Seattle Schools Community Forum

 I might as well live blog it because I expect most of it to be in Executive Session.  Listening into the show before the meeting, I learned that they have a new book on SPS buildings over SPS' 162 years, Building for Learning . The first book was created 24 years ago and I have a copy of that. I'll have to find out about getting the new one. I can also ask if it will be placed in any Seattle Public Libraries.  Meeting started at 4:32. President Gina Topp and Directors Joe Mizrahi and Liza Rankin are on the dais. Briggs, Clark, Hersey are virtual. Unclear where Sarju is.  Congratulations were given to Director Brandon Hersey on becoming a father! He says the next Board, he'll bring his son.  Topp talked about the process for the meeting, going into Executive Session to discuss the two finalists. She said they would refer to candidates only by number. She said she thought the session will be for one hour so back at about 5:40 pm. The announcement on who it is wi...

Time to make sure to vote and make your voice heard. There are so many important races in Seattle on the ballot, like mayor, as well as the four School Board seats. I do want to again mention one thing about the race in District 2, Sarah Clark vs Kathleen Smith. For this election, that seat will only be for two years because Vivian Song   Lisa Rivera had already served  two years of the four-year term. According to the law, Clark or Smith are running to fill those remaining two years. Clark was appointed only to serve until the next election (which is this one). So, if the candidate you like in this race doesn't win, the seat will be up again in two years.  Last thoughts from candidates via a  Seattle's Child story  which quotes candidates on the question, "What is the most pressing issue in education?" which was asked at a candidate forum. (I don't know if the question was meant broadly or specific to SPS.) Kathleen Smith said: “The single most pressing is...

Update 2: I see by the Board calendar that they already have a couple of Work Sessions on November 5th. One is on "progress monitoring" and the other is "tech safety." I would hope that if they were making an announcement on their superintendent pick, they would not make people wait until the end of all that. end of update Update: I received this comment: Late last night SPS Media sent an advisory that there will not be a vote/announcement today and they expect that on November 5. They also said the board is still not planning to publicly identify the two finalists, only the one eventually chosen. First, I have to wonder why this feels dragged out. They need another three hours to figure this out? Second, I guess the Board wants a completely stand-alone meeting to make the announcement, possibly so the candidate can be there? They could vote today (after they get out of executive session) WITHOUT revealing names as they did at the meeting last week, making the Novem...

As I previously reported, the district is now in court stemming from a case a former student (now an adult) has brought who alleges damage against his person stemming from teacher James Johnson punching him in the face in 2019 at Meany Middle School. I do have to apologize to a helpful reader who alerted me that this case was going forward and said the plaintiff was asking for $124M. I did not think that could be true. Actually, he wants between $76M-$124M. The Seattle Times has this story and they report: His lawyers say (Zakaria )Sheikhibrahim’s life unalterably changed after the assault: He suffered a traumatic brain injury and has major depressive and post-traumatic stress disorders. He also has memory loss and, now 21, has been unable to hold a steady job. I think some of the above claims are unlikely to all be true but because this plaintiff probably would not take a lowball settlement that SPS likely offered, they are now in court. As I also said before, SPS will do near anyth...

First up - dueling op-eds in The Seattle Times over having an SPD officer at Garfield High. One is by Directors Liza Rankin and Michelle Sarju and the other is by parent leaders at Garfield High . What the parents wanted: The SEO Program would bring the best of SRO programs, while omitting the bad. This officer would wear a polo shirt, only carry a sidearm and a radio — less intimidating and frightening. The officer would patrol around the campus, rarely coming inside the building, and there would be one nonnegotiable: The SEO would not discipline or intimidate students. They would keep danger out while striving to form positive relationships with students. The SEO would be accountable to our community: Garfield students, families, staff. But here's what they say they got:  These changes: "all critical guardrails and agreements we had reached were eliminated from the Board Action Report in the September and October board agendas. Tucked into these reports was a revised Memo...

They retained all their other nods - Kathleen Smith in District 2 (and apparently they did revisit both candidates), Joe Mizrahi in District 4, and Vivian Song in District 5.  Given how close the vote was in the primary for Smith vs Clark, it will be interesting to see what happens in the General.  Ditto for District 7 where this was The Stranger's first opportunity to compare the two candidates, Jen LaVallee and Carol Rava.  Here's what they said: This is an election between a senior UX designer at Amazon and a Gates Foundation alum. We don’t love either candidate, but we’ve got a binary choice here, and we’ve chosen Jen LaVallee. LaVallee is an organizer who pushed back against the woebegone school closure plan. She helped orchestrate the “Billion Dollar Bake Sale” protest in Olympia to put the legislature on blast for their consistent failure to live up to their constitutional obligation to fully fund public education. The organizers wanted an additional $4 billion a y...

