Good News, Bad News

Update: 

The Seattle Times' editorial board has spoken out again - Mismanagement in Seattle PublicSchools: a lesson in what not to do.

One of the odder facts about public education is its management structure. To wit: Veteran officials making six-figure salaries are held accountable by school boards comprised of unpaid amateurs. Or so goes the plan.

But it’s easy to see the potential for a power imbalance that favors the professionals, not the community volunteers. The consequences are visible in Seattle Public Schools, where Superintendent Brent Jones just inked a new, two-year contract with a $348,395 annual salary that includes a $14,000 raise — despite presiding over dwindling enrollments, academic stagnation and historic budget deficits. Nice work if you can get it.

The money problems might look less ugly if student outcomes were soaring. But those results are among the most disappointing of Jones’ tenure, particularly for youth of color.

Meanwhile, three Black students have been killed at their schools (or across the street) in the past two years. Though Jones promised to have an executive director for safety and security in place by September, no one has been named to the position. SPS is also without a chief academic officer.

It’s hard to square that statement with reality and easy to criticize everyone involved — the superintendent for poor stewardship, and the board for failing to hold him accountable. But searching for a new superintendent at this moment of chaos would hardly add stability.

end of update

It's been awhile since there has been anything publicly announced from the Alliance for Education. Indeed, they seem to be very quietly operating. 

The long-time relationship between Seattle Schools and the Alliance has surely had its ups and downs to the point that the relationship was severed at one point. 

Their tagline now is "Investing in Equity for Students." Sounds like they got the memo from SPS. 

The district can’t do this work alone, so we convene community support to address challenges and drive positive change in all SPS schools to further our shared vision for supporting students furthest from racial equity and educational justice in Seattle.

The Alliance for Education is the only organization of its kind serving all of Seattle Public Schools. We work as a convener, connector and collaborator, stewarding philanthropic funding, innovation and expertise to ensure that every public school in Seattle has the community support they need. The Alliance’s work is designed to challenge systemic inequities in public schools and create a more equitable and just education system that allows all Seattle students to thrive.

They have been heavily involved in funding The Office of African American Male Achievement. The link I'm providing has some stats on those students that I don't think I've seen come out of SPS. Hmmm

Looking at the Alliance website, I found this notation:

The Alliance for Education gives numerous awards to educators and school leaders in the district annually showcasing the leadership of those that work tirelessly to support students, with a focus on those committed to advancing racial equity. 

One of these awards is the Thomas B. Foster Award for Excellence that champions Seattle Public Schools principals who advance educational justice and racial equity in their schools. Every year, two $25,000 educational grants are awarded to selected principals.

They say since 2000, they have invested over $550,000 to recognize these principals. The Foster Award has been evolving since its inception as it used to be for just one secondary principal and the award was $50,000. Somewhere along the line they decided just to recognize any principal doing good work and made the award for two principals. They then split the award into $25,000 for each principal. 

This is all great and good for principal morale. 

So that's part of the good news but the additional part is that the Alliance is investing $528,000 in the district this year. 

Here's the bad news. It's not for direct help to schools. No, the district - with all its fiscal issues - is spending the entire amount (over two years) to:

This Board Action Report is to accept a grant from the Alliance for Education to support costs
associated with the development of the Seattle Public Schools 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. This is
the first acceptance of funds for this effort, with potential for additional funding.

During Year Zero, the Board will be setting new goals and guardrails aligned with the community’s vision and values upon which the 2025-2030 strategic plan will be based. After setting goals, the superintendent will lead a strategic planning process that seeks to understand where resources and strategies are currently deployed and what changes need to be made to focus on the new goals. 

The strategic plan will serve as a roadmap for how these new strategies, with attached resources, will be pursued over the course of the next five years to achieve the Goals while adhering to the Guardrails. The superintendent has engaged with the philanthropic community to request support for the strategic planning process. Given that SPS resources and internal capacity are limited by recent fiscal challenges, philanthropic support is critical in helping SPS craft the most effective strategic plan possible.

