Seattle School Board Meeting, April 22, 2026

 I am going to try live blogging tonight. As such, I will be writing in snippets and blurbs but I'll clean it all up later on. 

Part of the Eckstein Jazz Band started the meeting with a performance. It sounded very good. There's a buzz in the room; wish they were serving cocktails. The Superintendent, some staff, and some of the Board are walking around talking. That's a change from previous years when leadership sat and listened. 

The cameras cut away to their standard YouTube screen - Coming Up Next. I hope they are still recording the band.

President Gina Topp got the meeting started with the roll call. Director Joe Mizrahi is coming in virtually. Director Katie Smith is stuck in traffic. 

Superintendent Shuldiner asked about taking a photo with the band and they scurried to do that. Mizrahi asked to be photoshopped in. And I guess that's it for his comments. 

Student Comments and they had a video to show. It is about applying to be a student rep on the Board.  how students can create a project on a school subject they are passionate about and presenting it to the Superintendent and Board. It's called the Student-Based Project Board and they will be collaborating with other peers. They were able to show the video with audio after a bit. Sounds very empowering.

Board Committee and Liaison Reports

Topp zipped through what is coming up in Work Sessions but it was too fast for me. 

Director Vivian Song talked about the assessment of the pre-Ks and they were strong results for both the City classes and Head Start. 

April Audit and Finance meeting moved to May 4th. The Committee will be taking deep dives for BARs on the next Board meeting agenda. She didn't say why the April meeting was cancelled. Staff will bring briefing papers on budget issues. The May 18th meeting will be about audit issues. 

Director Jen LaVallee mentioned a charter that the Operations Committee was reviewing. Trying to have less duplication of work for staff. Also will be looking at Capital budgets and their expenditures. As well enrollment issues will be considered and their next meeting is April 30th. 

BEX/BTA meeting that LaVallee and Song attended. (Director Smith has arrived.) Very in-depth report. 

Mizrahi talked about the Policy Committee. First grouping of policies is asking how policies come to the Board; foundational work he calls it. They are meeting next Wednesday, the 29th.

Director Liza Rankin is on two committees. Policy Committee is charged with Board goals this year. On Audit Committee, Board employs Internal Auditor. She is asking for an HR Audit (!). She said there were structural issues in HR, especially in investigations. She did ask the Superintendent about doing this and he said yes. 

Director Smith is liaison to Scholarship Committee. There will be a ceremony next month at Franklin High School to honor students who will receive scholarships to highlight successes in our district. 

Topp said she sees the long speaker list and mentioned the topic. She called the Adams ES situation "scary." Interesting she used that word. (I'll have a separate post on that meeting.) She said the Board is paying attention and listening to the Superintendent's role in principal appointment and following the law. She asked for an update of the meeting.

Superintendent said - heavy sigh - he thanked the Adams ES community. They asked important questions about a decision made for that community. He said he understands the passion and care in these decisions. And, when principal placement is made without community input, it feels different to that community. He said questioning the decision-making is valid and he would always show up (and he did for hours at the Adams' meeting). 

All that being said, he highlighted a feeling of sadness and unease that he saw at the meeting. He said there had been a series of speakers trying to introduce themselves at the start of the meeting. He said Principal Jones was an award-winning principal and her record is positive. Trying to introduce this principal to the community and it was disappointing that in the middle of her remarks, the community just interrupted her. They wanted to ask questions. There was tension felt from the start. Seventh richest school in district, mostly white and then a black principal trying to speak and being interrupted. He is fine with that for himself and timed himself. He was immediately interrupted. He said the audience shouted that Jones was speaking too slowly. 

He has no children and just married. He got emails saying "as a non-parent" what do you know. Feeling of righteousness and positionality and a refusal to engage. "It worries me that is acceptable (in a meeting)." He said he was concerned that this is how it has been and staff said yes, that's true. You can hear an undercurrent from some Board members. He said he wanted a "new way." Applause. 

Very, very sincere in his speech and thinking. Cut to audience where MANY people are quite stone-faced. He said that asking Jones to speak faster is something of a micro aggression but then said "Who am I to judge?" He said other superintendents were surprised when he took the job in Seattle. He thinks it will be different and he doesn't want to change being direct and supportive. 

He felt a crisis of conscience today about why didn't he just say something bland to the parents at that meeting. "It was rough sitting there and seeing the actions - which may not be intentional - I do hear you. Did Jones come off glowingly? No. Was mine? Nope. But what did it feel like to her? 

