What the Heck? Seattle School Board Meeting, November 19, 2024
Update:
I see that the WSSDA (Washington State School Directors Association) is having its annual conference starting tomorrow. This should be interesting for President Rankin as I'm sure her colleague will have heard about the recall process. She on the WSSDA board.
My favorite session? Creating a Coherent District.
End of update
I see that 14 SPS schools, mostly in the NE, are closed today, because of the storm shutting down electricity. Updates as I see them. From the Seattle Times:
All schools are closed in Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Carbonado,
Eatonville, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Granite Falls, Highline, Issaquah,
Kent, Lake Stevens, Lake Washington, Mercer Island, Northshore, Renton,
Riverview, Shoreline, Snohomish, Snoqualmie Valley, Stanwood-Camano,
Tahoma, Tukwila and White River school districts.
First thing - I have not watched this meeting but boy, did I hear from people.
Apparently, there were moving stories and tears and now....confusion.
Is Seattle Schools closing four schools next year? The district has posted the virtual community meeting held on November 14th and the hearings for each school are still on the website. They are also still on the district calendar.
The Seattle Times has yet to produce a story.
Jones didn’t announce any final decisions, but said “it is now clear that that direction is shifting and I am considering withdrawing my preliminary recommendation.”
Jones said he needs more time to consider “when it comes back, if it does.”
With the plans now in limbo, the district potentially faces the need to consider yet another closure proposal or abandon the closure plans altogether.
On Monday night, about 150 parents and students rallied at North Beach before the district’s in-person community engagement session at the school. Inside the meeting, parents raised questions about Viewlands’ staff-to-student ratio, expressing concerns about potential overcrowding and the quality of education.
“A lot of parents at Salmon Bay think (the district) isn’t going to stop at these four and it’s just a matter of time that they come for our school and other schools on those original lists,” Julie Schneider said.
“We are trying to get them to be really transparent and show their work. The numbers don’t add up to any real savings. They are disrupting communities and making changes to thriving communities.”
Here's what KUOW says.
In a stunning reversal, Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones said Tuesday he may not recommend closing schools, after all.
The announcement comes after months of public outcry since Jones first unveiled a plan in September to close up to 21 elementary and K-8 schools – a list he later trimmed to four elementary schools: North Beach, Sacajawea, Sanislo, and Stevens.
“The school board gave me direction to develop a preliminary recommendation (to close schools),” Jones said at Tuesday’s board meeting, when he was expected to give an update on the consolidation plans.
“It is now clear that that direction is shifting, and I'm considering withdrawing my preliminary recommendation,” he said.
Second, there is NO outside blame here. It all rests on the shoulders of Superintendent Brent Jones and Board President Liza Rankin. They did not lead this effort properly and, for some unknown reason, couldn't see that until now.
I have to say, though, that I suspect that Jones is furious with Rankin after all the work staff has done. The Board gave Jones pass after pass on a plan and apparently had hoped for better. Know what? If they hadn't given Jones and staff a pass time after time, it may have not gotten this far.
We can all understand the pressure they are under but this whiplash of a plan just wasn't going to work. Vagueness and ignored questions won't cut it.
But most of all, who was it really going to help? I submit to you that it would help the staff at JSCEE and almost no one else. Closing four schools would not have saved much money at all, especially because the churn for boundaries and transportation would eat up a lot of that savings. From that viewpoint, you can ask, "So why did they continue?" I think they wanted a trial closing of a small number of schools to see how it goes.
We can all see the answer to that question.
My opinion is that they should just shut this whole thing down and maybe even both Jones and Rankin should resign.
More to come.
Comments
I also find it interesting how willingly the rest of the Board went along, how SCPTSA did their bidding in their own communities. And for what? I feel like folks got stuck in some strange principle of righting the wrongs of white supremacy or similar. But no. Closing schools for no benefit or legitimate financial reason is actually upholding bad systems. There is no monster here, just some confused, misguided administrators.
For Shame
-Fog Of SOFG
We Need Leadership.
Yes. Parents were told this was a goal by district administrators. Almost verbatim as you stated here.
Many South Seattle schools are large, while smaller schools in affluent areas are more expensive to operate. Keeping under-enrolled schools open drains resources from the entire system, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Consolidating schools could save millions annually and help stabilize finances. Delaying decisions only worsens the crisis. Crying at a board meeting doesn't change the fact that it's teachers who will be crying when they get their RIF notices.
While school closures are undeniably disruptive and emotionally difficult for families and communities, the financial realities facing SPS leave few alternatives. The district must work closely with affected communities to ensure smooth transitions and prioritize reinvestment in remaining schools to improve equity and educational quality for all students.
Adding to the uncertainty is a potential strike by SEA amid contract negotiations. SEA has historically advocated for competitive pay. If no agreement is reached, a strike could delay the start of the school year, further compounding disruptions for families and students -- possibly into October.
For families who prioritize small class sizes or specialized programs, independent schools are an option. Public schools must focus on equitable resource distribution for all students, which may mean larger class sizes in some cases, but with full-time nurses, librarians, music teachers, art teachers, and P.E. teachers. Without action, class sizes will rise dramatically (likely for our secondary students), and quality of education will suffer across the board.
SPS must make tough choices now to ensure equitable resources for all students.
Realist in Seattle
Nah
The district hasn't created any sort of realistic plan that shows there will be a cost savings. Historically, closing schools ended up costing tax payers more.
And, there you go with pitting north and south end schools while north end schools had K class sizes of 26 that dates back at least a decade.
It does annoy me that SEA has the capacity to strike - AGAIN, but I don't believe the strike would last into October.
@Realist
This blog was originally created as a community response to the 00 closures and most long time readers have very deep experience on actual school closures, school reopenings and mandatory school reassignments.
There is a huge distinction between theoretical closures and actual closures. In the world of theory, you can imagine that the benefits of school closures will greatly outweigh the minimal discomfort. You hear comments like this routinely from the handful of pro-closure voices. (Take one for the team! Real kids are going to be harmed because of your selfishness, etc.)
In the world of actual school closures and unplanned consolidations, the carnage is epic and the benefits are vague. Michael DeBell who was deeply involved in actual closures has gone on the record that the benefits are few and the pain is real. Michael served for 12 years and his tenure covered the entire arc of 3 rounds of closures and two rounds of school openings. He would know more than anyone else.
I was on the BEX IV committee that examined all of the financials of the 00 closures. There were no savings and the pain was epic. No savings. All that time and energy wasted for nothing.
The pro-closure folks, including Liza, seem to believe, that there is some version of school closures where the benefits are so epic that the pain is truly just discomfort and easily justified. Moreover, when faced with the evidence of real harm to real students, they seem to assert that there is some version of the plan where only the privileged will bear the weight of the harm.
This simply is not the case. The spike in enrollment at surrounding districts, show that many families can and will leave rather than be part of the collateral damage. That's privilege.
There are a handful of cases in both Seattle and nearby districts where closures and consolidations truly did minimal harm. This only happens when there is some well thought out consolidations that are "educator lead". These examples, require time and transparency and community engagement, so that the teachers have sufficient time to do the planning of creating a new community.
This plan was just smoke and mirrors and word salads.
And the real problem is the wasted time and energy on this failed experiment. SPS still has a budget crisis, a capacity problem, a program placement problem, a BEX problem. All of those problems require thoughtful sustained work over time. Not these theatrics of "let's close a bunch of random schools and see what happens."