King County Bears Down on Silas Potter
From KUOW:
Former Seattle Public Schools manager Silas Potter faces 33 new felony theft charges for allegedly embezzling more than a quarter of a million dollars from the district.
King County Prosecutor's Office Deputy Chief of Staff Ian Goodhew says prosecutors brought the new charges because Potter has declined to plead guilty to the nine original felony theft charges. "Each of those counts are for additional checks that we believe were laundered through dummy companies from the Seattle Public School system for services that were not rendered or that they grossly overcharged for," Goodhew said.
Hard to believe he wouldn't plead guilty given that one of his co-conspirators (Lorrie Kay Sorenson) did already. The other co-conspirator, David A. Johnson, did not appear at the Potter hearing and a bench warrant went out for his arrest.
Potter is to be tried in Feb. (let's hope AFTER the levy elections).
He could get up to 10 years in prison for all 35 counts.
Former Seattle Public Schools manager Silas Potter faces 33 new felony theft charges for allegedly embezzling more than a quarter of a million dollars from the district.
King County Prosecutor's Office Deputy Chief of Staff Ian Goodhew says prosecutors brought the new charges because Potter has declined to plead guilty to the nine original felony theft charges. "Each of those counts are for additional checks that we believe were laundered through dummy companies from the Seattle Public School system for services that were not rendered or that they grossly overcharged for," Goodhew said.
Hard to believe he wouldn't plead guilty given that one of his co-conspirators (Lorrie Kay Sorenson) did already. The other co-conspirator, David A. Johnson, did not appear at the Potter hearing and a bench warrant went out for his arrest.
Potter is to be tried in Feb. (let's hope AFTER the levy elections).
He could get up to 10 years in prison for all 35 counts.
Comments
Martin-Morris, Maier and Sundquist had direct/in-direct knowledge of concerns with the program and yet seemingly, did not alert other directors.
there are scores and scores of 100 grand plus plus a year big shots making stupid policy and doing nothing to help anyone in the trenches do a better job. Year after year those scores and scores rip off the public, beat on us bottom feeders, and add nothing of value to solving the problems of educating hundreds of thousands of kids.
If Potter deserves 10 years for ripping of tens of thousands of kids and hundreds of thousands of tax payers, surely the scores and scores deserve 30 years for ripping off even more kids and more taxpayers? How many custodians and teachers and principals and librarians and and and have lost their jobs because these scores and scores target us with their Word Of God baloney ... I mean their management jargon baloney du jour?
I'll take Fanne Foxe Wilbur Mills Potter style corruption over scores and scores of
ParasitesAnyDay
Melissa wrote:
Martin-Morris, Maier and Sundquist had direct/in-direct knowledge of concerns with the program and yet seemingly, did not alert other directors.
==============
Carr, Martin-Morris, Maier and Sundquist ignored the data on New Tech Network schools and voted for a contract they had not read. Then when a legal appeal was filed they had a do over vote 2 months later ... and still voted 4-3 to toss away $800,000 for the baloney tools used at seriously under-performing Project Based Learning New Tech Schools.
Same four directors also voted for "Discovering Algebra etc." for Seattle High Schools. ... These folks wasted more dollars than Potter took. Note MGJ, Enfield and Tolley were on the side of wasting dollars and conducting little or no sound research.
This is just another log on the fire of cynicism about our complete joke "Seattle Schools central office upper admin" and the members of the past school board.
-- Dan Dempsey
You can have all the special programs, tutoring services, endless testing, and charter experiments you want but they will not replace a fundamentally sound math curriculum. The students were really let down by these decision makers.
S parent
I can't say I'm glad Potter ripped off the district, but his actions set the district on another path.
So, you can go on and on about "big shots" "ripping off" the public, but if you can't tie it to a specific criminal law violation, you just end up looking like unfettered lunatics.
And Dan, FORGET NTN AND DISCOVERING ALGEBRA!!! While these were stupid decisions on the part of the Board, keep in mind that you have never won your case on these issues. Continually harping about these years after they occurred negatively affects your credibility.
You wrote:
And Dan, FORGET NTN AND DISCOVERING ALGEBRA!!! While these were stupid decisions on the part of the Board, keep in mind that you have never won your case on these issues. Continually harping about these years after they occurred negatively affects your credibility.
The thrust for instructional practices that are ineffective apparently continues as Discovering Algebra etc. are still with us. Note the NTN contract was for three years service. It is still with us also.
It is not "years after they occurred" as they are still with the SPS.
When 60 UW science and math professors complain incoming freshmen have low math skills we need to listen. When companies say they cannot find skilled people to take good jobs, we should figure out what students need to learn.
We now have two new board members who get the math and a new superintendent. If they listen to Dan and parents our students will get a better curriculum. What could be more important than better academics?
S parent
S, yes, academics should be the number one focus but it's hard to do so with new initiatives (some of which may allow some schools to change math curriculum) and problems galore (with leadership vaccums and capacity issues).
Unless parents rise up in great numbers, no, I don't see anything changing.
reader
There is something called Academic Child Abuse and if there is something that is used in a classroom (such as the NTN garbage or Discovery Math) that feels abusive to the child or youth, it is, indeed, an ethical issue.
reader
When I attended school decades ago, the science instruction contained much more content. This was true for the social studies, LA, and math as well. That is the biggest difference I see from what my children are now experiencing in Seattle public schools.
Where are the student textbooks? There are no textbooks for science, social studies, math or LA in all of elementary. If you're lucky, you might see a few in middle school.
We don't pay for tutoring, but an inordinate amount of time is spent at home trying to teach the basics that haven't been covered in school.
-a tired parent
Reader