Superintendent Juneau's Conversation with the Times
In an interview with the Seattle Times, Superintendent Juneau says "she’s learning how to be more patient."
(For reference, here is the latest edition of the district’s strategic plan draft, which was provided to the Times during the interview.)
This "latest edition" of the Strategic Plan doesn't look all that different from the first draft and there's still no wording for Special Education students. (They are obliquely reference here: Delivering high-quality, standards aligned instruction across all abilities and services.)
There is also this:
Making clear commitments and delivering on them.
This sounds great but I would say, no excuses will be tolerated if this really is the district's bottom line on commitment.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges so far, and where do you feel you’ve been able to break ground?
A: We have a need to build up our operations systems again. I approach an educational organization like a triangle.
Juneau may not know this but every single new superintendent has said this. When this business of getting operations under control will happen is still a mystery.
Q: What are you hoping an innovation think tank on transportation would produce? Some type of mixed delivery model?
A: Yeah, there are examples all over the city. I mean, Starbucks has a shuttle. Microsoft has all these things going on. [We’re looking] at how can we dovetail in with the current system.
… I see yellow school buses, primarily for special education students, vans. There’s a lot of parents who are currently carpooling, how do we connect with parents currently doing that work. I visited with (State Superintendent) Chris Reykdal about how the state currently reimburses the district and I think he’s excited about if we’re able to develop an innovative delivery system that he’d be able to work with us on the money.
Naturally, this is a key issue this year and anything they can do to change the current system would probably be welcomed by many parents.
Q: How much of that $40 million do you expect to come out of the central office budget?
A: We’re looking at 5 percent cut across the board right now. We’re working out with our cabinet members now about where that might be … We as central administration are also going to bear some of the brunt and try to keep the cuts as far away as we can from student learning, even though some of it will come from there. We could cut all of central administration and still have to cut.
Q: Do the cuts for central administration include pay cuts for leadership?
A: There have already been some. … After being here for a little while and seeing the work in central administration, I … figured out what functions are happening, and restructured that way. There weren’t huge moves. There are moves made by previous superintendents of clearing everybody out. It was really leveling out my cabinet members and [bringing] some associate superintendents down to the chief level … I wouldn’t say it was huge sweeping amounts of money … but it is significant to people who are receiving higher salaries.
I expect this will be able to seen on paper so I'll be interested to see what those cuts look like.
(For reference, here is the latest edition of the district’s strategic plan draft, which was provided to the Times during the interview.)
This "latest edition" of the Strategic Plan doesn't look all that different from the first draft and there's still no wording for Special Education students. (They are obliquely reference here: Delivering high-quality, standards aligned instruction across all abilities and services.)
There is also this:
Making clear commitments and delivering on them.
This sounds great but I would say, no excuses will be tolerated if this really is the district's bottom line on commitment.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges so far, and where do you feel you’ve been able to break ground?
A: We have a need to build up our operations systems again. I approach an educational organization like a triangle.
Juneau may not know this but every single new superintendent has said this. When this business of getting operations under control will happen is still a mystery.
Q: What are you hoping an innovation think tank on transportation would produce? Some type of mixed delivery model?
A: Yeah, there are examples all over the city. I mean, Starbucks has a shuttle. Microsoft has all these things going on. [We’re looking] at how can we dovetail in with the current system.
… I see yellow school buses, primarily for special education students, vans. There’s a lot of parents who are currently carpooling, how do we connect with parents currently doing that work. I visited with (State Superintendent) Chris Reykdal about how the state currently reimburses the district and I think he’s excited about if we’re able to develop an innovative delivery system that he’d be able to work with us on the money.
Naturally, this is a key issue this year and anything they can do to change the current system would probably be welcomed by many parents.
Q: How much of that $40 million do you expect to come out of the central office budget?
A: We’re looking at 5 percent cut across the board right now. We’re working out with our cabinet members now about where that might be … We as central administration are also going to bear some of the brunt and try to keep the cuts as far away as we can from student learning, even though some of it will come from there. We could cut all of central administration and still have to cut.
Q: Do the cuts for central administration include pay cuts for leadership?
A: There have already been some. … After being here for a little while and seeing the work in central administration, I … figured out what functions are happening, and restructured that way. There weren’t huge moves. There are moves made by previous superintendents of clearing everybody out. It was really leveling out my cabinet members and [bringing] some associate superintendents down to the chief level … I wouldn’t say it was huge sweeping amounts of money … but it is significant to people who are receiving higher salaries.
I expect this will be able to seen on paper so I'll be interested to see what those cuts look like.
Comments
SPED parent
SPED parent
Reader
Ha ha - that is kind of true. Nobody has suffered more undeserved wounds in the service of Seattle's school children.
I also, was not impressed by the interview. Mostly the Supervisor seemed at sea. The educational triangle seemed to me like the "Conjoined Triangles of Success" a hilarious bit of satire on 'business-speak' by Silicon Valley.
-Cynic
Ha ha - another prescient comment! Any parent who has dealt with the SPS administration has PTSD - by definition!! I know I have it. It will take me years to recover from Tussles with Tolley.
-Cynic
C - E - R
C - E- R
C - E - R
Juneau fails per the above rubric, the rubric that every child and every parent of a child in Seattle Public Schools knows:
Claim - Evidence - Reasoning
Juneau is not meeting standard, not at all. It is depressing. The coming cuts not just to the bone, but, into the bone, hitting marrow, and, this is the best she can do?
