Seattle Public Schools - Things that Make You Go, Hmmmm (Last One for 2022)
I pondered for a bit about whether I should open with what I would call "Grinch" news but in light of all the concern over the district's budget - which the Board has to vote on - well, I just thought this might make everyone go, hmmm, not just me.
I have a number of public records requests in at the district and I certainly know I'm not the only one. So they are very prompt in acknowledging my requests and giving me somewhat of an idea of when I might see the info. I had nearly forgotten about this one (though I do have a log of requests).
A couple of Board meetings back, Superintendent Brent Jones referenced that he, along with some directors and several staff attended the Council of Great City Schools conference in Orlando, Florida. This was in October. Here's what I asked for:
I am making a public disclosure request for the following:
- Names of all SPS staff and school board directors who attended
- Broken out cost list for all SPS staff and school board directors of cost to fly, hotel costs, food allowances, and conference costs per person.
Recently, I received the breakout chart for the Board members but still await the one for the Superintendent and whatever staff he took.
I did neglect to ask WHERE the money came from but the current Board budget is $5,227,397. Wow, I can remember when they only had just under $1M. Oddly, the budget says the Superintendent's office only gets $1.5M.
The orange cells represent those who only attended the Student Outcomes Focused Governance Cohort meetings and there was no conference cost for those. Those in blue cells attended both the SOFG Cohort meetings and the conference.
First, SIX Board members just HAD to go? The only one who didn't was Director Leslie Harris who 1) is a pragmatic person who probably said, "Well, if six of you are going, why the hell do I need to go?" and 2) she has a full-time job. (I'm not actually clear about who on the Board has a full-time job besides Harris; maybe Sarju?)
Second, why are President Hersey's flights SO much more expensive than anyone else's? Nearly double, in fact. I'm wondering if he flew Business or First Class for that kind of cost. It varied how long anyone stayed with Hersey, Rivera Smith, Song Maritz at just three days and Hampson, Rankin and Sarju at 6 days. Plus, they brought their staffer along; I wonder why they needed her.
Third, somehow, even though Liza Rankin went for six days, she managed to have the cheapest flights at $637.21.
And why was Hampson's conference fee comped?
I hope that total of $18,766.73 was worth it.
It will be interesting to see how many people from administration went and their costs. I get how this new governance model certainly needs the people at the top to fully understand it, but don't tell us how there is no money in SPS. There is ALWAYS money for what the administration wants to do.
In news that may affect the district's elementary enrollment in the SE, the Washington State Charter Commission recently approved the Rainier Valley Leadership Academy to expand from 6-12, adding on K-5 in 23'-24'. Its current location on Rainier at Graham is near Graham Elementary as well as MLK, Jr. Elementary and Dearborn International.
Lastly, an odd item. At the last Board meeting, Superintendent Jones had in front of him some crystal statue that represented an award that the Board had received. Called the "CUBE award," it was given by the National School Boards Association for Urban School Board Excellence. According to the NSBA, Jones had nominated the Board.
The award, which recognizes distinction in school board governance, academic improvement, educational equity, and community engagement, was presented in December at the CUBE 2022 Annual Conference in Miami.
“It is my honor to recognize Seattle Public Schools with the 2022 CUBE Award for Urban School Board Excellence. The district’s commitment to ensuring an anti-racist school system, and the actions it has taken to create policies and procedures sustaining that critical learning environment, demonstrates what school leaders can and must do to improve outcomes for students in urban districts,” Ali says.
“The district leadership team for Seattle Public Schools represents an outstanding example of the impact that school leaders can have in advancing access and educational equity,” says John Heim, NSBA’s executive director and CEO.
It appears that President Hersey attended their conference in early December to receive the award but I couldn't say who else might have joined him.
Like the Council of Great City Schools, this org appears to exist to provide "services" to school boards.
I wrote to NBSA, asking about the award. I was told that they are working on press information but that I should ask SPS Communications if I wanted "more perspective from the Seattle side." Well given that, in the announcement at their website, there were many curious statements made about SPS, maybe I should.
Like:
Disciplinary actions among these students (of color) were reduced from 8.4 percent to zero.
Over 2017-2018 to 2020-2021, they reduced disciplinary actions for students of color to zero. It's not the students of color part that puzzles me - it's saying they got to zero. How can that be reality-based?
As well,
Further, African American male students completing advanced coursework moved from 68 percent to 86 percent over the same three years.
I notice that the word the district is using is "completed." What does that mean? Took the class? Took the class and passed?
Hersey said this in their announcement:
Although not every racial or ethnic group is identified in every aspect of the strategic plan, Hersey stresses that “we 100 percent are treating their needs and outcomes with the same level of urgency and attention as we would for our Black, Latino and Latina students, and others that have been marginalized by the system.”
Now that just isn't true. Now if he said, "We care deeply about ALL students of color and believe that targeted universalism for Black boys will yield benefits to all student of color", sure. But he said that they are "100%" treating all students of color with the same urgency and attention." No, they are not.
And I do find his statement odd in leaving out Native American students completely.
Here's what bothers me most.
NBSA continues to say that they are still working on a press release This is nearly three weeks after the award was made. I have never seen any group take that long to write a press release.
The district - except for Jones' statement at the Board meeting - has said nothing. (Also, the Superintendent seems to not know the protocol at Board meetings because he invited the audience to come up and look at the award. No one can step up to the dais; that was ended a long time ago for safety issues.)
What would be stopping either entity from making this important announcement? Hmmm.
Comments
Fake Award
-Theo M.
