It's Just Me Reporting on Seattle Schools and SOFG

 After the Board voted to accept the amended recommendations of the Ad Hoc committee for bringing in SOFG (Student Outcome Focused Governance) for district governance, I thought for certain it would be a story that would see quite a lot of reporting. 

Nope.

Let's see what got reported.

Over at the Seattle Times, they DID report on the Board meeting but their story was only about director districts being redrawn per the law. Just that, only that. I do see there is one comment about the district and the Board "dismantling transparency."

What about KUOW?

The last SPS item they wrote about was the change to this school year's calendar to make up for days lost to the teachers strike. 

I checked other radio stations and other media outlets - nothing. 

The Superintendent supports and the Board voted in a change that fundamentally rearranges duties and governance and no one but me reports on it. I do not say this as a point of pride; I find it alarming.

I have said this before but I'll say it again. For the two major news outlets, KUOW and the Seattle Times, to ignore several big SPS stories is not just a coincidence. I believe there is some sort of agreement by the powers that be and the district for worrisome news stories get tamped down. 

As SOFG plays out and the public realizes that SPS is going to shifting dramatically, I think readers/listeners of the Times and KUOW are gonna wonder why they haven't heard anything about how it came about. 

It has been pointed out to me that I'm not a journalist. I have never said I am but I am a citizen reporter who has been doing this for a long time. I know what I'm seeing. 

I urge you to go to the Times story and, if you are a subscriber, please put something in the comments asking why the Times is ignoring the SOFG story. Ditto for KUOW (they now have a section at the bottom of most pages that asks for input). 

In closing, I also wanted to bring in another theory I have. 

Over at the West Seattle Blog, they had a story on the renovation of Alki Elementary and one reader asked - as has been asked about the renovations of Montlake Elementary and Rogers  Elementary- why Alki was being built so much bigger with declining enrollment. The district has never really answered this question but here's my thought.

You are a school district with steadily declining, if slightly slowing down, enrollment. Every student means money lost even as you have the costs of running 100 buildings. 

What would be easier for the public to accept- closing schools and rearranging where students go OR becoming a charter authorizer and sharing buildings with charter schools? The charter schools would get the student revenue but the district could charge them rent and upkeep costs. (And I wonder how much longer the district is going to subsidize the City's pre-K program and NOT charge them any rent for use of many district classrooms.)

Or maybe the district does both. 

During the upcoming school boundaries redo, will the district say they need to close some smaller schools, pushing students into nearby schools and then rent the empty buildings to charter schools. After that is done, then the district announces that it's becoming a charter authorizer and creates building sharing with these new overly large elementaries.

Hmmm.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I’m not a pro at SOFG and so many other things but I know enrollment and capacity. The overbuilding of schools is going to become an issue. The old buildings needed to be replaced or updated. The levy passed and it’s hard to slow or stop the building of a school once started. BUT, in the north end the rebuild of Viewlands, Northgate, John Rogers, moving out Licton Springs and the potential of dismantling HCC (which would theoretically empty Cascadia and push those students out to their neighborhood schools). All of this is absolutely going to demand an enrollment and fiscal reckoning by SPS.
And not having an experienced operations chief in place…. My alarm bells are screaming.

BTDTmom

11/4/22, 1:27 PM
Unknown said…
Keep it up!

SP
11/4/22, 1:28 PM
Watching said…
Thank you!
11/4/22, 9:16 PM
Anonymous said…
what's really wild is how this is not being discussed by SEA or in buildings. There are changes coming with very little information until the deal is done For example, the district is collapsing supports and programs for multi-lingual learners and wants to severely reduce the Bridges program (which gives IEP students workplace training after high school) and none of this is being communicated to the people it will impact How is that student focused? It's all a mystery until it's not

futurewatcher
11/5/22, 12:09 PM
Stuart J said…
The Times ... on Oct 28, they posted a story online about the Renton and Highline bonds. I noticed something wrong, and the reporter fixed it at 2 pm after checking with some others. Since then, the story has not been in print, not even today Nov 6. The correction: the HIghline School District stated in the explanatory statement that the rate per thousand would drop from $4.40 currently to $3.86. However, on Oct 6 they posted a notice, buried in an FAQ you can only see by clicking, that the rate would actually remain at $4.40 They say they got updated info from the King County Assessor office. What type of info changes between August when the statement was submitted and October? VERY suspicious.

So, people's taxes will increase by the amount of their increased assessment. Many are 15 to 20%.

To, me this is deceitful. But once voters find out, will they mind they are getting a big increase instead of a decrease?

The point is: it is a very big deal that a voter statement is wrong. And the Times has been silent. It turns out also the voter statement in the online version could be updated , but the district chose not to ask for this.

I wrote about the bond on a new startup publication called Gem of the Sound. Here is the link to my story. I welcome you sending it to anyone you know in the Highline School District.

https://www.gemofthesound.com/blog/2022/10/28/voter-alert-tax-per-thousand-increased-on-highline-school-bond

Note also the district has been silent about 4.40 in many community meetings and communications since. The Yes for Highline citizens group sent out a postcard with 3.86. They linked to a web site , but have now removed the link, where you can see waht the impact is based on 4.40

One of the schools, Tyee, has an enrollment of 653. The plan is to construct it for 1200. I highly doubt given the increase in house prices and rents that they will even hold at 653 in a few years.


11/6/22, 9:02 AM
Anonymous said…
I have corresponded recently with a reporter at KUOW who said they are in the process of finalizing a hire of a reporter to be on the education beat. So we should see reporting ramp up there as this person starts up.
-SpEd Mom
11/22/22, 8:16 AM
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