Update 2: So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting. In a nutshell: - She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out. - She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance. - She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm - She also says that th
Comments
-The Board and Administration
Dad
"enforcing policy and holding staff accountable" look like? Beyond holding their single employee --- the superintendent --- accountable and/or dressing down staff at a public meeting, what concrete actions can they take? I'm very interested in your thoughts.
--- swk
I had better like the question because it's one that I ask all the time. Whenever any district official promises accountability I always ask them what it will look like.
Enforcement and accountability will have a lot of different looks. Dressing down staff at a public meeting is the next to last resort, so I wouldn't expect to see much of that.
One look will come when the Board becomes aware of a policy violation in a public meeting. For example, when Michael Tolley told the Board that eleven schools were using enVision despite the fact that only two had a waiver. At that point a Board member should have asked a confirming question like "Did I hear you right?" and maybe a clarifying question like "Is this not in violation of our policy?" Presuming Mr. Tolley doesn't have some weasel answer to create the illusion that these schools are not in violation of policy, the Board could then turn to the superintendent and give him a direction to enforce the policy and hold the principals accountable. Then the Board needs to ask him how long it will take. Then the Board needs to follow up at the superintendent's self-imposed deadline for action. If Mr. Tolley could invent some weasel reason why the schools were not in violation of the policy, then the Board should direct him to suggest changes to strengthen the policy. Again, ask how long that will take and follow up.
Often the Board becomes aware of violations before a public meeting. Such was the case with the Program Evaluation Report. Mr. Tolley and Ms Heath submitted an annual program evaluation report that didn't have any program evaluations. Their report utterly failed to meet the requirements of the policy. The Board saw the report before it was presented at the Board meeting, so the correct path would have been to contact Mr. Tolley and Ms Heath, remind them of the requirements of the policy, advise them that their report didn't meet those requirements and suggest that they withdraw it from the Board agenda until they could provide a report that did meet the policy requirements. And, of course, ask when that is likely to happen and follow up.
Sometimes the Board becomes aware of problems at a committee meeting. For example the Audit and Finance meeting when they learned that Paul Apostle had missed the self-imposed deadline for corrective action on a Title IX issue. They asked him for an updated timeline for completion. His addition of eight months should not have been acceptable. They should only have given him another two months. And when they saw him again and he still had not taken the corrective action rather than giving him another year to complete the work (a deadline past his retirement date), they should have insisted that he complete the work in the following month and report back. They should also have advise the superintendent of the failure. If they cannot do this in collegial and professional way they have no business being Board Directors. And if Mr. Apostle coul not accept that kind of accountability then he has no business being a department head.
Then there is the everyday sort of private accountability such as when Mr. Tolley promises to "get back" to the Board with the answer to a question. Board members need to get a timeframe for the response from him and they need to follow up. If they have not heard from him by the self-imposed deadline they should write to him asking for the information or an updated timeline and they should copy the superintendent on the message.
Enforcement and accountability are not difficult. Every other industry in America manages to do it. Public K-12 education can do it too.
Finally, policy compliance should be an element in the superintendent's evaluation. It is not.
Is that helpful, swk?
How can you expect 7 part time non paid board members to truly care.
What is the motivation of these 7 people to go unpaid ?
We need full time paid board members to fix the mess. Also we the people should vote on a super not the board.
Timefor Change
I can speak about what I have experienced:
You do this as a labor of love. You are not getting paid. You want to support students. You believe that doing this right is good for the students, the school, and community.
Even without the nightmare scenarios I have been reading about here, most teachers refuse to chaperone overnight school trips at the high school level--now I don't either. Taking these on is serious work. After these trips you get really sick afterwards. Why? Lack of sleep. I didn't sleep at night because I was busy doing what a teacher/chaperone was supposed to do, chaperone. Making sure that sleeping arrangements are *proper*, keeping an eye out for drugs, etc.
Given the small # of teachers willing to chaperone in the contexts I worked in, if the trip is to take place, schools have to rely on parents and community volunteers to chaperone.
It also annoys teacher - chaperones to no end to find out about chaperones deciding not to show up at the last minute. I am not talking about an emergency concerning a sick child.
