New Year's Eve Rants and Raves
Rant
SPS makes a big deal out of "we're reopening on January 3rd" and then backpedals to say they will be closed and all will be tested. But wait, it's "voluntary." How many will get tested then and how does it help?
We are happy to announce that we now have 60,000 rapid antigen tests available for staff and students, which were provided by the Washington State Department of Health. In light of the surge in COVID-19 transmission in our community due to the Omicron virus, we’ll be using these tests to support a healthy return to school.
Seattle Public Schools will offer voluntary, universal testing for SPS staff and students on January 3.
This means there will be no school for SPS students on Monday, January 3. School will resume in-person on Tuesday. There will be no athletic practices. We encourage families to contact their childcare provider to determine if they will be open on Monday.
Buildings will be open during normal hours for those students who need to access meal services.
All schools will serve grab-and-go lunches between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. for student meals.
From The Seattle Times:
Seattle Public Schools will be closed for one day on Monday in an effort to conduct universal rapid testing of staff and students in response to growing concern over the spread of the omicron variant. School is expected to resume in person on Tuesday.
Last week, the school district told parents to be “as ready as possible” for the potential of a temporary shift online.
I note that one comment says this:
It's my understating that starting next week, the Washington high school athletic association (WIAA) is requiring all high school athletes be given rapid Covid tests three times a week.
This is the result after 200 high school wrestlers tested positive for Covid three weeks ago amongst 4 different high school wrestling tournaments.
Rant
I have received one more batch of documentation from the investigation into bullying/harassment by Board Director Chandra Hampson and former Board director Zachary DeWolf. Eye-opening and sad to say the least.
Reading the interviews of people other than the four people in question does not give one hope about how JSCEE is run.
I will have multiple posts because there is a lot to unpack and too much for a single post.
Rave
To the public records folks in the Legal department at JSCEE. This includes Karen Stambaugh and Randall Enlow who have been kind and professional. And whether they think so or not, I have not really had to wait long for many items but I appreciate their updates.
Comments
The Investigative Report makes clear that Chandra Hampson weaponized the SCPTSA against staff.
The SCPTSA is essentially an entity without legal authority over the school district. No one elected the SCPTSA to the school board. SCPTSA wants control of the policy.
It is abundantly clear that the SCPTSA is operating outside the scope of their authority. The Broadview Thompson lawsuit makes clear that the board operated outside of their scope. The SCPTSA is no different.
Thanks for uncovering this story.
Hang On