Seattle School Board This and That

This is just going to be a random assortment of items I have heard from recent meetings of the Board.

• Before the regular Board meeting last Wednesday, they had a public hearing (as mandated by state law) on the Budget. I did not listen in to the hearing but it didn’t even last the half hour they had allotted. In the past, it has been district watchdog Chris Jackins, me and maybe another person. 

• As noted by Superintendent Brent Jones at the last Board meeting, it’s about 50 days until school reopens.

•  Also,there will not be attestations done at schools for 2021-2022.

• The District has contracted with an outside firm to look at ventilation issues in school buildings.

• Director Brandon Hersey has adopted an odd habit of mostly saying, “yo” when roll call is taken at meetings. It’s decidedly unprofessional but perhaps he thinks because the meetings are on Zoom, no one outside of the building is watching.

• Director Erin Dury was absent. Almost any other time this would be okay except it’s the last Board meeting for this school year with a key vote on the Budget. No reason was given but maybe illness or death in the family? She has been loud about how hard it is for her to go to so many long meetings.

• The district has been using the local firm, Moss Adams, more and more to give them input on how the district is functioning. 

Here’s what they say:

#3 The District’s operating environment is reactive with inadequate prioritization practices.”

# 4 The District’s siloed, reactive operating environment impedes efficient operation efficient operations. 

#6 The District struggles to sustain changes effectively and inspire staff to adopt new systems, processes and programs.

Sound familiar? I’ve heard this for decades. Not years, decades. 

What’s odd is that the presentation did NOT have the first two items in the Moss Adams presentation. Staff’s presentation starts at number 3. I’ll bet the first two have something to do with leadership. I’ll have to ask for the complete presentation.

Director Chandra Hampson called Moss Adams “critical partners” which is interesting because that used to be the role of the Alliance for Education.

• To that end, it was announced at the Board meeting that the district has created a new entity, the Office of Strategy Deployment and Responsiveness. Their first focus is the reopening of schools.  Here’s the presentation given at the Board meeting. Assistant Deputy Superintendent Carri Campbell, co-leader of this new office (she was formerly head of Communications) gave the elevator summation of the office as “Working in partnership with community to co-construct solutions. Bringing coherence to strategic work for student outcomes.” I wonder if that’s the entire SPS community or just some. Time will tell.

This new office will be working with the UW Department of. Global Health on reopening. 

As I mentioned previously, Director Leslie Harris expressed frustration over the lack of a new organization chart given the large shifts in staff/jobs. This new office has two deputy superintendents - why I don’t know - and one senior project manager, probably plus one admin. So that’s four people with new jobs. Campbell was head of Communications and the other deputy superintendent, Sarah Pritchett, was a Director of Schools. For sure, both Campbell and Pritchett must have received raises. 

Director Harris is right on in basically asking, “Who’s on first?”

She also noted that there have been NO Friday Memos for a long time. That adds to the growing list of troubling developments in governance in SPS.

That’s intriguing given that Director Hampson referenced “knowledge management” later on. My take is that Hampson is narrowing the focus of the Board - by herself - and, as I have consistently said thru the years about SPS, they tell us what they want us to know when they want us to know it.

• What made this Board meeting startling was the ever-growing number of Action Items on the Consent Agenda and, for the first time I can remember, the Budget. The $1B budget for the largest school district in Washington State was rolled into the one-vote Consent Agenda. (The Consent Agenda is made up of a list items that the Board deems to have throughly discussed at committee meetings and as Intro items. There is a single Board vote for all items.) 

When I became aware of this development, I called for Board members to take the Budget off the Consent Agenda. (Any single director can pull off an item and ask questions.) Director Liza Rankin asked for it to be pulled. The discussion came later in the meeting after Public Testimony.

• In Public Testimony, there were several parents who spoke to reopen. They all seemed to be stating items from the same script. They want: full-time education, “for those unwilling, a remote option,” no vaccine mandate, no masking, and no distancing. The masking seems to be a big issue. 
• Chris Jackins pointed out the a member of the BEX Oversight Committee had direct financial involvement with a facilities contract for Franklin High which is a violation of the Committee’s rules. 
• Special Education PTSA president Janis White pointed out how badly the recovery services for Special Education students this summer were going. Another Sped parent also spoke on this issue. 

Discussion of Budget

- Rankin had a couple of questions on using ESSER dollars for outdoor learning and it was confirmed that it was okay with no need for new approval next year. 

- Rankin asked if Transportation will receive same reimbursement from the state. First Student, the company that supplies busing for SPS, says it is on-track to do so.

- Harris said she would be voting no on this budget. She said it was not grounded in policy/procedure. She said she was worried about BTA V, the next levy for building maintenance. (Someone tried to talk over her but it was unclear who. However, in other remarks, it did become clear.) She said there was nothing personal and she knew that staff had worked hard on it. 

- After Harris spoke, it was Director Zach DeWolf’s turn. Without naming names, he said that people should stop “political grandstanding.” Oh Pot, it’s the Kettle calling. If ever there was a  performative grandstanding school board director, it’s DeWolf. He then asked a number of questions to the point where I thought, “how did HE not ask for the Budget’s removal from Consent Agenda?”

He asked about the Board’s own budget which had different amounts in different sections. Somehow election costs get rolled into the Board budget which is something new to me. It has traditionally come from the previous levy’s budget. 

He asked about the  USDA reimbursement for student meals. It seem the feds will be paying more of the cost to the point it will offset more kids getting meals. 

He asked about the increase in funding for the Racial Equity Advancement Department. It was confirmed there will be more school teams. 

He also asked about more dollars for Operations which is apparently for the office Rob Gannon, Deputy Superintendent.

He asked about an increase for Nova High funding and asked if it was because of increased enrollment. A previous doc for enrollment numbers didn’t seem to appear to show this but Finance head Lynn Berge said that was the case. 

- Director Lisa Rivera Smith said that she was disappointed that the Budget was only available in one language, that it did not include full-time counselors and that it had been put in the Consent Agenda. 

-Then we came to Director Hampson who, despite trying to limit other directors’length of remarks, never applies that to herself. She said that hours and hours of work had gone into the budget in committee and board meetings and Work Sessions. She said it was wrong to “use staff and the Board to revisit/recycle” work already done and put on “a dog and pony show” that we, as the Board, already know about. She said they couldn’t be revisiting the “weediness of the items.” She then put on her best sneering voice, claimed that Rivera Smith had “advocated” for the Budget to be on the Consent Agenda. I’m not sure Rivera Smith would agree. 

The vote on the Budget was 5 ayes and 1 no with Dury being absent. 

Analysis:

If you listen to MossAdams, not much has changed over the years. This district STILL struggles with operations and I’m not sure opening a new office will change that. 

It is stunning to hear the Board president pretty much say, “We already discussed these items elsewhere and it’s a waste of time to do it at the Board meeting.” Why tie public testimony to agenda items (as has been the practice for a long time)? And, why have public testimony at all? 

Hampson’s candidate website says (and watch her take this down as she did her director page on Facebook):

Transparency and accountability

I hold a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Washington, with a specialization in finance. I will bring an expert’s eye to the budgeting process and an activist’s passion for transparency.

Transparency? Not so much. She seems to be taking a page from the GOP playbook where they think once they are elected, that’s the end of public involvement in government work.