Seattle Schools Community Forum

From Danny Westneat's column in The Seattle Times : Seattle has the No. 1 big city school district. We should act like it  Apparently, it is our new superintendent, Ben Shuldiner, who did the research. " It’s like that old Mark Twain quote, I think the rumors of your death have been greatly exaggerated,” Ben Shuldiner told the School Board in February. So Shuldiner set out to do a sort of newcomer’s evaluation of Seattle’s schools. He visited 35 of them in the first month. He took a fresh look at local and national data. He asked a basic question: Is it working? What he found will probably come as news even to parents with kids in the district. “In the aggregate, Seattle Public Schools is among the highest performing school systems on the entire West Coast,” a surprised Shuldiner told the board at a retreat in March.    That list also includes Bellevue SD.    According to Stanford’s  Educational Opportunity Project ,  Seattle ranks in the top 12% of al...

I am aware of Danny Westneat's column - Seattle Has the No.1 Big City School District - and that will be a separate post. It was an interesting read.  First up, I did listen to the interview at the local NPR station last week with Superintendent Ben Shuldiner.  (I did finally hear from the radio folks after I did multiple types of outreach, trying to nail down the date/time for my readers but only after the interview was taped. I'm not sure they understand that I could have driven more listeners to their program.)  Shuldiner called his time so far " a wonderful whirlwind."  He said that in order for SPS to become " the best urban district in the country," that the district had to straighten out its finances ( "not spending more money than we have" ), explain the district's decisions before they are made and include community in discussions, and create great instruction in the classroom. He said trust and transparency had to happen with communi...

 Upcoming posts - What did the Superintendent say to the local NPR station? - What happened at the Board meeting last Wednesday?  - Another lawsuit coming to SPS Monday, May 18, 2026 Finance and Audit Committee meeting from 10 am to noon at the JSCEE Board office conference room. Agenda.  Oddly, they need to pass the minutes from meetings in June of 2025, September 2025, and December 2025. Whoops.  There will be a presentation by the State Auditor's Office that includes "financial condition - reviewing for indications of financial distress." I think distress is a great word for the current situation. There was also this from the actual report (not the presentation): Additionally, during the audit certain matters came to our attention that are currently under investigation. The results of that investigation will determine whether or not we issue a separate report on the matter.  Hmmm Page 13 - On School Bus Expenditures The District did not have monitoring contr...

Boy, he hasn't been here long but EVERYONE has an opinion of how he should operate (or is currently operating).  I spent more than 20+ years going to public meetings for school communities on a variety of topics. Nearly every single time, I would urge parents to NOT allow themselves to be facilitated by senior staff. And nearly every single time, parents would sit on their hands and be docile.  Because, Seattle nice. No one wants to appear rude or out of line. But the district counts on that. And look at what a beating the Adams ES community has taken for speaking up.  I'm sure some people were rude at that meeting. When you run meetings where the first 15 minutes is a bunch of introductions to senior staff, it's irritating. Did Shuldiner ask the crowd to be more polite? I don't know.  I do give credit to the Superintendent for extending the meeting way past its scheduled time. But, in the end, did parents really get any reassurances? It doesn't seem like it and the...

I was listening in to KUOW this morning and it was announced that their Soundside podcast was going to have Superintendent Shuldiner live and listeners could call in. Thing is, I can't get an answer to date, time, and the number to call in on. I have reached out to KUOW in several ways and nada. I think I may have located some info about posing questions but it would be nice to verify that I have it right.  I find it funny that they would not want to get this info out to people who could drive listeners to the podcast.  Still, thought I would put it on your radar. 

There was an article in The Seattle Times today about the first 100 days of Superintendent Ben Shuldiner's tenure.  He has visited every single school which was a promise he made. What else? -  But he said he also saw buildings that needed “serious help,” systems that aren’t best for children, inefficient use of resources, and “the sense that schools have had to work in spite of the district and not with the support of the district.”  - He did create a cell phone policy but he hasn’t yet made much progress in reducing other screen time in classes, where he said he saw “a reliance on technology that is not instructional,” but rather for “free time or unstructured time,” but he’s said he wants to reduce schools’ use of educational technology in general. -  Shuldiner has promised to close the district’s $100 million budget deficit in the next two to three years. He’s already   outlined a budget   that could save about $75 million.  He estimates $9.6 mil...