Seattle Schools Community Forum

  A very nice holiday message from Superintendent Fred Podesta . Franklin High School is starting its girls flag football team . The WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) now recognizes that sport under their banner as a winter sport. From SPS Communications: To kick off the festivities, the Blue Thunder gave a special drumline performance, and students played fun competitions. Mario Bailey, vice president of the Seahawks’ Community Engagement and Legends, presented the team with giant check. The event ended with a raffle for Seahawks gear and prizes. The check was for $4,000. Really great to see that SPS is supporting Native students education on their heritage .  The SPS Native American Education program was honored to join the Suquamish Tribal Council for their annual Ocean to Table program—a unique, hands-on learning experience at Chief Kitsap Academy. This initiative takes students on the journey salmon make from the ocean to their dinner tables, blen...

Kurt Buttleman, Assistant Superintendent of Finance gave the Budget presentation.  Budget Presentation Highlights: - Two-thirds of the district budget comes from State dollars. The presentation slides can be found at nearly the bottom of the agenda for the Board meeting.  - Expenditure by program is up 5% from last year. I found it interesting (and good news) that there are more students enrolling in CTE courses.  - The largest growth, by percentage, was for travel at 23.04%. Oddly, Buttleman didn't mention it nor did anyone on the Board. You can see this on slide 15. The next closest item by percentage is Supplies/Materials at 17.16%.  - There was carry-forward money at some schools from a discretionary fund that each principal has. Personally, I think every principal should explain to their community how much money is left and why they didn't spend it for that school year.  - As we know, the district used all the Rainy Day fund but it is still unknown when it...

I wanted to post - verbatim - what was said during the course of the Board officer elections because I think it is a start to see change as to how the Board works. Director Liza Rankin had mentioned, during Board comments, about the Board's work being about creating policy. She said they needed to follow state and federal law in shaping those policies. It was ironic how she talked about the Policy Committee work and how important it is and yet voted to get rid of other committees that provided oversight.  She said they needed to keep policies updated and  "holding each other in the district accountable for following them. (Otherwise) we end up with a district driven by legal complaints and concerns and the contract with SEA and that's it. So the policy committee work is not my special project; it's actually the work of the Board."  She did not mention SOFG in those comments which I thought odd given that's governance model she is following for that work. To re...

Wishing all my Jewish readers a happy and safe Hanukkah.  This comes tinged with sadness as two gunmen went after a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Australia yesterday. More than 11 were killed and about 29 wounded.  As well, I would ask you to take a few minutes to send good thoughts to the community at Brown University where yesterday a gunman entered a classroom and started shooting. Two are dead and nine have been injured. Here's is video of frightened students hiding and hearing a banging at the door. It was the police but they had to put their hands up and exit the library that way. You would not want this for your child.  And to remind you that 13 years ago today, a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 first graders and six staff members. It is the largest mass shooting at an elementary school in U.S. history.

Update:  The district has now announced dates and locations  for the 2025-2026 SPS graduations. (I believe this came out either late Thursday or today). I don't know if high school parents received this info from SPS. They settled on McCaw Hall for nine graduations, all of them comprehensive high schools.  I'm sure this is welcome news to families.  end of update From the West Seattle Blog (and discussion at last night's Board meeting), a story about the wait for specific dates and locations for the 2026 high school graduation season. There are a couple of big issues. 1) As has been discussed for years now, Memorial Stadium is being rebuilt. It has been the staging location for many of the SPS high school graduations. So where to have those graduations? I note that that the district has several locations that could be piggy-backed for extra graduation ceremonies. 2) As the West Seattle Blog story explains: The district has announced only that graduation ceremonies w...

Update 2: Elections for Board officers President - nomination for Topp by Mizrahi and Briggs seconded. No other nominations. Mizrahi said that it's been a busy year and Topp has done an exceptional job, including process for new superintendent. Rankin agreed with Mizrahi and wanted to again state that we have an inexperienced Board as a whole. She said the president doesn't have more power; the power belongs to the entire Board. She would like to see rotating presidents.  Gina Topp is continuing as Seattle School Board President. Vice-President - nomination for Evan Briggs. I wish there was someone else as Briggs struggles to read anything. Song said looking for significant changes how this Board does business and SOFG isn't working well. Wondering what Briggs plans are for this issue.  Briggs sits mute. Then speaks up, don't have a particular allegance to SOFG. But we need a framework. She says they can't ignore that from several audits and would be happy to use th...

Director Liza Rankin called the meeting to order. Neither Director Evan Briggs (Chair) nor Joe Mizrahi (Member) were there. However, new director Jen LaVallee was there. I was impressed with how LaVallee engaged with others at the meeting. Agenda here.   Among the staff were Superintendent Fred Podesta, Bev Redmond (Communications), Sarah Pritchett (HR), and Andrew Medina, Internal Auditor.  Another person in the room who I recognized before she was introduced was former Board director, Sherry Carr. She has apparently raised her hand to volunteer to be an advisor to the committee and I think they are very lucky to have her.  Apparently the district hired yet ANOTHER consulting firm - the BERC Group* - to do a review of three areas of the district. Those were: - Community Partnerships - PTA Facility Usage - Personal Services Contracts (On the agenda there was a notation that there would be a "corrective action plan" put forth from these findings but it was crossed out. Te...

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 ...