Seattle Schools in the News

 Good News

The district has opened part of the new Rainier Beach High School building and it looks swell. 

From the SPS website:

The sleek, four-story structure officially opened its doors on April 21, replacing the original 1960s-era building. With sunlight streaming through skylights and a soaring atrium, the new campus is more than just a school—it’s a symbol of community vision and student advocacy brought to life. 

The excitement was palpable among students, who now learn in modern classrooms and collaborate in shared spaces designed for personalized learning. From a culinary arts kitchen and engineering lab to a digital arts studio and a BioMed science classroom, the new facilities are tailored to prepare students for the future. The school also proudly houses the Construction Trades Regional Skills Center. 

There was a dedication ceremony for....

the Betty Patu Library, Michael S. Bethea Athletics Complex, and the Jamal Crawford Basketball Court, followed by guided tours of the new campus. 

The new building also includes a Community Health Center, providing accessible healthcare to students and families, and is on track to achieve LEED Platinum certification thanks to its solar panels, geothermal loop, and sustainable design. 

I am interested to see the Community Health Center will be available to families; my concern there would be making sure that people coming into the building all go through the office first. You don't want random people walking the halls. 

From the Times:

The new campus is expected to be completed in 2026 and was supported by about $275 million raised by a property tax levy passed six years ago.

Also from SPS:

Thirty-two Seattle Public Schools are being recognized by the Washington School Recognition Program for their performance during the 2023-24 school year. 

This program highlights schools that demonstrate exceptional progress in key areas of student success.

Bad News

From The Seattle Times, 

Deaf and hard-of-hearing families face hurdles at Seattle schools OR Seattle Public Schools apologizes to deaf and hard of hearing families

That second headline is on the home page and I believe was the original headline. That first one seems the product of complaints from SPS? Unclear. (bold mine)

Some families and advocates say the American Sign Language interpreter issues at multiple recent school board meetings are examples of the hurdles deaf and hard-of-hearing parents have to clear to participate in their children’s education in Seattle Public Schools. 

The lapse is part of a larger pattern of exclusion that amounts to discrimination against those in the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community, which includes children who can hear but whose parents and siblings are deaf and hard of hearing, some families and advocates said.

Parents said these children should get priority placement into TOPS K-8 and Roosevelt High School, which have programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. SPS also does not have districtwide emergency systems that are accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students and adults. 

Seattle Public Schools issued a formal apology late Monday, acknowledging that “we failed to serve our Deaf and Hard of Hearing community” by not providing ASL interpretation at a May 7 meeting. 

We understand this is not just a single incident, but part of a longer history in Seattle Public Schools where decision making has been inaccessible to the DHH community,” the message from Superintendent Brent Jones and Board President Gina Topp read. “Apologies are empty without action.” 

Seriously? No ASL for what was billed as Board "public engagement." President Gina Topp issued a rare Board apology at the SPS website. Now the messaging is from the Board but the Times says it was SPS who apologized. Hmmm

Laura Gramer, an advocate in the D/HH community had this to say (Ms. Gramer also ran for the Board several years back):

Gramer said she’s been asking SPS for more than a decade to improve how it engages with deaf and hard-of-hearing families. Things change for some time, she said, but then regress.

“Is it because of leadership turnover?” she asked. “Why do we have to keep bringing this up? I should have the same access as a hearing person, either in person or online.”

District staff has expressed interest in working with the Deaf and hard of hearing community, but there have been roadblocks, she said. In 2023, she hired a lawyer to write to the district about adding accessible alarms. SPS finally started installing the alarms — with digital screens that display what’s happening — at TOPS and Roosevelt this spring.

Elsa Jones, a disability advocate who is deaf-blind and graduated from Nova High School, recalled leaning on her peers to pass along information about emergencies shared on the announcement system.

“I was relying on my classmates to tell me if we were in lockdown,” said Jones, whose stepchildren attend SPS. “That’s a burden on them emotionally and a burden on me because I didn’t have equal access and (couldn’t) make decisions for myself. Students are still in that position today.”

Jones said the new emergency systems should be at all schools because not all deaf and hard-of-hearing students go to TOPS and Roosevelt, and some children who can hear have parents who can’t or who use aids to help. (SPS says it’s starting the accessible systems at the two schools and will expand it throughout the system.)

