Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update: The Seattle Times has a good profile of Board President Gina Topp. One key item noted in the article is that, coming up at next week's regular Board meeting, is the election of officers. The ONLY qualified person is Topp. Rankin has done it, Briggs would be a disaster, and Mizrahi and Song need more time (plus the two newbies, Smith and LaVallee). As well, the story has a photo of Topp at a Rotary Club event pledging allegiance to the flag. Funny thing, somewhere along the way (probably Hampson era), the Board stopped doing the pledge at their Board meetings. This was done for decades. Maybe the land acknowledgment is the substitute. I do recall a long-ago Board meeting where there were many kids in attendance because they did a presentation of some sort (an school activity which has also gone away) for the Board. We rose to do the pledge and at least three kids looked panic-stricken as they did not know the words. The story also includes this: Then she heads over to The C...

Update : Remember this story about the co-founder of Oak View Group (the Climate Pledge Arena developer), Tim Leiweike? Separately, Oak View won the bid to renovate KeyArena into Climate Pledge Arena in 2017. The renovation cost $1.15 billion.  Oak View is a majority owner of the stadium alongside the Seattle Kraken. Timothy’s brother Tod Leiweke is part owner of the Kraken. A spokesperson from the Kraken said in a statement Wednesday the company is aware of the indictment but “today’s news has nothing to do with Climate Pledge Arena or the Seattle Kraken and does not impact the day-to-day operations of the arena, our team and  our other Seattle projects, including the Memorial stadium  or the potential return of the NBA to Seattle.” Oak View was linked to a winning bid in 2023 to build a $150 million, 10,000-seat Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center.  The bid went to  One Roof Partnership ,  which has ties to the Kraken and Oak View. Well, have I got news ...

In election news, I was reviewing newly-elected mayor, Katie Wilson's transition team list and saw a couple of familiar names. Under Economic Development and Worker Rights, there's Seattle School Board Director Joe Mizrahi. Under Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, there is former SPS teacher, Jesse Hagopian.  Via The Seattle Times , a bit of census information: Seattle just crossed a remarkable demographic threshold, and it’s likely a first for any major U.S. city: More than 70% of Seattle residents age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. According to newly released 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 416,000 Seattle residents 25 and older, or 70.1% of the 595,000 people in that age group, held at least a bachelor’s degree. Among the 50 most populous U.S. cities, Seattle had the highest share of college graduates. It’s also the first time the city has topped 400,000 college graduates. In 2023, the Census Bureau estimated 397,000 Seattle residents 25 a...

Here's what the actual government website says is happening: The U.S. Department of Education (ED) today announced six new interagency agreements (IAAs) with four agencies to break up the federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities, and move closer to fulfilling the President’s promise to return education to the states. By partnering with agencies that are best positioned to deliver results for students and taxpayers, these IAAs will streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees. These new partnerships with the Departments of Labor (DOL), Interior (DOI), Health and Human Services (HHS), and State mark a major step toward improving the management of select ED programs by leveraging partner agencies’ administrative expertise and experience working with relevant stakeholders. These agreements follow a successf...

There was a rather interesting happening over at The Seattle Times last week. The Times had queried readers about what advice they would give the new superintendent, Ben Shuldiner. I filled out the form and then got a call that my comments would be used if I was good with it. I then emailed the reporter back saying certainly but also letting him know - if he didn't know - who I am. He said oh yes, I know you are a blogger, it's fine. So the article by Ryan Nguyen came out last Thursday. I saw my comments in the story as well as those of many others. As well, there were some interesting quotes from Shuldiner. Shuldiner said he aims to visit every school in the district during his first 100 days as superintendent. Additionally, he told The Times he intends to hold a community meeting in each of the seven School Board districts .   “As any new leader, from inside or outside, you’ve got to spend time in the community,” Shuldiner said at the Nov. 5 School Board meeting. “You’ve got ...

  For the first time in a long time, every director was up on the dais. President Gina Topp said they wanted to honor the three outgoing directors - Brandon Hersey, Sarah Clark, and Michelle Sarju. (Coincidentally, their departure signals the last of any Black directors on the Board. I note that there were no Black candidates in the General Election. Of course, there was -  Sarah Clark - thanks for the correction.)  Superintendent Fred Podesta was asked for his remarks first. He had attended the Black college expo where 2,000 students attended (and I would assume not just SPS students) and 700 enrolled at that time, some with scholarships attached. He said that being a board director was "pound for pound" the hardest work in public service, noting his career had been in public service so he had seen a lot.  Director Hersey brought his month-old son, Avery. Naturally, everyone was quite taken with this sweet little baby. Apparently he has been so busy he didn't realiz...

Remember these? Talk about anything and I will print it. (Naturally, no personal attacks, swearing, racism, etc.) I'll start. From the West Seattle Blog, their interview with soon-to-be superintendent, Ben Shuldiner.   Highlights: -  He says public-school districts have to come to terms with the fact that while “30 or 40 years ago, they had a monopoly … now, there’s so much more choice.” But he says the ultimate way to solve the problem is “just do better at our jobs” – provide a better education. To increase enrollment in Lansing, Shuldiner says, “we made our schools better.” He says promotion is important, from talking to the media to advertising such as billboards.  -  And he says they noticed a trend – parents loved the elementary schools, but were “fearful about the junior highs.” So, he says, “we created a bunch of K-8s” – and that led to less loss between elementary and middle school, because the students would be staying on in schools with which they and the...

 Two items to note in advance of the meeting. One, if you follow history, November 19, 1863 was the day that President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. It followed the Battle of Gettysburg, a three-day fight that saw over 50,000 combined casualties. That is more than any battle in American history.  President Lincoln said that "the world will little or long remember what we say here" but he was wrong.  He said: " Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."   He ended by saying: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."  I hope we can find a way to endure as the "United" States of America. Two, the district is NOT happy with the verdict from the Meany ...

That job would be trying to understand why the district protects principals and teachers who are problematic. But also, how to create contracts with those two groups so that they do have protections but making sure everyone knows the acceptable parameters of behavior.  I bring this up because it is all so baffling from the outside to understand what happens at JSCEE when there is a complaint against a teacher or principal. For example, my understanding is that especially at the elementary level, each school's principal gets to decide whether to excuse a travel absence for a student. I can get not wanting to put a teacher in the position to have to do extra work (in organizing missed assignments for a student) because that student went to Disneyland. But where exactly is the line for excusing absences and how do parents know what that is? I know that some parents at different schools have compared notes and some resent that their principal is more hard-nosed than another school...