Seattle Schools is NOT Being Straight with Parents OR Staff on School Reshuffles

 I have been on hiatus and so did not create posts for several items that have come up over the last week. 

This post will be a bit forward of others that should come first but I don’t have time now to listen to last week’s Board meeting where, from what I hear, many parents came to advocate for the district to NOT shake up their classrooms. 

The background to this issue is that, perennially, the district gets their October 1 count and finds that there is unevenness in class sizes at some schools that needs adjusting for budgetary reasons. This has happened over and over for as long as I can remember. 

But this time it appears there is a mighty big difference. 

Which brings me to today’s story in the Seattle Times whereupon we hear some troubling statements. The headline is “Seattle Schools Apologizes for Class Reshuffle Disruption.” SPS “apologizing” in this manner is somewhat akin to a drunk who goes to confession and promises never to drink again. It’s meaningless.

- So apparently Superintendent Brent Jones said this at the Board meeting, per this discussion:

I want to make it clear that we are listening and we are apologetic for the inconveniences that [the changes caused],” Jones said at the start of the meeting. “We are collectively challenged in making sure we are following mandates and rules so that we can get the resources that we need in order to keep our schools solvent.”

First of all, I have to wonder about this “the State is making us do this” stuff. I would love the district to put out a simple one-pager about it.

And what does “listening” mean to the Superintendent and Board at this point? Very, very little. But it costs them nothing to say it.

Then there’s this:

The district has posted a frequently asked questions page on its website spelling out the changes, but has declined to make public a list of the schools impacted. That information “is best provided by the school leader who shares what direct changes are happening and the support available in their building,” a spokesperson said via email.

Why wouldn’t the district give out this information? Is this how it will be for school closures?

- Then there’s this which does NOT signal confidence in district leadership:

Principals and educators started compiling a list of their own earlier in the week. The list includes 53 schools but has not been verified or confirmed by the district.

53 schools? That’s half of the schools in the district.

SEA weighs in:

Seattle Education Association President Jennifer Matter said that she’s never seen so many schools impacted by a reshuffle in the fall. In the past, there have been adjustments in the spring.

At first, just a couple of schools reached out to her about receiving an order to reshuffle classrooms. Then the numbers started to grow. “We didn’t realize it was across the district,” Matter said.  

 Matter said the district told her that a computer system miscalculation led to the error.

What?! I sure wish the Times would follow up on that statement. If true, then what the heck?

Matter said the district told her that only about 10 schools would be impacted by enrollment changes this year, suggesting the additional schools are having to reshuffle classes due to this error.

 “Right now there are so many questions about ‘could this be prevented?’ Right now everybody believes it should’ve been prevented,” Matter said. “Could we have done this reshuffle the first week of school? Did it have to wait until October?”

I will try to follow up on this but the district is hit or miss for me about questions. I do note that in the comments, it appears that some other districts had some shuffling but nothing on the scale of SPS.