Seattle Schools Community Forum

On high school student protests over changing the one-house lunch i nto two lunch periods, stories from the West Seattle Blog and The Seattle Times. Via the West Seattle Blog : Looks like masses of students outside the JSCEE. WSB estimates about 1,000 students which is a lot.  In the comments at the WSB, I see this: The students voices were heard! The district is postponing the plan for now.  I will check on this news.  I see one statement from Superintendent Podesta in the Times' article that may address that comment. Via The Seattle Times: As students chanted outside the building’s doors, a group of student leaders were allowed inside to meet with interim Superintendent Fred Podesta, who apologized for the rollout of the policy, but did not walk back the proposed change.  “The way we rolled this out, that was on us, and I’m sorry about that,” Podesta told the six student leaders inside his office.  In an interview, Podesta said the students were “really passio...

 Actually, my first item is this  - a plea to all who work in the public domain. There is now a website called   Charliesmurderers.com by the "Charlie Kirk Data Foundation."  We track statistics on the prevalence of political extremism They claim they are not a "doxxing website." That might be true but only up to the point where they won't print addresses. But what they want are submissions (bold mine): We lawfully collect publicly-available data to analyze the prominence of support for political violence in the interest of public education. We do not publish data which identifies individuals. But I think they will take those submissions and start campaigns to get people fired or let go from their jobs. Teachers and staff, it is your First Amendment right to say whatever you want on any topic. But I am hearing that even saying something as vague as "karma is a bitch" could land you on their list. I tell you this not to shush you. But is making a comm...

  I first heard about this news at the West Seattle Blog : Starting next Monday, less than two weeks into the new school year, high-school lunchtime will be split into two.  The district apparently isn't explaining this change, just announcing it. Messaging from principals on 9/9: To ensure our schools remain aligned with state requirements and district policies, SPS is moving all comprehensive high schools from one lunch period to two lunch periods. This new schedule will begin on Monday, 915. This change supports important goals across all our comprehensive high schools including: - ensuring all students have adequate time to eat lunch while meeting the state's required instructional minutes - protecting staff lunch breaks and supporting our food service teams' contractual rights - providing equitable access to meals for students attending off-site programs like the Skills Center As a district, we understand that your student may experience a slight change in their daily ...

Parents today know that even as older generations had more existential threats (nuclear annihilation), your children have many more threats. I don't think I'd want to be raising a child right now. - (still) Existential threats - the Internet  It offers a plethora of ways to hurt your child (and not just child molesters but many more of them using cyberspace to look for and attract kids. See this important article in The NY Times about parents who are suing Open AI because they believe a chatbot that their son had a "relationship" with did not do enough to save him from killing himself.)  He started using ChatGPT-4o around that time (sophomore year) to help with his schoolwork, and signed up for a paid account in January. The chatbot app lists past chats, and Mr. Raine saw one titled “Hanging Safety Concerns.” He started reading and was shocked. Adam had been discussing ending his life with ChatGPT for months. Adam began talking to the chatbot, which is powered by art...

This is a very interesting race between two candidates who are both very qualified to serve. I would say that even with Director Joe Mizrahi and Director Sarah Clark running, Janis White probably knows the district better than they do. Clearly, Vivian Song has served previously and did much better in the primary than White but I still think White deserves a look. Both of these candidates have invested the time and effort to know this district; I echo what others have said that I wish that one or the other was running from another district.  If I were a voter here's what I might consider and one trait they both have that might give me pause. White's expertise in Special Education is  phenomenal. There just hasn't been a candidate like her before (though some have said they knew a lot about the subject). She is a thinker and knows the district.  Song's expertise in budget matters - doing the work to really try to get in there and figure out what is happening - is great....

This will be a shorter post than the other races. That would be because I chose not to interview candidate Carol Rava. I'll explain that at the end because I don't want to give short shrift to the D7 candidate that I DID interview and that would be Jen LaVallee. Interview I asked LaVallee about why she stepped up to run. She said she had become active in her children's schools and was very unhappy to learn about the October 1 enrollment count and how damaging it can be to schools, especially Title One schools. She said she pushed back on closures because there "was no clear communication on why" but basically the district was saying, "We know what we're doing." She said her children were at Dunlap Elementary which is a Title One school. She also said she helped start the Billion Dollar Bake sale.  She said when she learned Director Hersey was not running, she asked around and could not find anyone to run. Then friends told her she was already doing t...