Seattle Schools Community Forum

In advance of a very serious story about personnel in Seattle Schools, I did want to talk about principals and in specific, high school principals.  Currently, there are two schools with interim principals - Chief Sealth and Hale. Now I have learned that the wonderful Martin Floe at Ingraham High will be retiring soon (probably by the end of this school year).  I have to wonder what the district will do with Joe Powell who was principal at Alan T. Sugiyama High and was recently removed after an athletic tuition scandal. I would hope that he would not be placed at any of these larger high schools.  Then you have the installation of Principal Anitra Jones at Rainier Beach High School as an assistant principal. They already have two assistant principals and only the larger high schools have three. I'm not sure how the district can justify the expense of three for a smaller high school. But maybe, the district will pull an assistant principal from one of the larger high ...

Here's today's story in this morning's Seattle Times about the appointment of the former Rainier View Elementary principal, Anitra Jones, to Rainier Beach High School as an assistant principal.  (It appears they already have two assistant principals per their webpage but maybe one has left? SPS Communications doesn't answer my questions any longer and it does not appear that anyone at the Times thought to check this out before they published the article. Also, there is no mention in the article of having asked PASS (Principals' Association of Seattle Schools) for a comment. Jones was removed from Rainier View and assigned to the central administrative office in April amid complaints from parents and staff alleging that she had created a “toxic” learning and working environment at the school. Seattle Education Association President Meesh Vecchio said the union has communicated its concerns about Jones’ placement at Rainier Beach High. The union filed unfair lab...

As you are likely well aware, there is a hurricane going through our federal government. It's really no way to audit or judge the efficacy of any given department but here we are. The Department of Education is one such place. Clearly, the Republican administration literally hates this department, wants to destroy it, and favors "choice" education.   If I had a disabled child in K-12, I would be very worried.    As one university dean says: “I don’t think there’s an upside to the chaos and uncertainty that is being experienced in real time.” The GOP administration has nominated billionaire Linda McMahon of WWE fame as Secretary of Education.  From The 74 : After weeks of closure rumors and President Donald Trump pushing to shutter the U.S. Department of Education “immediately,” his education secretary nominee Thursday offered the strongest statement so far that the fate of the agency rests with Congress. “It clearly cannot be shut down without it,” L...

Seattle Schools had this to say: Dear Chief Sealth International families and staff, We are writing to share some important personnel information with you. At approximately 3 a.m. Sunday, Principal Ray Garcia-Morales was arrested by the Seattle Police Department for driving under the influence and reckless endangerment. He was immediately placed on administrative leave until further notice. According to court records, no charges were filed, and the case has been closed. As this is a personnel issue, further details are confidential to protect privacy rights. Assistant Principal Hope Perry will be stepping in to serve in his absence. Please feel free to reach out to her with school-related questions. As other questions arise concerning this sensitive matter, please send them to publicaffairs@seattleschools.org. Sincerely, Bev Redmond Chief of Staff Seattle Public Schools It is being reported that Principal Garcia-Morales resigned his post as principal.  Coverage...

 

Superintendent Brent Jones had a call-out to the Cleveland Girls Volleyball team for being the 2024 Academic state champions. There were there in person and received applause. He also thanked voters for passing the school levies.  He also said this word salad about the Highly Capable update that was to come later in the meeting. He said that it would be "an honest rendering of what's ahead and give visibility to challenges and opportunities."  He also noted there is likely to federal changes coming because of the current U.S. administration and that "we are committed to values of SPS and its policies."    Public Testimony This portion of the meeting was largely divided between Highly Capable issues and the need to keep libraries open.  HC parents stated that services are NOT being implemented. They also noted the lack of resources for teachers and school administrators to do this work. A couple of parents asked if promised differentiation wasn't supposed to ...

I hope everyone read Part 1 because it gives you the outline of this story. Part Two will be even MORE information and why you should fight for your kids. Issues to Ponder: - It feels a bit like finger pointing among these governmental entities "that's THEIR job, not ours" but, in the end, who is accountable for this data? - There were several comments at the Times like this one: I have no idea how to take this article, the survey potentially saved lives, but someone felt the need to push hard to test how private the data ended up being. Did that person want the data to use, or just to make a point about privacy? What is an acceptable cost to saving a life? Can we ever ensure privacy in a public school setting anymore? Kids give up their privacy every single time they open their phone. So have students that were "identified" been harmed? Is that the concern? Again, this allows for a level of communication that can potentially circumvent a tragedy, how does that ...

