have NOT received satisfaction, or an explanation of why SPS will not correct their mistake or clear up this obvious oversight. Media coverage might be the last way to alert others there is a wrong being done here.
-The result of SPS’ refusal to take ANY responsibility for this clerical error, admit the possibility of error, or at least investigate on their end and provide back-up documentation that refutes these families’ claims, two families I am proud to be neighbors with will suffer and be split.
If you get nothing else from my posts, please get what the REAL APPEAL and this protest is about:
1) Incoming student forms were submitted by the parents, by the open enrollment deadline (not “on time” or “in a timely manner” but BEFORE open enrollment closed!)
2) Parents (trusting and not-yet-jaded as many of us are) assumed the forms reached their destination
3) As no SPS Enrollment process now exists to time-stamp or confirm/record submission, there is no way to prove or disprove forms were submitted and/or received on either end
4) Further delays were caused in getting appeal in because an incorrectly informed employee provided erroneous information to parents, directly in contradiction with later-stated Enrollment rules that siblings will “lose their sibling status” if not registered during open enrollment. These rules/policies were never communicated at time of enrollment, were not in any obvious literature available to parents when enrolling and not in common knowledge or understanding by ALL public-facing Enrollment staff.
5) The appeal here is about claiming that ‘Yes, these families submitted these forms on time,” but that due to being a “he said she said” issue (see #3), they must support their claim the best they can, and do so by showing supporting documents (principals letter, parent group support, etc.).
6) The appeal should be reviewed again by a balanced group of parties, and NOT include the employee that originally provided erroneous information.
it is pretty clear that both families neglected to use return/receipt manner of delivery or in person asking for a time stamp or even trusting mail but keeping a copy of material with initial submission date on it.. all normal tactics, methods used by prudent people when it is important to them. None of this was done.. just after the fact accusations of SSd’s negligence.
Your intensity may win.
Sorry, bureaucratic mess-up–if there was one–is not an social injustice. A royal pain for those to whom it happened, sure, but not the same as systemic discrimination.
Oh, and while there’s no guarantee that anyone on the internet is the same fruitbat, I will point out that the post in question is about major overarcing district issues–curriculum, assignment, school closing, bad planning, bad spending–not about some possible mess up by a clerk (and really, all those bullet points are about the same thing: there may have been a mess-up in the enrollment office, and the appeals process didn’t work out for the families).
So how many people showed up for the sit-in?
Sit in had good attendance, 10-20 all told, rolling between the two as supporters could make it. KING, KIRO, KOMO and FOX/JOE TV all came and will be airing segments tonight.
KIRO is showing it live at 5;54.. maybe someone will fill us in
10-20 doesn’t seem like “good attendance.” It makes it look like this is something that most people don’t care about.
JeniferCool’s reasons for attending are commendable, but that’s not really what this protest was about, was it? I keep coming back to the the parents’ original statement :
“The Enrollment Office lost the forms and now Nico and Isabella are assigned to a different school than their older siblings,which offers no language immersion.”
Their statement could have ended at the comma if this was truly about the things JenniferCool went to protest, but it didn’t. It expressed the true issue for these families, which was getting zoned out of a language immersion option.
That’s not worth protesting unless you are going to swing by every other neighborhood in SPS and pick up those folks as well.
You’re not entitled to extra programs in your public school simply because you paid too much for your home.
Well, I hope the district doesn’t cave, unless some evidence shows up.
People who are heavily involved in making sure everyone gets their paperwork in on time, votes, gets their visa for the big trip–some major activity–often end up forgetting to do that thing themselves. They may be certain that they must have done so–but no. Could this have happened here?
Sadly, while I hate to agree with SPS 🙂 I have to say that lacking any evidence, the benefit of the doubt must go to the district, or else the halls of the Stanford Center will be full of parents laying “of course I turned in my stuff” (or worse–“of course my darling child turned in his/her work”). This particular set of events could go either way. Tie goes to the district. It’s too bad, but it’s time to move on.
Most particularly, it’s time to let these children feel good about the school they are going to. Yay, BF Day! New playground! Village Day! Cool old building! Tiles! Family Dinners! Enjoy it, kids!
Parents might benefit from going to the SSD website and check out the committees which need members. One is about school-family partnerships. The sibling issue could be brought up here.
Has anyone checked the SSD website recently? there is an announcement abotu a new system getting kids off waitlists etc..
There is a new message from the superintendent on the SD website with a new email address for people to write to regarding student assignments.