This and That, Febuary 19, 2024

Hey! Look at that! The district put the process for applying for one of the two open Seattle School Board seats right at the top of their homepage. Like it's something very important. 

Next, just a heads up when you go to the SPS home page. They'll have a current story but then, underneath it, they will have a couple of other adjacent stories that are usually months, if not years old. I find that confusing because I click on them, read them and THEN realize "oh, this was last year." I myself don't find that feature helpful.

Congrats to the West Seattle Wildcats boys basketball team via West Seattle Blog:

Next stop for the West Seattle High School boys’ basketball team is the state tournament, after their second-place finish tonight in the District 2 3A tournament. 

Also at the West Seattle Blog is wrap-up of an event that President Liza Rankin did over in West Seattle at Genesee Hill Elementary - School Funding 101.  I want to note the great work at the West Seattle Blog, who, like me, are the only sources of info for non-videotaped meetings. 

A quote from Rankin:

“Very basically …the role of the school board is to govern as a body, be representatives of the entire Seattle community … provide direction to the superintendent about what the community expects of the local school district. A key accountability of the board is “to hire and evaluate the superintendent,” one thing the board has “100 percent control over.”  

Do remember that statement about the Board's responsibility to evaluate the Superintendent. I'm not sure they have made any documents about Superintendent Brent Jones' evaluations in a long time. Did I miss that?

Current board focuses, Rankin said, include focusing on legislation, supporting newly elected board directors (West Seattle/South Park’s Gina Topp is one of two and was present at the event), coalescing as a board and getting clear on our governance structure, as well as partnering with families and PTA/PTSA/PTOs. 

Personally, Rankin said, she has a goal of getting clear on what superintendent and district should do for engagement, and what the board and directors are expected to do.

Getting clear on governance? They've been doing this at least two years and if they are not changed over to SOFG completely, when will that happen? As for partnering with families, please. A one-off event here and there is not "partnering." Surveys are not "partnering." 

And "should do?" "Expected to do?" That's really up to the Board. The Board should operate their engagement separately from the district except for items like levies.

And I see the article mentions BLTs (Building Leadership Teams) but doesn't state that not every school has one and, if they do, not all have parents on that team. 

Throughout the program, questions were invited via a QR code onscreen. Several were asked and answered. First, “Is it possible for SPS to set up a policy prohibiting PTA funds from being used (for school staffing, etc.)?” Rankin said the board wasn’t trying to disallow “outside funding” but “we want to be able to see as a board where the gaps are – if things are so important to a school community that they’re trying to fundraise for it, then other schools might like it too.” 

What does that last sentence even mean? If the district sees some PTAs fundraising for one thing, then the district will examine that trend and fund everyone who wants something similar? 

But if you are in any other area of SPS, do ask Rankin to come to your region and talk about SPS spending.