Seattle Schools Community Forum

Update 2: Elections for Board officers President - nomination for Topp by Mizrahi and Briggs seconded. No other nominations. Mizrahi said that it's been a busy year and Topp has done an exceptional job, including process for new superintendent. Rankin agreed with Mizrahi and wanted to again state that we have an inexperienced Board as a whole. She said the president doesn't have more power; the power belongs to the entire Board. She would like to see rotating presidents.  Gina Topp is continuing as Seattle School Board President. Vice-President - nomination for Evan Briggs. I wish there was someone else as Briggs struggles to read anything. Song said looking for significant changes how this Board does business and SOFG isn't working well. Wondering what Briggs plans are for this issue.  Briggs sits mute. Then speaks up, don't have a particular allegance to SOFG. But we need a framework. She says they can't ignore that from several audits and would be happy to use th...

Director Liza Rankin called the meeting to order. Neither Director Evan Briggs (Chair) nor Joe Mizrahi (Member) were there. However, new director Jen LaVallee was there. I was impressed with how LaVallee engaged with others at the meeting. Agenda here.   Among the staff were Superintendent Fred Podesta, Bev Redmond (Communications), Sarah Pritchett (HR), and Andrew Medina, Internal Auditor.  Another person in the room who I recognized before she was introduced was former Board director, Sherry Carr. She has apparently raised her hand to volunteer to be an advisor to the committee and I think they are very lucky to have her.  Apparently the district hired yet ANOTHER consulting firm - the BERC Group* - to do a review of three areas of the district. Those were: - Community Partnerships - PTA Facility Usage - Personal Services Contracts (On the agenda there was a notation that there would be a "corrective action plan" put forth from these findings but it was crossed out. Te...

Update: The Seattle Times has a good profile of Board President Gina Topp. One key item noted in the article is that, coming up at next week's regular Board meeting, is the election of officers. The ONLY qualified person is Topp. Rankin has done it, Briggs would be a disaster, and Mizrahi and Song need more time (plus the two newbies, Smith and LaVallee). As well, the story has a photo of Topp at a Rotary Club event pledging allegiance to the flag. Funny thing, somewhere along the way (probably Hampson era), the Board stopped doing the pledge at their Board meetings. This was done for decades. Maybe the land acknowledgment is the substitute. I do recall a long-ago Board meeting where there were many kids in attendance because they did a presentation of some sort (an school activity which has also gone away) for the Board. We rose to do the pledge and at least three kids looked panic-stricken as they did not know the words. The story also includes this: Then she heads over to The C...

Update : Remember this story about the co-founder of Oak View Group (the Climate Pledge Arena developer), Tim Leiweike? Separately, Oak View won the bid to renovate KeyArena into Climate Pledge Arena in 2017. The renovation cost $1.15 billion.  Oak View is a majority owner of the stadium alongside the Seattle Kraken. Timothy’s brother Tod Leiweke is part owner of the Kraken. A spokesperson from the Kraken said in a statement Wednesday the company is aware of the indictment but “today’s news has nothing to do with Climate Pledge Arena or the Seattle Kraken and does not impact the day-to-day operations of the arena, our team and  our other Seattle projects, including the Memorial stadium  or the potential return of the NBA to Seattle.” Oak View was linked to a winning bid in 2023 to build a $150 million, 10,000-seat Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center.  The bid went to  One Roof Partnership ,  which has ties to the Kraken and Oak View. Well, have I got news ...

In election news, I was reviewing newly-elected mayor, Katie Wilson's transition team list and saw a couple of familiar names. Under Economic Development and Worker Rights, there's Seattle School Board Director Joe Mizrahi. Under Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, there is former SPS teacher, Jesse Hagopian.  Via The Seattle Times , a bit of census information: Seattle just crossed a remarkable demographic threshold, and it’s likely a first for any major U.S. city: More than 70% of Seattle residents age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. According to newly released 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, around 416,000 Seattle residents 25 and older, or 70.1% of the 595,000 people in that age group, held at least a bachelor’s degree. Among the 50 most populous U.S. cities, Seattle had the highest share of college graduates. It’s also the first time the city has topped 400,000 college graduates. In 2023, the Census Bureau estimated 397,000 Seattle residents 25 a...

Here's what the actual government website says is happening: The U.S. Department of Education (ED) today announced six new interagency agreements (IAAs) with four agencies to break up the federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities, and move closer to fulfilling the President’s promise to return education to the states. By partnering with agencies that are best positioned to deliver results for students and taxpayers, these IAAs will streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees. These new partnerships with the Departments of Labor (DOL), Interior (DOI), Health and Human Services (HHS), and State mark a major step toward improving the management of select ED programs by leveraging partner agencies’ administrative expertise and experience working with relevant stakeholders. These agreements follow a successf...