DID ANY OF THAT HELP ANY KID IN ANY CLASSROOM????? No.
I am so angry at dozens of major decisions the “ powers that be” make and have made over the last, say, 5 years (yes, pre-COVID this district made destructive choices, they continued to do so during Covid, and continue on this destructive pathway in what one could term the post Covid year).
For example: everything from adopting Amplify as science textual material to do science curriculum, the active dismantling of actual education, the prodigious use of meaningless word salads, such as “targeted universalism”, the nasty game staff play with enrollment projection and budget (resulting in RIFs and then emergency rehires, which totally demoralize teachers and destroy faculty cohesion). the harm they do to children and families when it comes to special education, the grudge the district seems to have held onto due to the adoption of Singapore math, the threatening of options schools, the dismantling of gifted education, etc. And on the capiaol side, they still seem to be pushing for some kind of big redo at Memorial Stadium downtown at Seattle Center, God only knows why. Their educational policies have driven out families, leaving behind those who can’t seem to escape, thus having the predictable result of driving up free and reduced lunch populations in our schools, which creates higher challenge buildings per their own consultancy report.
They’re like a bunch of drunk teenage trustfund babies, money has no value to them as there will always be more. Giving them more money is very problematic. Poor education, outcomes, students not driving, that is not because we have a money problem, it’s because we have a leadership and culture problem, and money can’t fix those two things. It comes under the category of you’ve got to be cruel to be kind, doesn’t really matter who sits on the board, even with several good rational directors, amplify was still adopted. I’m looking at you, Leslie Harris.
Teachers are not the problem. Money is not the problem. Idealogues are most definetly the problem. Peel it back to basics: meet the needs of kids, follow evidence-based best practices, which is to say, direct instruction, phonetics, ability based grouping, etc.
Voting No
Didn’t the district just pass an operations levy? I’ll join you for voting down the capital levy, which should be coming up soon. The district should be divesting from buildings anyway with shrinking enrollment. And SPS is drunk on IT (also capital) dollars. There’s too much tech in schools, children are better off putting pen to paper, using their hands and learning in three dimensions over watching terrible science videos on laptops.
IRL
As I remember correctly, Hersey quit his job as a teacher at Federal Way School District sometime after getting his Board Director seat for Seattle Public School District. How has he been making his living without a day job? The Board Director position is not a paid position. Shouldn’t all the transactions between Hersey and the sources of his livelihood be disclosed to the public?
Disturbing Transactions
I wondered if Hersey was flying first class, as well.
$18K was a lot of money for the board to get themselves up to speed on SFOG which involved killing committee meetings from 10/22-7/23.
All that panic about the alarming drop in standardized test scores in elementary and middle schools? How much of that was due to all those kids on their computers playing video games and watching YouTube videos in the classroom instead of typing up their research papers like they were supposed to do?
Both my kids tell me this happens fairly often in their classrooms.
-Dump Amplify
Disturbing Transactions, no one embezzeled any money. The Board, with that rather large budget, can choose to spend it however they like. (I may ask for a more detailed budget to see what they are spending the money on.) But I am amused when this Board says "we have no staff" and they have a $5M budget. For the record, two people do work in the Board office.
President Hersey's LinkedIn page says he works full time as the Political Director at Professional & Technical Employees Local 17.
I would not say it's anyone's business how directors support themselves. I have advocated for a very long time for the state to fund salaries for the three largest school districts' directors. If you are having these people oversee $1B+ budget, it might be good to have them doing it full-time and getting paid.
I'm not sure I would say there is too much tech but it may be it is not being reined in or used as it should be.
Amplify Science was a terrible curriculum adoption and many of us have never forgotten Leslie Harris' cowardly vote to impose it on the district. For that vote alone she should be tossed from the board.
How would we go about removing Amplify Science? How exactly can we get it dumped, and what would replace it?
No Amplify
Leslie Harris is not perfect, but that whole board supported Amplify, even Eden Mack, so it's weird to single her out. Harris was running against Molly Mitchell in 2019 when that adoption went through, and there was widespread support district-wide for "equitable" curricula like Amplify. Mitchell would almost certainly have voted to adopt Amplify too.
You're right that Amplify is terrible and should never have been adopted, but you're wrong to focus on Harris alone for that. Even Eden Mack voted for it. Now, Harris did support Mack's amendment to the adoption at the time that called for an interim performance review on Amplify after a couple of years, but that never took place (I'm sure to no one's surprise). While we don't really know how well students are doing with Amplify, available data suggests the answer is "quite poorly." Nearly every staff member associated with that adoption has since moved or retired now, too, so there's no way to hold the staff who forced it through accountable for their screw-up.
The issues with this board are way, way bigger than just Amplify, and you're wrong to focus so singularly on just it and Leslie Harris. She is not the real problem here. We have no officially adopted social studies, history, or ELA curriculums, and many schools and teachers are still using harmful balanced literacy methodologies in that vacuum (in case anyone is wondering why 3rd grade AA males aren't learning how to read, that's a major factor).
If you're so against Leslie Harris, OK, but be careful what you wish for. If she runs against a Hampsonite like Mitchell again, and that person beats Harris, you won't be seeing better curricula adopted or really anything effective coming out of the boardroom at any point in the near future. Don't miss the Forest for
The Trees
There has NEVER been a curriculum adoption for Ethnic Studies. At one point, Liza Rankin was a parent and she was creating book lists for teachers etc.
When are we going to see an official curriculum adoption?? It is worth mentioning that the board will not allow any type of curriculum committee meeting for nine months.