MEETING CANCELED - Hey Kids, A Meeting with Three(!) Seattle Schools Board Directors
Update 2:
So I have seen a message from President Liza Rankin on why she, Director Evan Briggs, and Director Michelle Sarju backed out of this meeting.
In a nutshell:
- She says there was no organization to the meeting which is just not true. They had a moderator lined up and naturally the board members could have set parameters for what to discuss, length of meeting, etc. All that was fleshed out.
- She also claimed that if the meeting was PTA sponsored, they needed to have liability insurance to use the school space. Hello? PTAs use school space all the time and know they have to have this insurance.
- She seems to be worried about the Open Public Meetings law. Look, if she has a meeting in a school building on a non-personnel topic, it should be an open meeting. It appears that Rankin is trying, over and over, to narrow the window of access that parents have to Board members. She even says in her message - "...with decisions made in public." Hmmm
- She also says that the NE schools should coordinate with SCPTSA for these types of meetings. I'll tell you right now - she does NOT ever want an open public forum and SCPTSA would be happy to help her with that.
- Briggs could have said ALL these things as that region's rep and the only original invitee. But no, once again she hides behind Rankin.
Lastly, Rankin references an online meeting last week for Viewlands and North Beach where STAFF did a presentation and "board members attended as guests to listen." Wonder if that is happening for all eight school communities that may be affected.
She misses the point - parents want to talk to THEIR elected officials. And if she thinks she can't/doesn't have to because of SOFG, she should say that out loud so parents know that right has been taken from them. (I'll bet that Rankin has told Topp to keep to ONLY the board's topics. I'm sure Topp does that but it would also mean limiting questions or saying you can't answer some questions. It hard to look a parent in the face and refuse to answer their question.)
Update:
This meeting was canceled by Director Evan Briggs over some nonsense about "disorganization" (it was very well organized) and her personal safety. I know that parents can get loud sometimes but physically attack a director? Nope
To fill in, it was Briggs who wanted Rankin and Sarju there, presumably to hold her hand. I see this a lot in Briggs; I'm not sure she's cut out to be an elected official.
Apparently Briggs also said that meeting with constituents is NOT part of SOFG. There you have it - a real-life situation playing out with SOFG. None of these board directors ever made clear during their campaigns that they would no longer communicate regularly with constituents or the general public. So to now say that they won't is kinda a bait and switch for voters.
As luck would have it, four of them - the majority of the Board - are up for election again in November 2025. Sarju and Hersey are two of them and have made statements about not running again. The other two are Clark and Mizrahi; we have to wait and see if they decide to run.
But this SOFG - and all its costs including consultants - needs to go away. It is NOT helping the district or the Board at all.
end of update
Wednesday, November 6th at 7 pm at
Eckstein Middle School Auditorium
Oddly, it says this:
Seattle Public Schools District 3 community members (Bryant, Hawthorne Hills, Laurelhurst, Ravenna, Sand Point, University District, View Ridge, Wallingford, Windermere, Wedgwood) are invited to join us.
Odd because:
1) Sarju is from Central region; can't parents from Stevens come and chat her up?
2) Rankin is from the far NE/NW region.Can't parents from Sacajawea come chat up their director, Liza Rankin?
Why would three directors only want to talk to certain parents? Is Sarju having one in her district or is Rankin?
Also odd, "limited in-person capacity?" That's a VERY large auditorium and if you have a mic, you are golden.
Are they seriously going to turn people away at the door? (If that does happen, please take a photo.)
If you can go in-person, that's the best thing. I doubt you will hear well on a Zoom meeting in a large auditorium.
Comments
Something really stinks, and this gives you an idea about how Rankin, Briggs and Sarju operate.
~ Something Stinks!
Argh
Other's money
Not really AFAIK, I saw some thing saying their budget was ~150M but that didn't make sense just given teacher salaries, but wikipedia has them (portland public schools) at 655M for 44000 students (2018-2019), or about 15k per student vs SPS at 1B for 54000 students (2019-2020) or around 18.5k per student. So, more expensive, but not 8x.
Would be interesting to know what makes them cheaper, but it's not a massive difference, could just be cost of living.
Just the facts
And, why would the online component of the meeting be cancelled??
Diretors should at least have the decency to return to two board meetings per month.
I guess Brigg's district won't have much of an opportunity to meet with their director.
- Hey