Seattle Schools, This and That, September 6. 2026

Ever seen this site? It's the Washington State Fiscal Information that tells you how much every K-12 school employee is paid. This is through 2024-2025 so Superintendent Ben Shuldiner isn't here. 

 I note that former senior administrative staffer Michael Tolley, who is now Northshore's super was making $460K+ a year. No one in SPS senior management makes less than $200K plus nearly every high school principal makes about $200K. 

I am hearing rumblings of unhappiness from elementary school parents who are finding out that the state law requires at least 30 minutes of recess a day and apparently, in SPS, that's all they are going to get. PE does not count in that 30 minutes. The law also states that schools withholding recess as a punishment for behavior or academic work is discouraged. Interestingly the law also encourages recess BEFORE lunch so kids don't rush through the meal to go play. 

I see from a Reddit page that there will be 130 minutes of LA in the day because SPS administration thinks that is more important. From the American Academy of Pediatrics on recess:

This revision serves as an update of the 2013 policy statement, ”The Crucial Role of Recess.” It reemphasizes the crucial role of recess in child and adolescent development, citing research in the neurophysiology of learning, adolescent health, social-emotional development, executive skills, and the role of peer engagement and play for well-being. Recess represents a temporary suspension of academic cognitive effort helping to maintain efficiency, concentration, and morale. 

Breaks offer an opportunity for students to manage stress and promote prosocial development, a universal benefit for all ages. Recess positively impacts the teaching-learning environment and children’s mental health. Pediatricians are natural allies with parents, students, school nurses, and school staff for the promotion and protection of regular breaks from the demands of concentrated classroom instruction.

The Seattle Education Association will convene to vote on the contract that has been preliminarily agreed to by the district and SEA. This will happen on Friday, September 11th at McCaw Hall. Once that happens (and the school board votes on it), we will see all the details. 

There is some new torture for teens called the "Secret Compliment." Please warn your kids. 

The text reads: “Someone at [school name] sent you a compliment,” followed by a link. The link leads to an app called Peek: Secret Compliment, which lets users sign up with a school and grade level, then anonymously post, comment on and vote in polls about their peers.

“As you clicked on the link, it immediately grabbed any of the contact information that you had,” Perry said. “And then from there, it sent out a corresponding message to everybody in your contact list, and used you as a legitimate source of vetting.”

Another one of these social media problems - "Cat in the Hat" on TikTok. Via King 5:

The trend involves edited or AI-generated images and videos featuring a threatening version of the Cat in the Hat character, according to the Falfurrias Police Department. 

Some of the posts circulating in Texas have named schools, communities, or students. Four school systems in Texas have posted safety updates on their Facebook pages in response.

Officials warned that posting threatening information on social media can have serious consequences and urged students to understand the impact those posts can have on schools and the community. 

Police are asking parents to talk to their children about what they see and share online. 

Rather than reposting concerning content, police recommend taking a screenshot and reporting it directly to law enforcement or school administrators.

 

Apparently, in Omaha SD, their SROs were using the "shock gloves" recently issued to ICE officers/thugs. On the superintendent's request, Omaha police officers in schools stopped using them. Apparently the officers have had them since 2023 in regular police use and notified districts they were going to equip SRO officers with them.

It's just jaw-dropping because 1) shocking kids in schools - even teens - seems very wrong. Plus, the gloves are only to be used in certain areas of the body but if someone is struggling and the cop puts their hands in the wrong place, they could severely injure someone.

By the way, where are we with safety is SPS high schools? Still waiting for answers.

Speaking of checking on kids, The Olympian reports that "new AI-powered cameras will monitor Thurston County students on the first day of school." This is at middle and high schools.

“The search function allows leaders to find specific video faster by searching for, say, ‘student in a blue shirt’ instead of reviewing hours of footage,” Blondin said. That’s the only function that directly uses AI, Blondin said, and described NTPS data as secure. She added that the cameras will also provide a clearer video feed. The Olympian received a tip from a concerned parent regarding the introduction of AI cameras into schools. The parent did not want to be named.

The upgrade will bring a total of 2,200 new camera feeds to elementary, middle and high schools throughout district, Blondin said, though the elementary school video systems have not yet been installed. NTPS used the 2024 Capital Levy for Safety, Technology, and Facilities Improvements to fund the project, according to Blondin. The complete video upgrade will cost $4.5 million.

What is really distressing is that families were not notified about this. At all. Shame on them.

From NPR News - 

Federal civil rights data about students is finally out. It's different under Trump

The CRDC was supposed to be published at the end of last year, according to the agency's own deadline.

The data, from nearly every public school in the country, reveals disparities in the way students are treated based on race, ethnicity, disability, sex and other factors. It's a tool for educators, policymakers, advocates and families to understand students' experience, and for the federal government to better enforce student civil rights. The federal government has been collecting this kind of information for over 50 years.

Gopalan, the researcher from the University of Oregon who has worked directly on the CRDC team in the past, said the data files appear to be of a similar quality as previous releases. She said she's glad to see it's been published. But in her first look, she was also struck by a few things: "I was surprised at how quietly it was released, surprised not to see the 'First Look Report,' and very surprised to see the suppressed data."

The suppressed data Gopalan is referring to is about nonbinary students. The 2023-24 report was set to be the first time the CRDC revealed how those students were being treated at school, but the Education Department stripped that information from each of the 37 files it released.

"I think it's a lost opportunity, because we do have information now on how nonbinary students have higher mental health concerns, are harassed and bullied at higher rates using other datasets," she said. None of the other existing data on nonbinary students would have been as comprehensive and nationwide as the CRDC had it not been redacted, she added.

Parents, if you do one extra thing this week, please check your voter registration. And then, in November, vote. 

Seattle Schools This Week

Monday is Labor Day so there is no school. 

Tuesday, September 8th is the official first day of school for Pre-K and kindergarten. Good luck to all the parents in this category. It will be okay. 

I do not see anything on the SPS calendar for Friday, September 11th which is the 25th commemoration of 9/11. I hope you speak to your children about that day because it changed many things about the way we live, primarily around travel. It is important to American history because of its shock and impact. I recall being telling my son's principal at Whittier to lower the flag to half-staff and he said he hadn't gotten any messaging from JSCEE. I told him to do it anyway. 

The next big event on the SPS calendar is a regular School Board meeting on Wednesday, September 16th. No agenda yet available.