Public Testimony at the Board Meeting

You can watch the Public Testimony portion of the School Board meeting here.


Director DeBell respects the courage it took NOVA students to talk about trans youth and gender identification. What a shame that it takes courage.

Chris Jackins did a good job of shaming the Board for how their minds get foggy when members of the public speak for three minutes but can hold up as the Alliance for Education and the Gates Foundation speak for hours. He also shamed them for the astonishing and grotesque cost overruns on the Garfield renovation and the District's efforts to sweep those cost overruns under the rug.

Everything Dan Dempsey said was right, which just goes to show how little it counts to be right.

Rick Burke called the requirement that all schools use the same math textbooks "an unnecessary and counter-productive constraint". That was great. He also noted that CMP II has reached the end of its seven-year cycle and is due for review and possible replacement.

Tim Schlosser says that the TFA corps members are working hard and accomplishing wonderful things. Like other teachers are not? He says that the only question is whether hiring committees should have the option of hiring Teach for America corps members when seeking the best choices for their available teacher positions. But if we were really to open the hiring pool we would certainly open it beyond just Teach for America corps members, wouldn't we? Why not open the hiring to everyone who doesn't have a teacher certificate? Wouldn't that achieve the same outcomes to an even greater degree?

Lisa McFarlane tried to make some kind of point about keeping our commitments. First of all, does she know who she is talking to? Seattle Public Schools has never kept a single commitment that it has ever made to any community of students and families. She picked an odd choice of themes. Second, what commitment? The contract has a termination clause. So long as the District follows the terms of that clause they are keeping their commitment. Not a clever bit of testimony at all. Also, it's not as if the six teachers who were hired would be fired if the contract were canceled.

Liv Finne says that the Teach for America corps members are needed because they are the best teachers. I hadn't heard anyone make that claim before. She also said that Teach for America has brought new prestige and success to teaching. Yes, I've noticed how much prestige teachers have gained over the past couple years.

Christine King and Rebecka McKinney from Graham Hill came and gave the Board a tongue-lashing for over-ruling the superintendent regarding Pay for K at Graham Hill Montessori pre-school. It was a clever use of a current action item to talk about an issue which is not an action item. They framed it as a governance /management issue.

Lindsey Hill, the executive director for Teach for America in the Puget Sound spoke. I wonder if she's very worried about her job. I mean, let's face it. As of this moment her performance doesn't look that great. She got them into just two school districts this year and she only got about ten corps members hired instead of the 30-35 they were expecting. Now one of the two districts is contemplating the termination of the contract. I gotta believe that someone further up in the organization has talked to her about these results, and I cannot imagine it was a comfortable talk for her. She refutes the claim that TfA lacks diversity, only I don't remember anyone saying that. She refutes the claim that TfA teachers do not stay in education, only no one ever said that (although people have said that TfA corps members don't stay in the classroom). She claims that they are opposed by a vocal minority and that they have a broad, diverse range of supporters. I have no idea what data she used to reach that conclusion.

"Moderate Voice of Parents" had a couple of speakers, but I don't really know who they are or what they want. I suspect they want Gates Foundation funding.

I heard Daniel Calderone, a Teach for America corps member now working as the only foreign language teacher at Rainier Beach High School, speak but I cannot tell you what he said other than "I'm doing my job."

Another Teach for America staff member came forward to clarify any mis-conceptions that may be out there about Teach for America. She spoke about what principals have said in praise of the work by their first and second year teachers, but there aren't any second year Teach for America corps members in Seattle schools. She wanted to dispel the mistaken idea that TfA corps members have an advantage in the hiring process, only I've never heard anyone say that. It is not one of the mis-conceptions in circulation. She said that the partnership was initiated by the school board, which categorically false. She said that Teach for America corps members were hired by hiring committees comprised of "principals, teachers, parents, and community members" but none of the hiring committees that selected corps members had any parent or community member representation. That's another false statement from her. For a person who is looking to correct false statements she is doing more harm than good. She says that it is a system that has been in place in our district for many years. Also false. She also wanted to correct the claims that TfA corps members take jobs away from SPS teachers, except that no one ever said that. Finally, she wanted to dispel a third rumor that does not exist; that Teach for America corps members are affluent "outsiders". It must be fun and easy to write an argument when you also get to invent the opposing argument. It is certainly a lot easier than facing up to the real opposing argument.

We got to hear the real opposing argument from Cecelia McCormick, Dorothy Neville, and Melissa Westbrook.