Seattle Schools Community Forum

 If you are a long-time district watcher, you start to see patterns in how the district communicates its needs. No matter who the superintendent is or the make-up of the Board, when it comes to levies, they say the same things with one voice. And I can't blame them - they want the money.  But I ask you: when you get your next property tax bill look carefully at it. About half is funding for these levies. Do you think you are getting your money's worth for that kind of taxing? Has the district clearly and transparently explained where they are spending those dollars?  February 2022 will see two renewal levies. Yes, they are not new but yes, they generally get larger every  time. (But there is one exception this time.)  The Board is having a work session this week on the levies on Friday, September 29th from 4:30-6:00 pm and then there is a work session for the Budget from 6:00pm to 7:30 pm.  Here's the agenda  with documentation.

This is a fascinating and troubling op-ed in the New York Times , "It's Become Increasingly Hard for Them to Feel Good About Themselves." (You can read it for free; the Times will send a link to your email.) The op-ed, written by Thomas B. Edsall, includes research on male youth brain development, family structure, school structure, behavior skills, and future job prospects. Taken together, it's a sad portrait for America's men and boys. (All bold mine)

Update: when I read the Times' endorsement, I went and checked at the Federal Way website to see if Hersey still worked there. And there he was. But I had many saying no, he isn't and today I went and looked and poof! he was gone.  So Director Hersey is no longer a teacher. end of update The Seattle Times has endorsed Brandon Hersey to retain the school board seat he was appointed to in District 7. There were a couple of interesting statements on his part and a glaring error from the Times.

 I had been wondering when we might hear from the candidates for Seattle School Board.  There's a candidate forum on Tuesday, September 28th via Zoom sponsored by Black Education Strategy Roundtable (BESR), League of Education Voters (LEV), School's Out Washington (SOWA), the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition (SESEC) & Youth Development Executives of King County (YDEKC). Register for Zoom Link From the SESEC website: Auto closed captioning will be available. If you have any questions or access needs/accommodations/supports (such as language interpretation), please contact vivian@allfivesinfive.org and mindy@allfivesinfive.org. Confirmed Candidates as of Sept. 21: School Board Vivian Song Maritz (D4) Laura Marie Rivera (D4) Michelle Sarju (D5) City Council Nikkita Oliver (Position No. 9) Teresa Mosqueda (Position No. 8) In other news about the school board races, King County Labor label endorsed Vivian Song Maritz for District 4, Michelle Sarju, District 5, and B...

 Folks, most of you know I have been a public education advocate in Seattle for decades. And just when I think Seattle Schools/Seattle School Board cannot get worse, they always surprise me. Below is a quick summary but I will flesh out the details below that and, when I finally get information that IS public information that WAS paid for by Seattle taxpayers and WAS already voted on by the Board, I will write more detail. My perception of the bottom line is that the Board is trying to protect its members, the district is trying to not get sued and the people of Seattle are being gaslighted and deceived by the people employed and elected to run Seattle Schools.  Summary In September of 2020, two senior staffers at SPS filed a formal letter of complaint to the Board. Those two women were Dr. Keisha Scarlett and Manal Al-ansi, both black women. In their complaint, they state that for months, both then President Zachary DeWolf and then VP Chandra Hampson had "intimidated, harasse...

Editor's note: a rather stunning admission came out at last week's Board meeting involving President Chandra Hampson and VP Zachary DeWolf.  It made for some rather tortured discussion. I am waiting on a document that is a final investigation report in order to be reporting clearly on this issue. Look for that post this week.  COVID Saw this today on a parent Facebook page. Apparently a parent got a call from the school nurse to pick up her child with a sore throat/runny nose (but no fever). The nurse told her that SPS had changed their symptom policy and if a student has one or more symptoms, they would be required to be picked up immediately. The child can then return to school 24 hours after a negative COVID test.  Wanted to let other parents know about this change. From my conversation with the school nurse, it seems that the expectation is that parents should keep their kids home and get them tested if they have any symptoms whatsoever now. The district's COVID dashb...

 I wanted to revisit this subject after this truly wonderful speech at a Georgia school board meeting by parent, Melanie Moore. (Partial and all bold mine)

 I am a bit behind but did want to update folks about what was in last month's Board Operations Committee meeting. I hadn't heard of anyone who was running the Tech Department but, from the minutes, it appears there are two people. One is Carlos del Valle, Executive Director of Technology and Nancy Petersen, Director of Technology Infrastructure. Mr. del Valle's LinkedIn page says he's been in that position since November 2019. Maybe I lost track of hires during COVID. Ms. Petersen has been with the district for about 10 years with a different tech title. There's an interview with Mr. del Valle from November 2020 on the Technology recovery for SPS during COVID. From the minutes of the previous Operations Committee meeting: