Local Public Ed News

On high school student protests over changing the one-house lunch into two lunch periods, stories from the West Seattle Blog and The Seattle Times.

Via the West Seattle Blog:

Looks like masses of students outside the JSCEE. WSB estimates about 1,000 students which is a lot. 

In the comments at the WSB, I see this:

The students voices were heard! The district is postponing the plan for now. 

I will check on this news.  I see one statement from Superintendent Podesta in the Times' article that may address that comment.

Via The Seattle Times:

As students chanted outside the building’s doors, a group of student leaders were allowed inside to meet with interim Superintendent Fred Podesta, who apologized for the rollout of the policy, but did not walk back the proposed change. 

“The way we rolled this out, that was on us, and I’m sorry about that,” Podesta told the six student leaders inside his office. 

In an interview, Podesta said the students were “really passionate and articulate.” While he anticipated pushback, he was surprised by the strength of it, he said.

The plan, which should have been in place at the start of the school year, will continue, he said. The rollout at some schools has been pushed to Oct. 6 after the principals asked for more time last week, he said.  

“I think we need to keep studying the situation more before we change course again,” he said.

Podesta will meet again with some of the student representatives on Tuesday, she said. 

The FAQs at SPS say schools will start as early as last Monday, September 15th, to start but have until October 6th to make the change.

If anyone gets different messaging from their high school principal, please let us know. 

One good example of what the change might affect:

Isobella McKamey, a student at West Seattle High School and a member of the school’s Unified Champion Club, which promotes inclusion through sports for students with and without disabilities, said the policy would prevent the club from functioning as a schoolwide unit. 

And it’s not easy for some students with disabilities who rely on others for transportation to just arrive at school earlier or stay later for club events, she said.

Another one:

Some Garfield High School seniors who attended the rally said they had been fighting this lunch issue for years. They had sought the opposite this year: to return to one lunch period after having two lunch periods last year. 

“We didn’t get listened to until the North End schools found it to be an issue for them,” said Neha Olivar, 17, a senior at the school. “It’s a big issue of race and economics.”

What do Board directors - who had zero to do with this - have to say?

In response to an estimated 200 emails from students and families about the schedule change, District 4 Director Joe Mizrahi, whose district includes schools in Fremont, Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and parts of downtown, said he was working to see what the board could do to delay the switch to allow district staff to hear directly from students to work out a solution.

“Beyond delay, if adequate solutions can’t be reach(ed), I am ready to do my part to try and roll back these changes entirely,” he wrote to students. His district includes Lincoln High School and The Center School.

Apparently Mizrahi, Sarah Clark and Gina Topp had an online town hall last night.

 

 

The Trump regime strikes again. There is a federal program that has been going on for decades that awards "blue ribbons" to schools making exceptional progress in different areas. Cascadia Elementary had been notified they would receive that designation. Except now the program has been canceled by the Department of Education. 

“It was pretty devastating,” said Sandra Mackey, Cascadia’s principal, who has worked as an educator for more than 30 years, including the last six at Cascadia. “I don’t have much more time before I will retire. … For me, (the award) was an accumulation of a lifetime of work. It was the highest honor you can receive as a school in the United States.”

Just last month, schools slated to win the award received communication from the federal Department of Education about how to verify, celebrate and publicly announce their award. An Aug. 20 email sent to Mackey from the director of the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program at the department’s communications office outlined plans for U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to publicly announce winners in September, but asked school officials to keep “this good news ‘close to the vest’ until after Secretary McMahon’s official announcement.”

But on Aug. 29, the Department of Education ended its involvement in the program, according to the Alabama Daily News, which first reported the change. Ending the program was “in the spirit of Returning Education to the States,” according to the Daily News’ summary of a letter sent to state education officials nationwide. 

Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction nominated 10 schools for the award based on their academic achievement, according to OSPI spokesperson Katy Payne. Cascadia was the only Seattle public school slated to win the award this year, based on its performance in the 2024-25 school year, according to Mackey. Last year, 96% of third graders at Cascadia met the state standard score in English Language Arts; more than 98% percent of Cascadia third graders met the state’s math standard.

While the national Blue Ribbon award is no more, the school’s PTA still plans to celebrate the school next week with blueberry muffins, blue ribbons and blue cards that students can fill out and display listing their favorite things about their teachers and school. 

  

The Times has an editorial that talks about the effect of taking state lands out of logging and how that affects school funding. 

Candidate Dave Upthegrove is keeping a campaign promise, vowing he would take 77,000 acres of state logging lands out of production; now elected, Public Lands Commissioner Upthegrove is following through.

But impacts of his unilateral decision, announced on Tiger Mountain in Issaquah Aug. 26, will cascade into every corner of the state. Local governments, including many schools already struggling financially, depend on proceeds of the potential sales he just axed. And a limited number of mills that power the state’s forest products industry will lose out on inventory that will cost jobs and could lead some to close.

The commissioner is out over his skis. The Department of Natural Resources’ mandated stewardship of public lands “for the support of common schools,” and other local governments, dates to the state’s founding. Of 3 million acres of trust lands, roughly half are now conserved, and what is still logged uses DNR’s sustainable harvest practices inculcated by leading forestry scientists to preserve biodiversity, clean air and water, and the richest possible habitat.

Worse yet, Upthegrove’s decision exacerbates an existing funding crisis for local schools, particularly in rural areas. The American Forest Resource Council, a timber trade association, estimates trust beneficiaries, as well as the DNR itself, could lose around $2 billion in revenues over the next two decades.

One comment said:

Let’s get past the smoke screens and look at the real problems here.

Rural school districts’ voters regularly vote down local bond measures to fund their local schools. 

 

Another said:

Obviously we need a new revenue strategy for public schools and local services. Public Schools Superintendent Reykdal says the same thing. He supports Dave on this issue.

 

  

 

I see that former Board director Zachary Pullin DeWolf (now just Pullin) has landed at the Department of Neighborhoods Director of Communications. His resume at the Department of Neighborhoods is a bit odd:

We are excited to welcome Zachary Pullin as our new Communications Director. Zachary (he/him) is a citizen of the Chippewa Cree Nation of Rocky Boy, Montana. Prior to joining DON, he spent five years leading communications strategy for Washington's leading environmental organization, Washington Conservation Action. He is passionate about storytelling, equity, and elevating voices and experiences that drive meaningful change for people and communities. He is an accomplished writer, Seattle Gay Men's Chorus singer, and lover of cold brew. He previously served as president of the Capitol Hill Community Council and lives in the same neighborhood with his dog Maya. 

He was once an elected official and he omits that from his resume? Interesting.