Seattle Schools Community Forum

 I grew up with adults (including teachers) telling us to "Remember Pearl Harbor." It was a time when the country united around a common goal and nearly everyone knew someone in that war. In school, it was always mentioned on December 7th.  Then, in my mid-life, came 9/11. It was just devastating in a way that brings me to tears to this day. I may have mentioned this in past posts on this day but I recall telling my 3rd grader about what happened before I took him to school. He asked me, "Is Papa okay?" because my husband was traveling on business. Luckily my husband had gotten to his destination the day before. He was staying in Germany at a hotel called The Manhattan and in the lobby was a mirrored cutout of the New York skyline, complete with the twin towers. We could only communicate via email and he was gone for days before he could fly back. I took my son to school and saw the flag at the top of the pole. I found the principal and told him to put it at half-st...

President Gina Topp and Director Joe Mizrahi have an op-ed in The Stranger which I found, well, a bit strange.                       We Avoided a Strike, Now the Real Fight Begins This Should Be a Wake-Up Call to Fix Our Broken Education Funding System This is a fairly obvious topic for Board members to take up so it's not a surprise.  Both of us are lifelong supporters of organized labor. Joe spent 19 years working in the labor movement with UFCW 3000, the largest private sector local union in Washington State. Gina worked alongside unions for years at King County. Both of us were fervently supported by labor when we ran for office. We believe unions make workplaces better, workers deserve strong wages and benefits, and teaching may be the hardest job in any school district. They go through where SPS is currently: Seattle started this budget cycle staring at an  $87 million hole.  We found a way to balance this ...

The first essay is the Superintendent's Newsletter, dated August 30, 2026. Here's a link.  There is also a link in this post about his newest Newsletter, dated September 6th. All bold mine. It's fairly lengthy as he goes over much of his thinking during the teacher contract negotiations.  Highlights: - However, as many folks know, by not addressing things in public, only one side is being heard from. I have negotiated many contracts in my time, and I have never responded publicly about any of them. But that is also because I have never had a union or association share so publicly as SEA does. That is certainly their prerogative. I would never tell a union how to negotiate. With this current bargain being so important and the community being so attuned with the machinations of the negotiations, I think it is important to follow suit with the union and explain a bit about what is going on. - Note: Throughout bargaining, I am sure you have heard the term COLA (Cost-of-Living ...

I posted a link to this article written by Sandeep Kaushik earlier but here it is again.   It is a lengthy piece but a worthy one for anyone wondering how SPS got to the place it is today. There are many other good articles in this series called Attacks on Excellence at the Education Progress platform. He starts with some data on the city of Seattle and its high-income, well-educated citizenry. And then there's this (which we could have another whole conversation about especially given the coming elections): Seattle is also one of the country’s most politically left-leaning cities (like Zohran Mamdani in New York, Seattle’s recently elected mayor, Katie Wilson, is a self-described socialist), one that conceives of itself as a Disneyland of progressive public policy imagineering , where elected officials vie with one another to lead on incorporating au courant activist ideas and cutting edge cosmopolitan cultural commitments into governance. Ouch! But he's right. Going on, he...

Update: a kind reader sent me the link to the video of SEA President Ibi Idowu in March after she was placed on administrative leave from her duties as a Special Education teacher. I found the comments on Reddit to be interesting but I'll wait and see what my readers think.  end of update Ever seen this site? It's the Washington State Fiscal Information t hat tells you how much every K-12 school employee is paid. This is through 2024-2025 so Superintendent Ben Shuldiner isn't here.   I note that former senior administrative staffer Michael Tolley, who is now Northshore's super was making $460K+ a year. No one in SPS senior management makes less than $200K plus nearly every high school principal makes about $200K.  I am hearing rumblings of unhappiness from elementary school parents who are finding out that the state law requires at least 30 minutes of recess a day a nd apparently, in SPS, that's all they are going to get. PE does not count in that 30 minutes. The ...