Seattle Schools Principal Assignments
From SPS:
Dear Catharine Blaine K–8 Community,I am pleased to announce … Ms. Heather Johnson (formerly Swanson) will return to serve as your new principal. Your current principal, Ms. Julie Cox, will be Principal at North Beach Elementary next year.Ms. Johnson spent the past year as a middle school Principal at the American School of Barcelona, in Spain. Previously, she served as principal at Catharine Blaine from 2006 through 2012, and she is excited to be returning to this school community.Prior to moving to Spain, Ms. Johnson was a consultant to the Readers and Writers Project at Columbia Teachers College in New York. During her previous time as Catharine Blaine’s Principal, she also served as the President of the Principals Association of Seattle Schools (PASS) for one year. Early in her career, she taught Language Arts, Social Studies and Reading at Seattle’s Denny Middle School, which has been renamed Denny International Middle School.After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Seattle Pacific University, Ms. Johnson earned a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the same school. She holds Washington State certifications as an administrator.Ms. Johnson has been selected because she was a highly rated principal prior to her departure from Seattle Public Schools and is a natural fit for the Catharine Blaine K–8 community. She is a dedicated instructional leader who is committed to working collaboratively with parents, teachers and students. We will be arranging an opportunity for the community to meet with her when she returns to the United States full-time in August.Please help me welcome Ms. Heather Johnson back to the Catharine Blaine community and to thank Ms. Julie Cox for her leadership during the past two years.Sincerely,José Banda
Comments
Blaine, like most schools in SPS with a predominately White student demographic, gets what it wants in the end. Back to the status quo, nepotism, and mediocrity with the old principal of returning.
- District Observer
Seen It
-northbeach-curious
Veteran Reader
North Beach now gets to deal with her.
Of course, this was only one side of the story.
wallfly
-Another SPS parent
Anonymous said...
Interesting North Beach BLT on their own voted to drop the Saxon math waiver for EN-VISION. When we pressed the principle he rebutted that "The bld staff made the choice"
They also got some new projectors from the district then the PTA voted to spend another $32K on upgrading and mounting of projectors. I see drop math waiver and get new projectors...is it a coincidence ?
Many parents did not know of the waver decision and some still don't. The principle seemed very angry for anyone questioning his decision.
Two of the PTA anti-saxon members blurted out, now that we don't have to pay for Saxon math we can buy the better projectors.
I don't know about funds at other schools, but $32K seems like a lot of PTA money to blow on projector mounting!
--Michael
6/27/14, 11:09 AM
Which schools get to participate in the hiring decision and which schools do not? What guidelines are followed? Is stability of leadership a value?
--Michael
I expect the principal was angry to get an email like this:
"R.J. Sammons,
Who was in attendance at the BLT meeting today? It is my understanding that the School Board is specifically interested in community engagement in the math adoption. I have never received any out reach from the school to the parents and guardians on the issue of math adoption for North Beach. Math in Focus was the better choice offered by the district but it is still inferior to Saxon. Why not continue with a superior math curriculum? IN OTHER WORDS, if it's not broken don't fix it.
North Beach has a 13 year legacy using Saxon math. I find it hard to believe the North Beach community would take this saucy email from you lightly." 6/9/14
Happy w/MIF
As for Swanson, better but not perfect.
Yes, what is the principal hiring process? Or rather, why is proffessional standards so different for those who are in roles in administration.
-InDahHood
-
I expect to see nice gains in test scores to justify the expenditure?
--Michael
This proves the second law of thermodynamics.
--Michael
Who was in attendance at the BLT meeting today? It is my understanding that the School Board is specifically interested in community engagement in the math adoption. I have never received any out reach from the school to the parents and guardians on the issue of math adoption for North Beach. Math in Focus was the better choice offered by the district but it is still inferior to Saxon. Why not continue with a superior math curriculum? IN OTHER WORDS, if it's not broken don't fix it.
North Beach has a 13 year legacy using Saxon math. I find it hard to believe the North Beach community would take this saucy email from you lightly."
Hey that's my email! and RJ can go ride his pony off into the sunset!
or more precisely to BT.
also happy with MIF
"Based on staff comments, it appears that the vision for moving from a paper-based curriculum and teacher-driven instruction toward a more digital-based curriculum and student-driven learning is starting to evolve in SPS."
Aaah, so teachers going the way of the dinosaur, to be replaced by students teaching themselves.
We never had to replace bulbs and ended up selling the replacements on ebay and used the money to buy new projectors with free replacement bulbs.
Selecting units that have $800 bulbs would be a bad choice unless you have no alternatives which is NOT the case for SPS. There are at least 15 brands/models meeting the requirements with replacement bulb cost around $200.00, but with one free replacement you should NEVER need to buy any replacements.
How to run a school
Nepotism? Was there nepotism that Julie Cox uncovered? If so, please show some evidence of that. From what I understand, the only nepotism was years before and it was a playground supervisor. So, not exactly a position of great authority.
As for what she DID get rid of, well, she got rid of (and vilified) a respected special education teacher, several other teachers left the school for other schools, and at least one teacher left the district altogether.
If you want to talk about cronyism, well, that's how she got the job, and that's how she hired new teachers.
Julie Cox continues with her intimidation, authoritarian and bullying ways at her new school, North Beach Elem. The staff there is said to be super stressed, overworked and completely disregarded as Ms. Cox desperately tries to keep her job by looking good to her supervisor.