Good News and "School Board Goals Proposal"

 From SPS Facebook:

Huge congratulations to Chief Sealth International High School, home to TWO 2026 State Wrestling Champions! What an incredible season and an unforgettable achievement for our Seahawk community.
Lanuola Amituanai made history as the 2A 145 lb. Ladies State Champion, becoming the first female state wrestling champion from Seattle Public Schools. Lanu dominated the state tournament, pinning every opponent, including the final match, and defeated eight other state place winners during the season. An extraordinary accomplishment!
Eli Policarpio, 2A 215 lb. Boys State Champion, capped off a remarkable season with a 53–1 record, setting a new Metro Conference record. Eli powered through the state tournament and, despite an injury in the final match, showed grit and determination to finish strong and claim the title.

Congrats to Lanuola and Eli!

 

As I reported previously, the Board is having another meeting today at 4:30 pm to take up agenda items from last Wednesday's Board meeting that they could not get to. There are a couple of items of interest.

One is the introduction of the adoption of K-5 English Language Arts Instructional Materials. I see some things in the process that seem off to me. As well, I have heard from a few teachers that they, too, aren't excited about this pick. I think this discussion could be important. 

Two, I see an item that was not on the original agenda but added yesterday. It has no link but says "Grants Process Update." Given there was quite the heated discussion about this topic at last week's meeting, I look forward to what this could be.

Three, School Board Goals Proposal. According to the documentation:

The Board will establish four goals for itself for the 2026 calendar year. These goals are derived from the Board’s self-assessment conducted in January 2026 by the Washington State School Directors Association. The Board will conduct the same self-assessment in January 2027 to determine progress on the established goals and determine goals for the next year.

Each of the standing committees of the Board (Finance & Audit, Operations, and Policy) will be responsible for incorporating an assigned goal into their workplans. The committee will be responsible for monitoring Board actions towards the goal and report outs to the full Board on progress. The fourth goal will be assigned to the Board as whole.

Board Policy No. 1810, Board Governance Goal-Setting and Self-Evaluation will be updated to align with the recommended structure for goals and self-assessment. 

What are the goals? (probably not what you might think):

1. Publicly recognize the efforts of schools in improving student learning (WSSDA Assessment question 55, Standard 4) Lead: Full Board

• Establish structure and cadence for presentation of student work at Regular Board Meetings 


2. Ensure the public is well-informed of the Board’s roles and responsibilities (WSSDA Assessment question 67 , Standard 5)

Lead: Policy Committee

• Establish clear and consistent practices for how new policy ideas and individual Board actions are introduced, considered, and advanced. 

3. Ensure a high degree of coherence between the district plan and school improvement plans (WSSDA Assessment question 53, Standard 4)

Lead: Operations Committee 

4. Provide guidelines for budget development, including a clearly defined expectation for a reasonable ending fund balance and that the process includes seeking public input.

(WSSDA Assessment questions 48/49, Standard 3)

Lead: Finance & Audit Committee

Now to be clear, WSSDA says their 5 standards are:

- Responsible school district governance

- Communication of and commitment to high expectations for student learning

- Creating conditions district-wide for student and staff success

- Holding the district accountable for student learning

- Engagement of the community in education

 

Let's look at the Board's first goal, taking into account that the Board is listening to students through various groups AND has multiple student reps who sit on the Board. Now the Board wants to have presentations of student work at Board meetings. 

Many of you may not know or recall but the Board used to have dance presentations, gymnastics presentations, musical presentations, and a few speeches from students in years past. If this is about "student learning," I would think it should be focused on academics and not arts. 

If nothing else, bring a new item like this into Board meetings is DEFINITELY going to spark a discussion for bringing back two meetings a month. Because if you are going to fit in a presentation when you already have packed agendas, one meeting a month is not going to cut it.

Let's look at the Board's first goal, taking into account that the Board is listening to students through various groups AND has multiple student reps who sit on the Board. Now the Board wants to have presentations of student work at Board meetings. 

Many of you may not know or recall but the Board used to have dance presentations, gymnastics presentations, musical presentations, and a few speeches from students in years past. If this is about "student learning," I would think it should be focused on academics and not arts. 

If nothing else, bring a new item like this into Board meetings is DEFINITELY going to spark a discussion for bringing back two meetings a month. Because if you are going to fit in a presentation when you already have packed agendas, one meeting a month is not going to cut it.

 

Goal One seems vague. I'd like to know what that looks like.  

Goal Two examples from WSSDA include this one but looking at all of them, this seems the easiest one in the bunch. But sure, making sure the public understands what the Board can do or not do is a good idea. 

Goal Three is fine but honestly, seems like more of a superintendent job than the Board's. I mean, how can the Board look at the district's plan and then know it aligns with every school's CSIP? Hmm

Goal Four is also just okay. This is because it feels like the Board should be asking for more than two things. That goal should include "all questions asked by Board directors will be answered in a timely manner." And they need to define "reasonable fund balance."