On another note: Teachers involved in some of the student - run groups with overnight trips can also tell you that students in leadership positions have been known to tell parents/community members that are perceived as too strict that they were not needed. That is not fun either, expecting these parent and community chaperones to show up and to find out that they were told not to come--even after having been confirmed by teachers.
Schools can do a better job of discussing the expectations of chaperones, teacher or otherwise.
Remember I mentioned that high school teachers stop chaperoning?
There needs to be support for these trips if they are to continue. If not, let's stop.
--ModernSound
Time for a board recall and start-over.
Foolme twice
Time for a board recall and start-over.
Foolme twice
I think the deal is that the chaperone checks every room they are responsible for at a certain point (like 10 pm) to see that everyone is in there who should be (and check the bathroom and closet for anyone who shouldn't be).
Then, hang out in the hall reading for some period of time so that if anyone peeks their head out, they know someone is watching.
In both cases, pictures of Garfield are used. What a putrid pockmark on SPS.
PubliCola says it is odd local media have not made this a huge story. And it points to a blog.
The blog itself discusses the incident and what constitutes rape.
Veteran Reader
As I read through these nightmare incidents, and the chaperoning families felt is required for high school students, this was my thought exactly. I don't see how we can expect teachers to volunteer to chaperone school trips where students are not expected to comply with the rules, but instead have to be policed. I now believe that I would not be a suitable chaperone for a HS trip.
I heard from an elementary school teacher recently that she'd given up taking kids on field trips, because the rules had become so rigid, because the parents weren't available and reliable, and because the children were less likely to follow the rules (for example, not bolting).
I'm predicting that the easiest way for a teacher to comply with chaperoning requirements will be to not chaperone at all. I see an end, or maybe a moratorium on field trips in the public schools coming.
The rhetoric I'm hearing about the issue reminds me of an interview I heard about policing rules -- the community activist was a strong advocate for cleaning up the Seattle Police force, but she said that in mediation she had realized that some requests would have negative results. For example, judging police by the number of complaints against them could result in police simply drawing back from more confrontational situations and more confrontational areas. For the police at least, we could say that's not doing their job. But for teachers, all these extra responsibilities are just extras they volunteer.
zb
Was that just an email to this blog or to wider media?
Was this a lone ranger effort at weekend damage control (or less cynically clarification) just from Peaslee or was it an official Board letter or was it an official SPS response to the community?
Anyone know how and to whom this went out?
Interested
Interested, I pointed out elsewhere what you are seeing. I received my e-mail from the SPS Public Affairs office. I don't know who else received it.
I am shocked to hear student leaders have the authority to veto chaperones. That's a problem with the school culture if its true.
I am wondering if public high school is the place for my kids now. They are good kids, but I don't want them in a place where the kids are making the decisions on things like who chaperones. That's the cart pulling the horse. Yikes!
Gen Ed Mom
That said, the SPS rules around behavior and chaperoning still apply.
I cannot imagine my kid surviving school without field trips. That said, even worse would be for my kid to not survive school. Which is what the laxness of SPS will lead to at some point. That is why it is not in any way overstatement to be outraged at the laundry list of unacceptable events in this case.
North of 85th
GEM
Hey it happens all the time in the boarding school books (well, except for the ones set in England in the 20's. :-) Doesn't it even happen in Harry Potter. (yes, I know I shouldn't get my facts from YA fiction).
The laxness will result in cancelling the field trips, but so will a demand that the children will be safe if they are properly chaperoned, even if the children are trying to break all the rules (that is a variant of the sentiment expressed by Ron English).
BTW, the stories I'm hearing of private schools does not comfort me with the idea that the incidents described couldn't happen in their trips. In those trips, it seems the kids got cozy without rape occurring, but the conditions were available (girl, boys, in rooms together where they shouldn't have been without teachers policing). There's a change in social mores of girls and boys interacting that makes the rules more difficult to enforce. Are we really supposed to treat every time a boy and girl are together alone as a potential rape waiting to happened? Like, for example, one does in cultures where men and women must remain separate unless they are married or related to one another?
zb
PS: I'm not arguing that reasonable rules were followed at Garfield. I'm just not ready to call for teacher's heads and I want more conversation about what the rules should be.
