This and That

Well, I tuned into a bit of the Board meeting last night. 

I had hoped that someone would say something about the serious situation out in the Ballard area around students being robbed, sometimes at gunpoint. The Superintendent was not there so nothing there. Not a single Board member said anything including President Brandon Hersey. There is no tweets at the district's X page, not even with safety info. 

I would assume that Ballard HS and Whitman MS are talking to kids about this issue but where's the district leadership? AWOL

Looks like Director Chandra Hampson and Director Liza Rankin, together with the Seattle Council PTSA, want some input on the not-good proposed fiscal policy. Here's a link to that virtual meeting which is on Thursday, November 2nd at 7 pm.  

The meeting's purpose:

To discuss the school board draft financial policy and how would it affect the district’s financial position. 

In a single hour, Rankin and Hampson will be able to explain all facets of this policy and take questions. Sure. 

We are working on interpretation, and look forward to supporting the community in getting their questions answered. Please register with your language access, questions & accessibility needs. Please contact president@scptsa.org for questions.

From the West Seattle Blog, on October 20th students at Chief Sealth International High School planned a walkout over "“graphic … group text messages” that “encourage sexual violence.” WS Blog received this email from a student (partial):

At our school, some of the boys on our football team and in general have been known to sexually assault, catcall, and harass women, as well as yell slurs and hate-crime queer and other students. The only thing that has happened to these boys, up to this point, has been a slap on the wrist, and events like this continue to occur. Our school consistently preaches about the physical and mental health and safety of their students, implementing a no-phone policy to reduce students’ anxiety and help our mental health, yet there has been serious inaction when the safety of female and queer students is put in jeopardy.

While our principal has been immensely supportive and has brought forth an action plan to change these boys behavior it is disappointing that students had to go this far to feel safe at school and get the justice they deserve.

From Principal Ray Morales (partial):

The school administration team is investigating the concerns and exploring appropriate discipline and additional corrective action.

Our social workers and school leaders are reaching out to offer direct support to each student who was a subject of the messages.

Chief Sealth International athletic leaders are developing a plan to promote gender equity, prevent sexual harassment, and help our students better understand what behaviors are expected of students and athletes.

I take the safety and wellbeing of our students very seriously. I appreciate the messages and questions families have sent to me expressing their concern about this issue. Our school and athletic teams are taking proactive steps to be sure our young people approach their peers and community members with respect.

The district and the admin team support students’ rights to express their views in a peaceful manner, including assembly and peaceful protest.

 There were 96 comments on this story.

I note that the Board is having an Audit Committee meeting on October 20th from 4-6 pm, both in-person and virtual. There is this interesting item on the agenda. 

Internal Audit Report - Prevention and Response of Employee/Contractor Perpetrated Student Safety Incidents Performance Audit (Moss Adams) 

What that means is unclear to me. Hmmm