Seattle Schools Community Forum

Let me begin by setting a foundation. EVERYONE agrees that African-American students have been mis-educated by Seattle Public Schools and by public school districts across the nation. Black students have been presented with inadequate and inappropriate academic opportunities, they have been denied equitable access to programs and services, they have been disproportionately disciplined and disproportionately referred to Special Education. The outcomes have been academic under-performance, the "school to prison pipeline", and the continued economic and political disenfranchisement of a significant portion of our nation's people. It has been a tragic shame. It has been happening since the start and it is continuing. It is an ongoing emergency that urgently demands a response.

For continuing information on the situation at the Mann building, and the broader issue of the crisis of education for African-American students, interested readers can visit the More4Mann web site . There is a Twitter feed as well at @More4Mann. Other news sources include Africatown Education and Innovation Center , and  Creativity Not Control . I don't know if we will report much on the ACIC or the Mann building going forward, so folks should rely on these other sources for news.

I am beyond baffled about what is going on with the district, the ACEI, Nova and the Mann Building.  I am saying - upfront - that I believe there is much more to this story than we know (there's a backstory there somewhere).  I continue in my belief that it will not turn out well.  I am also dismayed to see this all happening so fast as I wonder if African-American parents - throughout the entire district - have not been consulted and, as has been pointed out previously, no one group is monolithic so no one group can claim to speak for everyone. As we know there was this hastily thrown-together, unadvertised taskforce around some of the groups that were squatting in the Mann building.  Then, I read about the ACEI's plans for the outside of the Mann building and the votes taken on what the district should do.  The district's notes from the last taskforce meeting are here (partial):