Hey! Look at That! Engagement Opportunities Around a New Superintendent for Seattle Schools

 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 third-party firm, which ensures that your responses are kept anonymous and confidential. 

Please note, your comments will be transcribed verbatim and may be made public; however, your comments will be anonymous unless you identify yourself.

- Stakeholder question

- Please rate the overall quality of education in the District. You are then given a series of statements to agree or disagree with on that quality of education.

-Priorities for the Future - a series of statements that you choose four from

- Quality of Programing

In this section you will need to rate the quality of specific academic, support and extracurricular areas and their program options. If you don't have enough information to answer any questions, you can skip it.

- Equity

Please select a response from the options below that best describes your agreement with each statement. You may skip any question you feel you do not have sufficient information to answer.

One statement I thought odd for this category:

Students have at least one trusted adult in the building that they can rely on for help.

Huh? I appreciate that HYA is trying to gauge how people feel about the district but nothing about qualities in a superintendent? Nothing about what people understand about the role of the superintendent? 



Student Engagement Sessions

SPS students, help shape SPS’ future! Come share your thoughts about the qualities you want to see in our next leader. Thursday, May 29 (virtual)

4:00 p.m. (meeting link)
6:30 p.m. (meeting link)

More information about these upcoming engagement opportunities will be added here soon. Interpretation in American Sign Language and our top 5 spoken languages will be available at family, student, and community sessions.



As I noted previously, there is a Community Engagement meeting with the Board on Wednesday, June 25th. No other details where available at that time but there are now. It is to be at James Baldwin Elementary, 11725 1st Avenue NE at 5:30 pm. There is no indication what the topic is to be.

Comments

Michael Rice said…
I filled out the survey, but I don't remember seeing any questions about the things that matter like class size, waitlists, advanced learning, crummy new math curriculum. It would be nice to weigh in on those things. Those are the day to day issues that define what education looks like in the SPS
5/27/25, 10:50 AM
Jim Basinski said…
Yes- All the survey questions were quantitative scale type questions.
I found myself having difficulty answering questions that didn't allow for variability across classrooms and schools. Even a single open ended 'further comments' item would have been nice (and easier to nowadays analyze with AI if necessary). But the format of the survey also is in line with a district vision of consistency and standardization.
5/27/25, 2:13 PM
Anonymous said…
Day-to-day issues are not what the superintendent is in charge of though. Superintendents guide the overall direction to ensure alignment with district goals. They are in charge of steering the ship and casting the vision, as well as hiring the right folks as stewards, deckhands, and bosuns who will support the work in the day-to-day.

The SPS superintendent is a CEO and public representative of the district in big forums. Urban school district superintendents do not deal with the smaller things like class size (which is bargained), curriculum (adopted via committee as the superintendent’s designee), and advanced learning. Superintendents in smaller districts (e.g., Highline, Bellevue, University Place) can touch more of those parts.

SPS is just really big—which is why the average lifespan of large school district superintendents is 3-6 years, as opposed to 5+ years for rural/suburban districts.

Below Deck Watcher
5/27/25, 10:56 PM
Anonymous said…
Agree that the superintendent should not be involved in day to day decisions, but I dream of a superintendent who would mandate that digital curriculums are inappropriate for elementary school kids, or thar kids have different learning styles so alternative schools are a solution that makes sense and would support our population. Or thar smart phones should be away for the day across the school district.
I dream of a superintendent that is able to support the students, teachers and parents, rather than one who just manages current problems.

NW
5/28/25, 8:44 AM
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