She *claims* that she's done everything she can to make cuts at the district level.
But, hat is the *evidence*? Where are the numbers? Where is the before and after org chart? The org chart needs nothing less than a buzzsaw. Before Enfield, that is the chart to go back to. Flat, less bodies. Fewer deputies. A lot fewer deputies, and lieutenants.
Juneau gives ZERO evidence to support her claim.
And, she also gives no reasoning either.
And yes, at her salary, I do expect her to have a ready command of the facts and the evidence and be more than able to espouse a reasoning.
Juneau could claim we should have faith in her leadership because she has clear priorities (teachers in front of kids) and that to protect that, she will go to a crisis budget and slash FTE at the district BEFORE touching the classrooms. $40 million to make up? What is the hole size exactly? And what is the size of the savings she has pulled out of the district HQ? What is she doing to personally work harder/smarter? Ditching the executive ed directors, that are glorified cheerleaders, for example? The principals should be able to handle their schools, and, if they cannot, then they are performance problems that she should care about directly. If she or her myriad of assistant supers cannot handle the direct reports between them, they should go.
She may not have been able to go into details in a media interview, but, she could have come with her C-E-R homework (pre-prepared and handed in on time to the reporter) to back up her assertions. They could have published it with links to Juneau's numbers.
Oh wait, there are no numbers. No evidence.
She just spouted hollow platitudes sans evidence, I don't believe those platitudes ("we're doing all that we can!") or her.
Just another, "listening tour" or "learning the community" or "taking time before making changes"... blah blah blah. 3 years, then she'll be gone. That's the pattern. Why fix it when you can move on? Leave the mess for some other suit to repeat the same old platitudes.
To cut 10-15 high school teachers out of Ballard (who may loose 250 kids next year due to Lincoln pulling out sophomores) and 10-15 teachers out of Roosevelt (who may only loose 100 kids) is absolutely unacceptable because it is so clearly disproportional to enrollment changes at those schools. Cuts at Franklin, Cleveland, etc are troubling. And for places like Garfield, where the contraction of enrollment is going to even be more acute, cutes will be far more painful. Their enrollment already significantly eroded from last year to this (1,857 in 2017/18 to 1,695 2018/19 = 180 kid shrinkage, and that was WITHOUT any boundary changes; 2019/20 will see the north cut off from accessing GHS and west Seattle having a different pathway option opened up too so the shrinkage will be more acute - accordingly, more teacher FTE will be pulled from GHS comparatively).
I doubt Juneau even understands these numbers. If she did, then her interview with the Times would have been much, much more C-E-R in order to push confidence into her district's stakeholders (teachers, students, parents) because she would have understood this is a 5 alarm fire.
CER
February 2018: 1810
February 2019: 1756
Not sure where CER is pulling their figures from but Garfield's enrollment is hardly significantly eroded. But yes, Garfield is facing heavy cuts as well, just like other schools in Seattle.
FNH
People on this blog were warned about her lack of experience, but her demographic background checked all the right boxes and she spoke the right rhetoric (aka platitudes). Voters chose her over two more experienced candidates because these other candidates had "questionable" views on public education (aka weren't rabid school choice opponents).
This lack of experience is becoming apparent in her lack of action. And as support for Juneau inevitably wanes, her cheerleaders on this blog will either remain silent or forget they were originally cheerleaders and will join the chorus of Juneau detractors.
Hamilton
My first pick had been Denice Swift from Michigan and she did not support charter schools. I had thought what you did - that the district experience would be an important factor.
I'm willing to give the Superintendent more time but if the Strategic Plan is just more of the same, then I'll be discouraged.
-Cynic
Observer
FNH is using the "total student count" which is the number that includes all running start students.
CER is using "P223 total count" which is the total number of students who are in the building on a day to day basis.
Unfortunately, neither number has anything to do with enrollment or funding. The P223 FTE is the Full Time Equivalent number which represents the actual enrollment into classes. The 2018 Garfield October 1st FTE enrollment was 1549.39. This number is then further reduced by AAFTE to fund the actual teachers in the building.
Garfield's enrollment has decreased significantly. FNH stated that the Feb 2019 enrollment is 1756, but the FTE is only 1509. That means that Garfield has 130 full time running start students and at least 200 students who are only part time at Garfield.
Juneau is not incompetent. She is incredibly intelligent and she has done well in her previous positions, and her state-wide office in Montana represented a similar number of students to Seattle. Juneau has also not been rash, which is good. Note that Tolley is out along with several other problem hires from the corrupt Goodloe era. But her slow pace may not be serving her well in the eyes of the public, and the consulting group she's using to develop strategic priorities has been an expensive disaster.
Personally, I'm growing impatient with her. I initially read her slowness to act as caution; I'm now starting to read it as fear? Dread after realizing she's inherited a poorly managed district and has to fix it otherwise her reputation goes down the drain? An inability to connect with all of the people in the district? Blindness to obvious solutions to basic problems? All of the above?
Here, I'll link the actual count:
https://www.seattleschools.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_543/File/District/Departments/REA/data_and_reports/P223%20Feb%202019.pdf
FNH
Personally I am pleased to see right-sizing at Garfield as we moved across the country to attend this school specifically, and it was seriously overcrowded when we arrive (but with relief in sight). I am irritated about the current SPS budget crisis, however, and am ready to pull up stakes and move to another city. Kids don't want to leave, however.
FNH
Fairmount Parent