 
1. Goal and Guardrail Development: School Board establishes priority SMART Goals
and Guardrails with specific measures and targets aligned to the community’s vision and
values. Goal and guardrail development will be supported by a needs analysis currently
underway in partnership with the Council of Great City Schools.
2. Resource and Strategy Analysis: Superintendent conducts a baseline analysis of where SPS’ resources are distributed across the school system, how aligned this resource distribution is with the system’s professed and actual strategies, and whether the current set of strategies is tethered to what research suggests moves the needle on student
achievement. The outcome of the analysis is to provide the superintendent with high leverage strategies and initiatives to achieve the priority Goals while adhering to the Guardrails.
3. Plans: Superintendent specifies how resources will be deployed over the next five years to implement district strategies and evaluate their positive impact.
4. Materials: Superintendent develops branding and marketing materials to share SPS’ vision and theory of action with families, community, and education professionals.

So those two items in bold? 

The Superintendent and staff don't know the resource distribution in SPS.  They don't know if that distribution is aligned to their current strategies? 

The second one is head-shaking especially after listening to the KUOW Week in Review. Because those pundits asked what the district was doing to get parents back AND get parents to stay. I'm sure "branding and marketing" for the new "theory of action" will have them beating down the doors.

In the letter to the district about the award, here's what the Alliance says:

The Alliance for Education is delighted to report that, in partnership with members of Seattle’s philanthropic community, $600,000 has been raised to date to support research for and development of Seattle Public Schools’ (SPS) 2025-2030 strategic plan. Pursuant to the philanthropic investors’ agreement with the Alliance for Education, 12% of contributed funds are retained at the Alliance to support administrative expenses related to the convening and management of the fund. The total amount eligible for subgrant to SPS is $528,000.

We anticipate there may be additional contributions to this fund, with a total goal of $1.2M. If such funds are received, an amendment to this subgrant will be created and sent to the subgrant program management.

To note, the Gates Foundation gives the Alliance many dollars and I suspect that's where most of this money is coming from. 

The Alliance used to help PTAs with their accounting work and, at one point, said it was too much work without the Alliance getting a small percentage (I think it's like 5%.).  The Board at the time was NOT happy with this because it seemed like a revenue stream for the Alliance.

For this effort, somehow they need 12% which works out to about $72,000.

They also say they will pay submitted invoices with 3 weeks. With money so tight at SPS, I'm surprised SPS has the extra dollars to pay for work done and not get the reimbursement sooner. But then, the district also does this with the City around Pre-K payments. 

So the district will be receiving at least half a million to construct a strategic plan and possibly up to over a million. 

I can only say that given the seriousness of the fiscal situation at SPS, it's a little sad that they can justify this spending. 

Lastly, I reported on this a couple of Board meetings ago but it appears that there are now a Chief of Staff, Bev Redmond, AND a Deputy Chief of Staff, Eric Guerci.

Mr. Guerci was previously employed in the Montgomery County SD in Rockville, Maryland as an assistant to the chief of staff and prior to that was a student member of the Board of Education at Montgomery County Public Schools.

Looking at when he was a student member and now, I surmise he might be 25 or 26. 

A parent blog for Montgomery County Public Schools had their own questions in December 2021: 

 Interim Superintendent Monifa McKnight Hires Former Student Member of the Board of Education Eric Guerci as her "Special Assistant."

In September, the Parents' Coalition noted that former student member of the Montgomery County Board of Education Eric Guerci was suddenly participating in Closed Session Board of Education meetings. Why was a former student member of the Board of Education permitted to attend Closed Sessions of the Board of Education? 

He was paid $28 an hour for unspecified duties.

One comment on that post was telling:

What does that say about what the county values. We have a teacher shortage, a bus driver shortage, and a substitute shortage. Ridiculous. 

 

Ms. Redmond makes $250,000 a year. And, now the district has hired someone one step below her whose experience in a school district appears to be having served as a student member of the board in high school and being an assistant to a superintendent for a couple of years without clearly stated duties. (He also went to Princeton.)

This is SPS.