Seattle Schools Community Forum

Board agenda item link .  Actual contract link . The proposed contract provides for an annual salary of $276,075 per year, plus an annual annuity contribution of $24,000 and monthly automobile allowance of $700. This is similar to the contract for Jose Banda, whose annual salary was $270,000, with the same additional benefits. The increase in the annual salary from that of Superintendent Banda at the time he left the District is 2.25% and is approximately equal to the weighted average of the salary increases received by all the categories of District employees (e.g., teachers, principals, other represented employees and classified employees). A review of other Washington school districts indicates this package is competitive with other highly paid superintendents of districts in the state. 

From SPS(bold mine): With an increasing number and complexity of Seattle Public Schools’ capital projects underway to accommodate enrollment growth, safety upgrades and technology infrastructure, Superintendent Jose Banda announced today that he is making organizational changes to provide additional leadership in the District's Capital, Facilities, Operations and Technology departments. Voters approved a $694.9 million Building Excellence IV (BEX IV) capital levy, the largest and most comprehensive in Seattle Public School’s history, in February 2013. This, along with the current Building, Technology and Academics (BTA) capital levy, has significantly increased the scope of work in capital projects over the next six years. To ensure that the district is organized effectively to implement this work, the Superintendent asked for two independent reviews of the district’s organization related to capital projects and operations. The reviews were conducted by the national Council of the ...

When we last left the discussion of District Administration magazine, they had published an article by former Boston schools' superintendent, Tom Payzant, about how urban superintendents are not being given a long enough tenure to see real results.  Professor Payzant used our district as an example and wrote a revisionist history of Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's stay here in Seattle.  (And mind you, there are more than a few Board members who agreed that the article was off the mark.  They, too, do not want to see themselves painted as being bullied and weak.)  Charlie and I (and at least a few other readers) wrote to the editor to complain.  One of our main complaints was that Professor Payzant did not disclose in his article that (1) he knows Dr. Goodloe-Johnson, (2) was brought out to conduct her Board evaluation and (3) that he and Dr. Goodloe-Johnson are both professionally affiliated with the Broad Foundation.  That might have given some readers pause had ...

So much to talk about but I did want to put up some interesting highlights from last week's Audit and Finance Committee meeting on Jan. 13th. There was some discussion of how to get Director Patu up to speed (as she is new to the Committee and, seemingly, finance). Enrollment: district is up by 188 kindergarteners and over 900 9th graders. Wow. There was some discussion about the various ways that BEX and BTA dollars were being spent as well as the bond sale late last year to get even more capital money for the reopened schools. I tell ya, the money just gets moved around and around. So those who were waiting on the item about the Audit Response to AE3.1 conflict of interest issue. It was reported that: this was about NWEA which the Superintendent did not disclose that she was on their Board. What was said at the meeting is that the district noted that this was a specific item and not just "you did not fully disclose all the boards you sit on". the wording on audit re...