The District's Commitment to Stated Values
Seattle Public Schools has a set of stated values. Among these are transparency and engagement. To what extent, however, has the District leadership adhered to those stated values? Not so well.
Think about the various initiatives underway. Are any of them being conducted in a transparent and engaged manner? I don't think so,.
Strategic Plan - The District got some vague input from an advisory committee of about 60 people - you can only get vague direction from a committee of that size - and now they are moving forward with the work in private. We have no idea how the work is being done, what the stated goals may be, or how they will choose a path.
Advanced Learning - The District is setting a Vision for Advanced Learning, but they are doing it in private and without any engagement at all.
Equitable Access Framework - The District has caught this like a virus, nearly every other sentence includes a reference to it somehow, yet no one knows what they mean by it, they are working on it in private, and they refused to engage any part of the community. This is going to be huge. It's going to impact school attendance area boundaries, access to Special Education, ELL, Advanced Learning, International schools, Option Schools, AP, IB, everything. And the District is doing the work in secret and without any input from stakeholders.
Special Education - We don't know what the District is doing here, but we know that they are doing something and we know that they are not including the community.
Assessment - Again, as with the Strategic Plan and Assessments, an advisory committee was appointed, but the committee was dismissed before any decisions were made.
Transportation - The committee, made up exclusively from hand-picked experts, met and ended before any decisions were made.
Are you seeing the trend, folks?
So who has the job of defending the District's stated values. Of course everyone in the District has that responsibility, but the ultimate responsibility for it falls on the Board. The Board, however, doesn't do anything that the staff doesn't bring to them. And, frankly, they don't do much of that either.
We need Board Directors who will stand up for the District's stated values and will take action when they are not followed. Something to think about as we begin to elect two new ones.
Think about the various initiatives underway. Are any of them being conducted in a transparent and engaged manner? I don't think so,.
Strategic Plan - The District got some vague input from an advisory committee of about 60 people - you can only get vague direction from a committee of that size - and now they are moving forward with the work in private. We have no idea how the work is being done, what the stated goals may be, or how they will choose a path.
Advanced Learning - The District is setting a Vision for Advanced Learning, but they are doing it in private and without any engagement at all.
Equitable Access Framework - The District has caught this like a virus, nearly every other sentence includes a reference to it somehow, yet no one knows what they mean by it, they are working on it in private, and they refused to engage any part of the community. This is going to be huge. It's going to impact school attendance area boundaries, access to Special Education, ELL, Advanced Learning, International schools, Option Schools, AP, IB, everything. And the District is doing the work in secret and without any input from stakeholders.
Special Education - We don't know what the District is doing here, but we know that they are doing something and we know that they are not including the community.
Assessment - Again, as with the Strategic Plan and Assessments, an advisory committee was appointed, but the committee was dismissed before any decisions were made.
Transportation - The committee, made up exclusively from hand-picked experts, met and ended before any decisions were made.
Are you seeing the trend, folks?
So who has the job of defending the District's stated values. Of course everyone in the District has that responsibility, but the ultimate responsibility for it falls on the Board. The Board, however, doesn't do anything that the staff doesn't bring to them. And, frankly, they don't do much of that either.
We need Board Directors who will stand up for the District's stated values and will take action when they are not followed. Something to think about as we begin to elect two new ones.
Comments
We elect people to watch out and make sure that there is coherency to the system and input from the community.
Otherwise, I'm unclear what the point of the Board is.
As Charlie spells this out in black and white, it doesn't look good.
Or, I guess, to put more clearly, they should review the superintendent's decisions, but more to confirm that the work was done in accordance with policy and our values than to confirm that the decisions were the right ones.
I know. What an expression. They use it at my work all the time. : )