Seattle Schools Limps Out of 2024

What is there to say at this point? Seattle Schools appears to be spiraling down. Leadership - from both the Superintendent and the Board president - seems wan and ineffective. I posit that the trust gap between district and parents is becoming ever larger. 

Given that February 2025 will see an election for the district's two major levies, I want to point out yet another issue related to the election. That would be the election for BEX VI. BEX is the major school renovations levy which somehow has also become the near total funding for SPS technology. 

From what is on the levy to the mission creep of the levy, you have to wonder what is really happening. 

What district moves an entire (and seemingly ever-growing) department to a levy? Yes, levies pass easily in Seattle, unlike other regional districts. But what if - one day - it doesn't pass? What happens to the Technology department? The ripple effects would be felt throughout the district. How foolish is it to depend on a levy to fund an entire department? 

Also,  it costs hundreds of millions to run technology so why isn't the General Fund more enriched with the absence of Technology spending from it?

As well, what is on the levy? Let's examine it. 

Once again, SPS goes for broke and is asking for even more money than BEX V.  They claim they are rebuilding for capacity. 

One project, Aki Kurose Middle School, is stated to cost $225M and isn't even a total replacement. You can see this from the agenda for this week's Board meeting.  

As usual, this BAR is being submitted as Intro/Action. Frankly, I don't know why there is even an "Introduction" category because staff ignores it and the Board allows it. 

What capital building staff is doing is NOT doing a total modernization of Aki. About 65% will be new and 30% will be the old building but updated. And, they say, "The additions are needed to increase the capacity to 1,000 students consistent with the district’s Middle School Educational Specifications." Oh.

Funding will come from both BEX V and BEX VI. Apparently, the district will get state funding by NOT renovating the entire building. 

And yet, even as the entire building isn't being renovated, this will be the most expensive middle school renovation in SPS. 

Other notables:

- There's $150M for some mystery NE Seattle elementary replacement. 

- Clean Building Performance Standard Compliance: $92,854,739

- As I previously mentioned, there is even more money in BEX VI for the Rainier Beach High School rebuild and it's nearly $9M. By the end of it all, RBHS may cost $250M. 

- Property Acquisition and Infrastructure: $10,000,000

- Technology funding - $414,977,597.

One other twist to the Capital Building area is that on Friday, the BEX/BTA Oversight Committee had their monthly meeting. About ten days ago, I had seen an agenda and on that agenda seemed to be a plan to revamp the membership of the committee to exclude board members. 

When former directors Rivera and Song resigned, they had been members of the committee. Know what President Liza Rankin did after they left? She never appointed another director to be the Board rep to one of the last remaining Board committees. And there goes one more measure of oversight from the Board to the public. 

Know what else? That agenda disappeared. I asked twice - via Twitter - where it had gone but it never reappeared. In short, the Committee met in a public meeting but without a published agenda nor with any Board oversight. The Committee meetings are not videotaped so there really is no way to know what was said. 

Folks, you know that the district got permission to borrow from the Capital Funds because of the budget deficit. In doing that, they acknowledged that they were required to pay the money back in a year. Now they want some kind of waiver to NOT have to meet that deadline.

I submit that there is a lot of shuffling around of monies in the Capital area and I think it should be looked at and soon in 2025. 

Other items in the Board meeting agenda

- Results for "Progress Monitoring Goal 1 - 3rd grade reading. I'll skip to the bottom line - reading scores are dropping for children of color except for students with IEPs. 

- Results for "Progress Monitoring Goal 2 - 7th grade Math are better. By better, I mean they are still way below even 50% but with rises from 34.6% to 40.4% in one category, 23.5% to 33.2% and "for our six targeted schools" an increase from 12.9% to 27.5% for African American Male students. 

- Presentation of Moss Adams Governance Assessment. Still no documentation for this one which should be about examining SOFG. 

- Elections for new Board officers. If they elect Rankin as president again, nothing will get better. She's ineffective. Of course, if Hersey and Rankin rally their two other allies, we could see Evan Briggs as president and that would also not be good. 

- The Board and Superintendent have developed new Goals and Guardrails for the next Strategic Plan, to go into effect in fall 2025.

There is quite a bit of verbiage on this and I see there is a report from the Council of Great City Schools of which the district is a member. Wonder how much this report cost. 

- Following up on that report is yet another report presented as a memo from Rankin. It's basically explaining about how the CGCS does so much for SPS and claims as a "direct result of the Council's advocacy" that SPS gained nearly $5M from federal funding. 

That's wonderful but know what isn't in this memo? The costs to the district. I believe to be a member of CGCS the payment is $50,000. Rankin says that CGCS did coaching and training for Board, Super and cabinet. How much did that cost? Access to Zoom meetings - how much did that cost? There is a list of many things that CGCS "did" but what does it mean for SPS?  The "memo" reads a lot like a cheerleading "yay team!" memo than one with real information for all the directors. 

Editor's note - unless something big happens, this will be my last post for 2024. I wish all my readers a happy and safe holiday season. Give yourself a break and focus on that.