Thank you to those parents who were able to make it to the Fall General Membership meeting.  It was great to see so many new faces along with our returning members.

So, what’s next?  We need you to act now.

1. Support the annual campaign: The vast majority of the PTSA budget is provided through our contributions to the campaign. Thanks to you, we are off to a great start at a third of the way toward our 100% participation goal. By continuing toward that goal and giving to the campaign, we will ensure ourselves of having the necessary resources to continue with the tradition of funding into the next school year all the programs we as a Bryant community feel are important.
2. Advocate at the local and state level:
   • Email Joan Crooks to join the Bryant Advocacy list and receive regular updates on how you can help raise the volume on the need for Seattle Public Schools and Washington State to properly fund education.
   • Join forces with other Seattle Schools in an effort to develop a strategy to put a full stop to the current staff cuts due to take effect this week. For more information about how to get involved visit #kidsnotcuts.
3. State your intent: Jason Smith & a few other parents are spearheading a grassroots effort to gauge the interest doing additional fundraising this year to increase support for the Extension and Intervention program.

Thank you again for everyone’s participation and efforts to support Bryant Elementary school. A special thanks for Principle Sanger for taking the time to go deeper in his explanation of Professional Learning Communities and how that teaching model impacts both the staff and our students.  It was also helpful to hear how the Intervention and Extension specialist is plugged into the PLC model and how the Intervention and Extension program will need to evolve without a dedicated specialist coordinating the team.

Leeann Huntington
PTSA President

Dear Bryant Families:

We are so fortunate to have such an engaged community at Bryant! The feedback and questions received about the staff proposal to fund the full time Intervention and Extension program specialist demonstrates the depth of that engagement from our families.

Over the past several days, the board members have talked to several parents as well as fielded emails asking for additional details around the impact on the budget, unallocated funds and the sustainability of the program moving into the next school year.  Parents are openly supportive of a full time dedicated Intervention and Extension specialist, especially in light of the building goals to challenge our advanced learners and see one year’s growth for every student in math, but have reservations about funding it as proposed by the staff.

This parental enthusiasm is also shared by the staff and administration at Bryant for the Intervention and Extension team and the Professional Learning Community work being conducted in the building today. Mr. Sanger has shared this work with our community at Curriculum Night and through the Bryant Weekly. However, while the entire staff generally supports the work of the PLCs and the Intervention and Extension program, not everyone is in agreement with the proposal that would deplete building reserves, reallocate budget items and include out-of-pocket money from the staff to fund one of the Intervention and Extension specialists.

When the PTSA Board stepped back to consider both parent and staff concerns, it became clear that it is just too soon to force a vote of the general membership. While the District’s pulling of the position came suddenly and decisively, and its immediate repercussions are highly disruptive, acting hastily to reinstate the program at the expense of both building and PTSA funds does not serve Bryant’s families well.  To be clear, the Intervention and Extensions program is not going away.  It will be scaled back considerably, and this will be challenging to the program, but we still have Teresa Elhardt and Leah Kumar, both half time specialists, as well as our 3 hardworking tutors.

In light of the Bryant PTSA and administration’s retraction of the staff proposal, we’ll use Tuesday’s general membership meeting to discuss:

• District policies impacting the building, resulting in the loss of a teacher.
• Bryant moving forward around the PLC work with a scaled back Intervention and Extension specialist program this year.
• Bryant continuing to address educational objectives.
• Funding the Intervention and Extension specialist, as well as essential professional development for our teachers to implement the changes most effectively and skillfully.
• What we should be doing as a community to influence state funding for basic education.

Thank you to the parents and staff for sharing your enthusiasm and concerns with the Bryant PTSA board and administration. Working together, we’ll continue to strengthen the community that makes Bryant what it is today.

Sincerely,
Leeann Huntington
PTSA President

The PTSA has fielded many questions about the PTSA/staff proposal for continuing the Intervention and Extension program this year. If you have any others, please email the Executive Committee.

Q: How much money does the PTSA have in “unallocated” funds and how much will remain after the PTSA allocates funds towards the IE program?

A: The PTSA currently has $16,000 in unallocated funds available.  That balance will be taken down to $0. The PTSA Board would need to vote on whether to designate those funds to the IE program.

Q: What has the unallocated funds been used for in the past and is it wise to have nothing available for the remaining school year?

A: Unallocated funds are what is available after the budget has been approved.  In the past, the dollars have been used for library purchases, funding the replenishment of classroom emergency supplies, buying educational software for the students. Having no money in unallocated makes it difficult to address new requests that haven’t been budgeted for, making it necessary to tell committees they may have to wait until the next school for funds.

Q: What amount is coming from building reserves?

A: $10,000

Q: How much is coming from the so called “out of pocket” contributions?

A: Staff have pledged $14,500 for the 2015/16 school year.

Q: What is the plan for raising the remaining $12,000?

A: The staff will appeal to the general membership to pledge dollars that will be allocated directly towards supporting Ms James and the Intervention and Extension program.  If the initial pledge dollars come in short then the staff will host additional fundraisers throughout the year which might include Parent’s Night Out childcare or a Teacher Experience auction.

