Where is SPS Going? Ask Hampson and Rankin

 In another post, reader Doomer said this:

Our public school system is universal public education -- school for all. Many people are working hard to turn our health care system into that same model: universal health care, Medicare for all.

But under Chandra Hampson, SPS is moving away from that and is instead deliberately ending universal public education. Their goal is to turn our school system into the current American health care system, in which people are expected to get their needs met privately and the public system exists for the most urgent cases. That's not a good thing. If you want that, Alki Mothership, good for you. I don't think there are very many Seattleites who agree with you, at least outside the JSCEE and the SCPTSA.

I absolutely agree. 

And one reason I agree is that at a Facebook parent page there was discussion about what Director Liza Rankin and Director Chandra Hampson have said directly to parents.

Rankin

I am likely an outlier in seeing the challenges of budget and enrollment as an opportunity for SPS to make some choices to better meet the needs of our students and community, even though the changes will be challenging for some. With so much possibility, and available building space, what I will be prioritizing is clarity and timelines so that families understand the trajectory of the district and, within that, what is available for their student.

I absolutely take that to mean they will standardize schools as much as they can so it would be a "no" to option schools or any speciality programs (even in high school). She doesn't say what that "trajectory" is which is akin to not explaining what "well-resourced schools" are.

And this is a new line here that I have started hearing her say publicly:

We need to shift from a collection of relatively independent schools with public funding to a system of public schools, and that is going to take a shift in communications and clarity that I believe everyone is really eager for. We know that enrollment is declining now, but all indications are that the district will grow; we need to best use the resources that we have now for our students today, and look to the future when needs will change, based on housing and the percentage of children within the population in Seattle. 

Wait, what?! What indications of growth is she speaking of because I'm sure we all would like to know about that.  

With Covid and a change in Superintendent, the implementation of the transition from a cohort to a neighborhood model has not followed the timeline expected when the board voted for the transition in 2019-2020. I have been speaking with Superintendent Jones about this extensively over the spring and fall and have drafted an update to Policy 2190 Highly Capable that would align SPS with state law requirements, including more detailed reporting to the school board about services provided to HC students.

There are parents left and right who are confused about where HC is going and, most of all, WHEN. 

My priorities for 2024 should I remain on the school board include a directing the Superintendent to provide one-year, 5-year, and 10-year facilities and budgeting plans that map out school consolidations and projected enrollment changes, subject to change but public for everyone to follow, and a regular monthly community engagement session with the board at different locations throughout the school district so that we can all work together as a whole community for the benefit of our students and district. Services and supports like Highly Capable, Special Education, and Language Access and Multilingual Support need to be clearly outlined and defined within that facilities/school plan.  

That in bold I gotta see. Having a tightly controlled one-hour meeting with parents and community is NOT public engagement.

Hampson

Chandra Hampson has told parents that her goal is for SPS to become a small school district that ONLY serves disadvantaged kids.

She told me it was a 40 year plan, and the first 20 were just tearing everything apart. I've mentioned this to people and been surprised how many have responded with 'she told me the same thing!

Parent comments to this:

1) Most mere mortals wouldn’t presume to make decades long plans for a school district, especially one that starts with throwing it in disarray.
 
2) I read it as ensuring that kids generally can have the same quality of education no matter what school they are at in the district - which frankly just isn’t true right now.

As for comment one, we know Hampson is one of a kind with an elevated sense of self but I suspect SOFG is the mechanism to sell this to the public as part of "governance." 

As to the second comment, I would agree the quality is not the same at every school. But unless you have - at every single grade level - curriculum with a script that every single teacher has to follow and principal has to enforce, you will always have different levels of quality. Teachers are not AI widgets. And it sounds a lot like a system of charter schools. Maybe that's the end game - SPS becomes a system of charter schools.

If you strip away every single bit of identity that schools have (save their mascots and colors), what do you have? A factory school, a cookie-cutter school. 

I cannot see SEA being down with this vision.