Is Juneau the Next John Stanford?

Probably too early to say that?

But it feels a little like that because Juneau is on a tour like no other.  She is burning up the road to go see and be seen.  It feels very genuine, just like Stanford.


She has Learning Tour dates - here's her next one:

Tues., Sept. 11, 5 -6 p.m.
NW and NE Regional Town Hall
Co-hosted by Seattle Public Libraries
Location: SPL Broadview Library
2755 Greenwood Ave N,

Still hoping to see one for ELL, Special Education and Advanced Learning families.

Here's where's she's been so far (according to her Twitter feed with photos):

- Chief Sealth High School
- Loyal Heights Elementary School
- Bailey Gatzert Elementary School
- Mercer Middle School
- John Rogers Elementary School
- Roxhill @ EC Hughes Elementary
- Robert Eagle Staff Middle School
- Cleveland High School
- Met with school librarians at a get-together at Ballard High School
- Met with PE teachers at an event
- Olympic Hills Elementary School
- Met with African-American families at a dinner at South Shore K-8 (as well as a separate gathering for new teachers)
- Met with CTE teachers

In addition:
Aug 31
Up early this morning with school nutrition staff. My grandmother was a school cook for 28 years. My 1st job was working alongside her in the school kitchen. Nutrition staff will always have a big place in my ❤️. Thx for all that you do for students!


My favorite photo:
Met some excited students at the Lake City Court this morning as we walked to the bus for the first day of school. He was like, “you’re the boss of all the schools?!?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am a yuuuuge fan of hers. That said, it's also a bit early (I think) to compare her to John Stanford. He did a great job cleaning up SPS's utterly mismanaged bureaucracy, which Juneau hasn't yet done. Stanford pledged to fire people for poor customer service, yet Juneau has retained all of the senior staffers who sit there in the building named for Stanford holding parents in utter contempt. Still, because it's early, I'm willing to give Juneau a little more time...but basic mismanagement problems continue to crop up and folks will expect her to fix this quickly.

Greenwoody
9/6/18, 9:36 AM
Watching said…
You may be correct. Juneau appears charismatic. She seems to have the ability to form warm and genuine relationships that will benefit the district.
9/6/18, 10:21 AM
Anonymous said…
Greenwoody is right. Tolley is still conspiring to gut AL, staff are still hiding behind wait-list, SpEd program is in disarray and we have the city stealing resources from K12 to give to pre-k.

Getitdone
9/6/18, 10:33 AM
Anonymous said…
I’m also sick of all the poorly written—and thus useless and uninformative—surveys put out by SPS (e.g., 24-credit requirement, advanced learning, priorities for new schools before we know who will go there, etc.) Maybe one of the things Supt. Juneau could do is create a community advisory group to provide feedback on proposed surveys, helping to identify confusing, misleading, and ambiguous questions, and similarly problematic answer choices, BEFORE surveys go out so they can be cleaned up. Clearly SPS needs some additional survey expertise. As well, trying to get some community perspective on how things are interpreted outside the various JSCEE bubbles responsible for the various surveys is important, as things that may be clear to staff working on a particular issue may NOT be to a parent worried about a dozen various SPS issues. A survey advisory group could also help call attention to areas in which data interpretation could be challenging, as well as particular ways in which data could be analyzed or broken down to better understand specific issues (which may also mean incorporating relevant demographics, skip patterns, etc. into surveys.)

I’d gladly volunteer my time to help with survey development, and I suspect others with related expertise would as well. If Supt Juneau really wants to learn about our issues, she should do all she can to make sure the info collected through surveys is meaningful. One other nice thing about an advisory group like this is that there would be no need for regularly scheduled meetings or requirements that a quorum of members attend. Requests for draft survey review could just go out as needed, giving people a couple days to respond. Those with time would likely do so—by email or potentially an ad hoc meeting or call. Members could all sign confidentiality agreements, too—although if discussing proposed public surveys, there shouldn’t be anything too sensitive to start with.

NoMore BadSurveys
9/6/18, 10:44 AM
NNE Mom said…
So far I'm loving that Juneau seems genuinely thrilled to meet all the human beings of all social classes involved in our schools and doesn't leave you with the smarmy impression Nyland did that he was either putting up with someone he considered beneath him for the sake of a photo op or sneering derisively at someone he considered too full of themselves. I love that Juneau is apparently able to view us all as people and all worthy of respect as people. Welcome to Seattle, Supt. We've been needing you!
9/6/18, 11:22 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Greenwoody, I think she's still getting the lay of the land. I perceive she may either rein people in or find new people. I don't see the status quo staying under her administration.

Surveys, amen to that and I'll make that suggestion.
9/6/18, 12:33 PM
Anonymous said…
After 10+ years in the SPS system, I am cautiously optimistic that Supt Juneau can and will make the necessary changes to this district. She seems genuine and driven. I hope she embraces the view that kids and parents are her "customers." However, if she did not understand the big issues when she took this job (which I would find disturbing), and now is going to spend a lot of time on a listening tour, then I suspect that we will just see more of the same. The next few months will really set the tone for her time here.
-Long Road
9/7/18, 9:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Perhaps she can stop by Washington Middle School to observe the chaos that has been the first week of school (for those not aware, see subsequent thread).
9/11/18, 3:19 PM
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