Of Interest This Week in Seattle Schools

On Wednesday, September 24th, the Board is having a real lollapalooza of a meeting from 4:30-7:30 pm. 

Board Special Meeting: 
Strategic Resource Analysis, Budget, October Adjustments, High School Lunch

The agenda (with no accompanying documentation yet):

- Strategic Resource Analysis discussion from 4:30 to 6:15 pm. 

That's a sobering amount of time and I suspect the Superintendent and staff are going to (hopefully) tell the cold hard truth of district finances around resources. I would guess that they have looked everywhere including the sofa cushions and there is no more money to be found. And I assume that means they cannot get more from the Capital side but we'll see. 

- 2026-2027 Budget discussion- 6:15-7:00 pm. So after the resource analysis, where does that leave next year's budget? 

- October adjustments discussion from 7:00-7:15 pm. October 1 is when the State asks for a head count from districts. Here's where we see a settling of enrollment after the reopening of schools. Frankly, the district can't afford to lose any student but if it looks almost steady state, that would be a good sign.

I will remind readers that when electeds try to say that the district is "about 50,000 students," they are wrong. The district is now well down to 49,000 students. 

- High School Lunch discussion 7:15-7:30 pm. 
That is not a lot of time to talk so one of two things may be stated. 

1) That the district is truly sorry for the awful timing but nothing will change and, by October 6th, there will be two-lunch periods at all comprehensive high schools.

OR

2) They did not give schools and students enough time to readjust their schedules so they will wait until next semester or even next school year.

My money is on the former. I will say that Podesta seemed shook by the volume of students walking out of class as well as all the emails pouring into the district. Students are showing their power and their need to be apprised of decisions well in advance and/or being involved in that decision-making. 


On Friday, September 26th, HYA will be sending their superintendent picks to the Board. The calendar reflects a meeting on that day but there are no details yet. I believe this would be a list of 2-4 candidates. It has never been clear to me if the Board would vet that down to just two candidates (and therefore we would not know who any candidate is until that final list). 


On Saturday, September 27th, there is a virtual meeting for the community on the superintendent search. There is no agenda attached so I'm not sure exactly what the discussion might be unless it is to discuss the HYA vetted list of candidates. 


On Monday, September 29th, there will be a community meeting on the superintendent search for parents who speak Amharic. This meeting will also be virtual. 

On Monday, September 29th, there will be a community meeting on the superintendent search for parents who speak Vietnamese. This meeting will also be virtual. 


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