Seattle Schools Community Forum

 From KOMO news, a fairly strange story that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th: Seattle police said a man was arrested after he forced his way into a high school, attacked a security guard, and pointed a gun at a teenager. The 60-year-old man was walking his two dogs when he approached the school and “forcefully pushed past” the security guard to talk to the principal, who told him to leave. A short time later, the man left the school in the 1700 block of East Union Street and walked to East Pike Street near 16th Ave, where he approached two teens sitting in a car. With a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, the man began screaming at the teenagers, telling them they can’t park on the street, according to Seattle police. While holding the knife, the man reached into the car and grabbed a 15-year-old boy by the neck. He also pointed a gun at the boy. The teen managed to escape from the man’s grip and told him he was calling 911. The man then walked away with his dogs. Police a...

 Update: Forgot to mention - head of Legal, Greg Narver, is leaving the district.   end of update    Topline is my headline; the Board voted against trying the pilot SEO (School Engagement Officer) program at Garfield High School. It was quite the discussion but let's review what came before it (but I came in about 20 minutes late). Also, former Board president Don Nielsen applied for the superintendent position and Director Liza Rankin announced that she is NOT going to run again. Once again, Clark and Hersey were there virtually, with all the other directors on the dais, including the three student directors. Superintendent Fred Podesta was also there.  When President Gina Topp had asked for director comments, Director Sarah Clark read a lengthy resolution which I think was in support of LGBTQ students and families. This post will be about the discussion around the SEO pilot at Garfield; I will post separately on the HC Plan discussion. Public Testimony T...

Here's the agenda  for the meeting which starts at 4:30 pm at the JSCEE.  There are 22 people on the Speakers List. Most of the speakers will be talking about student safety.     There are several facilities items that are rolled into the Consent agenda including one for a whopping $71M for electronic upgrades at many schools. These upgrades include AV, intercoms, and security systems. This project is in four phases and they have nearly completed 15 schools.  This is Phase 2 and will include 24 schools and the JSCEE. Phase 3 will be 30 schools and there was no Phase 4 projects noted.  I see that this is the THIRD amendment for this contract. I see that amendments seem to be the new craze for Capital Facilities. It's a good way to present one cost for approval and then keep bumping it up as you go along (see Rainier Beach High School). Documentation is not attached. Not good. It's interesting as well that they are doing $11M worth of upgrades to John Marshal...

(Editor note - again. I have several comments that I would like to print. If you took the time to write something that helps the discussion, it would be great to include it. But three of these are anonymous and I'm trying very hard not to print anonymous comments.  Again, any name or moniker will do. It's not that tough to be something at the end of your comment.)    A headline story in the New York Times is that the well-thought of superintendent of Des Moines schools apparently made up/adjusted several items on his resume and appears to not have been a legal resident of the United States. This is a gift article so you will be able to read all of it.  School district leaders in Des Moines drew up a detailed wish list when they set out to hire a new superintendent in 2023. They wanted someone who could increase reading scores, improve the math skills of Black boys, adhere to an affirmative action plan and much more. Most of all, Des Moines Public Schools neede...

The Seattle Times has a story this morning on the final resolution to high school lunches: Starting Monday, Oct. 6, all SPS high schools will have two lunch periods, except on Wednesdays, when students can share one schoolwide 30-minute lunch period. The change will “preserve time for students to connect, join clubs, or explore other interests,” wrote SPS interim superintendent Fred Podesta and associate superintendent Rocky Torres-Morales in an email sent to impacted high schools Thursday afternoon. “This gives students time for whole-school community building, while still supporting a safer and more manageable lunch experience on other days.”  The decision to implement a one-lunch Wednesday will be made by each school principal and individual school community. Schools will provide exact details about their schedules by the end of the week. As I posted in the Comments: This makes it unclear what is to happen: "The decision to implement a one-lunch Wednesday will be made by each ...

Update 2: I kinda got an answer on "selection of candidate."  - The Board could select more than one person or just one person. - Again, they may not pick anyone if they cannot reach consensus. I think that an outside possibility but it could happen.   - I could not get clarity on if the Board will have forums if they pick someone or more than one person as a finalist. Given how things turned out with Jones, I think it vital to have forums for the public. end of update    Update: I read this timeline too quickly. The last notation says "selection of candidate." As in one person, not a couple. It is too late in the day for me to ask about this but, in the past, the Board would choose 2-3 candidates and "introduce" them to the Seattle Schools community with opportunities to hear from them.   That notation of a singular candidate makes me uneasy. Is the Board going to pick with zero public input? Stay tuned. end of upate     Complete detai...