So there's a safety issue right there and the district is acting with all deliberate speed.

As long suspected, SPS is being sued by the family of Amarr Murphy-Paine, the student killed just outside Garfield High about a year ago. From the Times:

In a lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court on Monday, Murphy-Paine’s family members allege his killing was preventable, and was the “foreseeable outcome of relaxed ‘open campus’ policies and inadequate security measures in a neighborhood with a history of gun violence.”

The district said in a statement that it would “not respond to the allegations in the complaint through the media while the civil litigation process proceeds” but that it expresses “our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Amarr Murphy-Paine, and to the whole Garfield community.” 

Gun violence cast a particularly dark shadow over the 2023-2024 school year at the Central District’s Garfield High. In between school plays, prom and graduation, two Garfield students were shot. The March before Amarr was killed, a female student was shot in the leg outside the school during a drive-by. 

There were two separate incidents involving weapons just hours before Amarr was shot. 

The morning of June 6, 2024, a student entered a classroom in a ski mask wielding an airsoft gun and shot at a teacher several times. In a report obtained by public records request, the teacher describes having “no idea” what they were looking at before being stung by pellets in the face, chest and neck. Another teacher and students were also there, the report said.

The complaint alleges the district did not appear to follow its own procedures regarding dangerous weapons on campus (an airsoft gun is considered a dangerous weapon in school policy). Usually, 911 should be called and the Safety and Security Department should be notified.

During another incident, according to a report obtained by a public records request, a student told a teacher they were worried another student had a weapon in his backpack. That student repeatedly refused when an administrator asked to look inside the backpack before running out of the principal’s office and out of the school. Because Amarr was shot on campus shortly after, the complaint states, administrators “were unable to finish dealing with this incident.” The student was later put on a safety plan that required his backpack would be checked every day until the end of the year.

I knew about one of the other incidents but not both. 

Apparently there is video footage of the murder; I thought there were only photographs. Very sad. 

Yet another article about waitlists, this from the Times:

Parents are pushing the district to let wait-listed students attend the schools of their choice, many of them seeking to attend option schools with specialized programming. Meanwhile, the district and School Board are weighing those requests against the desire to maintain enough enrollment at neighborhood schools.

Ultimately, no major solutions to the waitlist dilemma are in sight: SPS says it’s moving students off the list and into schools. But parents shouldn’t expect seismic changes this year.

By last week, more than 148 students had gotten into the schools of their choice since the waitlist was released last month. That includes an entire kindergarten class at Queen Anne Elementary School, which originally had 27 kindergartners on the waitlist and will now have two kindergarten grades next year.

However:

The option schools where the district is limiting choice seats include Cleveland STEM High School in South Seattle, Thornton Creek Elementary and Hazel Wolf K-8 STEM School in Northeast Seattle, Pathfinder K-8 and Louisa Boren STEM K-8 in West Seattle, Salmon Bay K-8 in Northwest Seattle, and TOPS K-8 School.   

Meany Middle School, John Rogers Elementary, Madrona Elementary, Olympic View Elementary, Green Lake Elementary and Broadview-Thomson K-8 in North Seattle are among the neighborhood schools that could be affected if too many students were let off the waitlist, Manu said. For example, Rainier Beach would have lost 64 students and Meany 40 students, she said. 

Well, RBHS has a brand-new building - at this point, instead of punishing Cleveland STEM year after year, clear their waitlist and see what happens at both schools. 

Fred Podesta says: “Can we build in more flexibility? And what would that look like as students and resources move around?” he said.

Here's the thing - do we allow the district to continue to make staffing choices BEFORE they have the enrollment numbers as they do year after year? Do parents still care about a guarantee at their neighborhood schools (which may or may not be their closest school by distance)? 

Personally, I think it would be interesting to see how things would shake out if they did move ALL the waitlists at schools that have room.

“Are we a district that’s really focused on a cookie-cutter” approach to education, Mizrahi asked. “Or are we a district that embraces diversity of offerings, diversity of programs and then lets people do what’s best for their children?”

One thing I find amusing are the comments about "school choice" via vouchers. SPS parents want choice WITHIN the system because there are many schools that they want for their children. Honestly, I don't think most parents want OUT, they want IN.