Seattle Schools Community Forum

An excellent op-ed on the closure issue over at The Urbanist by Robert Cruickshank, a political wonk.   Based on the experience of other cities with mass school closures, SPS’s plan would also worsen the district’s budget woes, worsen student learning outcomes, cause further enrollment decline, and exacerbate inequities. It could also dissuade families from moving to or staying in Seattle, undermining efforts to add missing middle housing and grow Seattle’s population. SPS has not shared any financial details showing the costs of closing 20 or more schools, the savings that closures could generate, or when those savings would materialize. As a result, the public is unable to determine whether the closure plan is financially sound. Nor has SPS properly analyzed why its enrollment has declined. The state legislature ordered the district to conduct a study on why families have left the district, and appropriated $100,000 to fund it. SPS is proceeding with its plans without h

From SPS (finally): Dear SPS families and staff, You are invited to join Seattle Public Schools (SPS) for an upcoming community meeting. During these meetings, senior leaders will share information about the proposed plan for creating a system of well-resourced schools that serve students in kindergarten through 5th grade. A system of well-resourced elementary schools will create a new foundation of stability and consistency that our students and staff need to thrive.  May and June Community Meetings Dates To ensure SPS families have the greatest opportunity to take part, each meeting will present the same information in locations around our district. The schedule for well-resourced schools staff meetings will soon be shared with SPS staff. Saturday, May 25, 10:30 a.m. - noon, Garfield High School, 400 23rd Ave. Tuesday, May 28, 6 - 7:30 p.m., Roosevelt High School, 1410 NE 66th St. Saturday, June 1, 10:30 a.m. - noon, Chief Sealth International High School, 2600 SW Thistle St

Update: It's Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 4:20 pm and I STILL don't see any public engagement meetings on the well-resourced schools plan that includes school closures.  end of update It is Monday, May 13, 2024 at 4 pm . I still don't see ANY public engagement meetings on the well-resourced schools plan that includes school closures. I had thought for certain I'd see it on the district calendar today because I did hear Communications head Bev Redmond say they would have it up this week (this at the last Board meeting).  But let's see how narrow this window is to have these meetings (I think there should be 7, one for each region in the district but I'd bet it will be just 4. It will be interesting how many directors show up for how many meetings.) Also, look for the district to follow their MO of having meetings scheduled back-to-back. This week - May 13-18 - is fairly clear but it seems a bit unsporting to just spring some meetings on parents at the end of this we

 Gridiron parent, could you please contact me about your comment on recruiting at Roosevelt High School?  sss.westbrook@gmail.com Thanks!

Here's what Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times says in his latest column: Closing schools, Seattle? Don’t forget what happened last time  We went down this exact road in Seattle about 15 years ago. It turned out to be an own goal policy snafu that had to be reversed almost immediately. Correct. From 2007 to 2009, Seattle closed 11 schools. The theory then — as today — was that enrollment was shrinking and there were too many classroom seats for too few kids. It was presented as tough medicine to the city, as well as to roomfuls of shouting parents so angry that at times they were restrained by security . It was a way, we were told, to show we were serious adults who could run government with the efficiency of a business. “We don’t need 70 elementary schools anymore, and it’s (the board’s) responsibility to face that fact,” the Seattle School Board president said back then . Exactly what is happening now - this is the vibe I get from both Superintendent Brent Jones AND School

 Update from KUOW : Last month, the parent-teacher associations at Cascadia and Decatur elementary schools, both highly capable cohort schools, retained a lawyer and sent a letter to the district outlining concerns about the changes to the program. They allege that Seattle Public Schools doesn’t have the resources to adequately implement the neighborhood school model, so closing highly capable cohort schools would be a violation of a state law requiring instruction for highly capable students. "We haven't seen any evidence of additional staffing, funding, or strategic planning on how we're going to accelerate curriculum," said Lara Hruska, an attorney representing the parents. Hruska also has a child in the district's highly capable cohort.  Good for these parents.  The Fordham Institute - which is NOT a liberal institution but full of education reformers - has a new report called The Broken Pipeline: Advanced Education Policies at the Local Level. They