 Editor's note: I believe there is one other Board candidate forum in October but I am checking one detail.   Just saw this one which is TONIGHT, September 29th at the Montlake Community Center from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. It is a forum for one City Council seat (Nelson v Foster) as well as City Attorney (Davison v Evans). It states that there will be Seattle School Board candidates. So to be clear, this is NOT just a School Board candidate forum.  This event is sponsored by the Capitol Hill Community Council, Eastlake Community Council, and the Seattle Parks Foundation.    As I previously reported the Urban Native Education Alliance and Native Action Network are having a candidate forum on Saturday, October 4th at the North Seattle Community College Auditorium from noon to 2:30 pm. They will be serving a light lunch before the forum which starts at 1 pm.  It would be helpful if you will be there for the lunch to RSVP to UNEWchair@gmail.com.   Then, on Tues...

 Let's see where their Executive Session discussion has taken them. Topp let us know at 4:40 that the Ex Session will run another half hour and the public session will start at 5:15ish. I would guess they may need a restroom break by then so likely to be more like 5:30 pm. 5:01 pm - They came back into the public domain. Topp, Briggs and Mizrahi were in-person, all others were virtual.  Topp -  3,4,5,6,7,8 are her top choices Mizrahi, Rankin - 11 Briggs - 19 The vote was unanimous for all the above candidates to move on in the process.  Hersey not there to vote. It is unclear to me whether he was participating today at all.  The Board has moved forward eight candidates.  They did not state how many they considered.  And that's that. No further discussion.  

This is going to be a bit difficult to write in a way that doesn't land me in trouble but there is a pattern out there around representation vis a vis superintendent choice.  Over the last 30 years, the superintendents have had varying backgrounds and races.  We have had three Black superintendents - John Stanford, Maria Goodloe-Johnson, and Brent Jones. We have had one SE Asian superintendent - Raj Manhas. We have had one Hispanic superintendent - Jose Banda. We have had one Native American superintendent - Denise Juneau  Also with Juneau, who is a woman, we had an interim superintendent who was a white woman who is Susan Enfield.  The other white superintendent was a man - Joe Olchefske.  (Update: Larry Nyland was another.)  I would say that is pretty good representation that many other urban districts have probably never had.  To note, the Board has just gone into Executive Session with HYA reps to go over the selected (by HYA) candidates ...

Update: The Seattle Times is reporting that the Garfield basketball coach (and something of a basketball legend) Brandon Roy  has been released from his position as boys basketball coach at Garfield. The unexpected move was alongside the school also releasing girls basketball coach Roydell Smiley.   Well that's not good.  Here's what Garfield principal, Tarance Hart said: “We are beginning a new chapter as we reset both programs, building on past successes while continuing to grow opportunities for our student-athletes — academically, socially, and athletically,” Hart wrote, in part. “Our goal is to foster a competitive, academically supportive, and welcoming program that provides a positive experience and meaningful opportunities for all students.” No other details or comments from the parties involved available. If I had to guess, I would say it may be around recruiting. Seattle Schools has a bad reputation for coaches at high school coaches for competitive sports bring...

Update 3: Director Rankin thanked the Alliance for Education for paying for the work of Education Resource Strategies.  So that's where the money came from for this effort.    end of update  Update 2: The West Seattle Blog covered the portion of yesterday's Board Special Meeting on high school lunches. Here's what they reported: The justification was simple. “We serve more lunches if there are multiple lunch periods.” said superintendent Fred Podesta. He provided statistics such as a case study from Cleveland High School that showed splitting the lunch period led to 31 percent more lunches being served to students, addressing the district’s persistent concerns about food access. Other justifications were reiterated, such as the need for staff to take their own breaks in accordance with contracts, which were noted in the slide deck posted before the meeting. Nonetheless, acknowledging the community backlash, the district plans some “mitigations” and will...

  From The Seattle Times  (bold mine): Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes, a former high school history teacher and school resource officer, backs putting a school engagement officer at Garfield High School and “at every school that will allow us to come in and help.”   Seattle schools are grappling with the question of having armed police officers on campus, facing opposition from some students and parents concerned that students of color and those with disabilities could be disproportionately affected by police presence in schools. The Seattle School Board on Wednesday again delayed a vote on amending a moratorium barring school resource officers in Seattle Public Schools. Barnes said he longed for a world where no one needed to be armed, “but that’s not where we are.” “It’s OK to be aspirational,” he said. “But it’s also OK to be realistic and that there are real threats out there.” I hope everyone will read the entire story because it is a good one. I am especial...

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 ...