And someone asked why she wanted the job and Jones said because "I care about children." 

He said let's move forward together and think about how we act in public spaces. Thank you to both parents and Jones and the current principal. He asked Bev Redmond, Communications head, for her thoughts.

Redmond talked about serving the SPS community for the last five years. She said she's never spoken her own personal opinion. She was at the Monday meeting at Adams. She knows to expect criticism. "We are rooted in respecting and lifting each other up." She said, though, as a Black female, she felt uncomfortable with how Jones was treated. "No one should surrender their dignity and treated as less than human." 

To Adams community, I'd love to come back to the table and hoping for a chance. "Give Jones a chance and suspend the judgment." 

He said to "everybody" we have to be in it together and "build a new Seattle way." 

Some guy came up to try to speak and Topp cut him off. Security came to the podium and the guy asked if it was "the goon squad." It looked like they just asked him to leave. 

I felt Shuldiner went on too long but those were brave and needed words. 

Wow.

(I have no idea how Shuldiner figured out how "rich" Adams ES is.)

Public Testimony 

Emily Cherkin - technology issues - SPS parent and tech expert. Past time asking if tech is "worth it." 

Josh Callahan, parent at Adams and concerns around Jones' past performance. (There is an oddness about her record which needs discussion but, as I said, I'll write a separate post.) He has many parents behind him with signs asking for an "open hire." He mentioned an appointment "out of legal obligation."

Hilary Patterson wants to decrease tech in classrooms. She is a teacher. She talked about how teachers have to "manage tech" in their classrooms.

Michelle Bradley, an SPS parent, wants SPS to reevaluate the 1:1 computer use. She said there are "digital distractions" for students on their school devices. She is worried about the decline of long-form reading. She suggested going back to computer labs at school. 

Joan Williams came to say thank you for bringing HC to West Seattle AND help private school parents to qualify their child for the program. She is excited about being part of the public school system and has told other private school parents. "Keep up the good work!"

Danica Noble, mom of three, she is suing Facebook for online harms. Wants school to be phone-free. Said her son's school is but some students have an extra phone. She said 40 states have a phone-free policy and will help teachers. 

Florence Kay Fiddler Lovell - Native education. A line of Native people with banners and flags are in front of her. She talked about "being nice" and which community standards were meant? "We are not all the same. I am not like your school board." She said she is going past two minutes and didn't care. She said that the superintendent took up time with his speech. Closed their Native school. Topp asked her to finish up and Lovell said it was time to stop listening and start acting. She would not leave and said it used to be 5 minutes. "We love our children and want you to stop killing our children." 

Mike Lynd, Adams parent. Talked about the virtues of Adams. "It feels like administrative will rather than a true process." Worried about teachers leaving Adams.

Christine Traba, Adams parent, teacher tenure at Adams is 14 years (!). Only school this year getting a new principal that didn't get to be part of the process. Rainier View had a 77% staff turnover during Jones' tenure. Don't want to "withstand" their principal.

Erica Shutes-David - technology issues. "What is the purpose of schools?" Asking questions about tech don't get answers. 

Simina Pasat - soon-to-be parent at Adams and is now worried. 

Sarah Sense Wilson - Native education. Wants transparency with Indian education as well as communication with parents. 

Kyle Ellman - technology - software engineer and SPS parent. District doesn't have a coherent, enforced technology policy. Tech companies collect children info. He had good things to say about  why the use of technology in the classroom is not good for students.

Ashley Gross - SPS parent. Likes the positions for the Board by Director Liza Rankin especially on gun safety and use of technology. SPS should pass "away for the day" policy for cell phones. 

Susan Pambianco - Adams parent. The district is taking their legal risk in not giving Jones a job and transferred it to a school community. Losing students to HC cohort schools but they are now getting more students. But many are worried about Adams now with the Jones' appointment. 

Leslie Hainsworth, Adams parent. Spoke about staff and parents from Rainier View ES about Jones two years ago. Nothing is reflected in Jones' record. Pause the appointment, add findings to personnel record and review documentation and retention record. 

Carrie Lynd, Adams PTA. Apologized to Shuldiner if he thought they were rude at the meeting. He said they should send him documentation and gave them his cell phone number. Quoted John Stanford when he said (basically) that SPS should not be more concerned with jobs than students.

Jesse McFeron - Native education. Gave time to Coby, a sub in SPS. 

Blake Lindsay - Seattle skills center student. Really happy with her experience. 

Dorothea Kaste - cellphones in school (RHS student). Wants phone restrictions in a Washington law. 