 I actually left the Board meeting last night before the last 10 minutes because President Rankin was going on and on without saying much. But I thought it important just to hear the votes so I went back and listened. Boy, am I glad I did because there were interesting statements all around. Superintendent Brent Jones asked, "When do you want this timeline?" This appeared to confuse the Board because the timeline is part of the plan so if they vote for the plan, it includes the timeline. He said, " I just wanted to make sure you are are deliberate in date you set." This was weird because the Board isn't setting any dates except the ones staff puts out.  Director Brandon Hersey broke in and said that the upcoming engagement is for "what families would want to see?" He then said, " We often times towards the end of the year get flack for like presenting new big things and folks are very rightfully so ready for summer.  So I would like to know durin

 Here's the agenda for tonight's Board meeting. I note that people can no longer sign up to speak at a Board meeting by phone. It is strictly by online sign-up. Not good. Public Testimony seems to cover two topics. Apparently, the Chinese program at West Seattle High School is in jeopardy and there are several speakers for that issue. The other issue is, of course, school closures. There are six people on the waitlist. Here's the latest from the Times which says that " Seattle Could Close about a quarter of its elementary schools." First, that would be a heck of a lot of schools (17) and two, only elementaries? My cynical side is that the district is throwing out a big number so they can "generously" only close 10-12.  The article claims that the district is taking "$32M from its reserves" which is not true; they have no reserves. I think the reporter means capital reserves.  I'll be tuning in with updates.    4:15 pm and has the 4:15

Editor's update - I had a few details wrong so I have corrected them.  I plan on writing a longer piece on this incident that came right before then-Principal Ted Howard left Garfield High School in July 2020. The basics are that in 2019 2017 there was a hazing incident by the Garfield High boys swim team by senior team members against freshman members. It involved a nudity ploy that's pretty disgusting. The student  at the focus of this case (who is on the autism spectrum ) saw this incident but it did not happen to him. However, he did worry that someday it might and left the team. He came back in 2019 and had a different bad experience which he told the coach about which did not involve the team captains on the current team. That experience was not investigated. In 2020, the school newspaper, the Garfield Messenger, decided to investigate the topic of hazing in sports. A student journalist did multiple interviews with various students including the student in question. One

Not that a word salad is anything new in SPS but this Wednesday's Seattle School Board meeting includes a huge one. Here's the agenda. One item on the agenda concerns a contract for "applied behavior analysis therapy" for some students per their IEPs. When the district signed the contract with Crissey Behavior Consulting in August 2023, it appears it was just under $1M. But the Board is being asked to okay an additional $655K due to more students needing these services. To note: The revenue source for this motion is state special education funding including Safety Net for extraordinary high-cost needs.  There is a list of 20 students and their schools (sans names or other identifiers) included in the contract update and the BAR says that "the number of students requiring these services has increased" since the initial contract was signed. Because SPS is one of the few districts able to provide these high-level services, that is one place where enrollment wo

It appears there two versions of the most recent Garfield High School rape story by KUOW .  Via email I learned that KUOW changed/updated the story but their website does NOT reflect any statement about that. The date on the story is April 30, 2024 at 11:34 am. Despite the changes, there is no notation of an update and you would at least see that in the timestamp. The timestamp has never changed. As I have said many, many times, I am not a trained journalist but a citizen reporter. But even I know you don't print one story, change a material piece of it, and then not acknowledge the change.  I did previously report that just this week, KUOW stated that they are laying off staff and disbanding their 20-year youth voice program. So it seems like a bit of chaos in their newsroom but that's not really an excuse for poor editorial choices.    Why is this important?  - Because of the relationship that exists between School Board director Michelle Sarju and Nyasha Sarju (mother-daugh

Update 3: Kids, the only thing I can say at this point is that this story has legs. Or rather, a deep taproot.  Because I am not journalist (just a citizen reporter) plus where I live, I can't fully investigate it. However, I found something and when I spoke to two actual journalists, they had found the same thing. And I believe they are both going to try to get down that taproot.  What is terrible is how many people along the path of this story who looked away or just did not act on what was said to them by not one, but two students. (The second student that I speak of was not sexually abused as was the girl in this vile coach situation. However, that second student was used by adults for their purposes.) So I will continue to follow this story as more information becomes available. I can say that it may become likely that former Garfield High School principal, Ted Howard III, will look more and more culpable. And by the way, Mr. Howard is the district's Accountability Officer