Hit the Pause Button on October Staff Cuts

Sent to the Board this morning:

Dear Directors,

You have an Executive Ctm Meeting of the Whole on Wednesday.  I am asking you to please consider 10 minutes to discuss hitting the pause button on the extensive cuts that affect schools in every single region that the Board covers. 

You have it within your power - having an advertised public meeting of the whole - to ask the Superintendent to not make these cuts until they have been clearly and transparently explained to parents.  I just sent Ken Gotsch these questions at the end of this e-mail. Do you know the answers to all of these?  If not, hit the pause button.

At the very least, you need to commit to a policy to end October surprise staff cuts like these.  Senior staff have pointed out that these happen in other districts as well.  But other districts ALSO now have policies against doing this.  SPS should as well.

Sincerely,
Melissa Westbrook
Seattle Schools Community Forum blog

Comments

Anonymous said…
What an unbelievable work of art that 2015/16 budget book is. All those budget analysts hired to develop this complicated formula to make it difficult for principals to hire the staff they need to serve students. I bet it is really easy to hire an SPS budget analyst (the list of analysts each make about $70,000 to $95,000 per year based on 2012 salary schedules) without any accountability to anyone.

-SPSparent
10/12/15, 12:11 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you for sending this, Melissa.

North End Parent
10/12/15, 12:55 PM
Anonymous said…
At our middle school, the principal was told the cuts would occur at the semester break, to be minimally disruptive. Then, a few days later, the District said, NO, immediately.

Thought folks should know about this swticharoo



Parent
10/13/15, 8:36 AM
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