This and That In Seattle Schools

 Whew! A lot to let you know about.

First up, there's a rumor that JoLynn Berge, the head of budgeting in Seattle Schools, is on her way out. It's unknown if she is leaving on her own or being pushed out. 

Next, SPS settles with former Cleveland High School principal, Catherine Brown, who crossed swords with the district over COVID information to her community. SPS didn't want her saying one thing and she did anyone (she says in service to her community and the community seems to have backed up her decision). She is to receive $205,056 and resigned from SPS. She accepted the settlement, agreeing to not trying to sue the district over discrimination and/or retaliation claims. 

One side note to this story is who her lawyer is - Shannon McMinimee. Ms. McMinimee used to work in SPS Legal so she knows the district well. I see her name often in cases against districts and she seems to be striving to be the leading education lawyer in the region.

I sat in on the Board's new Ad Hoc Committee, created in service to their Student Outcomes Focused Governance (SOFG). I'll have a separate post on this but it - is - astonishing how all in the Board is on this. The amount of work they are creating for themselves and the staff all in service (allegedly) to this initiative is unbelievable. 

This does not include their work on a Board "constitution" nor a "policy diet" initiative. They are also going to define terms like "community," "values,", and more. 

If you have a district-wide issue or school issue that they don't deem part of this work, I think you will be ignored. If they cannot align an issue with this work, apparently it will not matter. 

And FYI, it appears to me that some members of the Board have decided that they don't need to attend meetings in person. Hampson wasn't at this meeting - she's the Chair - because she had no wifi. At least one Board member had kids playing in the background and I think one staffer was in an area where there were others working because I could hear a guy talking to someone, probably on a phone. One member was further away from her mic so you had to turn up the volume and another was too close and you had to turn down the volume. I'm not sure they get that these are public meetings and they owe it to the community for the public to be able to hear them clearly. The need for this kind of remote meeting was understandable at the height of COVID but now it just looks a lot like a convenience for those involved.

Know a young adult looking for a paid internship? Here's a great one from the King County League of Women Voters.

FYI, the district's waitlists for schools dissolve on Wednesday, August 31st.