Are You Kidding, Seattle School Board?
I am awash in things to write about everywhere I look. But I'm just going to get this out there now so that you can tell the remaining School Board directors to get moving. I urge you to write to them:
spsdirectors@seattleschools.org
Here's the latest from the Seattle Times. It states that the Board will talk about the process at next weeks' Board meeting. But here's a key sentence from that article:
Applications will be open “as soon as possible” after the meeting and stay open for 90 days, said Board President Liza Rankin.
What?! No way. (I do have a query into the Times to make sure this is exactly what President Rankin said.)
Let's go to the relevant RCW (bold mine):
RCW 28A.343.370
Vacancies.
(1)
In case of a vacancy from any cause on the board of directors of a
school district other than a reconstituted board resulting from
reorganized school districts, a majority of the legally established
number of board members shall fill such vacancy by appointment:
PROVIDED, That should there exist fewer board members on the board of
directors of a school district than constitutes a majority of the
legally established number of board members, the educational service
district board members of the district in which the school district is
located by the vote of a majority of its legally established number of
board members shall appoint a sufficient number of board members to
constitute a legal majority on the board of directors of such school
district; and the remaining vacancies on such board of directors shall
be filled by such board of directors in accordance with the provisions
of this section: PROVIDED FURTHER, That should any board of directors
for whatever reason fail to fill a vacancy within ninety days from the
creation of such vacancy, the members of the educational service
district board of the district in which the school district is located
by majority vote shall fill such vacancy.
(2)
Appointees to fill vacancies on boards of directors of school districts
shall meet the requirements provided by law for school directors and
shall serve until the next regular school district election, at which
time a successor shall be elected for the unexpired term.
(3)
If a vacancy will be created by a board member who has submitted a
resignation, that board member may not vote on the selection of his or
her replacement.
Comments
NOTLoLing
https://www.psesd.org/about-psesd/board-of-directors
I agree this panel of individuals might make a better selection than our current rump-board could make given its lack of talent and expertise. The ESD board also not shadow-run by AJ Craybill.
The way the state structures public education in Washington, think of school districts as analogous to cities and Educational Service Districts as analogous to counties. Actual cities/mayors and counties play no role in school governance in this state; remember that when out-of-staters mention silly things like "mayoral control."
Here is OSPI's map of SDs and ESDs:
https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2022-12/SchoolDistrictsESDs-36x24_2020.pdf
ESD
Transparency Please
Bumbling Through
I fully suspect that a former and current board members have been trying to recruit candidates, and I fully expect the person to be tied to the SCPTSA.
I'm not overly impressed with the ESD. One board member sat on the Seattle School Board. Similar to the current board..that board held a tight grip on the rubber stamp.The board member didn't act on the information. As a result, the Auditors Office investigators alleged that almost $2M had been fraudulently awarded to small businesses.
As an aside, Song and Smith sat on the Operations Committee. They attended BEX Oversight Committee meetings. And, now the operations committee has been dismantled under SFPG. There are now huge oversight gaps.
Done Deal, yes, oversight will be near nil now that Song and Rivera are gone. It's a sad thing and I predict, down the line, there will be some huge issue because of it.
Early names I am hearing for D4 are Laura Marie Rivera and former director Sue Peters Both would be great. (And, SPS would have another Director Rivera.) I have not heard any ideas for D2 which, for the last couple of cycles has had few candidates.
These resignations were discussed on KUOW's Week in Review.
I see that on the Board page "Meet the Board" there are now blanks for both names.
Is there anything at all we can do to influence this? Or are we really just going to have to wait till the next election?
Either way, voters lost their elected official. With Song and Smith gone, the board lost a tremendous amount of consistency and institutional knowledge, and an elected official will be replaced with an appointed during a critical time.
A cynical person might think that the district wanted to save $1M in election costs- only to have a board member replaced by an appointed.