Seattle Schools Community Forum

Word has it that two more high-level SPS employees have left.  One is Jim Ratchford, the head of IT services who I thought was a pretty good guy.  He was here maybe two years. The other is Faye Chess-Prentice who has been with the district since 2001 as a deputy general counsel but then was placed as the interim director of Human Resources and that ended when Ann Chan came (and then went) as head of HR.  The interim HR director (so you can keep up) is Paul Apostle. What is also interesting is that if you look at the employee chart, it looks like the Executive Directors report straight to the Superintendent.  But looking at the Job Opportunities page at the SPS website, I see a notice for a "School Improvement Program Coordinator" who " serves as the first point of contract for the Executive Directors. "  Then that person reports to the Executive Director of School Improvement who then, I assume, reports to Dr. Enfield.  From SPS Communications: Th...

This is going to be a difficult thread to address and I will try to be clear about why I think it is important. There has been a heightened awareness in the last month or so over bullying at school over students being, seeming or being perceived as gay. It has been heartbreaking to hear what has been done to young people and their reactions (suicides). The most visible case has been at Rutgers University where a freshman, Tyler Clementi, was videotaped, twice, by his roommate in an intimate encounter with another male in his dorm room. The taping streamed live on the Internet. Tyler learned of this, contacted an RA but ultimately, for whatever reason, killed himself by jumping off a bridge. Interestingly, I wouldn't call that episode bullying. It's just a breathtaking lack of kindness/sensitivity and total lack of decency on the part of his roommate (and his woman friend) and a huge amount of cruelty and meanness to have done this to Tyler. Many have felt the perpetrato...