 Update 3: Info I gleaned from the KOMO news story: After a nationwide search and 41 applicants, the Seattle Public Schools board interviewed eight candidates, and the final two were scheduled to have their last round of interviews until 7 p.m. Wednesday. In a three-hour-long closed-door meeting, the candidates were slated to present their plans and goals for their first 100 days in office and answer questions from student representatives.   There will be more deliberations on the two final candidates on Oct. 29. The names of the remaining two candidates have not been released. Board President Topp on Wednesday emphasized they are protecting the finalists' identities, for now, because they are in leadership roles in other districts, but the public can expect to learn their names the day of a board vote on or before Nov. 5. I'm pretty sure that if the Board has kept these names secret all this time, they will release only ONE name, not two.  end of update  U...

Update: I want to note that this teacher, after he punched the student in the face and kicked him out of class, then went on to the next class and practically bragged about doing it. There's audio of this. Why Superintendent Nyland or Sarah Pritchett or anyone in SPS leadership would have supported keeping him on is a mystery and bad leadership.  If it's a union mystery, then something should change.  end of update    This just doesn't happen to SPS. They usually are able to settle out of court but not this time. The case is Sheikhibrahim v. Seattle School District and the case is playing out in King County Superior Court. Background from past posts KUOW reports t hat a former SPS student is suing the district over a teacher punching him in the face in front of his class. Seattle Public Schools faces a lawsuit from a 2018 incident in which a math teacher at Meany Middle School punched an eighth-grader in the face in front of the entire class.   A KUOW investigat...

Editor's note: I have 12 good comments sitting in my comments box but all are posted anonymously. I would love if you might try again but give yourself a name/moniker (Princess Leia or Sleepless in Seattle). Please end of update Before I start, one item. At the end of each candidate interview, I said, "Pop quiz!" and asked three questions. Those were: 1) What are the two capital levies? Answer: BEX and BTA 2) How many students were enrolled in SPS last year (within 500)?  49,226 3) How many SPS schools are there? 104 These are all fairly basic questions that I would hope anyone who wants to help guide this district would know if they run for school board.  I am happy to say that, for the most part, the candidates got the answers close enough (these answers are all easily found at the SPS website).  What gave most people difficulty was BTA and a couple of people guessed the City's education levy.  All of these races, except D7, were very difficult to call because the ...

Update 2:   Over at The Seattle Times' article there has been this back and forth about whether the Board should have allowed public testimony.  The pertinent citations seem to be   RCW 42.30.240 Public Comment and  RCW 42.30.110(1)(g) Executive Sessions. OSPI Retired Professional, a long-time commenter on public education, added this court case: West v. Walla Walla (2025) is now a leading Washington case underscoring that: Governing bodies may discuss candidate qualifications in executive session, But they may not narrow, rank, or vote in private, And special meetings must stick strictly to their noticed agenda. Members who knowingly participate in unlawful meetings may face personal penalties (RCW 42.30.120). This meeting was likely so short because for the two days previous - the Executive Sessions where they went through the eight candidate portfolios - they had narrowed the list. Did they rank them in some subtle way? Probably.  Bec...

For some reason, I am not able to get this image of the details of this event to post. Here are the details: Join us for a  Candidate Forum  Monday, October 20th from 7-8:30 pm. at Eckstein Middle School, 3003 NE 75th Street Hosted by: Bryant Elementary, View Ridge Elementary, Wedgwood Elementary, Eckstein Middle School and Roosevelt High School Join us as we meet candidates running for school board positions 2,4,5, and 7. Candidates will present a one-minute statement following by a Q&A session, with a brief mix and mingle with the candidates.  To RSVP, request accommodations and submit questions to the candidates, here's the link. Editor's note - I'm sure it is the PTSAs of these schools hosting this and not the schools themselves.

First (and again), I have several comments just sitting in my box because they were sent anonymously. Pick any name or moniker for yourself if you want your thoughts to appear. No anonymous comments.                                      Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!     Next, the Board had a Special Meeting scheduled for today and it appeared that it was for the Board to announce that they had narrowed down the list of semi-finalists for  the next superintendent.  That meeting has been cancelled. They spent last Thursday and Friday discussing the eight semi-finalists in Executive Session.  But now, there is a OPEN Special Meeting on Wednesday, October 15th from 4:30-6:30 pm at the JSCEE. It will be televised on the Seattle Schools You-Tube channel. Agenda here.   The agenda does note that the Board "may recess into executive session."  I hope that the ...