A Quickie This and That, November 15, 2025
Update:
Via The Seattle Times:
Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 nationally ranked boys basketball recruit, has enrolled at Rainier Beach for his high school senior season and was on campus Thursday, according to multiple reports.
The 6-7, 230-pound small forward joins a decorated program that went 28-3 last season en route to winning its 10th state title.
Stokes is eligible to play for Rainier Beach per the WIAA rulebook’s section 18.12.2.1, which requires “a student whose transfer to a new school or school district is based on a bona fide change of residence to a new school or school district due to an actual physical relocation of and with the entire family unit to a different residence and coupled with termination of all occupancy of their previous residence.”Stokes withdrew from Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks, Calif., in early November after “facing disciplinary issues at the school, including altercations with students,” according to Sports Illustrated’s Tarek Fattal.“He served a suspension that kept him sidelined during multiple high school football games this season, and has not been at school this week, according to sources close to the situation,” Fattel added.
First, I was looking over the district calendar and saw two items in December worth noting.
1) The new Board members will be installed on December 3, 2025 at a Special Board meeting, starting at 4:30 pm.
2) I took a count of days (including weekends) for the Winter Break. It comes out to 16 days because somehow, there will be three weekends in this break. Good luck, parents.
3) The Seattle Times had an editorial entitled:
Philanthropy done right for the benefit of WA kidsThe Washington Legislature’s commitment to our youngest residents, while well-intended, has faltered in recent years as lawmakers prioritize other spending. This editorial page has long lamented that trend, and now finally some soul-raising good news on that front from philanthropy — with teeth.
On Wednesday, Gov. Bob Ferguson unveiled a new partnership between Washington and philanthropists at the Ballmer Group to expand early childhood education. Founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, the foundation will pay for up to 10,000 more low-income children in the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, known as ECEAP.
Near-term, the partnership rescues ECEAP after repeated cutbacks made by state lawmakers. Looking further out, the Ballmers’ investment could reverberate for generations, improving more children’s school trajectory, their adult lives and, ultimately, the state’s economy.
That’s the stated aim of philanthropy, to deploy private money in ways that make a difference to society. But it doesn’t always happen. Often, foundations fund pet projects for a limited time, then move on to something else.
So this offering by the Ballmer Group means more stable funding. However, there is also this brilliant part:
But there’s a catch: If the Legislature cuts one dollar of existing money for ECEAP, the Ballmers’ grant evaporates.
That’s leverage, using private money in a savvy way to improve public policy.
I agree. While I think it might be better overall to tax the rich but this is still a good thing.
4) One thing I noticed recently while listening to a Board meeting - they stopped doing the pledge of allegiance. Thinking about it, that might have been during the Hampson Board years. I assume the land acknowledgment is the substitute but it's hard to know why when the Board itself doesn't acknowledge it (at least not to my memory). Does it matter?
Lastly, I know quite well that I am not "on the ground" in Seattle. I also know that I am not an SPS parent any longer.
But I'm the ONLY one who covers all this stuff.
There is probably no one outside JSCEE who reads the BEX/BTA committee minutes but me and Chris Jackins.
There is no one who covers nearly every single meeting, gavel to gavel, but me and Jackins. And I even do a write-up of the highlights or live blog.
Because public education has become such a larger issue nationally, I've covered state and federal stories for years. I even went to hear Betsy DeVoss speak.
So when I read elsewhere that "no one" is covering public education in Seattle, I get beyond miffed or annoyed. I get upset.
I do welcome and applaud all the current activist SPS parents out there.
But I would appreciate the mention that I've been doing this work for a very long while. I rarely see that happen and it's insulting.
You know who you are. Do better.
Comments
But hey, at least you didn't knock on Kathleen Smith's door and ask her to run for the school board, handing Liza Rankin a crucial ally and removing Sarah Clark from the board, as Chris Jackins supposedly did. So at least you have that going for you. Nobody still here in Seattle will ever trust or work with Chris Jackins again because of that colossal mistake.
Truth Squad
Great that others are reading those minutes but I have a bully pulpit to call it out.