Q: Given that a bulk of the funding plan is based on one-time or unidentified sources, what is the plan to sustain the program beyond the 2015-2016 school year?

A:  Funding for the 2016/17 school year is still to be determined. Possible sources of funding could come from the district if enrollment exceeds 600 students and Bryant is granted the full time teacher that was just pulled.  Other possible sources could include funds raised during the annual campaign that starts October 12 but would require PTSA budget approval or a separate fundraising event all together where funds would be held in reserve in the event the district didn’t provide the additional full time teacher.

Q: How exactly does $80,000 save the Intervention and Extension program?

A: The $80,000 is the cost for a full time teacher.  The $80,000 would be used to pay Ms. James’ salary and benefits for the 2015/16 school year.  By keeping her in the second grade classroom, Mr Matthias would be able to continue to lead the new intervention and Extension program.

Q: Where are all the funds are coming from that will be used to fund the Intervention and Extension program?

A: 

• $16,000 PTSA Unallocated funds
• $10,000 Bryant building reserves
• $29,000  Budget reallocation from teacher support
• $14,500 staff pledges
• $10,500 – $12,000 from fundraising efforts throughout the year.
  $80,000 – $81,500 total funding

Our PTSA Garden Buddy Committee, Pamela Kuhtz and Mark Benoit have been busy cleaning up the garden from the summer growing season, and getting beds ready for fall planting. Last week they hosted Ms. Bodine’s class out in the garden to harvest the carrots her class had planted last spring.

“Hey, these beans are the same color as my shirt!!!”
“How come this cucumber is so much more crunchy than at home?”

This year the Garden Buddies will work with our third grade teachers to create meaningful ways to interact with the popular Plant Growth and Development science unit.

Dear Bryant Families,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you to convey the sad news I received Monday from the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning at Seattle Public Schools, and I ask in advance for your patience and support. At Bryant we have experienced lower enrollment than projected, which has led the district to reduce our teaching staff by 1 position.

Annually, at the beginning of the school year, Seattle Public Schools undergoes a staffing adjustment process to monitor enrollment at every school and to adjust staffing levels relative to actual student enrollment. Staffing adjustment decisions are made to match student needs with limited staff resources. In this process, adjustments are made in staff levels at schools to reflect the number of students actually enrolled in a program, grade and school, as opposed to forecasted/ projected enrollments. While enrollment projections are usually accurate at the district level, a wide range of factors can influence the final number of students enrolled at a grade, program and school level.

Once receiving student enrollment counts for each school, the district then reevaluates staffing across schools, making adjustments up and down based on each school’s enrollment. Please know that effort was taken to assess all factors for staffing adjustment decisions at all schools. Staffing adjustment recommendations are developed by a team composed of members from Budget, Human Resources, Enrollment Planning, School Operations, Capital Planning, Special Education, Advanced Learning and English Language Learning departments, who use current enrollment numbers in determining staffing adjustments.

Additionally, Enrollment Planning also takes into account other factors in staffing allocations, including projected changes, expected attrition, historical trends in enrollment for each school as well as unique factors affecting each schools’ enrollment. Each school is carefully reviewed for any factors which could impact the classroom.

Because Jessica James has the lowest seniority of teachers on staff, she will be displaced from Bryant. She will retain her contract status with Seattle Public Schools and will be given a position at a different building. Jessica’s last day at Bryant will be Friday, October 16th. This adjustment means that Mr. Matthias will return to 2nd grade that following Monday and be the classroom teacher in Room 306 for the remainder of the school year. As many of you heard during curriculum night, Mr. Matthias had recently stepped into the role of Intervention and Extension Coordinator. Although his departure certainly makes that work more challenging, our staff is excited about that model and committed to addressing the needs of all students. We are having internal discussions about how we might best reconfigure current staffing and repurpose our paid tutors in order to address these supports.

I know this can be a difficult experience for students, and we will do everything we can to support the students in Ms. James’s classroom as they make the transition to their new teacher. Mr. Matthias, Ms. James, Ms. Pearson and I have scheduled a meeting with these families to discuss this transition.

Thank you again for your continued support of our staff and instructional program here at Bryant. We will keep you posted about any new developments as they occur.

Sincerely,
Dan Sanger
Principal
Bryant Elementary

Hello Bryant Community,

It was wonderful to briefly share some of our exciting plans for the Intervention and Extension Team with you at Curriculum Night! Because families are so inundated with information about the start of the new year, I thought it might be beneficial to summarize some of what the Intervention and Extension Team goals are this year.

The primary goal of the team is to work closely with the Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at Bryant to identify and offer targeted and personalized support to students who are either approaching standard or are performing above standard. We look forward to collaborating with our talented teachers to design interventions that support students who need review of concepts, re-teaching, and additional assistance, as well as creating extensions and enrichment experiences to support students who may already be performing above grade level benchmarks. Read more →

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