Part One of this blog post will be about the article but in Part Two, I hope you jump in with a discussion about student data privacy, what's the line on with data collected to help students with mental health issues (and who gets to see it) as well as other issues with this kind of data collection happening in schools.  I do want to note from the outset that it was the Seattle Times who first filed for this information, not parents.  (All bold mine.)   This report is from The 74 and was picked up by the Seattle Times . Here's the headline: Seattle-Area Schools Say Deeply Personal Survey Saved Lives. Then They Released Student Data Since 2018, more than 36,000 students across the Seattle region have shared their hopes, fears and family secrets in an online questionnaire called Check Yourself.  Supported by a voter-approved tax levy, King County, which encompasses Seattle, has spent  more than $21 million on the program since 2018. The funds help pay for menta...

  Just a couple of quick updates before today's meeting. One, saw the election results and once again, some parents and most union folks apparently support the district. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the Legislature. I mean, now that SPS is flush with money again.  Two, if you are going to the Board meeting, do keep in mind they are having and Executive Session prior to the meeting. Last month, they did the same thing and that ES ran 30+ minutes over. So if you go, there may be a longer wait to public testimony. Three, the speakers list is full at 25 people , most of who are going to speak on the Highly Capable program. There are 14 people on the waitlist.  I notice there is one speaker who will be speaking on "community engagement of Dr. Brent Jones /multicultural communities perspectives in contract extension."  Four, the proposed contract extension for Superintendent Brent Jones . As of this hour, there is still NO documentation on this ite...

Shots were fired yesterday from a moving car in West Seattle and some hit Roxhill Elementary School where the school went into lockdown. This via the West Seattle Blog a statement from SPS: Students and staff at the SPS Roxhill building (9430 30th Ave SW) went into a lockdown today after shots were fired from a car into the campus. The campus quickly moved to a lockdown. All staff and teachers are safe. The campus was not the intended target of the incident. During a lockdown, classroom and exterior doors are locked. Students remain indoors and in their classroom until the lockdown has been lifted. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) was quick to respond and is currently investigating this incident. No students or staff were harmed, and the lockdown was lifted after SPD indicated it was safe to do so.  We asked SPS about damage at the school: “There is damage near the cafeteria/the SW Roxbury St & 30th Ave SW side of campus.” Again, this is the FORMER Roxhill buildin...

Let me preface this by saying that this district is exhausting. And I know it's not just me. I saw on a SPS parent Facebook page someone who was just trying to understand the enrollment procedure from reading the Enrollment page at the district website. Another reader chimed in to say that she had to call that office and be walked through it.  You have to wonder if the lack of transparency around how to do regular parent things in this district added to the enrollment loss. You know, like the straw that finally breaks the camel's back.  At this point in my life, the frustration is two-fold. First, to see so little progress in transparency and accountability when that is always on the menu but never served. Second, just trying to keep up. For example, the agenda for Board meetings.  If there is something of an emergency nature, of course you might expect something to be added at the last minute. But that's generally not the case. No, the crux of the new crop of items gene...

As I previously reported, on the agenda at the Seattle School Board meeting this Wednesday, the 12th are the required financial disclosure forms from the Board and senior leadership.  One item that needs to be reconciled is whether Director Michelle Sarju was still working for King County. The KC directory reflects to this day that she is and yet she put down nothing. This has some bearing to SPS because of the Best Starts for Kids program that where she did some oversight.   Another item I did point out was that Director Brandon Hersey noted - without saying the name - of his close relationship with a lead at Upper Left Strategies, a consulting firm. Several years back I asked for the contract for this group and only got one. But seeing this notation from Hersey makes me wonder if the district is now paying for MORE work with Upper Left. Otherwise, why would Hersey have put that in there? It'll take months to get but I'm going to ask for contracts from the last couple of yea...