Seattle Schools Community Forum

Let's go to one example that I have written about before - Tracy Castro Gill.  It recently was announced that Gill, a self-styled ethnic studies expert, had lost her bid in court to prevent public disclosure requests to review curricula that she created .  The public disclosure request was sent to OSPI who had her curricula as one kind available for Ethnic Studies.  OSPI let her know that the request had been made in Jan 2023 and that they were going to offer to send "a representative sample." Gill's group got a temporary restraining order in Feb. 2023.  On March 23, 2023 in King County Superior Court, Just Indu Thomas ruled that: “The public records act and Washington administrative code does not require an agency to first produce records to a notified third party before that party is required to seek injunctive relief under the statute.” The judge added that there is “no basis under the statute to enjoin the release of records to a public records requester.” ...

I spend 100 days a year in Europe, but Day 101 — the day I return to my hometown of Edmonds, Washington — is always my happiest. Looking through my office window, I can see my old junior high — and the neighborhood pub across the street fills the space that once held “Steves Sound of Music,” my dad’s piano store. The news in Edmonds this week isn’t good. As is sadly happening in small towns across the US, our school board held a special meeting to discuss budget cuts — and shared their plan to give music classes across the district the axe.   If you were anything like my best friends and me in high school, it’s almost impossible to imagine a public school education without “nonessentials” like music, drama, debate, and art. Moments like the one you see here were some of our happiest and most productive. The arts kept us engaged. (That’s me on the left with my sousaphone, providing the woofer foundation for Mr. Rhinehart’s German oom-pah band.) Maybe it’s because my dad was once a ...

Update: the district is short on money but the new Assistant Superintendent of Finance's salary range is this: $243,947.00 - $256,297.00 Annually It IS a big job but that's a great salary for this area. For the money SPS spends on top administration, you'd think the district would be in better shape. end of update  I put this up at the last "This and That": I'm hearing that the Executive Directors numbers may be reduced from 7 to 5 and those remaining will be working by region/K-12.   Apparently ALL the EDs (and their boss who is Mike Starosky) have to reapply for their jobs, with the number of EDs being reduced to five.  I also note that the district is looking for a new Assistant Superintendent of Finance. The broad job description on the announcement page is quite different from the actual job description. Join a team that is committed to every student’s journey. We are proud to be a forward-looking, K-12 school system. We believe it is our respons...

There's a School Board meeting tonight. Looking at the agenda, the speaker list is again dominated by the cuts to the Washington Middle School jazz program. It's a short agenda with just one Action Item (but, once again, it's Intro/Action because why bother with any real public engagement or discussion)? That item is - Approval of Board Resolution No. 2022/23-14, Direction for 2023-24 Fiscal Stabilization Plan This Board Action would adopt Board Resolution No. 2022/23-14, which provides Board direction to the Superintendent to present a portfolio of proposed actions to balance the 2023-24 operating budget, including reductions to district operations and educational programs, for the Board’s review and acceptance, prior to the Board’s adoption of the complete District operating budget for the 2023-24 school year. Here's the relevant "whereas" from the Resolution: WHEREAS, because the District does not have the presently assured financial resources to maint...

 Nationally Texas Senate passes bill requiring public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments   Via CNN: Senate Bill 1515, authored by state Sen. Phil King, a Republican, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a “conspicuous place” in each classroom in a “size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.” King has previously said the bill will help restore religious liberties “that were lost” and it “reminds students all across Texas of the importance of a fundamental foundation” of America.  This would apply for the next school year. Also Thursday, the Senate passed another bill relating to religion , one which would require schools to allow time for students and employees to pray and read the Bible on each school day.   Really? But hey, good news: Following the passage of the two bills, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement “allowing the Ten Commandments and ...

 Last week SPS staff and the school board had a Work Session on the next capital levy which will be BEX VI. (It was followed by a session on the Board's committee structure. Spoiler alert - they believe they do NOT need the committees that they ended - Executive, Curriculum, Instruction and Student Services, and Operations - and so those committees will not be coming back. Starts on page 45.) The BEX VI levy is scheduled for the ballot in February 2025.  The last BEX levy in 2022 was for $783M. I know many of you might wonder why the district would be so interested in the next BEX levy - one big reason is because several years back, the district moved the costs for 85% of the Technology department's costs into BEX. I cannot imagine what would happen if a levy failed because then how would they finance a large and costly department? I thought this folly when it started and I still think so.  The district also moved more than major maintenance to the capital levies; they mo...

 This article from Education next got me asking that question.    As you can see from the map, Washington State is one of the few states to actually provide detail to the feds on their spending.  An historic, massively expensive experiment is nearing its home stretch. In March 2021 the federal government sent $112 billion out to 14,000 districts with almost no strings attached. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding came on top of another $60 billion from two earlier waves of pandemic relief dollars for schools (in sum, roughly three times the annual federal investment). Never before had schools seen anything like it. To say school districts were (and still are) flush with cash is an understatement. District leaders have more money at their disposal than ever before. Normally leaders spend budget seasons trying to pare back planned expenditures to match their revenue reality. But with ESSER, districts had to come up with ne...

