The New Seattle School Board is in Place, November 29, 2023
The new and returning members of the Seattle School Board took the oath of office this week. It was broadcast on the district's YouTube page.
Per usual, the room was just family and supporters, not a large crowd.
Board President Brandon Hersey was the host of the event. He noted several generations of board members present. I only saw former Board member Michael DeBell but Hersey didn't name anyone.
He also had something of a mixed message about the district. He said:
- the district had a "vision of longevity"
- that it is a "tumultuous time" in the district
- there are "big challenges" that will require energy and he hoped that the new members had told their families about this
- it was going to be "a fun couple of years"
Okay.
Superintendent Jones asked if people were excited to be at the event and got a few tepid whoops. He did make an interesting comment that the two returning members were elected with overwhelming majorities "so we can continue this work."
One by one, each director took their oath of office. I note that for Director Liza Rankin and new Director Evan Briggs, both had former director Chandra Hampson in their family photo. New Director Gina Topp had former director Leslie Harris and King County Executive Dow Constantine in her photo.
Hersey then asked each member to give a short speech, keeping it to five minutes. He made a joke about Rankin being known for being long-winded but then, true to form, she spoke for nearly 10 minutes. Gotta say that if she is the next Board president, there are going to be some long Board meetings.
Director Rankin apologized to directors Vivian Song and Michelle Sarju, who came in right before COVID. She said that she and the other directors probably didn't support the on-boarding process as directors because of the chaos and said that was wrong.
She then went on to talk about their work which is, without naming it, SOFG (Student Outcome Focused Governance).
In a bit of an hilarious contrast, Director Lisa Rivera was next and said that she knew she had five minutes but normally didn't think she had enough to say that was worthy of taking five minutes. She said she generally thought "less is more."
She said that, during her time on the Board in her first term, she didn't really know who she was - Hispanic, Latina, Chicana - and settled on Mexican-American.
"But what I didn't do, both actively and passively, is say that I am Native. And I am. I am Comanche and (unintellible). But like many natives I grew up with, disconnected from my culture. I am very grateful for the love and support of the Native community that I have found in the Urban Native Education Alliance." She said last summer they recognized her as their Advocate of the Year.
This is quite the interesting term of events. I had been wondering why Rivera hadn't been advocating more from the dais about Latino issues. It will be fascinating to see what form her native self takes as a board director, given the directness of her remarks.
Evan Briggs, with her turn at the mic, teared up thanking her family, saying she was "an emotional person." She also said she heard Hersey say that was a tumultuous time but that she felt "optimistic" because of the groundwork that was laid (meaning SOFG).
Pop quiz! Without watching the video, how many times do you think Briggs referenced Hampson? I'll help you out by saying it's more than 1, less than 10. I have never heard that kind of referral to a non-family member in a board director's first speech.
Gina Topp talked about her mother being a teacher for 34 years and watching her work. She said the Board priority of equity was key to her. She also pointed out her two-year old at the back of the room. She had the least specific comments of the four.
Jones closed the event saying that there is "a rocky road" ahead. He also said something that I find a new and irritating stance from both he and the former Board - namely, that no other Board and Superintendent have ever gotten along before. It simply isn't true and I find it disrespectful to those past directors and superintendents.
Also, it appears both Vivian Song and Lisa Rivera have dropped their husbands' names from their own names. I will be writing their names as such going forward.
Comments
I’ll never forget this woman called reopening schools in 2021 amidst a pediatric mental health crisis to be “white supremacy.” Talk about role confusion.
Some interesting insights into the personal lives of board directors, Melissa. Thanks for your work.
Fun Years Ahead
I listened to Hall Pass. It appears that Hampson wants central control of PTA dollars. She wants "alignment". What does that mean? In my experience, you can't really trust the district with dollars because administrative costs consume huge amounts of dollars that could be used in classrooms. Hampson seemed to imply that the district would take 10% of PTA funds- or about $400K. One could expect administrative costs to take approximately $100K plus dollars right off the top. One could imagine that administrative costs could exceed $100K, as well.
There is something to be said for sharing resources.
The manner in which dollars would be allocated to other schools are a mystery. What happens when you have 2 schools where one school raises dollars for a Rocket club and another school uses dollars for theater. Should we expect that all schools would have dollars for both theater and rockets in every school?
Hampson never really explained what to do about South Shore's additional $1M per year. What about Nesholm Foundation dollars? She did make a point about various entities needing to offer scholarships.
Rankin and Hampson both complained- bitterly- that they are volunteers and that volunteers need to lighten their workload while overseeing an $1B per year budget. Thus, SFOG whereby the fiscal committee was killed while the district faces $100M multi-year deficits. This, while Rankin and Hampson sit on other boards. I would prefer board directors that didn't kill committee meetings and spent their time overseeing the district.
Nah Bro
It's all relevant since it's very clear Evan Briggs is just a hand puppet for Chandra Hampson.
Weird Stuff
Will the Alliance for Eduction involve themselves with PTA dollars? Years ago, A4E managed ASB funds and charged the district 10%.
Hampson appeared to make clear that the board shouldn't listen to communities because there is a collective system.
We got the request this year for the Eckstein Annual Campaign and waaaay down at the bottom I noticed it was actually managed by Alliance 4 Ed. I believe they said their take was less than 10%, I believe they skim 6% but I’d have to go back and look. Either way, they aren’t an organization that I feel any need to subsidize. So I checked the “not this year” and sent it back with my student. The sneaky way it was hidden in small print really put me off.
Also, I’m about 90% sure the EAC failed to hit its goal of $150k. I did wonder if that failure was at all related to parents getting fed up and wondering if their $ were even going to stay at their school.
-Eckstein Watcher
It will be interesting to see whether PTAs will still be allowed to hire counselors in a post pandemic world. And, yes, non- title one schools receive less support.
PTAs used to be the only assurance that dollars would actually get into the classroom.