This and That, July 5, 2025

Quite a lot happening so let's catch up.

From the Times, news that the School Board is going to allow more time for input on the superintendent search. Good idea. 

The School Board this week decided to leave open a survey until around mid-July and add more meetings for the community to give input on what they’d like to see in a new superintendent.  

I mean, two in-person meetings in the SE really didn't cut it. 

The recommendation came after Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the firm helping the board with the search, held nearly two dozen meetings and focus groups with parents, students, district staff and community-based organizations from the end of May through June. 

While some had good attendance, others did not. An online session hosted by the Seattle Council PTSA on Monday night, for example, at one point had about 47 people, including interpreters, the HYA moderator and media. About 40 attended one in Cantonese.

However, only one community member showed up for a meeting for Spanish-language speakers. No one attended a session for Amharic speakers, according to HYA. And an online communitywide meeting on June 27 had to be canceled, in part, because the interpreters were unable to communicate with attendees who did not speak English. 

Micah Ali, an associate with HYA, said he’d received a “plethora” of phone calls and emails asking for an “enhanced strategy” to engage community-based organizations to reach historically marginalized groups. 

Topp said that some of the upcoming meetings may be in-person or online. HYA will also redo the session for Vietnamese families. 

Ali said while extending the period for community input would affect the timeline that the board had laid out to find a new superintendent, doing so would not negatively impact the ability to find a highly qualified district leader. Applications for the position are due July 31.

Director Liza Rankin had something funny to say:

If we start from a place of rushed appointment or selection, we are setting ourselves up for failure and we are setting up that person, whoever they may be, for failure.”

Uh, she was on the Board when they picked Brent Jones without any public input. And look what happened. It would be nice if occasionally Board members have some public reflection of their actions.

There was an adjacent story a new superintendent and what parents want.

They like having choices, including option schools, K-8 models, and dual language and advanced learning programs, and think those programs should be available to students across the district.

Some criticize what they see as a lack of communication, accountability and transparency, and say they don’t like a system where the quality of education and academic opportunities can vary based on where students live.

They want a superintendent who would change that: a decisive leader, with a K-12 background, financial acumen and the backbone to hold people accountable when they don’t do their jobs or harm students and staff.

The meetings covered three big questions: What attendees like or value about the district and what they’d like to see retained; current challenges and others they see coming down the pike; and the qualities and traits they’d like in a new school superintendent.

At least at two in-person meetings in June this much was clear: The School Board should not hire someone who now works for the district, attendees said.

 

The budget for next school year passed and Rankin was the sole no vote.

Rankin said while she understood that the district needed to pass a budget, the plan did not reflect the School Board’s direction.

The budget passed with five votes from Topp and directors Evan Briggs, Joe Mizrahi, Michelle Sarju and Brandon Hersey. Director Sarah Clark abstained and Rankin voted no.

In better times, maybe the budget could better reflect the direction the Board wants to go. However, this may be a blessing for a new superintendent to NOT be locked into a direction/plan that they know little about.

 

On the teachers contract:

The board also approved a one-year contract, with a 2.5% raise, with the Seattle Education Association and its three bargaining units.

The two sides reached the tentative agreement on June 13, ahead of the current contract’s Aug. 31 expiration date.

The deal will cost SPS $18 million next year, about $7 million of which is unfunded.

The district wants to get more input on a Garfield High School Safety officer.  From the Times:

Acting Superintendent Fred Podesta said the district still intends to proceed with the proposal for the one-year pilot program at Garfield, but it wants to do more community engagement.

SPS will continue to hammer out an agreement with the Seattle Police Department. The administration plans to take a working draft of the agreement to the community for input this month before returning to the board, Podesta said.

The change in plans means the pilot program might not be up and running by the first day of school on Sept. 3, Podesta said. But he hopes it will be in place during the year, possibly in the fall.

Further:

Parents also wanted more information on the person’s duties and how oversight of the role would work, according to the district’s analysis.

Podesta said he hoped to schedule the community meeting on the topic, which will include the Seattle Police Department and other community organizations, in mid-July. They plan to walk the community through the proposal and draft agreement, get feedback and go from there, he said.

“We really want to make sure that the community, specifically Garfield, gets to weigh in,” Podesta said, adding that he hopes for a “frank and open” conversation.

SPS announced that they are terminating a high school teacher who has spoken out his beliefs about the Israel-Gaza war. From the Times:

Seattle Public Schools has decided to terminate a high school teacher who said the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel was justified and questioned whether women had been raped.

Ian Golash, who is listed as the social studies department chair at Chief Sealth International High School, was placed on administrative leave on April 11, 2024. As of Wednesday evening, he was still listed on the school’s website.

“Seattle Public Schools has initiated the process to terminate Ian Golash’s employment,” the district said in an email Wednesday.

According to Seattle Schools, Golash has appealed the decision and will remain on administrative leave during that process.

No word on what SEA will do. 

My understanding is that before he was put on administrative leave, some group showed up to Chief Sealth and wording on a truck talking about his stances on October 7th in Israel and what has followed. 

But a year on administrative leave. Nothing like with all due deliberate speed. I will let you read the statements he made to a conservative advocacy group that fights antisemitism on campuses. He is also known for a "Social Identity Wheel" that he had asked students to fill out about race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender, etc. 

This would appear to be a First Amendment situation except that teachers have access to kids and some teachers being fairly outspoken, it makes it a delicate situation. 

State Level Stories

Student discipline, this from the Times' Education Lab:

The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction adopted new student discipline rules last month, despite pushback among families and advocates who believe the new rules will send schools back in time. 

Advocates feel the new rules give teachers more authority to decide when to send a student out of the classroom.

Some parents feel it weakens the requirement to let them know when their child has been removed.

And state Superintendent Chris Reykdal says the updated rules merely remove much of the bureaucracy. 

The new rules go into effect July 11. School districts have just nine weeks to make sure their policies comply before school starts in September.

While the rules have changed, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos stressed that the law itself has not. Santos was one of the original sponsors of the student discipline bill in 2016.

“The law is very clear. There is no getting around the law,” Santos said. “The onus is on the school and the school district to continue to provide that education even if that might be in an alternative setting. You cannot, under our state constitution, divorce students from their constitutional right to an education.”

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal is warning about federal cuts to schools and their effect in Washington State. 

Millions of dollars hang in the balance for Washington schools and students after the Trump administration abruptly withheld almost $7 billion from public schools Tuesday.

The move has thrown after-school care, professional learning for teachers and programming for English language learners into limbo across the country.

It’s a curveball school officials didn’t see coming.

“That is definitely stunning to all 50 states,” Washington’s schools chief, Chris Reykdal, said in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve obviously been in contact with lots of folks, and it’s unlike any level of chaos or common sense we’ve seen so far.”

What about SPS?

Reykdal warned Tuesday that the potential loss of the $137 million that the administration has put under review could put more Washington districts into “extreme” financial distress. Seven are already in binding conditions, meaning they are under strict oversight from the state.

In Seattle Public Schools, staff who work with students who are truant or at risk of dropping out and help teachers work with English learners could be affected if the funds are not restored.

The district could lose $4 million if the funds remain frozen, Kurt Buttleman, the district’s assistant superintendent of finance, said Wednesday. 

Reykdal said it’s still possible that states could get the money, but the uncertainty is a no-win situation for districts.

“Give us the money, or tell us we’re not going to have the money, so we can plan for it,” he said, “But the ‘You may get it, or you may not’ means we’re making hard decisions now in local school districts across the country.”

Uncertainty seems to be a useful cudgel from the Trump regime.