 It was reported to me that the district appears to have reached a settlement in a case involving a Special Education student being caged at View Ridge Elementary. As soon as I get a link to that story, I'll provide it. The settlement appears to be in the $1M range. Background story from KUOW : Investigators found that the principal of View Ridge Elementary School in northeast Seattle told staff to lock the gates around a second-grade boy to manage his behavior issues. A Seattle Schools investigation would later reveal that Jaleel had been placed in this enclosure, dubbed “the cage” by school staff members, on multiple occasions, including June 20, 2019, the day Flaherty intervened.  The assistant principal brought the 8 year old his lunch, which Jaleel ate while sitting on the concrete floor. Students and teachers walked by him on their way to recess, and the students sometimes stopped to stare at Jaleel. District leaders called the situation “egregious.” But the district had...

  Thanks to teacher, Bob Murphy!

 Two major events have happened, both involving the equity work of Seattle Public Schools. The first one is that some parents are suing SPS for racial discrimination, stemming from an incident at Pathfinder K-8. This was filed with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights on April 11, 2023 by a group called Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) From the filing: Pathfinder leadership has implemented several programs that separate students and other community members based on race or skin color in violation of federal law, as evidenced by the attached documentation. Specifically, the school has offered several opportunities that are racially-exclusionary or separate individuals based on race, including, without limitation: - Pathfinder Community Cafe, which is meant to “connect and foster relationships” and “bring community members together for a series of loosely structured conversations that directly address issues important to the community.” In Septe...

 A heartfelt plea from kids author, Kelly Yang, to Scholastic Books (which is based in Florida). This springs from Scholastic asking another author, Maggie Tokuda Hall, to remove a reference to racism in her book, Love in the Library.  Folks, we have to stand up for literary expression. No child is being forced to read any book but I am so impressed with the MUCH wider variety of books - subjects and characters - portrayed in today's book. 

 Here's a really in-depth look at what is happening in the final days of this legislative term. What we’re watching this week The Legislature is set to adjourn “sine die” on Sunday, April 23 rd . We should see final operating, capital, and transportation budgets late in the week, and will be reviewing for the impact on upcoming school years, new grant programs, etc. On April 12, just outside of the 10-day window requiring bills to pass by a two-third’s majority, 20 Senate Democrats introduced SB 5770 , a measure that would change the voter-approved property tax growth factor for state and local governments from 1% to 3% and would change the definition of inflation from the implicit price deflator to urban Consumer Price Index. The state property tax was lifted in 2017 to help with the McCleary fix and expires in calendar year 2023. This bill would take effect in calendar year 2024. The bill hasn’t been scheduled for a public hearing. Here’s a Seattle Times story on ...

I confirmed yesterday that the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) has had its contract with the district ended and their program - which runs Washington Middle School - will cease. SPS said they could no longer support the model. Earlier in the year, SPS had stated that teachers hired for the program would be cut from WMS but now the entire program is leaving. TAF surpassed enrollment projections for three years.  The district has sent a letter to families but I have not seen what they have said. It is likely that both TAF and SPS will issue some kind of public announcement.  The Times had a scathing editorial this afternoon as they announced this turn of events. Its title is " Any way you slice it, Seattle Public Schools’ woes are self-inflicted."  On TAF: Consider accelerated learning. Rightly concerned about racial segregation between kids in so-called “highly capable” classrooms and everyone else, Seattle has been working to abolish these divisions. It found a cre...

  From the West Seattle Blog on Saturday: Police, including homicide detectives, are in Westwood near Chief Sealth International High School . We’re told a person was found dead – so far described by police only as male – apparently shot, as shell casings have been marked in the street (27th SW, which runs along the campus’s west edge). We’ve counted a dozen casing markers in the street. We’ve been reminded that there was a report of possible gunfire in the area late last night – we heard the dispatch before 11 pm but did not hear anything further regarding whether evidence of gunfire was found at the time.  (See this comment posted last night on our story from the previous night about gunfire near Westwood Village, a short distance south of here.)  SPD spokesperson Officer Shawn Weismiller spoke with us at the scene a short time ago. The victim, who he described as a Black man in his 20s, was found in the CSIHS southwest driveway this morning, according to both ...

Washington Middle School Are the Washington Middle School kids unhappy about the band cuts? They are. This was made clear by the number of students and parents who showed up at the Board meeting last Wednesday. And boy do they love the band teacher, Michael Sundt, whose position will be eliminated. One student asked, "P lease keep this teacher in our hearts." It was compelling testimony for a couple of reasons: - There was no shouting or "how could you!" kind of tone. The kids were articulate and passionate. They talked about being part of something, working towards goals and the program being "engaging." Many said that band made school worthwhile and interesting. I note that you will often hear why athletics never seems to face cuts and you hear the exact same wording. But SPS isn't cutting the athletic budget by much.  - Years back there were complaints that these jazz programs were too white. Part of that issue was about many kids of color NOT be...