Seattle School Board Meeting 2/7/2024 - Part 1

The Seattle School Board is not doing well, not doing well at all. Last night's Board meeting made that apparent.

For one, even though there is a stated policy on public testimony AND President Liza Rankin reiterated it before public testimony, all caution was thrown to the wind. To be clear, it was a night of high passion and upset for public testimony. It didn't matter the topic - most seemed riled up. 

It seemed that since there was a large number of youth speakers and a number of them who ignored/didn't understand the process, they went waaay over the time limit. When one person sees another speaker ignore the end-of-time signal, then they believe they can do that as well. You let 20+ people do that and you add 30-40 more minutes to the meeting which is hard on everyone. If Rankin doesn't want to do it, ask the Board office staff to monitor and tell people, "Please wrap up your comments" as they did in the past. 

There was also a fair amount of shouting and some disrespect to the Board which, again, is generally not allowed. 

I don't just say this for decorum because I don't think anyone in their statements was particularly out of line. But when you have a Board that has near zero public engagement, you can't blame people when they actually get a chance to talk to the Board. 

But the part that is really not good is that the Board doesn't hold the Superintendent accountable. 

- Safety - A Chief Sealth HS student was killed off-site but near the school. Students are telling anyone who will listen that they don't feel safe at school. I haven't even heard Jones say anything about it.

 For the sister of the student killed to stand at the podium, weeping for her brother and not hear a word from anyone up on the dais about it was a bit jarring. She even mentioned perhaps bringing back officers to schools and metal detectors. If students say that, you know it's serious because most of them do NOT want cops at school. It was stated that parents want grade level lunches. The claim is that there are 13 doors at Sealth that are unlocked. How can this be happening?

SEA head, Jennifer Matter, said the number one cause of death in King County for teens is gun violence.

- There were certain students from different high schools demanding ethnic studies classes. A very good point was made twice that students of color don't want to hear just about past abuses of their people but the good and interesting and useful things in their culture that helped build the American culture. 

Best quote from a student:

"Areas get named for our heroes and yet we don't learn about our history in schools. Why do we have to fight for this?"  

What was odd was that a few students were upset about BLM Week in Schools but Jones had just finished reading a proclamation that SPS WAS participating. Why adults with them didn't have them adjust their remarks is unclear.

- Native American speakers seem to say that whoever was overseeing Native American students and curriculum at JSCEE is gone. That there's an undercount of NA students which means fewer dollars. That there is no real public accounting for Title Six dollars. 

There was also the accusation that Jones has not reached out to their community. One flaw in how the district operates is to believe - somehow - that different groups are monolithic and if senior staff speaks to one group, that's good enough. The Urban Education Alliance (UEA) is a long-standing NA group that even used to partner with the district. Somehow they have been on the outs with the district and get ignored. It's a little weird to treat any group that way. 

Also, on the C-SIPs, the state-mandated report for each school on how they are fulfilling the mission of the district, I did a spot-check and now there's a SOFG template that each school uses. So about 75% of what you read is just SOFG blah, blah, blah. Check your own school's and see. 

Rankin says she wants to help parents understand how these reports about schools are important. "We are just doing the minimum" and maybe could do better. No kidding.

On that point, I also ask what the Superintendent and staff are doing to attract new students and possibly get back some who left. Those C-SIPs are not great reading. But the Board doesn't even ask, "What are you doing and what can be done?"

Crickets.