Round Up of Public Education News
Locally
Well, the third time's the charm; a St. Louis school district hired SPS' current CAO, Keisha Scarlett, to be their new superintendent. Congrats to Dr. Scarlett on her new post (but I'm thinking she might not want Director Chandra Hampson at her going away party). Scarlett will finish her work in SPS on July 1.
In partnership with HDR Foundation and All Kids Bike, Hawthorne Elementary was gifted a fleet of bicycles as part of the Kindergarten Learn-to-Ride Physical Education Program. Gov. Jay Islee and Superintendent Brent Jones surprised a gym full of kindergarteners with new bikes and helmets, as well as pedal conversion kits, one teacher instruction bike, and certified curriculum training for Hawthorne’s Physical Education teacher, Tahj Stewart.
It's National School Counseling Week and thank you to all those with that tough job.
State
A bill in the Washington State legislature on equity in gifted education
Nationally
It's Black History Month which, this year, is a bit ironic given Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, just bullied the College Board into changing their still-in-progress AP course on African-American Studies. That plus the murder of Tyre Nichols by five Memphis police officers makes a somber opening for the month.
Oddly, the district announcement has no link to any list of events. I found that at the Capitol Hill Blog.
Black History Month in Seattle will again begin with a Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action including a protest of the School Board calling for the system to defend its ethnic studies programs and continue work to rely on “counselors not cops” to foster student safety. Organized by educator and activist Jesse Hagopian, the weeks of action have become an annual part of Black History Month.
From February 6-10, Seattle educators, students and parents will be holding a week-long series of actions, protests, and cultural events to celebrate and fight for Black lives in education. Events include:
One of the events is a protest before at the Feb. 8th School Board meeting to "Defend Ethnic Studies and Counselors, not Cops." No word if they will go into the meeting.
Comments
What a small circle of candidates they must have searched in for their superintendent! Was this yet another work of GCSC or something like that?
Scarlett has used her on the job time and resources to keep on job-hunting and bringing down the academic performance indicators and their graduation bars lower, as one of the highest paid employees at SPS. SPS PR on this is an epiphany of its lack of leadership and bad work ethics especially among the cabinet members to even do work for the students, one superintendent after another.
Therefore, it's shameful that Jones is expressing his misplaced priorities on the district's time and dime to make any fuss about that.
That said, it'd be fine for Melissa or another observer to say congratulations on personal platforms. Not on our dime.
Sick Duck
Nothing against the current leaders personally as they are all fine people, but Policy 0030 states "Workforce Equity—The district shall actively work to have the teacher and administrator workforce be balanced and reflect the diversity of the student body."
As long as the district keeps violating its own policies, leadership and it's decisions will continue to lack legitimacy.
It would be nice to see the district actually hire somebody of Chinese, or East Indian, or Korean heritage as Chief Academic Officer, given that the District's Strategic Plan, and funding algorithm, and bussing, specifically deprioritize students with these backgrounds because of their ethnicities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Policies regarding new grading method etc. need to be evaluated, as well.