Seattle Schools Community Forum

Directors Peters and Patu have offered a new compromise amendment to the current item that offers   the job of permanent superintendent to current interim, Larry Nyland. Amendment 1 to motion to select a permanent superintendent, to instead authorize a one year extension. I move that the School Board amend the Motion to offer Dr. Larry Nyland the position of permanent Superintendent, and replace it with the following motion to authorize the Board President:

The agenda for the regular legislative Board meeting on December 3 has been amended. The scheduled vote on the motion to offer an extended contract to Dr. Nyland has been changed from December 3 to a Special Board meeting on December 10. The special meeting is already on the Board Calendar and other scheduled Board activities for that day have been re-scheduled. Immediate action is no longer in the best interests of the District. I can only presume that Board President Peaslee acted unilaterally when scheduling the special meeting and re-scheduling the other activities. Board Policy 1400 gives her that authority: " Special meetings may be called by the President or on a petition of a majority of the Board members ." Moving the vote to December 10 still allows only half of the usual amount of time between introduction and action on a motion. The Board is meeting on December 17th as well, the usual two week gap between introduction and action, but President Peaslee did ...

From the LA Times : The L.A. Unified school board could name an interim superintendent as early as 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved a personnel matter and confidential negotiations.

Tonight is the regularly scheduled Seattle School Board meeting starting at 4:15 pm at JSCEE. A few updates. One, there are only five people signed up to give testimony.   If you have anything you might want to convey to the Board, this would be a good time. Two, at the end of the Board meeting, there will be a closed Executive Session for "potential litigation."   This closed session will begin at the conclusion of the regular Board meeting and last approximately 30 minutes.  The legislative session will not reconvene after the executive session, and mo action will be taken as a result of the executive session. Is this about the Sped Director? Three, the Operations Committee meeting on Thursday will only be an hour, from 4:30-5:30 pm.  The agenda is still not available for this meeting. Four, the Executive Committee meeting of the Whole, on Thursday the 18th starting at 5:30 pm, is indeed about the Superintendent Search.

I was just browsing the web, looking up Larry Nyland's background.  His LinkedIn page has a very long list of accomplishments and awards.  Impressive. At the state level I have had the opportunity to serve as: - Superintendent representative on the Washington State Educational Coordinating Council. - Representative on the State Board of Education Math Panel. - Past-president of WASA (Washington Association of School Administrators). - Past-president of WABS (Washington Alliance of Better Schools). - Past-president of WCEAP (Washington Coalition of Educational Administration Programs). - Developer of the Seattle Pacific University superintendent preparation program. - Participant in the development of the Washington State Leadership Academy. - Contributor to the development and evaluation of Success at the Core. - Interim director for the Washington Commission on Student Learning. - Key participant in legislation regarding: school reform, ELL, math PD, ...

Dear Seattle Public Schools community, I am writing to update you on the Superintendent process. 

A week from today, the Sacramento School Board (they call their members "trustees") will vote on Jose Banda as their new superintendent.  (I am waiting to hear back from their Communications person on details.) I suspect they will vote to offer Banda the contract and that he will accept.  I'm also fairly certain he would start almost immediately. That then opens the door for two things to happen. One, the Board needs to appoint an interim superintendent. Two, they need to decide on a process for finding a new superintendent.  I'll offer some suggestions and then some thoughts about a former superintendent.

Honestly, I think it matters.  (I'll tell you why I think that at the end of the thread.) I wrote to them and included some thoughts that Charlie and I had previously printed here especially around the role of the Board and the role of the superintendent. Here's some of what I said (and I'm deliberately vague on the process because it's the Board's call and no one else's):

Charlie wrote this elsewhere and it absolutely reflects what I believe.  (Emphasis mine and this is partial.) The Board and the staff have a fundamental disagreement on the role of the Board. The staff believes that the Board should function as a rubber stamp. They don't believe that the Board has anything positive to add at all and should just show up twice a month to approve whatever is placed before them. The less they talk about it the better. These things don't stand up well under discussion - even friendly discussion. The Board, on the other hand, thinks that they have a duty to make policy and oversee management. Funny, right? So the Board occasionally - rarely, to tell the truth - takes a break from floating with the current and sticks an oar in the water. They suggest something. Something like having a transparent program placement process, actually conducting performance evaluations, keeping track of the money, or setting school start times that work fo...