Does the Seattle School Board Take COVID Issues Seriously?
Seattle Public Schools’ most recent COVID-19 dashboard update showed a massive spike in coronavirus cases across the school district.
According to the data table, 704 people contracted COVID-19 in just a week’s time, including 145 staff members and 643 students.
The surge in COVID cases is far and away the largest since the district’s dashboard was started in Sep. 2020. For comparison, the next-largest spike was between Dec. 11-17 at 139 cases, followed by 103 cases just a week later.
Schools with the highest number of cases currently include Franklin High School at 94 cases, Roosevelt High School at 83, Ballard High School at 80 and Nathan Hale High School at 72.
You can find the full, up-to-date dashboard on the Seattle Public Schools website.
end of update
The Seattle School Board is having a board meeting tonight; here's the agenda.
It has NOTHING on it about COVID and SPS. This despite two schools closing - fully closing - each for one day this week. Plus the new numbers about COVID in SPS.
As I previously posted, here's the latest COVID update. Lots of this and that but not "here's where to find info about your school and its COVID data." Of course not.
I'm sure Superintendent Brent Jones may mention something in his superintendent remarks tonight about COVID. But he tends to be very cheery yet static in his remarks and they generally have very little substance.
The speakers list has many spots still open and you don't have to be there to give testimony.
To sign up for public testimony, members of the public should do one of the following:
- Sign up online between 8 a.m. on the Monday before the meeting and 3:30 p.m. the day of the meeting (Note: this method replaces the prior email sign-up process) or
- Call 206-252-0040 during that time
Please provide the following information when signing up for testimony:
- Full name;
- Contact information (telephone number and email address); and
- The topic they would like to address
Comments
Interim Supt. Jones has stuck his neck out in support of in-person learning, and good for him. You will never please everyone in Seattle, but I think his position is courageous and right. Dealing with a pandemic will always be trouble, and of course there will be complaining. Because everyone in Seattle is a 12 when it comes to complaining. But it seems that school administrators have rolled with the punches and not really done anything especially wrong. Maintaining in-person learning as much as possible is the right call, even if it's not always possible. Please don't urge this school board to get more involved.
That said, Board meetings are still a good platform to get your word out, and can garner press and other influence that drives change.
And yes, there are a couple of Boardmembers who have created harm in multiple ways and should not be in leadership positions.
I also would like to see an actual apology from *some* district leadership for the needless prolonged closure last year (union leaders belong on that stage too). It may in fact be time to go remote, but everyone is getting positional because no district leader has accepted accountability for or even acknowledged the hardship last year. No one wants to give an inch on in-person because they worry schools will indefinitely close again. This is basic relationship building stuff and it’s not happening.
Way Forward
I DON'T want the Board to get involved but I DO want them to question the Superintendent about how it is all being handled given the circumstances. That they CAN do. To not have a regular Board update - which is the most widely watched public meeting - seems wrong to me.
Remote learning was a failure of epic proportions. It harmed kids in unbelievable ways. Child abuse normally picked up by school personnel did not happen. On every measure it was a failure. It was overwhelmingly viewed by educational experts & medical professionals as highly damaging. It was also hugely unpopular with a very large contingent of the democratic base. This includes working women in liberal areas, who vote democrat, according to polls cited in the New York Times. Closing schools threatens that base. The community is still where transmission is most prevalent. Schools are still safer and the best place for the kids. District staff should step in to teach if teachers are sick. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/us/teachers-unions-covid-schools.html
Seattle parent
"I also would like to see an actual apology from *some* district leadership for the needless prolonged closure last year (union leaders belong on that stage too). It may in fact be time to go remote, but everyone is getting positional because no district leader has accepted accountability for or even acknowledged the hardship last year. No one wants to give an inch on in-person because they worry schools will indefinitely close again. This is basic relationship building stuff and it’s not happening."
I feel this so strongly. Last year shattered my basic faith that my school district was trying to do the right thing for kids. And there's been no accountability, or even recognition of the problem by leadership. None. It's massive gaslighting.
Another Eckstein Parent said
"I feel this so strongly. Last year shattered my basic faith that my school district was trying to do the right thing for kids. And there's been no accountability, or even recognition of the problem by leadership. None. It's massive gaslighting."
And the only reason Seattle restarted partial in person schooling was because Biden won and pushed that issue. Trump had been asking schools to go in person as well and if he had won Inslee would have continued resisting that.
yet another eckstein parent