The Return of Two Former SPS Employees is Not Good News - Part Two

When we last left Tracy Castro-Gill, former head of Ethnic Studies for SPS, she had been exited from SPS by Superintendent Denise Juneau. She was the program manager from September 2018- June 2020. She went on to create a group, Washington Ethnic Studies Now. That group advocates for Ethnic Studies in Washington State K-12 public education. 

They now go by they/them and they claim to have fulfilled the requirements for their online PhD. 

The backstory to Ethnic Studies in SPS is from the summer of 2017 when the Board passed a resolution in support of ethnic studies "for all students in the Seattle Public Schools." This resolution had support from the Seattle chapter of the NAACP and SEA. Castro Gill likes to make it sound like she was the first to teach Ethnic Studies in SPS but it was, in fact, teacher Jesse Hagopian at Garfield High School. 

After that resolution, several schools volunteered to pilot Ethnic Studies core content later that year. 

There was an Ethnic Studies Task Force but sadly, their work seems to have gone by the wayside as is the case for so many SPS task forces. 

In 2019, they pushed for an amendment to Board policies on Ethnic Studies - "The amendment addressed that there was at the time no "process to adopt non-commercially produced materials to fulfill statutory requirements or that are district developed." This quote came from the South Seattle Emerald. 

This statement is key to what is happening today.

Continuing, in 2021 this is what SPS was saying about Ethnic Studies. 

Since July 2017 educators have been working to build a program reflective of the needs, demands, and concerns of the Seattle community related to incorporating Ethnic Studies into District programs. At this time, the following frameworks have been developed: 

American Government, Elementary, English Language Arts, Math, Science, US History, WA State History, World History, and World History (Ancient).

In addition to the frameworks, curriculum units have been developed for the following grade levels:

Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fifth, Eighth (Social Studies), Ninth (English Language Arts), Ninth and Tenth (English Language Arts), Eleventh and Twelfth (US History), and Twelfth (English Language Arts).

Staff training for Ethnic Studies has primarily taken place during early release Wednesdays and is expanding to include middle-school specific monthly workshops to hone both curriculum development and practice for Ethnic Studies. Individual schools also determine training through school leadership.

In 2023, the district had listed Black Studies, Arabic 1, Native American literature, and Flilpinx Studies US History as new virtual courses for high school students. At one Board meeting in 2024, there were large numbers of speakers who wanted to support Ethnic Studies in SPS. 

And yet, here is the current Ethnic Studies page at SPS . Not much there.

However, I recently received a public disclosure request that I made more than a year ago and it confirmed what I suspected. 

Castro Gill is back in SPS schools. That statement in bold above means it is just individual schools but within the last four years WAESN has worked in:

- Hamilton Middle School

- Franklin High School

- Interagency High

- Denny Middle School

- Boren K-8

- ORCA K08

- Cedar Park Elementary School

It appears the average cost for this professional development for teachers is about $2700 per school, depending on modules. 

They did create an entire Ethnic Studies curriculum. But it's not like there are no other curriculums out there. 

What is puzzling is to see that SPS DID create curriculum and yet in one of the emails from the public disclosure batch I received, teachers say they have nothing else to use so the school went with WAESN curriculum. 

It also appears that Castro-Gill wants to get into classrooms with students. 

I can only say that I believe she a problematic person to bring into Ethnic Studies in SPS. From StandWithUs in December 2022:

Castro-Gill explained that “Judaism would not be a central topic in an ethnic studies program” because “data show that Jewish Americans benefit from current systems of power and, for the most part, have access to and control of systemic power” and “Jewish history of oppression and resistance is a major focus in the current Eurocentric narratives of history.”

“We could also critically analyze how white Jewish people benefit from systems of oppression that disenfranchise all people of color.”

 There was a 2016 article in The Atlantic called "Are Jews White? that seemed to be a jumping off point for the discussion in StandWithUs.

From a quote from ROz Rothstien, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs:

“While the empowerment and success of Jewish Americans should be celebrated, they are still an ethnic and religious minority that experiences hatred and discrimination,” she added. “Those who deny that reality should not be trusted with implementing ethnic studies in K-12 classrooms.”

They love to be a firebrand. As someone who has also spoken out of turn, I get it. But the problem with them is that when they speak out and then gets criticized, they always blame any of that criticism on being that person being racist. 

If they say something hostile, they're justified. Anyone else gets a smackdown. 

They think that it is okay - in any meeting or situation - for elected to use curse words or casual slang. I'm old school and I don't agree. At the very least, it sure doesn't look good in the minutes. 

At a legislative committee meeting where they were testifying, they had to be reminded to not demean a person on the committee and to stay on topic. Naturally, they were offended. They has, multiple times, alienated the chair of that committee, Rep Sharon Tomiko Santos, who has worked tirelessly for better education in Washington for decades. 

They believes they - and only sthey - can define a person's lived experience and ethnic background. How do I know? She did it to me.  

They bring toxic energy and that is not good for SPS. I hope SPS reconsiders using their services. 

I would not allow them anywhere near students.