This and That, June 9, 2026

This week in Seattle Schools:

The regular news roundup for schools throughout the district. 

Friday sees the regular meeting for the BEX and BTA Capital Levies Oversight Committee, from 8:30am to 10:30am. Per Richard Best, head of Capital Planning and Projects, there is now NO room listed or agenda. 

HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars being spent that he doesn't want actual taxpayers to know how it is being spent unless it's a slick one-page handout. He says that legally he doesn't have to. Could you drop him an email and tell him it's disgraceful and NOT transparent. 

rlbest@seattleschools.org

The Board is having a retreat on Saturday, June 13th, from 9 am to 3 pm. No agenda or location yet. 

Monday sees the Operations Committee meet from 9:30-11:30 am. No agenda yet available.

In Other News

From The Seattle Times:
School cellphone ban proposed by WA governor, superintendent

Washington’s governor and state schools superintendent both plan to ask the legislature next year to ban cellphone use during the school day at K-12 public schools. 

Gov. Bob Ferguson and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal are expected to propose “away for the day” cellphone policies that will ban students from using their phones and other smart devices from the first bell to the last bell. In both cases, the restriction would apply between classes and during lunch periods, and offer some exemptions, including for students who need their phones for documented health reasons and as part of their education plans. 

Ferguson and Reykdal said the ban is a top priority for them and both want the restrictions in place by next September, for the start of the 2027-28 school year. The proposed ban will be a priority within the slate of bills the governor proposes each session. 

If the legislature passes a bell-to-bell ban next year, Washington would join a list of nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia that have banned or restricted on-campus cellphone use, according to a tracker from Education Week, a national K-12 publication. 

Ferguson said there are a lot of details to be worked out over the next few months, and he intends to have conversations with local school superintendents, teachers, parents and students, as well as continue to review research on the topic.

Ferguson willl be making an announcement today at Robert Eagle Staff Middle School. 

Following up on the cell phones in schools discussion, this from The New York Times:

‘Teachers Are Going to Hate It’: How Social Media Apps Hooked Teens at School

Internal documents show how tech giants grabbed children’s attention throughout the day, a strategy that schools say has undermined education.

Snapchat sent phone alerts to adolescents during school hours,urging them to share what was going on in their classrooms.

Meta paid “teen ambassadors” to promote Instagram and hand out swag to their friends at school.

TikTok gave the National PTA millions of dollars, in part to throw school events about online safety and provide favorable comments to journalists.

Again and again, the world’s leading social media companies have targeted students, even as complaints have mounted that they are hurting teenagers’ mental health and academic performance, according to a New York Times review of internal documents that lay bare for the first time these tactics to hook young users.

Sad news from Mercer Island as a player dies while playing lacrosse

Eliot Abramson, a Mercer Island High School sophomore, died Sunday from injuries sustained during a lacrosse showcase event last week. His death marks at least the second time in the past year a high school student has died from a lacrosse injury.

Per the Mercer Island Reporter, Abramson was critically injured when he was struck in the back of the neck, below his helmet, by a lacrosse ball. He lost consciousness and paramedics were called.

 Veselic’s death was later attributed to a blunt-force injury to his craniocervical area, where the skull meets the upper spine, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office. 

His parents' statement (partial):

A hero firefighter kept Eliot's heart beating and the amazing surgeons at Harborview have kept him alive.

“Eliot got his driver’s license a few months back and made the courageous decision to be an organ donor, a decision we now honor,” Jessica’s post read. “We are proud of this decision and the fact that he will be saving many lives.

 

Via The New York Times:


Florida has created a new American history course that advances a more conservative interpretation of the nation’s story.

It focuses on the Protestant faith of the founders, argues that the U.S. Constitution is an antislavery document and recommends a textbook written explicitly to build patriotism.

The class, which will roll out as a pilot program this fall, is meant to serve as an alternative to Advanced Placement U.S. History, a behemoth that reached more than half a million high school students last year.

Many historians and educators say A.P. United States History is well balanced and avoids any single ideological interpretation of the American story.

The class, which will roll out as a pilot program this fall, is meant to serve as an alternative to Advanced Placement U.S. History, a behemoth that reached more than half a million high school students last year.
Many historians and educators say A.P. United States History is well balanced and avoids any single ideological interpretation of the American story.

Frederick Hess, director of education policy at the center-right American Enterprise Institute, said he found the new Florida framework rigorous, especially its emphasis on primary sources. In the ongoing debate about whether American history classes should lean more toward presenting the country as a “good, special place” or as a “fundamentally imperfect place,” he added, the framework clearly comes down on one side. 

“This is a very explicit attempt to frame it as the former,” he said.

Great news out of the Edmonds School District:

To address student homelessness, Edmonds district helps build housing

Could a partnership between a school district and developer to build housing for homeless families be a model for removing one of the biggest barriers those students face?

Officials in the Edmonds School District and Housing Hope, an Everett-based affordable housing builder, are hoping a 52-unit development underway near Cedar Valley Community School could offer some answers — or at least broaden the conversation about how to improve students’ education and futures through early interventions.

The Edmonds project is unique in a couple of ways: It’s specifically for families whose children attend Edmonds schools and are considered homeless under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act because they don’t have a fixed place to sleep at night. That includes students who are living on the street; in cars, shelters or motels; or doubled up with family members or strangers. About 820 of Edmonds’ students met the criteria last year.

It’s also likely the first project in the state that falls under a 2020 law allowing districts to lease or rent out surplus property for affordable housing.

The $38 million project is underwritten by an array of sources, including low-income tax credits and grants and direct appropriations from the state and federal governments.

Across Washington state, nearly 3% of students are homeless, lower than the previous school year, according to state data collected in October.

To note, SPS has numerous properties and, from the how much money Capital Planning and Facilities spends (plus the district being able to borrow against those funds), you'd think SPS might consider doing something like this. Even for teacher housing so SPS can keep great teachers in Seattle.