Ballmer is bailing out the state. I'm glad that he won't allow any funding to get diverted.
Special thanks to Melissa. She has been a dedicated servant for over two decades. Melissa covers Seattle Public Schools like no other.
~ Failing Mark for Democrats
And Melissa, if you want people to take you seriously and give you credit, you also need to show you know what you're talking about. When you say "we'll see" about aligning with Rankin, you're showing that you don't.
Smith has been aligning herself with Rankin for the last six months. Those of us actually here on the ground in Seattle have seen this up close and in person on the campaign trail. Her campaign manager is a close Rankin ally and Smith herself takes her cues from Rankin.
In June she told the Rainy Day Recess podcast that Rankin is who she most wants to work with. Her website is full of Rankin-speak. The section on school closures is very similar to what Rankin has said on the subject. In October Smith's answers to the Seattle Times on school lunch closures, a long word salad about the board not interfering in operations, was almost verbatim what Rankin said at a board meeting on the subject. Either Rankin actually wrote that answer for Smith (which is what I suspect) or she is already so closely in alignment with Rankin that she's able to say the same thing herself. Either way, it's clear that Smith is allied to Rankin, and you're inaccurate to claim otherwise.
Truth Squad
1. He'd either have to be homeless
(he's a millionaire with a massive NLI Nike deal, even SPS coaches know the homeless grift won't work here)
2. or he'd have to move in-district as part of a non-athletic related family move.
There's really nothing to even debate here: he's already a pro basketball player and he moved only for basketball reasons. There isn't even a plausible alternative explanation. He moved here because he was kicked out of Sherman Oaks for fighting and multiple athletic suspensions and they were going to expel him, so either way, no basketball. SI reported Nov 5 he was looking for somewhere to continue his basketball career before possibly declaring for the draft or joining a college roster as early as the spring. In summary, it's hard to imaging a more direct, completely sports-related reason for transferring to RB, which is a Nike/Jordan school coached by his travel team coach (Crawford). WIAA rules require a mandatory one year sitout for an elective transfer like this. Instead he's playing. Who approved this? I believe because SPS and Metro are already on probation from the Roosevelt issue, all transfers are supposed to be cleared by a District level committee that includes McCarthy and Tara Davis. McCarthy is also on probation. Long story short, if they rubber stamped his eligibility, (I think they did so by saying "hey, his mom has a new job in Seattle he had to move!" ...His mom manages his basketball endorsements, she works for her son. It's lazy circular dishonesty in service of a star player who isnt from here, got booted for violence and will be gone by March.) then as in the Roosevelt deal, his eligibility would be retroactively overturned by a fact finder and there'll likely be more forfeits and sanctions, and given that the next punishment category after probation is receivership and/or shut down of athletic programs, this sure was a lot to risk to appease an angry teenager from Sherman Oaks.
Given the complete institutional lack of control exhibited by McCarthy et al (just saw him named in the Garfield rape case investigation for completely abdicating his required duty to report sexual abuse of students, leading to years of additional abuse for a girl he was supposed to protect) I think they've all just about earned a shutdown of athletics. Until they can stop lying, cheating, covering up abuse and providing an object lesson on how to constantly deploy these same anti-values to the children they're supposed to serve...then hell there's no use for sports anyway. All these teams are are just vehicles for a bunch of 38 year old street agents using the public school system as a big trough for wetting their beaks (Tyran Stokes' mom is working with that guy Dom Brooks who was charging parents $22k a year in "tuition" at Sugiyama HS for the fake prep school he stood up of his own volition inside a public high school. That $22k per student in "tuition" is just straight up money he stole by leveraging SPS authority, money the district didnt even bother to track down or report to auditors, cops or the AG as they should've. just another set of serious crimes that the district chose to cover up instead of addressing and rectifying.
It really isnt a big deal that Tyran Stokes is playing, really who cares? But at some point the lies and cheating just has to stop. If SPS doesnt like the WIAA rules then quit the association. Otherwise tell the truth and don't cheat. Especially when already on provation for lying and cheating. Not the right time to push through another fraudulent transfer.