When I was at a SPS high school we never had any of these issues you see today. No rapes, no murders, very little drugs, no guns, no gangs. and students seemed to try to follow the rules.
I used to be anti-charter schools, but I not so much now. This district seems too divers with to many divisive issues to make it. Now we have the adults involved in corruption, embezzling and dereliction of duty.
There's simply no one in charge at any level our children seem to come second to the needs of the employees. Pathetic!
--Michael
Really, there is no safe place for children. As parents, we can only try our best to keep our children safe.
Also, there is plenty of corruption within charter schools.
institutions in the Seattle area that have never experienced the level of criminal activities that occur in the SPS high schools and I feel my children are very safe at one of those VS a SPS high school.
We are now seeing just how disinterested school district's staff is around student safety.
There's a CYA fire drill everyday at the district office. Pathetic!
--Michael
You are taking a big leap of faith when you send your teenager on an overnight field trip... but if 2x as many parents and community volunteers offered to help out and attend overnight field trips with their teens, well then you might have a more manageable situation. This is too much of a burden to put on teachers.
Ballard
Paul Apostle had no business being a department head, period.
Everyone that knew him knows it. Except the board.
That appears to be the problem in a nutshell.
No one should be having sex, consensual or not, on a field trip. (there's that old lady in me.
Ballard, if it's too much to chaperone high schoolers, then no more field trips. It is not worth it if people can't handle it.
Ed, I always try to give every new senior staffer a welcome and the benefit of the doubt. Mr. Apostle was always kind to me and yet I kept seeing (and hearing) how things were not getting done. I think he left while the time was right.
Still no reporting on the Garfield case though.
Crickets
Crickets
("Is friction driving out Seattle school superintendents?") so misses the point. If there is friction, it's because of Banda's mal-administration. Imagine whining to the Board that we don't feel "safe" delivering information. That's real adult. And it is a disservice to the Board. I'm disgusted with Carr's pandering to this. I applaud Patu in her indignation and incredulity: they are just doing their jobs asking for information that is chronically with-held, delayed, watered down, and mis-represented, Over and over and over again. Banda be gone!!! This was no thought leader. No moral authority there. Deer in headlights. He should definitely go for his pension somewhere else IMO. Take Wright with him. Please
reader
Crickets
A smaller district wouldn't magically remove the dysfunction. But I agree that all evidence points to SPS being an ungovernable entity. I think it is time to split south and north. North can take Wright. Haw Haw Haw.
HawHaw
The article reminds me of the DeBell days. Interesting that Blandford is quoted.
GEM
Take a look at the first few pages of the (posted) Corrective Action grid and I think you will agree that often "nice" people have no business being department heads.
GEM
What? Are chaperones never supposed to sleep? Are students supposed to be monitored constantly? If students are not monitored constantly, and by people in a position to hold them "accountable", and observed AT ALL TIMES - then yes, things WILL happen sometimes. If you're a chaperone, you have to decide - when you will give it up. When will you sleep? When will you let the chips fall where they may in terms of behavior? And, people draw the line at different places. I do not "blame" a young chaperone who probably felt he/she had no authority - for "giving it up" when he/she did. With a different set of students, that approach would have worked out just fine with no will effects. Who wouldn't want to get some sleep at a weeklong camp in the Olympics?
At the end of the day, we the taxpayers are ultimately responsible. We want deluxe educations for our kids, filled with enrichment opportunities like overnight camps away from home. And, we want it for free. If we PAID for FULLTIME, PROFESSIONAL chaperones, eg. professional night time supervision, and 2 daytime shifts of supervision, - we'd be shelling out a lot more for education than we do.
How many times have bloggers lauded the extensive volunteering that SPS parents provide? This event is the downside to that style of education. It's unprofessional, inequitable, and lacks any sort of accountability. When something goes wrong - suddenly, all those proponents of volunteerism - cry about accountability. Really, a culture of volunteerism vs professionalism is a culprit.
(Yes - the coverup, lack of follow up, FB bullying protection, Title 9 issues - those are all on the district.)
Reader
That the district did not background check at least one chaperone should tell you something.
I am willing to lay about 50% of the blame for this at the district's feet (the actual incident).
As for the follow-thru - 100% on the district.
NEmom