Brenda McGee - student family advocate at Interagency and head of BLT. Displacement of staff upsets students.

Rin Stone - K-5 ELA adoption. Greenwood ES teacher and soon SPS parent. Support this ELA adoption. (She was also at Rainier View ES when Jones was there and got very emotional.) 

Nastassya West - former SPS student and educator, remove links from Twitter. It is a site that should not be used by the district. It even appears the district doesn't even use it.

Lisa Rivera - Native Ed - SPS parent and former Board director. Lucin Marquita, a student at Ingraham. 

That was the end of public testimony and the Board took a break.

Consent Agenda

(Boy, did the room clear out.)

No one had anything to remove from the Consent Agenda. It passed unanimously.

Action Items

Adoption of K-5 English Language Arts Instructional Materials

Changes were made and the Superintendent passed the mic to Mike Starosky to explain them. Update contract term from 9 years to 7 years and McGraw Hill listened and okayed that. From $9M as the cap down to just under $6M. Also heard that Superintendent needed an opt-out clause and that will be in writing. 

Director Smith asked two questions. One, an educator was concerned around tech component, where kids would be on screens for 20 minutes for K-1. Starosky said it is 20 minutes but trying to be strict on implementation. Two, PD for teachers. How changed? Starosky said the implementation plan is not changing at all. If passed tonight, they will start PD tomorrow. 

If spending less, how will PD be paid for? Nothing changes but figures get adjusted. 

Song thanked educators for their hard work. She went to a class where it was being piloted. She mentioned dual language issues. 

LaVallee thanked the team for answering all her questions. Still not clear on is when there is HC students in a classroom that is not a cohort program, how does it play out for them? 

Shuldiner wants all students to go as far as they can as fast as they want to. One hope is to have Algebra for all before high school. 

Rankin wanted to ask about Special Education and is excited to vote yes. Concerned about Special Education students with kids being segregated. 

Vote was unanimous for adoption.

Amendment to Board Policy No. 6215, Warrant Certification, Approval and Cancellation (renamed "Expense Claim Certification and Approval")

No input from directors on this one. 

Vote was unanimous to approve.

Approval of the Seattle School Board Sponsorship for proposed Washington State School Directors' Association Positions.

Rankin is point person on this one with an amendment coming in. Little discussion

Vote was unanimous to approve.

Then the motion for item as amended. 

Vote was unanimous to approve.

Introduction Items

Approval of 2025-2026 Career and Technical Education (CTE)Annual Plan Per Board Policy No. 2170

Good uplifting discussion especially from student board reps. 

Vote was unanimous to approve.

Approval of Board Resolution 2025-2026 14, Authorizing an Amendment to the Repayment Plan of the Economic Stabilization Account; and Authorizing the Use of Capital Fund Interest Earnings for Instructional Supplies, Equipment, or Capital Outlay Purposes. 

Shuldiner spoke first. District have the ability to use certain pockets of money for different things. "if you know the rules and it's legal." 

Kurt Buttleman came to podium. He gave credit to Chris Jackins for pointing out this use years ago. Second item is delaying repayment to Rainy Day Fund. Very smooth talk about using these funds.

"When you borrow from yourself, you can decide when to pay it back," Shuldiner says. I think he thinks this is a going thing until the district is out of trouble. I hope not. 

Rankin thinks it is being punted - will things be easier next year? Shuldiner, that's our hope. Wants to be solvent. Rankin - it's not just kicking the can? He said it wasn't. 

Buttleman concurred. 

Song spoke up. Passing this so you have authority for next budget to close a deficit of $80M than $87M. What will ending fund balance will be? It feels abstract. 

Buttleman said there would be more in-depth discussion at a budget meeting BEFORE the vote. I sure hope so. 

Not much discussion. Weird that not a single Board member is worried about a big emergency that could befall the district with zero dollars in the Rainy Day fund. 

I am checking out for the evening but will watch these final presentations tomorrow. 

Informational Presentations

To note, these two presentations took another hour. I don't get how senior staff like these uber-long Board meetings. 

Expanding Access to Advanced Math in Middle School

Shuldiner said he is so impressed with SPS students and teachers but noted it seems like sometimes "the district gets in the way having our children learn." He repeated he is interested in some kind of "Algebra for All." 

Paula Montgomery was leading the presentation. Around this time last year, they knew they needed to do something about the transition from 5th to 6th graders for math and especially for HC students. 

The summer program is 12 weeks and self-paced and will leave any of the students in a good place, ready for advanced math in middle school.

