Seattle Schools Community Forum

  Interesting op-ed from an SPS senior, Dorothea Kaste: I’m a student. I’m in favor of a stronger SPS cellphone ban The quality of the op-ed is excellent and she makes some good points.  A policy that is not fully “away for the day” will always be a nightmare to maintain, especially because of the burden it places on teachers. “[enforcing the policy] would take five or 10 minutes, six times a day,” says one of my teachers. One of the most common concerns about an all-day phone policy in high schools is how to handle off-campus lunch and open campuses where students have different schedules due to programs like Running Start. But schools around the country have figured it out — why can’t we? High schools in other states (and five miles away on Mercer Island!) are making it work and are not allowing a minor logistical challenge to cost students a good education.   A huge GOOD LUCK wish to Hamilton's Raven Amrhein who is at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D....

Memorial Day editorial in The Seattle Times: Seattle’s Memorial Wall inspires youth to uphold timeless values Since its unveiling in 1951 at the east end of Memorial Stadium on what later became the Seattle Center campus, the landmark has displayed the etched names of 762 Seattle graduates who lost their lives in World War II.   When the renovation project is finished next year, it will be provided the honor and solemnity that is its due. Gratitude to city planners, Seattle Public Schools, volunteers and One Roof Sports & Entertainment for making sure to do that. Okay but SPS did NOTHING for decades to maintain and honor that wall. I hope when it is rededicated that Superintendent Shuldiner does indeed mention that oversight. SPS did run a design contest for the memorial and a Garfield senior won. Marianne Hanson, born and raised in Seattle to Swedish immigrant parents, was a senior at Garfield High School when her design was selected as the winner out of 61 entries for the wal...

From Danny Westneat's column in The Seattle Times : Seattle has the No. 1 big city school district. We should act like it  Apparently, it is our new superintendent, Ben Shuldiner, who did the research. " It’s like that old Mark Twain quote, I think the rumors of your death have been greatly exaggerated,” Ben Shuldiner told the School Board in February. So Shuldiner set out to do a sort of newcomer’s evaluation of Seattle’s schools. He visited 35 of them in the first month. He took a fresh look at local and national data. He asked a basic question: Is it working? What he found will probably come as news even to parents with kids in the district. “In the aggregate, Seattle Public Schools is among the highest performing school systems on the entire West Coast,” a surprised Shuldiner told the board at a retreat in March.    That list also includes Bellevue SD.    According to Stanford’s  Educational Opportunity Project ,  Seattle ranks in the top 12% of al...

I am aware of Danny Westneat's column - Seattle Has the No.1 Big City School District - and that will be a separate post. It was an interesting read.  First up, I did listen to the interview at the local NPR station last week with Superintendent Ben Shuldiner.  (I did finally hear from the radio folks after I did multiple types of outreach, trying to nail down the date/time for my readers but only after the interview was taped. I'm not sure they understand that I could have driven more listeners to their program.)  Shuldiner called his time so far " a wonderful whirlwind."  He said that in order for SPS to become " the best urban district in the country," that the district had to straighten out its finances ( "not spending more money than we have" ), explain the district's decisions before they are made and include community in discussions, and create great instruction in the classroom. He said trust and transparency had to happen with communi...

 Upcoming posts - What did the Superintendent say to the local NPR station? - What happened at the Board meeting last Wednesday?  - Another lawsuit coming to SPS Monday, May 18, 2026 Finance and Audit Committee meeting from 10 am to noon at the JSCEE Board office conference room. Agenda.  Oddly, they need to pass the minutes from meetings in June of 2025, September 2025, and December 2025. Whoops.  There will be a presentation by the State Auditor's Office that includes "financial condition - reviewing for indications of financial distress." I think distress is a great word for the current situation. There was also this from the actual report (not the presentation): Additionally, during the audit certain matters came to our attention that are currently under investigation. The results of that investigation will determine whether or not we issue a separate report on the matter.  Hmmm Page 13 - On School Bus Expenditures The District did not have monitoring contr...