Seattle School Board Votes to Negotiate to Keep Jones as Superintendent

Update: it appears that the Board is not even going to wait for the next scheduled Board meeting on March 16th to vote on this contract but have scheduled a "special" Board meeting for next Wednesday, March 9th. There is no topic attached to this notice but I would bet my house that it's about Jones' contract.

end of update

 The special Board meeting for the Board to vote to enter negotiations with interim superintendent Brent Jones just finished. The vote was 6-1 to go forward with Director Leslie Harris (regretfully) voting no. All the directors were present for the meeting.

Among those listening in were a rep from the search firm and one of the City's business liaisons.

President Hersey stated that Jones was visiting Leschi Elementary but would join the Board later on. I have to wonder if that was the signal this idea was a done deal. I mean, if you were superintendent and you were up for renewal of your contract, would you show up if you thought the vote was against you? No.

Director Liza Rankin, with her usual confusion, asked if they were just voting on going into negotiations and then would later vote on a contract. The answer, obviously, was yes.

Director Vivian Song Maritz gave her statement. She said that there is a special kind of "intimacy" between public schools and the public, unlike other city, county and state governmental entities. She herself did about 30 interviews with members of the public like the Mayor, five previous Board directors, as well as parents, teachers and principals. 

She said that the theme she heard was consistency. She felt Jones had done a great job of keeping classrooms open during the pandemic. She said that the central office staff is aligned to focus on student academic outcomes under Jones' leadership. She said that, building by building, "we are not there." She said Jones had demonstrated that he can work with this Board and "gratitude to him" as a leader. She said she would be voting yes.

She also said "for two more years" when most contracts are for three years. Maybe she's including his one year as an interim?

Director Leslie Harris' statement was short - "We can believe the same things and come to different conclusions." She said it hurt to not vote yes despite her deep respect for Jones. She said there simply was not enough public engagement.

Director Lisa Rivera Smith stated that they could not pretend the search "has been flawless." She said they hired HYA and then there were "a sleepy two months" after that hire. She said the community engagement was not transparent or accessible. 

She said the high turnover rate of superintendents was important. She said that Dr. Jones came in at a hard time, he's not flawless but his heart is there. She said the Board needed to give him direction and that he is "uniquely positioned to be that leader." She said she would support the motion.

And again, to my point that this was a done deal, at the end of her statement, Hersey said, "Fantastic!"

Director Liza Rankin hilariously said, "I'll try to be brief" and then proceeded to walked around her house with her phone (I do not know why but it was jarring viewing) and started with, "He has a PhD in education management, guys." I tuned out from there.

Director Michelle Sarju said they had been talking about community and family engagement and "raising up people who don't get to talk." She said she could speak for the African American community but had no idea what other communities do. She called Director Hampson "Sibling Chandra" in her remarks, then apologized but said "I think of her that way." Then she went off on having gone to Native American events where there was a lot of engagement as well as going to the ID where trans folks and sex workers were able to speak.

She said that "HYA, for whatever reason, didn't engage and that is a fact but not a blame game." That's an interesting statement because when the HIB actions occurred against the two senior black staffers, Hampson and former director DeWolf certainly DID engage in a blame game over community engagement.

She said they needed to change "adult behaviors." She said they got "crunched for time" and this process should have happened back int he fall and they needed to "get clear on engagement." (She also keeps saying that there are 53,000 students in SPS despite the district having lost 3,000 of those.) She also stated that she had a close relationship with Jones.

Director Chandra Hampson said "I did everything I could to bring Jones to the district" in the first place." She said he was the right person "for this time" and she has gratitude to him "to give of himself at this time." 

She said the district and the Board "have a serious reckoning coming" and they said the history of the School Board had been "to accomplish nothing." I marvel at her ability to always be right and all those Board directors before her, to be wrong/lazy/incompetent. 

She said they needed to ignore distractions and that there is "a mismatch between the community level of expectation" of what the Board could do. 

She then said that there shouldn't be Monday morning quarterbacking and that they got a list of search firms and "we did the best that we could." So in two months, no one on the Board wasasking HYA what the heck was happening and that was "the best we could?"

She said they had not been "focused on having a massive search - they did that a couple of years ago." 

She said that community had "reflected back" to the Board that they are going in the right direction. She offered no evidence to back that statement up.

President Brandon Hersey said that "everyone had the opportunity to engage" and that the Board is supposed to do community engagement and that HYA was there "to supplement." 

He said "if you play the tape back, it's not the level of service we agreed to provide." He also called out that no one on the Board thought to check in with students. He got quite agitated on this point and said his regret is "that I did not provide student voice and we will repair that moving forward." 

He went onto say that "there has never been a process where folks didn't complain" -with Hampson and Sarju on-screen nodding vigorously. 

He said he was excited to move into this phase of the process with "a man who looks like the boys and teens we are trying to serve." "Black Excellence doesn't get any better than Brent Jones."

The vote was then taken. 

Then Superintendent Jones spoke briefly. He said he would work for a brighter and longer lasting future for SPS students. He is "in 100%" and "I believe I am about that (public engagement)." "My mission is to create conditions for students to thrive." He thanked the Board for the opportunity, saying students deserved "a sense of belonging and safety."

Analysis

I can't say I'm surprised because yes, there has not been a lot of consistency in superintendents at Seattle Schools. That is a good point along with Jones knowing the district and the region. 

I am, however, a bit confused at the gratitude for Jones staying on - Hersey alluded to "other opportunities" that Jones had before him. 

And boy, the defensiveness about the process. No, there is no perfect process and yes, some will always be unhappy. But there is NO ONE who can say this was handled well. The Board should own that and yet they were full of excuses. (And no apology for wasting taxpayer dollars with HYA.) 

The Board could still have public forums with Jones so the public has the opportunity to question him about his plans for SPS. But that won't happen.