Montgomery noted that they are tracking students taking the spring MAP to see if there are other students who should be invited to join the summer school math program based on their newest scores. 

On the timeline, they moved it to earlier in the year (early May) from parent requests. Students do NOT have to start then but there's that option. She also said that 5th grade teachers are aware of the course and will help students who start that early. 

Topp said it all sounds good. 

Student rep asked about supports and Montgomery named several. 

Montgomery said they are not skipping Math6 but "compacting" it so students can move faster. She also said that in middle school ANY student can take advanced math in 7th grade. That would get students on the path to calculus in their junior year of high school. So either the summer school math OR the 7th grade advanced math will put a student on a course to take calculus.

It appears principals will not be able to mess with many of these HC changes. I would suggest that they start with the school plan - the CSIPs - and make sure every non-HC school has challenging work for ALL students. 

LaVallee did point out a thought I had when I viewed the presentation - namely, are kids going to want to do this in the summer and will parents follow through (she said, "I'm not that strong.") Montgomery said that is a valid concern but that many of the kids last year were very happy to be in the program. 

Smith says this sounds great and "could we have more?" She said it was a big ask for families to be part of this summer school option. But still a path so she seemed happy. 

Enrollment Update

Dr. Marni Campbell gave the enrollment update and the first item was "headcount" which represents students.

Enrollment is declining - she knows that - but think about getting students back. 

Then she talked about "assigned students" and noted they are just that until fall comes. So while it appears there will be nearly 500 more elementary students, it is just a number until September comes and school starts. 

I note that she did NOT mention that 500 number and I don't know why. 

Then came the numbers on school choice with 81% of applicants getting their preferred choice. 

She stressed that all these numbers can move.

Shuldiner said that he has asked for blueprints for every school (!) because of the concerns of what is the real capacity of any given school. 

Topp asked about the 19% of choice assignments that didn't get their choice and was it specific to a grade level or school.

Dr. Campbell said she could get that info. She said some key schools had long waitlists.

Song talked about how state Senator Jamie Pedersen gave SPS $100,000 to do an enrollment study. She said that money should have answered the question of why the birth to capture ratio is so slow. She said she has heard from parents that their neighborhood school does not have after-school care, a key issue for parents who work outside the home. She mentioned doing a childcare inventory. 

She asked about rolling numbers on slide 3. Campbell said this is typical for this time of year as new families move to Seattle.

Campbell said they did do the enrollment study that has good data. 

Rankin liked the simplicity of this report. She referenced slide 5 on seniors exiting and kindergarteners coming in and do those numbers reflect what generally happens. Campbell says there is a dip in middle school but they tend to get them back in high school. 

Rankin said that she thinks every elementary should have pre-K and after-school care. I would agree but also where is the room in every building for that. Campbell said partnerships with other departments is important with the planning for that kind of effort. Rankin said she thought they should combine ALL types of pre-school into one class. I doubt the City and its preschools share that thought. 

Rankin also said it would build in loyalty to a neighborhood school if you start pre-K there. Campbell added more IEP services at more schools. Rankin also said every kid should be able to access their neighborhood school. Very high-minded but in practical terms, not possible. More kids should be able to access their neighborhood school but all kids? No (and she knows that).

Mizrahi asked about growing enrollment, what number would be helpful? Campbell said they used to have a capture rate of about 72%. Shuldiner said it depends on access. He said it looked like the number of private school students in Seattle has jumped in the last couple of years. He said something intriguing which is figuring out how many Seattle kids go to other districts which he pegged at about 1,000. He also said he thought there were about 1,000 kids in charter schools in Seattle. I'll have to check that number. 

Mizrahi would like to know what the parents' choices to go are based on. 

LaVallee asked what different regions are seeing for enrollment and maybe the reason. She asked a good question - where can we easily gain? What could get parents to come back/stay put? 

Smith asked about the capture rate birth to kindergarten, referencing that the birthrate number came from King County versus SPS enrollment which is just Seattle. She agreed with Rankin that having the pre-k in a school could drive more kindergarten enrollment. 

She also wanted to know about school choice waitlists. 

Shuldiner noted that in choice if one choice is granted, that means another school might not have gotten that student. 

And right at the end, Shuldiner said he thinks the ENTIRE SPS website needs to be redone. 

Yup. 

Topp added that the Board webpage has a new tab about news and updates, a monthly feature. It's pretty scant. 

As well, the work session next Wednesday, April 29th, will feature an update on cell phones in schools.