Seattle Schools Community Forum

As you may have seen, the Seattle Times had a recent editorial on School Resource Officers in Seattle high schools. It had an unfortunate headline - Cops and Schools are a Risky Mix, but Worth a Try in Seattle.  I say that because many commenters felt that students should not fear police officers in their schools if students were not considering criminal activity. I'm not sure most of those commenters have had a student in high school in a long time.  But an answer to the seemingly simple question of whether to deploy police officers in or around school buildings has stalled in a mire of surveys, focus groups and unending discussion. Call it the Seattle process, our habit of talking civic issues to death before taking action — except, in this case, every week of delay is a gamble that nothing serious will happen in the meantime.     The Seattle School Board appears poised, finally, to announce that the ultimate decision to have officers on campus will be up to each ...

I’m on the Seattle School Board. Here’s what we need to do to improve Yes, that's the headline . My first question would be - does President Gina Topp know about this? It's kinda ironic because Rankin used to be ALL about team unity and NOT speaking out of turn. Frankly, you can read the op-ed and then just go to the comments because 95% of them think it nonsense and/or can't even figure out what she is really saying. Several thoughts I have: - I cannot believe how former director Chandra Hampson and now Director Liza Rankin love to badmouth the people who sat up on the dais before them. It's disrespectful. She complains there was a lack of accountability from former boards. Well, the board previous to this one AND this current one haven't done much in that direction and I'd like to know what she thinks the current Board has done. I note that other boards HAVE fired/let go previous superintendents. We all know she's trying mightily to push Superintendent Br...

Does anyone know a student who participated in the Superintendent Search virtual events yesterday? There were two of them at two different times. I would love to know the format, what was asked, the vibe, anything. Anybody? (I was going to ask the Student Board Members but the form for contacting them has the members from LAST year. I'm not sending a form that the Board office couldn't even update. Sigh.)

Update: What I have been told is that $14M came from the Economic Stabilization Fund as a deferral. This is what was in the last budget update from staff to the Board. Also in that report was "Fiscal Year 23-24 Assigned Fund Balance ($42.4M) . That is a fancy way of saying that $42M is underspend from that school year. (I was also told that underspend in previous years is usually $80-100M.) Two things I find confusing. First, I just don't get this underspend being so high year to year. It certainly makes for very slushy money management that would be hard to track. Second, interesting how the Rainy Day Fund from last year was around $42M and the underspend from last year was around $42M.  end of update   The Seattle Times has a story on the work towards the budget for 2025-2026,  Seattle Public Schools presents balanced budget — for now An influx of state aid and some one-time measures will allow Seattle Public Schools to balance next school year’s budget. While SPS will ...

 I recently mentioned that the Superintendent Search Page at the SPS website had near zero on public engagement that IS part of the plan. I checked back in and there are updates.  This info isn't exactly front and center for all to see. As well, it's on the SPS Facebook page but you likely won't find many young people there. Here's  the link for the State of the District Survey for Superintendent Search . The search firm, HYA, created it.  The Superintendent Search Community Engagement Survey opened Friday, May 23 and is available in English, Spanish, Amharic, Somali, Chinese, and Vietnamese. The survey will close on June 30. It says: Thank you for choosing to participate in the State of the District Survey. As a school district stakeholder, your input is extremely valuable to the leadership of the district as they plan for the future. Please answer all items to the best of your ability. The survey is being conducted by Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, a th...

 I'm going to offer my suggestions for the 2025-2026 Seattle Schools' budget. 1) Too late for this one, but the district refuses (and the Board does nothing) to do any kind of anything to shore up enrollment. - Announce a clear and comprehensive plan for Advanced Learning. - Do any kind of other marketing except for "school fairs." - Ask Seattle parents with pre-K children what would make them consider SPS for their child? 2) Last year's budget had $5M budgeted for the Board office and $6M for the Superintendent. At that time, I stated that I had NEVER seen the Board office with more than $1M. My suspicion is that it's for Student Outcome Focused Governance work and more travel.  Shave off $1M from the Superintendent's office if everyone is to suffer. 3) I realize the City has its own fiscal woes but charge them a modest amount for renting SPS classrooms.  What else?

" Our Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, who sent out a blanket warning to all public school superintendents to stop doing their various programs which help the special needs kids... and teach about civil rights... and use equity in hiring practices... incredible in America in 2025.... " April 8, 2025 To Whom It May (Unfortunately) Concern at the U.S. Department of Education: Thank you for your April 3 memorandum, which I read several times — not because it was legally persuasive, but because I kept checking to see if it was satire. Alas, it appears you are serious. You’ve asked me, as superintendent of a public school district, to sign a "certification" declaring that we are not violating federal civil rights law — by, apparently, acknowledging that civil rights issues still exist. You cite Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, then proceed to argue that offering targeted support to historically marginalized students is somehow discriminatory. That’s not just legal...

Update: KUOW has a report of the work around next year's SPS budget. Takeaways: -  The Seattle School Board is looking again at how to handle an anticipated $104 million budget shortfall. At a special session this week, district staff said Superintendent Brent Jones' preferred plan would use $42 million of the district’s rainy day fund to help close the massive deficit. Additional state and levy funding and loan extensions would make up the rest, along with some job cuts at district headquarters. Know what they did last use? Claimed to have used up the ENTIRE Rainy Day Fund. And yet they are going to somehow use it again. No idea what is happening there.  -  Director Michelle Sarju asked the district’s head of finance, Kurt Buttleman, about the budget beyond next school year. “So in other words, we don't have a long-term solution for solving the deficit?" she asked. “Yes," Buttleman replied. “When is that going to happen?” Sarju asked. After a pause, he replied: “...

The big news from the Supreme Court of the United States is that the case before them on the creation of religious charter schools did not pass their muster. It was an odd situation where Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. She was not required to state why but it appears she has a close and long-time friendship with a lawyer associated with the case.  So the vote was 4-4. The Court didn't issue any statement and it is not clear which conservative justice joined the more liberal justices. My money is on Chief Justice John Roberts.  When the Supreme Court is just eight members, then the case decision is the one from the last court that heard the case. That result, from the Oklahoma Supreme Court was that charter schools cannot be religious schools. Interestingly, most mainstream charter schools are against the creation of religious charter schools.  While this is a good outcome, it is likely temporary as some other state will bring a case where no justice recuses ...