Seattle Schools Community Forum

I went to Director Martin-Morris's community meeting on Saturday morning and the conversation was really good. It was good, in large part, because we stayed focused on things that Director Martin-Morris could do - we kept the conversation within the boundaries of the Board's role. We didn't ask him and his Board colleagues to make decisions that have been delegated to the superintendent or direct the superintendent in what decisions to make or to overrule decisions that the superintendent had made. But we did ask him to assure that the superintendent's decisions were compliant with policy (and law) and to assure that the superintendent's actions were aligned with the District's stated values. This is the Board's job, and, frankly, they haven't been doing it. We got started down this path early when I used the word "transparency" and he asked me what I mean by that. These words get tossed around all the time, but they are never defined. We are...

The Seattle School Board will soon consider terminating the District's contract with Teach for America. There is disagreement about this on the School Board, so we are likely to hear a discussion of the question with Board directors advocating for each side. This is good and healthy. This is what democracy looks like. I welcome a full discussion regardless of the eventual conclusion. I will, however, be deeply disappointed if the discussion is not honest. We have already seen the start of a dishonest discussion. This dishonest discussion needs to be stopped and it is the other Board directors who need to stop it. They need to stop it by exposing the dishonesty the moment it appears. When the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee met and decided to advance this motion to the full board, one of the Board directors, Harium Martin-Morris, spoke against the termination of the Teach for America contract. Mr. Martin-Morris made one of the most loathsome and dishonest statements I ...

I know that I've mentioned this as a comment on a couple of other threads, but I really want to bring it out for attention.

The candidates for school board in District III, representing Northeast Seattle plus Montlake, Madison Park and Downtown are: Harium Martin-Morris Michelle Buetow John Dunn David Blomstrom Please use this space to discuss these candidates' relative qualities, their positions on the issues, and your confidence in their ability and willingness to perform the duties of the office and perform them well.

From the Stranger comes reporter Riya Bhattacharjee's look into Peter Maier and red flags that he either didn't follow-thru on or didn't wave in the faces of his colleagues.   The key one? As chair of the school board's Operations Committee, Maier acknowledges that he read warnings in a document called the Sutor report, commissioned by the district, about irregularities with a small-works contracting program, originally a component of the regional small-business development program. Peter had The Sutor Group report (given to him at an Ops Committee meeting by Stephens).  I have never heard Peter say why Stephens gave it to him (and only him) but that seems to be the case. At a March 6 school board meeting, right before the board unanimously voted to fire superintendent Goodloe-Johnson for her role in the scandal, Maier said he had been alerted to the problems and didn't tell the board. Bhattacharjee was looking for evidence that it might have made a d...

This transcript comes from the November 17, 2010 Board Meeting. You can watch it for yourself here . Go to 15:50. The discussion is over the annual approval of schools. Essentially, the Board vote is to confirm to the state that there is a Continuous School Improvement Plan for each school. The Board Action Report , dated November 3, 2010, claims that " All CSIPs are also posted online on our district website. " This statement was false at the time it was made. There were at least two CSIPs missing from the web page - one missing a link and one blank report. The missing link and the blank plan were not corrected (to make the statement true) until the afternoon of the Board vote. Had the Board members tried to perform oversight and confirm the existence of the CSIPs, they would have seen that at least two of them were missing. Director Carr spoke to say that, because she was unable to confirm the presence of the CSIPs, she would have to vote against the motion. Then ...

"I am really taken aback," said school board director Harium Martin-Morris. "We are looking at America's best and brightest and saying don't come here?" This was in the most recent story at the Stranger Slog about TFA. (And just as an aside, some of the comments at the Slog make it sound like this is about the SEA. This is absolutely NOT about the SEA. They can spin it for themselves but for me and others, I don't care.) When Harium ran for office I was really pleased to see a bright guy with a solid background who had stepped up to run. He listened and he seemed to be nuanced in his thinking. But I have to say over the last year, I just don't see the same guy. I don't know what has changed or happened. But he seems different (and I don't mean in how we interact - he's always nice).? But he's changed and for me, not for the better. That statement above is crap and he knows it. What is TFA's vetting process? He kn...

Director Martin-Morris has added this message to his blog: Due to taking on a new assignment at work I can not longer dedicate the time and effort required to maintain this blog and perform all of my other duties I am retiring this blog. The hours that are required to do the blog by myself are not available to me any longer. Moving forward I will seek another technology that will allow for the exchange of ideas and opinions. In the mean time email and contacting the board office are still available.

Remember how delighted you were when you discovered that school board director Harium Martin-Morris had a blog? Remember how delighted you were when you saw that he responded to comments on his blog? Remember how delighted you were when he understood people's concerns and wrote that he would take action? Have you noticed that he doesn't do that anymore? He often goes weeks without responding to posts. He no longer sees the public's perspective. Instead of representing the public to the District, he now represents the District to the public. What changed? I think he has become discouraged. He may have tried to take some of the actions that he said he would take, but nothing ever came of it. He didn't write the White Paper on the influence of national foundations. He didn't get answers to the long list of commitments. He didn't get a Transportation Report. Maybe he became discouraged when he saw that nothing he tried to do ever worked. Am I alone in thinking this,...