This is a new blog (or at least a newly active blog), and it will take some time for folks to figure out what the conventions are here. That's why we initially left the following comment up, with the replies we made below:
Seattle Public Schools JAMS this down our throats.
Thanks for nuttin'. I heard ZERO concerns about rolling this in, and PLENTY of concerns about pushing kids out of their present school.
Kids across the street from Eckstein are headed for JAMS. Stupid, and indefensible
To make room for the APP program you are pushing local kids out. Idiotic. The APP parents knew it was going to be a trek when they signed up for it.
Mr. Banda, I wish you well in your next job, the sooner the better.
We decided to leave this comment up as it was really the first off-topic comment on the blog, without pointing out that the factual content was wrong. We replied with the following warnings and explanations:
JAMS Plans
December 10, 2013 at 6:56 PM
A reminder about the focus of this blog, posted right on the front page: "This is a narrowly defined blog. It is about planning JAMS and facilitating community engagement. It is offered by parent volunteers. This is not a place to discuss school district policies, personalities, or politics. It is a place for constructive civil discourse. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or abusive comments without warning or comment.".
The comment above is an example of an off-topic comment. We are leaving it up only to serve as an example of the kind of comment that you can expect to have deleted.
Although we are aware that Mr. Banda mentioned us in a recent communication, this blog is not in any way run by or sanctioned by SPS. We are simply parents who are excited to be part of the JAMS community and want to help get that community off the ground. The political process leading us to where we are is off-topic here.
That said, I personally understand your frustration and wish your family well.
Additionally, we remind everyone of the following, which is spelled out in the comment form: "You're welcome to comment anonymously, but please sign your comment with a posting name of some kind (e.g., initials or alias) to facilitate conversation within the threads, and also so we can begin to build a feeling of community here.
Really, a mistake to have left that up. It was a mistake because we should have seen that Anonymous's comment would prompt off-topic responses from others. Which it did, and understandably so:
P.S. to Anonymous@4:18 The APP community did not ask to come to JAMS because we know that being placed in a attendance-area school displaces others and can cause problems. However, it seems like the district rarely listens to us, so here we are. We hope to make the best of it, along with everyone else.
Because of our initial mistake in leaving the off-topic comment up, we edited out the reply's off-topic content and reposted the rest of the content. In general we will not do that; the off-topic (OT) comment and all off-topic responses will simply be deleted.
Bottom line: Please stay on topic.
To make it clear, talking about who is being assigned to JAMS and why is WAY off-topic. This blog is a place that was created in order to build community, and it was clearly demonstrated in this instance that the requirement to stay on-topic supports that goal. We want to help build a community that supports all its members.
